GobbleGobble

A flop. A stinker. Big money-losing, inadvertent-laughter-provoking, critically-bashed and/or audience-disdained fiascos. Turkeys. What is it about them that grabs us? Like the rubberneckers slowing down for a car wreck we buy up all the papers to read with glee the scathingly venomous diatribes and study box office figures, calculating nuts and percentages. And when we hear about these major disasters, we rush to get a glimpse before they're taken from us prematurely - gotta be able to say, "I was in the audience for closing night of Legs Diamond!" So it was only a matter of time before sites began to crop up on the Web dedicated to the (formerly?) abhorred.

Although other musicals have lost greater sums and met with more intense hostility, none are quite as synonymous with the term "flop" as the Queen of all lemons, the Dean Pitchford/Michael Gore/Lawrence D. Cohen Carrie, which is commemorated at Robbie Rozelle's Carrie the Musical Website. Is that "Carrie the Musical" Website or Carrie the "Musical Website"? Oh, well never mind, Mr. Rozelle's ambitious site aims to compile reviews, cast lists, lyrics, soundbites, and other detritus from the failed 1987/88 productions in London and on Broadway as well as something about the original workshop. Mr. Rozelle deserves kudos for being the first to devote a site to this bloodbath.

Leaving its own stylish footprint after gutting and reshaping the interior of The Broadway Theatre and then abandoning it after only 16 previews and 16 performances, was the 1972 mega-dud, Dude, by Gerome Ragni and Galt Macdermot, the creators of the far more successful Hair. Tracy Harris' single page site, Dude - the highway life, provides brief descriptions of the plot, the "renovation" of the theatre, some sound clips, and a production team and cast list. (I had tickets to see the show, but it closed too soon.)

James Magruder, Jeffrey Stock, and Susan Birkenhead's Triumph of Love, failed less from lack of positive response than lack of interest. BuyBroadway's area devoted to Triumph of Love kind of keeps it both ways, where you read on the front page that it's been closed for awhile (since January 4, 1998, after a shortly more than two month run), but the rest of the pages sure make it seem as if the show's still running, with details on the show, bios, production shots, and - oops! - ticket purchasing info. Most ironic is the front page's juxtaposition of the closing info with the rave blurbs, including CNN's "Best musical this year!"

While it would probably be considered a flop based on the fact that it closed out of town here in the states, losing most of its investment, The copyright of the article GobbleGobble in Theatre is owned by Steven M. Alper. Permission to republish GobbleGobble in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.