Staff Writer Kelly Cheong breaks down some of the biggest fails in Broadway history and reveals some surprising figures.
To say that Elton John has had many a success in both the music and theatre industry would be an understatement. As a singer, he has given us timeless classics like Your Song and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. As a composer, he has impressed with his scores for The Lion King and Billy Elliot the Musical, both of which are amongst the most well-loved musicals in the world.
Unfortunately, his newest score to reach the Big Apple’s big stage, Tammy Faye will not have the chance to join their ranks. On 19th November, it was announced that the stage musical will be closing on Broadway on 8th December, less than a month after its opening. Elton John’s rare musical misstep revolves around the life of infamous American Televangelist Tammy Faye.
The EGOT winner admitted to being “very, very interested” in her life as he was touring America, particularly how she had “great success and then been banished and lost everything“, and unexpectedly came back stronger “because of [her] faith and because of [her] belief”.
While no one can dispute Elton John’s brilliance, the harsh reality is — for every theatrical triumph, many curtains close on productions struggling to find their footing. With Tammy Faye now counted among them, let’s delve into five of Broadway’s most notorious failures:
1. The Rocky Horror Show (1975)
Not to be confused with the cult-classic film the Rocky Horror Picture Show which came out the same year as the musical, The Rocky Horror Show barely lasted a month before it shut down.
While the “Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania” and his Frankenstein-esque, muscly “monster” Rocky seemed to interest British audiences, running on the West End from 1973-1980, they failed to gain traction in America. Its debut in the Belasco Theatre in New York lasted a measly 3 viewings and 45 showings.
Looking back, it’s quite obvious why American audiences weren’t showing up for Rocky Horror, which could be described as camp and absurdist in the least — when in the same year, the heart-felt and emotional “A Chorus Line” opened to massive commercial success and critical acclaim. It seems that Rocky Horror was too avant garde for an audience accustomed to a more traditional storyline.
2. Carrie: The Musical (1998)
Adapted from Stephen King’s famous horror novel, the 1998 Broadway production of Carrie had a frightening fate – the show closed after just 16 previews and 5 performances, despite having a whopping $7 million-and-over budget.
Just like Carrie herself, the production was swiftly put down by critics. Thankfully, in this case, the only thing killed was the spirit of investors who thought they were going to be lining their pockets. Instead, they became a part of one of Broadway’s most expensive failures.
Years later, the same production company attempted to “rescue Carrie from oblivion and to give her new life” – they debuted a completely revised revival Off-broadway, Carrie (2012) which unfortunately met a similar fate. Carrie (2012) closed earlier than expected as a result of poor ticket sales, and was met with mixed reviews from critics once again.
Despite this, we can’t say that the 2012 revival was a total loss. From the ashes of this revival spawned that one Riverdale episode where beloved All-American characters from the Archie comics randomly burst into songs from Carrie (2012) for 26 minutes. Surprisingly, this seems to be the only truly “successful” version of Carrie, having been watched by 1.1 million viewers.
3. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1966)
We all know eccentric socialite Holly Golightly as portrayed by Audrey Hepburn in the movie. Given the film’s massive success in 1961, one would expect the musical to follow in its footsteps.
Public anticipation was high, and a slew of prolific industry professionals were slated to work on it — notably, songwriting icon Bob Merrill, who had written the music for several Tony-nominated musicals such as New Girl in Town, and following Breakfast at Tiffany’s went on to do Funny Girl.
Unfortunately, the show did not last past previews — producer David Merrick famously announced its failure in a New York Times ad, saying that he would rather stop production than subject everyone to an “excruciatingly boring evening” (his actual words!).The show had undergone constant script, score and crew changes. Perhaps it was a smart idea for Merrick to give up before the critics got a whiff of the mess.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s was subsequently resurrected on Broadway in 2013, with a brand-new script. Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke played the titular character, but her performance was torn apart by critics. Many implied that she was miscast for the role. Emilia Clarke herself has since admitted that she regards her Broadway debut in the role of Holly to have been a “catastrophic failure”. It seems as if the only person able to capture audience’s hearts as Holly Golightly was (and still is) Audrey Hepburn.
However, it seems unfair to pin the revival’s failure entirely on their lead actress. The Hollywood Reporter noted in its review that the revival’s main pitfall was its “cloddish direction” resulting in “painfully awkward transitions”.
4. Merrily We Roll Along (1981)
Nearly everything Stephen Sondheim touched seemed to turn to gold back in the 1950s-1980s. Merrily We Roll Along is more of a diamond in that sense; It took years for the production to truly shine, and for audiences to appreciate it.
The Merrily revival starring Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe recently won a number of Tony’s and has sold out a significant number of shows on Broadway. However, its original adaptation was less successful in almost every measure.
A combination of an inexperienced cast, challenging source material, and a complex score was its downfall. Merrily premiered on Broadway in November 1981, running just 16 performances and 44 previews.
Thankfully, Maria Friedman, who previously starred in the 1992 UK production of Merrily, chose to step into a director’s role and brought the show back to life in London’s Menier Chocolate Factory in 2012. Her vision and direction brought critical acclaim, leading Merrily to the West End stage and then to back New York in an Off-Broadway production. And the rest is history.
5. Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark (2011)
If you thought Merrily had a lot of previews, prepare to be shocked by Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark. The production, which marked U2 rockstars Bono and The Edge’s first foray into musical theatre, ran an astounding 182 previews, breaking a record for the longest preview period in Broadway history.
Compared to the other failures on this list, Spider-man was the most successful — if you’re basing it off the number of shows (excluding previews). Spider-man ran from 2011 to 2014. While 3 years seems like an adequate run on Broadway, its financial and operational history reveals a different story.
Spider-man was (and still is) the most expensive Broadway production in history, and investors lost over $60 million funding it. It was reported that it cost around $1 million a week to run the show, and the production could not sustain itself.
Beyond financial issues, Spider-man was plagued by safety concerns. Actors kept getting injured doing complicated technical stunts, one of whom sued the production for $6 million.
It seems unthinkable that these shows could fail—with millions invested, award-winning directors, skilled scriptwriters, and talented actors at the helm—yet they all flopped spectacularly. It goes to show just how unforgiving Broadway can be; success is never guaranteed. Yet, in the face of failure, there is always room for reinvention. The success of the Merrily revival reminds us that sometimes, all a production needs is a fresh perspective and a little facelift to truly shine.
