Second ACT Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway's Big Musical Bombs

I couldn't put it down and if this book had just collected only Lewis Lapham's long, long, "new journalism" article on the disastrous Moose Charnap flop KELLY! it would be worth buying. Lapham spares nobody and takes no prisoners and he got everyone to go on record about Ella Logan who must have been a termagant beyond compare. The producers let her go because they couldn't stand her continual "vulgarity" of all things. Kindly old Mel Brooks comes in, takes a look at her, and says, "Fire her." Sadly she had once been a great Broadway star, the original Sharon in FINIAN'S RAINBOW, now reduced to playing mothers (in 1965). Wonder if she's still with us, Suskin might have played fair and allowed us to air her grievances against the horrid KELLY! people. Oh well, SECOND ACT TROUBLE garners one great story after another, and I can't really say which one I like the best. Great monsters always make fantastic reading, and Jerry Lewis in HELLZAPOPPIN is right up there with Hitler and Stalin! There's one part where--he hates Lynn Redgrave--he has to rehearse a song with her, and he refuses to stand up while she's onstage with him so she's forced to sing while he sings with her lying flat on his back on the ground. Oh my, but after a few more chapters of this sort of behavior you begin to feel that being evil is necessary to make it on Broadway, and the squeaky wheels make the most noise. Steven Suskin has an elastic sense of what shows are hits and which are flops, and some of the shows he covers in this book I was surprised to see he called flops. Some were critical darlings, some were pure spectacle, and some notorious flops like CARRIE aren't covered here. There are many occasions to wonder. Would HALLELUJAH BABY have been a hit if Lena Horne had played in it? I don't think so. Could Jerry Orbach have saved MACK AND MABEL? Who knows at this late date. Could Liv Ullmann be as horrid and egotistical as she is painted here, on the payroll of I REMEMBER MAMA? There goes another illusion shattered. The book reveals that during the out of town tryouts for KWAMINA Star Sally Ann Howes had an affair with her co-star, and that this behavior was nothing new for Sally Ann for she had previously (a few months before) cheated on her husband, songwriter Richard Adler) with German heartthrob Maxmilian Schell backstage on the sets of a John Frankenheimer telefilm. I didn't even know who Sally Ann Howes is and I'm still enthralled! Adler eventually comes to forgive Howes in the long decades since, and she seems like an admirable woman in many ways, leaving her home to come back to NY and nurse Adler's son in the final months of his tragic illness. Good for you, Sally Ann, I like a woman who goes after what she wants, why, that's what made me a musical queen to begin with.

I haven't read much of the book yet as it just arrived and I have other books to read first. But it looks very interesting to someone interested in theatre. The author seems to have done a very good job

On 45th Street in Manhattan there is a restaurant that is favored by theatre folk and playgoers alike, Joe Alllen's is it's name and on their walls are theatrical posters, not unusual for the locale, being in the heart of the theatre district, what's notable about the collection of posters is that all those displayed were huge flops. Steven Suskin's, "Second Act Trouble" takes this concept (theatrical failures) and illuminates how once promising shows turn into failures. The collection covers twenty or so Broadway shows(some never made it to The Great White Way) that flopped, losing all or most of their investment. The articles, published previously from bios and newspaper accounts from various writers, are grouped into chapters such as; When Everything Goes Wrong, Star Turns and Battle Stations. Suskin has assembled the most illuminating accounts of; what seemed like a good idea at the time, Liza Minneli directed by Martin Scorcesse-can't fail, right? It is a very enjoyable read although as you follow show after show dive off a cliff it gets a little depressing, how they failed; the who, what and where of" bombs" could be instructive for investors and producers alike, but, alas there is no sure fire formula for a hit show (could you imagine a show about a murderer who dices up his victims and makes pies out of them plus he's singing-Sweeny Todd). I am a theatre goer but even if you are not it's a fascinating peek into Broadway and what makes it tick...and sometimes it's ticking is the prelude to a very large bomb. Fun read.

Theatre buffs will quickly come to find SECOND ACT TROUBLE: BEHIND THE SCENES AT BROADWAY'S BIG MUSICAL BOMBS an essential guide to which shows have failed - and why. Veteran theatrical manager and producer Suskin analyzes over twenty Broadway musical flops from the 1930s to the 1990s, using accounts by those directly involved and articles from respected critics of the times to consider financial failures across the board, from famous productions by well-known artists to lesser-known Broadway shows. Adding his own notes, Suskin provides well-rounded analysis of failures and their influences.

William Goldman in his watershed book about Broadway called The Season, wrote that every Broadway show is a series of "little battles to the death". Here in Mr Steven Suskin's book, we get lowdown on the skirmishes and the all-out battles that resulted in some of Broadway's most outrageous productions. It's actors vs. directors, directors vs. composers, and everybody vs. the producers as we are taken backstage to learn why a show like Jerry Lewis' Hellzapoppin turned into such a fiasco. This is not a newly written tome. Suskin has gathered a collection of contemporary articles from magazines, newspapers, autobiographies, and biographies. And that is why they are so accurate and timely. The writers were there - they talked to the participants. This is not second-hand gossip. As Edward R. Murrow used to say: "You are there." You are there when a composer/director finds his star/wife having an affair with her leading man. There when one star's part is reduced to five lines in the first act and six lines in the second act. There when a leading man is replaced with an 11-year-old boy. There when two people standing in line at the box office say they want their money back, only to hear the producer behind them say, "So do I." Among the shows covered are Kelly, Fade Out, Fade In, The Red Shoes, and....well you get the picture. Stars include Liza Minnelli, Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore...just to tap the distaff side. If you have heard a rumor about a show, it is probably discussed here and confirmed or laid to rest. Suskin helpfully includes his own comments at appropriate places in the articles. These serve to clarify and sometimes give us the end result of a particular action or person. If you are interested in Broadway, this book is for you. It is a quick read. Not one chapter is without interest. And as you read of the struggles of talented people to get their visions onstage, you will respect the craft of making a musical even more. Kudos to Mr Suskin for this long-awaited book. It is handsome, with many illustrations of Playbills and sheet music from the reference shows, slightly oversized and easy to handle when read. A great gift for a theatre fan or for yourself.