Productions like The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, and Cats are synonymous with Broadway theater. Each of these shows surpassed 7,000 performances, and the 1996 Chicago revival continues to run at the Ambassador Theatre. A total of 124 Broadway plays and musicals have exceeded more than 1,000 performances. Conversely, numerous highly anticipated shows have been colossal failures, both in terms of revenue and longevity.
Here are five of the biggest Broadway flops of all time.
1. High Fidelity (2006)
Most people might recognize High Fidelity as the 2000 film starring John Cusack as a record store owner who surveys former girlfriends to determine the cause of his recent breakup. However, the film was based on a 1995 novel, which was also the source material for the 2006 Broadway musical. While the book and film were set in London and Chicago, respectively, the musical was set in New York, but not much else was changed. The production even attracted talented writers, with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and the Tony Award-nominated lyricist Amanda Green producing the script and lyrics, respectively.
Despite audience familiarity with the source material and talented people working on the musical, it lasted for just 14 performances at the Imperial Theatre. Ben Brantley, theater reviewer for The New York Times, called it one of the “all-time most forgettable musicals” on Broadway, although some critics praised Green’s lyrics. The show has since been produced at regional theaters in St. Louis, Chicago, and London.
2. Anyone Can Whistle (1964)
Stephen Sondheim, who passed away in November 2021, was a legendary composer and lyricist who won eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Pulitzer Prize, and a Laurence Olivier Award. He’s known for productions such as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and West Side Story, but only ardent admirers of Sondheim will remember his most infamous flop: Anyone Can Whistle. Sondheim wrote music for the show, while his West Side Story collaborator Arthur Laurents wrote the book, yet the musical was shown only nine times and called a “critical and commercial flop.”
Anyone Can Whistle takes place in a Depression-era town, where a corrupt mayor aims to attract tourists and generate revenue by claiming the town was the site of a miracle. The satirical show, which takes shots at organized religion and government, never really connected with audiences. “Arthur and I had written the piece as if we were the two smartest kids in the class (in the back row, of course), wittily making fun of the teacher as well as our fellow students, demonstrating how far ahead of the established wisdom we were,” Sondheim wrote in his memoir Finishing the Hat.
Despite its short-lived stay at the Majestic Theatre, Anyone Can Whistle‘s title song, “Everybody Says Don’t,” has since become a favorite among fans of Sondheim.
3. Kelly (1965)
Anyone Can Whistle‘s nine performances can be considered a success compared to Kelly, which was pulled after only one show the following year at the Broadhurst Theater. The musical was not only a massive critical flop, but it lost $650,000. Its sets were quickly buried in a dump in New Jersey, leaving almost no trace of the ill-fated production.
Mose Charlap and Eddie Lawrence developed the story based on Steve Brodie, a man who had allegedly survived a jump from the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1880s. The idea was silly at best, but it didn’t help that it was the first musical for both Lawrence and the team of producers.
4. Diana the Musical (2021)
Diana the Musical, based on the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, opened at the Longacre Theatre in 2020 and, following a break during the pandemic, lasted just 34 performances, which is probably 34 too many considering most of the reviews. Time Out New York writer Adam Feldman noted, “For collectors of flop shows, Diana is a keeper: It goes for broke, and achieves it,” while Peter Bradshaw with The Guardian adds, “If it was deliberate satire, it would be genius, but it’s not.”
The musical (which is filled with “deathless” dialogue, according to Bradshaw) chronicles the courtship of a young Diana by Prince Charles, her two pregnancies, Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, and the tragic car accident that claimed Diana’s life.
5. Via Galactica (1972)
Via Galactica is among the most ambitious and odd Broadway flops of all time. The musical, which debuted at the Uris Theatre in 1972, takes place in the year 2972 and features a cast of characters with names like “Roustabout,” “Storyteller,” and “Blue Person,” all of whom ride an asteroid in hopes of finding a new planet to create a utopia known as New Jerusalem. To exhibit the weightlessness of outer space, the actors who portrayed these characters bounced on trampolines for the duration of the show. The score also largely featured country music.
Via Galactica closed after just seven performances.