In 1981, the heavyweight Broadway team of Hal Prince, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth created a musical based on the George S. Kaufman-Moss Hart play, Merrily We Roll Along. With all those great names, you'd think, "How bad could it be?" But audiences and critics decided, "Pretty bad." It closed after 52 previews and 16 performances.
Ordinarily, a show that closes that quickly is never seen again…but shows in which Sondheim participated never go away. There are always so many good, even wonderful moments that even if the overall show doesn't coalesce, there are always regional theater groups that think, "We can make this work." I've seen half a dozen productions of it, each tinkering here and there, trying to find some way to fix something that seems worthy of saving. Some have been at least moderately successful.
There's a new documentary about this show and its odd history. It's called Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened and it may be at a theater near you before the end of the year. Here's the trailer…