22 Shows That Closed On Opening Night
I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t see a single one of these. Had I been old enough, the ones I’d most like to have glimpsed would have been: the 1965 “Kelly,” about a man who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, and “La Strada,” a 1969 adaptation of the Fellini film starring a young Bernadette Peters. Back story for “Kelly”: Shortly after completing work on the Mary Martin production of “Peter Pan,” Mark “Moose†Charlap began working with Eddie Lawrence on a musical called “Never Go There Anymore,” about Steve Brodie. Brodie, a real-life personality, claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived in 1886. As for “La Strada,” the musical began a Detroit try-out in October of 1969, but it was already in trouble. Composer Lionel Bart did not participate in the work’s rehearsals, so Martin Charnin (who would go on to write Annie) and Elliot Lawrence worked as best they could with needed revisions. Though the critics didn’t like the show, they did like its leading lady — Miss Bernadette, in her first Broadway leading role.
