10 Historical Figures Behind Epic Broadway Flops

Broadway is full of musicals inspired by real people. Alexander Hamilton, Eva Perón, and Fanny Brice have all proved that history can make great theater. But for every smash hit based on a famous figure, there are plenty of shows that fail to find an audience.

Some of these productions had acclaimed composers, Tony-winning actors, huge budgets, or historical subjects that seemed tailor-made for the stage. It didn’t matter. Broadway has produced musicals that lost millions, vanished after a few weeks, and, in one spectacular case, survived only a single official performance.

Here are ten historical figures who inspired some truly epic Broadway flops.

Related: Top 10 Worst Musical to Movie Adaptions

10 Jackie Robinson: The First

Jackie Robinson changed American sports history when he broke Major League Baseball’s modern color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Broadway seemed like a natural place to tell his story, especially with Martin Charnin—the director and lyricist behind Annie—involved.

The First followed Robinson from his signing by Dodgers executive Branch Rickey through the abuse and resistance he encountered as the first Black player in modern Major League Baseball. Bob Brush composed the music, Charnin supplied the lyrics and directed, and a young David Alan Grier played Robinson.

The show opened at Broadway’s Martin Beck Theatre in November 1981, but critical reaction was largely negative. Reviewers found the musical dramatically clumsy despite admiring its subject, and it closed after only 31 regular performances following 33 previews.

There was one bright spot. Grier earned a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and received a Theatre World Award for his performance. Broadway may not have scored a hit with Robinson’s story, but its star managed to get safely on base.^[1]

9 King Charles VII: Goodtime Charley

Joan of Arc is the obvious star of her own story. The teenage French peasant reported receiving divine visions, helped rally French forces during the Hundred Years’ War, and played a crucial role in crowning the Dauphin King Charles VII. Naturally, Broadway decided to make a musical about…Charles.

Goodtime Charley tells the story largely from the king’s point of view, with Joel Grey playing Charles VII and Ann Reinking portraying Joan. The unusual approach emphasized the reluctant king’s relationship with the far more driven young woman who helped place him on the throne.

The musical opened in March 1975 and received an impressive seven Tony nominations, including acting nominations for Grey and Reinking. Awards attention couldn’t translate into ticket sales, though, and the show closed after 104 performances.

That makes Goodtime Charley an unusual kind of flop: a production that Broadway’s awards establishment clearly respected but audiences didn’t keep alive. Joan may have managed to get Charles crowned king, but even she couldn’t get him a long-running musical.^[2]

8 Diana Spencer: Diana: The Musical

Princess Diana’s life already contained nearly everything a musical could want: romance, royalty, betrayal, celebrity, tragedy, and one of the most recognizable public figures of the 20th century. Yet turning that story into a successful Broadway show proved unexpectedly difficult.

Diana: The Musical began Broadway previews in March 2020, only for COVID-19 to shut down the theater industry days later. While Broadway remained dark, the producers filmed the stage production. They released it on Netflix in October 2021, before the musical had officially opened.

That meant audiences around the world had plenty of time to encounter songs about Diana’s wardrobe, royal marriage, and tabloid fame before Broadway critics could weigh in. The filmed version was savaged and eventually won five Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay.

The stage production finally opened on November 17, 2021. It closed barely a month later after just 34 regular performances. Remarkably, the Broadway show still earned a Tony nomination for its costumes—which seems appropriate for a musical whose subject became one of the world’s greatest fashion icons.

Plenty of Broadway flops get bad reviews. Few manage to win five Razzies at practically the same time.^[3]

7 Victoria Woodhull: Onward Victoria

Victoria Woodhull had the sort of life that sounds invented for the stage. She and her sister became pioneering female stockbrokers on Wall Street, she published a radical newspaper, advocated women’s suffrage and “free love,” and in 1872 became the first woman widely recognized as a candidate for president of the United States.

There were complications. Woodhull was only 34 during the election and would still have been short of the constitutionally required age of 35 on Inauguration Day. Her Equal Rights Party also nominated Frederick Douglass as vice president without his accepting—or apparently even acknowledging—the nomination.

Broadway turned this extraordinary life into Onward Victoria, starring Jill Eikenberry as Woodhull. The musical went through 23 previews before officially opening on December 14, 1980.

It closed that same day.

Yes, Onward Victoria managed exactly one regular Broadway performance. For a musical whose title promised forward movement, “onward” proved wildly optimistic.^[4]

6 Andrew Jackson: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson remains one of America’s most controversial presidents. His populist politics profoundly reshaped American political life, while his administration’s support for Native American removal resulted in enormous suffering and death. In other words, obvious material for an emo-rock musical.

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson reimagined the seventh president of the United States as a swaggering rock star, using modern music and deliberately anachronistic humor to satirize populism, political celebrity, expansionism, and Jackson’s treatment of Native Americans.

The show developed through Center Theatre Group and New York’s Public Theater before transferring to Broadway in 2010. Critics were intrigued by its unusual mixture of history, satire, and emo music, and it eventually received two Tony nominations, for Best Book and Best Scenic Design.

But acclaim and originality weren’t enough. The Broadway production closed in January 2011 after 94 regular performances and 26 previews.

Five years later, Hamilton would demonstrate just how enormous the audience could be for American political history retold through contemporary music. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson had experimented with a surprisingly similar basic idea—it just picked a much harder president to sell.^[5]

5 King Henry VIII: Rex

Few historical figures seem more naturally suited to musical theater than Henry VIII. His reign had romance, betrayal, religion, executions, and enough wives to fill an entire cast list. Yet even a king this dramatic couldn’t guarantee Broadway success.

Rex opened in 1976 with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, the lyricist behind Fiddler on the Roof. Nicol Williamson starred as Henry VIII, while a young Glenn Close appeared as Princess Mary in what became her first Broadway musical.

On paper, that pedigree looked formidable. Rodgers was already one of the most celebrated composers in Broadway history, Harnick had helped create one of its greatest musicals, and Williamson was an acclaimed stage actor. Critics, however, found the show’s book and overall staging considerably weaker than its musical credentials suggested.

Rex lasted only 48 regular performances after 14 previews. Close, of course, went on to become one of Broadway and Hollywood’s most acclaimed performers. Henry VIII survived six wives, a break with Rome, and multiple political crises. Still, even he couldn’t keep this musical on the throne.^[6]

4 Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow: Bonnie & Clyde

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow became nationally notorious during their crime spree in the early 1930s. Photographs discovered after a shootout in Joplin, Missouri—including images of Bonnie posing with guns and a cigar—helped create the glamorous outlaw image that newspapers, movies, and popular culture would continue building long after both were dead.

Reality was considerably less romantic. The Barrow gang robbed banks, filling stations, and small stores, and its members were responsible for multiple killings. Still, the myth of the doomed young lovers proved irresistible to Broadway.

Bonnie & Clyde opened in December 2011, starring Laura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan. The score came from veteran composer Frank Wildhorn, whose previous Broadway credits included Jekyll & Hyde and The Scarlet Pimpernel.

The musical received mixed reviews and struggled financially, closing after only 36 regular performances and 33 previews. Yet its afterlife has been far healthier than its Broadway run: the cast recording developed a devoted following, and later productions helped turn the show into something of a cult favorite.

There is also an oddly appropriate historical twist. Bonnie Parker reportedly dreamed of becoming an actress and achieving fame. Broadway eventually gave her exactly that—just about 80 years too late.^[7]

3 Gráinne O”Malley: The Pirate Queen

Gráinne O’Malley—often anglicized as Grace O’Malley—was a 16th-century Irish clan leader, maritime trader, and formidable political figure whose ships raided rivals and extracted tribute along Ireland’s western coast. She resisted English encroachment and famously met Queen Elizabeth I in 1593 to negotiate the release of members of her family.

That life sounds tailor-made for an enormous musical. Broadway certainly spent like it was.

The Pirate Queen came from Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, the creative partnership associated with Les Misérables and Miss Saigon. Stephanie J. Block starred as O’Malley in a production packed with sword fights, Irish dancing, elaborate costumes, aerial work, and a score requiring her to sing through an unusually demanding role.

The production reportedly cost around $16 million to mount. It opened on Broadway in April 2007 after 32 previews but closed after only 85 regular performances. It received no Tony nominations and reportedly lost most of its investment.

Block later recalled just how physically punishing the role had been: she sang in more than 20 numbers while also handling sword fighting, choreography, and other demanding staging. Gráinne O’Malley survived pirates, rival clans, imprisonment, and English political power. Her Broadway counterpart couldn’t survive the box office.^[8]

2 Joseph McCarthy: Senator Joe

Senator Joseph McCarthy built his reputation in the early 1950s by claiming that Communists had infiltrated the U.S. government. His accusations, hearings, and increasingly reckless tactics helped create the political phenomenon now known as McCarthyism.

Decades later, someone decided this was musical-theater material.

Senator Joe arrived on Broadway in January 1989, starring Peter Gallagher as McCarthy. The show attempted to combine political biography with musical spectacle. Still, critics never even received the chance to review an official opening-night performance.

The production managed just three previews.

According to Broadway records, only 470 tickets were sold across those performances in a theater seating more than 1,300 people. The show closed on January 8, 1989, before its scheduled opening night.

The disaster did not end there. Producer Adela Holzer later served prison time after being convicted in an unrelated fraud case involving millions of dollars obtained from investors.

Plenty of Broadway musicals get bad reviews. Senator Joe achieved something rarer: it was effectively blacklisted before it could officially open.^[9]

1 Jack “Legs” Diamond: Legs Diamond

Jack “Legs” Diamond was one of Prohibition-era New York’s most notorious gangsters. Known as the “clay pigeon of the underworld,” he repeatedly survived assassination attempts before finally being shot to death in Albany in 1931.

Broadway’s version of Diamond was considerably less concerned with historical accuracy. Legs Diamond, based partly on the 1960 film The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond, openly described itself as an “almost totally fictitious musical hystery.” Instead of simply following Diamond’s criminal career, the show turned him into a gangster with show-business ambitions.

Australian entertainer Peter Allen starred as Diamond and also wrote the score. Before opening, enthusiasm was remarkably high: advance ticket sales reportedly reached around $10 million.

Then people actually saw the show.

After a staggering 72 previews, Legs Diamond officially opened in December 1988. Reviews were disastrous, audiences disappeared, and the production closed after only 64 regular performances. Reports estimated its losses at roughly $5.3 million.

Allen later described the show as the greatest disappointment of his career. The final irony came after his death: in 2003, Broadway opened The Boy from Oz, a musical based on Allen himself. That production ran for nearly a year and earned Hugh Jackman a Tony Award.

Peter Allen couldn’t turn Jack Diamond into a Broadway hit. Broadway had much better luck turning Peter Allen into one.^[10]