Musical Makeovers

An irreverent but insightful look at how Broadway's biggest mistakes could have been avoided

From Big to Carrie, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark to Merrily We Roll Along, musical history is littered with extravagant, expensive flops. Most of these were doomed to be terminal cases. But what if we had a time machine and could go back to fix their most glaring flaws before they were unleashed upon the world? Thus mended and fortified, might they have better survived in the wilds of Broadway's marketplace?

Critic Peter Filichia undertakes just such an experiment in Play Doctor, charting these shows' deficits with forensic precision and prescribing courses of treatment that could have brought them back from the brink. In addition to such misbegotten musicals as 13 and Rodgers & Hammerstein's little-loved Allegro, Filichia is not afraid to diagnose issues with the classics, either, whether The Music Man's lack of an opening number or the confusing plotting of Miss Saigon. The result is a witty compendium of all manner of dramatic ailments--and a wealth of ideas and prompts for writers and directors looking to avoid similar misfires in the future.