The Felled Angel

"I've had my head handed to me three times on Broadway," said TV Producer-Performer David Susskind last year, all the while trying to rationalize risking it a fourth time. "In spite of my bruised psyche and against my strong reluctance," he explained, "I auditioned this show and found it a marvelous, lusty, bawdy 1886 piece, with memorable, hummable tunes and inventive lyrics. I flipped. All my Broadway bruises vanished." Until last week.

The show was Kelly, based on a legendary jump from the Brooklyn Bridge, and several would-be producers, looking before they leaped, had earlier dropped their options. Undeterred by the fears of other angels, Susskind and his Talent Associates-Paramount, Ltd. rushed in, somehow found $350,000 lying around. To round out the nut, they talked Columbia Records into ponying up $50,000 and got the remaining $250,000 from Producer-Plunger Joseph E. Levine.

Then began the months of rewriting, rehearsing--and recriminations. During the five weeks of tryouts before the premiere, three roles were written out. Three fresh writers and a composer were hysterically summoned, whereupon the original authors sued to enjoin the opening. The New York Supreme Court refused to issue the injunction--thus leaving the case to what turned out to be a hanging jury: the New York reviewers. As Herald Tribune Columnist Dick Schaap summed up the first-night verdict: "Hitler got better notices in World War II." There was no second night, and Kelly bombed out, $650,000 in the red. In the feast-or-famine history of Broadway, there has never been a shorter run for the money.

"I might learn a lot from this," philosophized Producer Levine. But what? For one thing, not to bring in even a musical with such a predictable, progressionless plot. Nor one with such woeful gags or sappy lyrics ("I'll take you where it snows and talk poetic prose"). Among other liabilities: no name star to sell the benefit fringe.

How did so many fatal deficiencies elude the producers? Asking himself, David Susskind found it all "unanswerable." "I have never been so shocked, so surprised in my life. What happened to my taste? Could I be this wrong?" He could.

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