{"id":342,"date":"2008-04-22T23:24:44","date_gmt":"2008-04-23T06:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2008\/04\/moose-crashes-into-theater-one-more-time\/"},"modified":"2008-04-23T00:01:29","modified_gmt":"2008-04-23T07:01:29","slug":"moose-crashes-into-theater-one-more-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/22\/moose-crashes-into-theater-one-more-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious Moose Seen Holding Inflatable Deer Head Emblazoned With Miller High Life Logo"},"content":{"rendered":"

from the New York Times<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

A Broadway Flop Again Raises Its Antlers<\/nyt_headline><\/h1>\n

By\u00a0CAMPBELL ROBERTSON<\/a><\/p>\n

It is generally not a good sign for a Broadway show when people leave the opening-night party early. That is what Arthur Bicknell noticed at the celebration for the premiere of his play. As soon as the dessert forks were down, there they went, acquaintances, cast members, even family, out the door of Sardi\u2019s restaurant. A friend finally approached with a report on the reviews.<\/p>\n

Two words: \u201cthe worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed they were. The play was \u201cMoose Murders,\u201d and even now, 25 years later, it is considered the standard of awfulness against which all Broadway flops are judged.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/p>\n

Things weren\u2019t so grim at the L & M bowling lanes in Rochester, N.Y., on Friday night, when a cast of nonprofessional \u2014 most barely even amateur \u2014 actors had just finished a second performance of \u201cMoose Murders\u201d at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center. The show, a staged reading but with original music, was put together by John Borek, 58, a self-described \u201cpart-time conceptual artist\u201d who works by day as an aide to a Rochester city councilman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Broadway had its chance, and they blew it,\u201d Mr. Borek said. \u201cMaybe it will have a more receptive audience as a work of art.\u201d\u00a0It is certainly true that Broadway audiences were less than receptive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your name is Arthur Bicknell \u2014 or anything like it \u2014 change it,\u201d declared Dennis Cunningham, the critic at the CBS affiliate in New York.<\/p>\n

Critics described \u201cMoose Murders\u201d as \u201ctitanically bad\u201d and \u201cindescribably bad,\u201d a play that \u201cwould insult the intelligence of an audience consisting entirely of amoebas\u201d (Brendan Gill<\/a>, The New Yorker), that looked as it were staged by \u201ca blind director repeatedly kicked in the groin\u201d (John Simon, New York magazine). The columnist Liz Smith had some nice things to say, Mr. Bicknell recalled.<\/p>\n

Years later, Frank Rich, who was then the theater critic for The New York Times, would call it \u201cthe worst play I\u2019ve ever seen on a Broadway stage.\u201d (Mr. Rich\u2019s writings about \u201cMoose Murders\u201d have become such a part of its lore that a recent production of the play in Manila credited Mr. Rich with having written the play.)<\/p>\n

The reviews, which were not helped by the man reeking of vomit who sat in the third row during a press preview, made the 14 performances of \u201cMoose Murders\u201d legendary in theater history.<\/p>\n

[Mr. Bicknell] tried to move on, writing another play and even a midnight drag show, but eventually gave up and worked for a few years as a literary agent. Someone tried to get permission to turn the play into a musical called \u201cMoose Murders: The Afterbirth,\u201d Mr. Bicknell said, but he was not ready for that.<\/p>\n

[ In the new production,] the mysterious moose character was a woman dressed in black holding an inflatable deer head emblazoned with the Miller High Life logo. Sidney Holloway, the mummified quadriplegic, was played by a mannequin, whose head rolled off during the first act.<\/p>\n

The audience members, most of them anyway, seemed to love it.<\/p>\n

<\/nyt_update_bottom><\/p>\n

[ click to read full article at NYTimes.com<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the New York Times A Broadway Flop Again Raises Its Antlers By\u00a0CAMPBELL ROBERTSON It is generally not a good sign for a Broadway show when people leave the opening-night party early. That is what Arthur Bicknell noticed at the celebration for the premiere of his play. As soon as the dessert forks were down, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}