The run closed February 6, 1965
- Opened
- February 6, 1965
- Closed
- February 6, 1965
- Performances
- 1
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Broadhurst Theatre
Of the 603 productions we hold that opened in the 1960s and record a performance count, this is the 572nd longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it41 named
Wilfrid Brambell
Hamilton Camp
Paul Charles
Sterling Clark
Georgia Creighton
Anthony de Vecchi
Ceil Delli
Kathleen Doherty
Josip Elic
Lynn Fields
Leslie Franzos
Howard Hartman
Robert L Hultman
Leon Janney
Bettye Jenkins
Carol Joplin
Louis Kosman
Lorene Latine
Donna Monroe
Barbara Monte
James Moore
Michael Nestor
J Vernon Oaks
Hanne Marie Reiner
Thomas Rezarf
Bill Richards
Larry Roquemore
Stanley Simmonds
Ron Stratton
Maggie Task
Eleonore Treiber
William Wendt
9 of these 41 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 32 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Creative team
- Director
- Herbert Ross, Herbert
- Choreographer
- Herbert Ross, Herbert
- Orchestrations
- Hershy Kay
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Around this production
The most notorious flop of postwar musicals, it is curiously not one of the all-time worst shows—or at least it wasn't when it opened in Philadelphia in December 1964.
The New York reviews were so bad—and the show was so overbudget—that it never saw the light of another day. One-performance flops have become commonplace, but the actuality of $650,000 thrown away in one night put the undistinguished Kelly in the spotlight. More Opening Nights On Broadway A Critical Quotebook of Compiled By Steven Suski, p. 532
Kelly (1965), lyrics by Eddie Lawrence;
Speaker not recorded. The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia Rick Pender Rowman Littlefield Publishing Lanh, p. 515- The show’s movie version, in 1943, featured Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly, and Red Skelton. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Green Stanley Green Kay 5th Ed Rev and Updated By, p. 133
- the musical got the most disparaging reviews of the season and its $650,000 loss was a new record. Ironically, the score developed a cult following and was recorded thirty years later. Broadway Plays and Musicals Descriptions and Essential Thomas S Hischak Proquest, p. 247
- His directorial debut of a Broadway musical was also his swan song: the legendary one-performance fiasco Kelly. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 166
- Kelly, the very first musical of the post-1964 years, broke all records with a deficit of $650,000. More Opening Nights On Broadway A Critical Quotebook of Compiled By Steven Suski, p. 35
- MoreE OPENING NIGHTS 14 from the budgeted $480,000 to an astounding $675,000, causing it to be redubbed Costalot, they recovered their deficit and accumulated a nice profit, though. The more modest Fiddler on the Roof, which opened four months before Kelly, was budgeted at $375,000 and cost $450,000 to open. More Opening Nights On Broadway A Critical Quotebook of Compiled By Steven Suski, p. 36
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- No character names. We can say who was in the company and not who they played.
- No recording is held for Kelly at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.