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[0:00] Rob Schneider: Interior, Miami Hospital. A doctor places Tommy Tune's x-ray onto the screen. He turns to the producer sitting anxiously in the office. He says, who told him to break a leg? He laughs. They don't. Tommy Tune, the boy genius of Broadway. He dazzled audiences on stage in his Tony Award-winning performance in Seesaw. Then he kept reinventing himself as a director with such shows as The Club, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Cloud Nine, Nine, Grand Hotel, The Will Rogers Follies. Nothing could stop him except... Well, we're gonna let producer Barry Weissler tell you in this week's episode of Broadway Bound, The Musicals That Never Got to New York, which explores Busker Alley. I mean, Stage Door Charlie. I mean, Buskers. I mean, it's back to Busker Alley.

[1:00] Rob Schneider: Hey friends, it's Rob Schneider here, and welcome to Broadway Bound, the musicals that never came to Broadway. Today's episode is going to look at one of those shows that movie critics would call a rollercoaster of emotion. It involves gallons of yellow paint, a slippery lamppost, Tommy Tune and his all-male chimney sweeps, multiple titles, and eventually seeing the writing on the yellow wall. But I get ahead of myself because we need to look at the source material of Busker Alley. Nay, Stage Door Charlie. Nay, Buskers. Nay, Busker Alley. Nay, Tommy Get Your Crutch.

[1:33] Rob Schneider: Out of all the musicals we've covered this season, Busker Alley seems like the surest of bets because the source material was so musical. 1938's Sidewalks of London. Now, you might not have seen Sidewalks of London, but you might have seen this movie at some point because, much like Busker Alley, it also had different titles. It also went by St. Martin's Lane, London After Dark, and Partners of the Night. They all sound very inappropriate, but I digress, govna. Whatever you want to call this film, the plot couldn't have been riper for a musical. So, Charles Laughton, you know, witness for the prosecution, mutiny on the bounty, and some very gross stories from Scotty Bowers' book, plays Charlie, a street busker.

A busker is somebody who entertains patrons before they go into the theater. You know, think of Showtime Showtime on the subway, but outdoors and without the stench. Charlie gets a tip stolen from him by Liberty, played by Vivien Leigh. For a second I thought of Liberty, which was the name of Gerald Ford's dog, and I'm like, maybe I'm getting my plots confused. But no, the character's name is Liberty, and it was being played by Vivien Leigh. And when Charlie chases her down, he finds himself charmed by her, and he takes Libby not only to his little busker troupe, but also his heart. This could be on Lifetime.

[3:15] Rob Schneider: Charlie lives with his family, a real lower-class set, and they busk for pennies, or halfpennies, I don't know. But Libby catches the eye of an attractive rich man, played by Rex Harrison, who can take her away from all this, as you know it goes. Charlie proposes to Libby, and she rejects him. He is so stung. He becomes an alcoholic and refuses to sing anymore. And while Charlie is going down the tubes, Libby is ascending and ascending fast, as a respectable singer who will stop at nothing to secure her fame. There's a very bittersweet ending with the wealthy, established Libby running into Charlie. He also asks for her autograph, and her fans push him aside. A Svengali without a trilby. A Higgins without an Eliza. A Jada without a will.

[4:02] Rob Schneider: Now in full transparency, this movie is not a classic. It was a typical soap opera melodrama that was elevated really by Charles Laughton's performance, but it wasn't a hit as Gone with the Wind or The Graduate was. It was fine, predictable, and comforting, which is exactly what UK audiences needed at this time, as it was about to go into WWII, and it was one of the films that stuck in the memory of the Sherman Brothers. Robert and Richard Sherman are not only the foundation of 60s Disney musicals, they hold the record for writing the most motion picture musical scores than any other team in history. Two Oscars, three Grammys, or a Grammy, five Golden Globes, plus here are some of their songs.

It's a Small World After All, There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, Chim Chimney, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and their movies include The Parent Trap, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and the list goes on and on and on. Basically, what they provide are warm, clever numbers that evoke a sense of fun. And despite the fact they are both American, I always think they're Brits. They're not Brits, but they are as American as appropriation.

[5:09] Rob Schneider: In 1967, the Sherman Brothers were the darlings of Disney, and they just finished the Tommy Steele vehicle, The Happiest Millionaire. God, that man's dentist is a genius. Now, the Shermans wrote it with A.J. Crothers, a respectable journeyman screenwriter who had a few television credits under his belt, like My Three Sons. Now, because they enjoyed one another, they opted to work together again, and the property that interested them was St. Martin's Lane. It was British, it had buskers, who were distant cousins of Bert from Mary Poppins, and they had Tommy Steele. Now, he wasn't like Charles Laughton, but he was British and energetic, and with his skills, he could easily be a busker. So, they got the rights, turned it into a musical called Piccadilly, and it was optioned by Paramount, but as musicals were dying off on the screen, it just sort of sat on the shelf until 1982, when they renamed it Blow Us a Kiss, and began making the rounds again, this time as a theatrical piece.

Each year, its old-fashioned charms were not seen, musical theatre got more and more away from this type of feel-good material. Think about it, 1982, 9, Dreamgirls, where would this show fit? So, once again, it sat on a shelf until a young director named Jeff Calhoun paid a call to the Sherman Brothers. Before Bonnie and Clyde, before Newsies, before Deaf West's Big River, Jeff Calhoun was best known as Tommy Tune's right-hand man, and that was a pretty good place to be.

[6:40] Rob Schneider: In the 1980s, no director was more inventive than Tommy Tune. The 6-foot, 6-inch Tune, yes, Tommy Tune is his real name, was the toast of Broadway for at least two decades, starting when he was Michael Bennett's right-hand man. Tune was in the movie of Hello Dolly, won a Tony, like I said, for Seesaw, and he brought vivid concepts to the shows he was directing, like In the Club, which took place at an all-male club, has women playing all the men. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. This genius idea of creating a line of cheerleaders out of plywood and balloons. Go look at the photos of the original Nine. Grand Hotel done only with chairs and a bar. Come on. This guy is pretty, pretty special.

In 1991, Tune had directed The Will Rogers Follies, but he shared choreography credit with the young Calhoun, really giving Jeff that seal of approval, and it couldn't have come at a better time, because at this point in the early 90s, Tommy Tune was really trying to invigorate his acting career. Now, in 1990, Jeff Calhoun went to the Sherman Brothers to discuss adapting Mary Poppins for the stage, but they just didn't want to revisit that. That will come much later in their lives. They wanted to come back to Broadway. Over Here, in 1974, was their only Broadway show at that point, and they wanted an original piece, so Busker Alley, as it was now called, was what was put forward, and who better to play Charlie than Tommy Tune himself?

Not only would he get to show off all he could do in a part his own age of 56, the age of the character gave it a better sense of melancholy, but he could be an actor and not worry. He had been wanting to go back to performing, so he was constantly doing his one-man showplaces, and he was beginning a tour of Bye Bye Birdie that was supposed to come in with Anne Reinking. This was a perfect idea, Busker Alley.

[8:17] Rob Schneider: The first producer attached was Kim Poster, who was an associate producer on Grand Hotel. She secured funding from Paramount Pictures, and that was not an easy feat, and she would shepherd this show to Broadway, and her Broadway-producing debut would be with Tommy Tune starring in the show. And they say, oh, this is just like a good old-fashioned musical. I go, yes, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm not doing a high-tech musical here. I'm doing a musical where the people actually have talent, and they sing, and they dance, and they talk to each other, and a story is told, and a lesson is learned.

[8:49] Rob Schneider: It's Money in the Bank, kids, in 1990-91. Except she wasn't counting on one thing. Sam Cohn, yes, the powerful agent himself. See, Cohn put a clause in the contract with Poster that she had to raise $4.5 million, 60% of the show's $7.5 million capitalization, by August 1, 1991, which was 10 months before the show's scheduled Broadway opening on May 1, 1992. So, on August 2, Cohn called Poster and said the deal was now null and void because she didn't do it. This stunned the industry veterans. Manny Azenberg, Bernie Jacobs, all the big producers at the time, characterized it as a wholesale departure from standard practice. And since she had already postponed the show twice to accommodate Tommy Tune, it seemed unreasonable that he would then hold her to the hour and date of the contract when more than $3 million of the financing was indisputably in place.

[9:51] Rob Schneider: Even the arbiter, New York University law professor Daniel G. Collins, concluded in a December 23, 1992 letter to both sides of the dispute that Poster had jumped through every hoop held up for her and that Tune appeared to have compelling financial reasons to want Poster to fail. August 1, Collins noted, also happened to be Tune's deadline for extending his run in a national tour of Bye Bye Birdie, which promised to bring him $60,000 to over $70,000 per week. Everyone thought this was a slam dunk for Poster, but Cohn claimed that Eric Ashenberg, who had pledged $1.5 million, was not a credible investor, notwithstanding the fact that he'd already come up with $125,000 in cash, and that he was a fraud who had previously claimed on several occasions that he was agent Bridget Ashenberg's cousin. That was enough to make Tune quote, insecure, a legal term that allowed him to terminate the contract.

[10:50] Rob Schneider: But by August, Collins believed that Cohn had supplied enough corroboration to justify terminating the contract. What was that corroboration, you ask? Well, according to the August 24 ruling, two pieces of information. One was Bridget Ashenberg's portrayal of Eric as a shady character. The other key testimony came from Cohn himself, who said that a Broadway general manager, whom Poster offered as a reference for Eric Ashenberg, had told him on a confidential basis to be quote, extremely careful with Eric. That's the strongest evidence that appears in the ruling. No mention of him being a crook or a fraud or an unreliable investor. And that was it. Poster lost the rights to Busker Alley, they reverted back to Crothers and the Shermans, and she was left with egg on her face.

[11:39] Rob Schneider: One producer said this is a terrible decision for the whole community. It says that a signed contract means nothing if you have a powerful enough agent. Now, with the property available, it needed producers, and in came Barry and Fran Weissler, two producers who had been doing well for themselves with revivals like Anthony Quinn and Zorba, Zoe Caldwell and Medea, Kathleen Turner and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. They had just had a new musical called Falsettos, which was doing pretty good business, and this would be their first new musical from scratch. Falsettos was two off-Broadway shows put together, so they opted for the rights to the show with a $6 million price tag, and they were working on a groundbreaking revival of Grease with Calhoun directing and Tune supervising.

They painted the entire outside of the Eugene O'Neill a stunning hot pink, so everyone knew where Grease would be the word. Yet the show was already looked at as damaged goods, and Tune came off as a real jerk in the proceedings with Poster. This is how Barry and Fran got involved.

[12:41] Barry Weissler: I believe it was Tommy Tune that brought me an early script, a musical score, because the show was extant. It wasn't from scratch. It already existed. And they were quite wonderful, the three of them. They had tried this before. I can't remember the history exactly. You might have more. They brought it to Tommy, Tommy brought it to me, and we began to work on it.

[13:09] Barry Weissler: It was time to get this show up and running, and so in the summer of 1994, after Grease opened, Jeff Calhoun began directing a workshop of Busker Alley at the Nederlander Theatre. It starred Tune as Charlie, Broadway's new favorite Melissa Errico, who was Eliza in the revival of My Fair Lady, Marsha Lewis as the landlady, and Brent Barrett as the Rex Harrison part.

[13:46] Barry Weissler: You were in go mode, you saw the workshop and you thought to yourself, we got to put the brakes on this.

[13:51] Barry Weissler: Yeah, as a matter of fact, I remember one was Clueless, which we had high hopes for, worked on diligently for quite some time, a year, two years, put it in workshop and felt that we were not better than the movie. And if we couldn't be different and better, why do it?

[14:15] Robert W. Schneider: What's the discussion like then with the creatives? Because there's been a lot of instances where I think people go, well, good enough is good enough. But there's something that you have a level. Let me throw the question back to you. What do you think the effect was?

[14:30] Barry Weissler: Oh, they were happy. They were thrilled. I mean, obviously, they were very unhappy. I have to protect my own ability to make a judgment that is as correct as it possibly can be.

[14:48] Barry Weissler: There are shows I've done that break my heart. Scottsboro Boys. Why wasn't that a success? I was so sure that we would draw an audience and a very special audience. Didn't happen. Caused all kinds of clamor in New York City. Picket lines were outside the theater. The Guthrie was a wonderful experience. Again, very anti-black in Minneapolis, believe it or not. My poor cast was molested and attacked every night. We used to go out with security to get them back to the hotels. That was a shock. I didn't expect that.

[15:31] Barry Weissler: In a situation like Scottsboro Boys, where now it's regarded as a masterpiece. It's now regarded as something the general population missed the mark on. Do you feel any satisfaction knowing that in the long run, you were right about the property?

[15:50] Barry Weissler: No, I was right about it to begin with. The fact that an audience doesn't come has nothing to do with it. I know quality of poetry and literature and staging. That was a good one.

[16:07] Barry Weissler: Here's Melissa Errico. In it, we have an aging busker and a young street girl. Nobody has this music. Nobody has the right music. There are no lyrics out there except the ones that are in my head. If you want to jot this down. This is from the show. They've just met. He has a way of talking that puts you at your ease. His words are soft and gentle, like whispers on a breeze.

[16:48] Barry Weissler: His face is so beguiling with friendly eyes. Are they kind and wise? Or do they disguise, deceit and lies? He has a way of smiling that makes me want to grin. I'm feeling safe and cozy, like summer's coming in. He's asking me to trust him, inviting me to stay.

[17:33] Barry Weissler: When you're not being pushed and shoved, is it something like being loved? I have to say, he has a way.

[18:02] Barry Weissler: A six-month, eleven-city national tour would launch, giving the creatives a chance to see how the show plays in front of various audiences before it landed on Broadway in October of 1995.

[18:21] Barry Weissler: Toone took credit for this, but he would argue that later on. This was revolutionary because revivals did six-month national tours, not new shows. New shows were workshopped, maybe playing one place out of town. Then it came in. It better get great reviews, or otherwise all you have to sell it is Tommy Toone, because bad reviews and a property no one knows isn't going to help.

[18:47] Barry Weissler: Well, this is a feel-good musical. This is like My Fair Lady, like Half a Sixpence. It's a crowd-pleaser, and it fits right in the middle of serious plays and unusual musicals. It's that avenue of first choice for the average theatergoer.

[19:07] Barry Weissler: And for the tour, Erica was out, and instead Libby would now be Darcy Roberts, who was going to be, quote, the next big thing. And she would be touted as such on all the posters in the marketing, introducing Darcy Roberts. Who was she? Well, she had replaced In Crazy for You. That's who she was. But she was also the tallest woman Toone ever worked with, and could actually match him.

[19:27] Barry Weissler: Yet like a director does, Toone couldn't take off his director's hat, and he began to influence the concept of the show. Not his character, because Toone was able to learn like the best of them as an actor, but the whole visual look.

[19:46] Barry Weissler: Originally the show would have ten male slash female ensemble members, but Toone thought that the ladies just didn't look right, so it was now an all-male ensemble of buskers, and they would each represent an aspect of Charlie's life. There was Charlie Teacher, Charlie Nightingale, Charlie Trueheart.

[20:13] Barry Weissler: And like Nine or Will Rogers, Toone liked a stagnant set, and designer Tony Walton created eleven stagnant lampposts for all the Charlies, making Calhoun have to direct and choreograph around them. But these lampposts were stagnant at the bottom, not the top, so if you danced on it, all the audience could watch is how it wavered in the air, sort of like a door spring.

[20:37] Barry Weissler: There's also a few conceptual touches like Charlie never going inside, only for an audition, which he fails. His life is totally outside, and all she wants is the stardom of the inside. We love when conflict is physically represented.

[20:49] Barry Weissler: Now, this score by the Sherman Brothers is fantastic, so I am so happy to give you a couple of samples of this today. The first song is the opening number to the show, which introduces the world quite perfectly. The number is called Busker Alley.

[21:19] ♪ Musical number: "Busker Alley" — performed by the cast ♪

[22:19] Barry Weissler: Since the golden days of yore... There was the inventive Crazy Appie Tears, a scarf dance that creates an act for Charlie and Libby.

[22:29] Barry Weissler: She has a way that shakes me, whenever she's around. I don't know where she takes me, but I ain't on the ground.

[22:42] Barry Weissler: It's crazy how she makes me, I can't explain, and I can't think plain, because Libby keeps dancing in my head.

[22:54] Barry Weissler: He has a way of talking, it's rather all real. His words are soft and gentle, like whispers on a breeze.

[23:06] Barry Weissler: His face is so beguiling, with friendly eyes, they're so kind and wise. It's something I've come to realise.

[23:20] Barry Weissler: Sometimes I hear you singing, and tears come to me eyes. You make me want to grieve.

[23:27] Barry Weissler: I hold you, we were dancing, and I could almost die. Like someone's coming in.

[23:33] Barry Weissler: I've never felt this feeling.

[23:40] Barry Weissler: All my fears have flown away.

[23:51] Barry Weissler: When you're not being pushed and shoved. But I can't stop them.

[23:56] Barry Weissler: It's something like feeling lost. I just don't know.

[24:00] Barry Weissler: And I have to say.

[24:02] Barry Weissler: You have a way.

[24:24] Barry Weissler: And Tap Appy Feet, a dance of celebration when Libby returns Charlie's affections.

[24:29] Barry Weissler: I feel like Christopher Gaston waiting for Goffman. Corky Sinclair.

[24:33] Barry Weissler: Hello, how are you?

[24:35] Barry Weissler: There's no love like a new love. The feeling grows and grows.

[24:40] Barry Weissler: It's been a long time, but now I'm one of them young Romeo.

[24:55] Barry Weissler: And I can't contain me tears.

[24:59] Barry Weissler: Cause I've got Tap Appy Feet.

[25:04] Barry Weissler: Love is so lovely and life is so sweet.

[25:11] Barry Weissler: I'm Tap Appy Hearted. Me heart's set to beat.

[25:16] Barry Weissler: I've never danced like this before.

[25:19] Barry Weissler: Don't blame it on someone I adore.

[25:21] Barry Weissler: For Tap Appy Heels.

[25:24] Barry Weissler: And Tap Appy Toes.

[25:27] Barry Weissler: This Tap Appy Feeling.

[25:29] Barry Weissler: It just grows and grows.

[25:32] Barry Weissler: I've found me a new love.

[25:35] Barry Weissler: Me life is complete.

[25:37] Barry Weissler: And it doesn't stop me.

[25:39] Barry Weissler: Doesn't stop me. Me Tap Appy Feet.

[25:47] Barry Weissler: A beautiful number was Tin Whistle Tune where Charlie thinks of life as Libby and introspectively taps and then it turns sexual, then tragic, then sad.

[25:55] Barry Weissler: This was not the usual Tommy Tune. Smiling, happy.

[25:59] Barry Weissler: And it was one thing everyone talked about in the show. The brilliance of Mr. Tune's performance, especially showing colors he really hadn't shown before in an acting role.

[26:09] Barry Weissler: The hardest thing that needed to be solved was the same problem the movie had, which was how do you root for a love story in which the leading man is actually better off without the leading lady?

[26:19] Barry Weissler: Libby is selfish. She's cold-hearted. She's self-involved. You want Charlie to do better.

[26:25] Barry Weissler: And when he loses her, his reaction feels false. It's like hoping Laura ends up with Glenn in The Wedding Singer.

[26:32] Barry Weissler: It also didn't help that Libby's first song was very selfish, called When Do I Get Mine?

[26:39] Barry Weissler: Take a look at your bedlock. Do you fancy what you see?

[26:43] Barry Weissler: Having nothing makes you view is a bloody bore to me.

[26:49] Barry Weissler: A sinful, shoddy, bloody big bore to me.

[26:55] Barry Weissler: Some people wake up each day to cure the sunshine.

[27:04] Barry Weissler: So many are laughing, they ain't hungry all the time.

[27:09] Barry Weissler: Some people have seven, seven caviar and wine.

[27:13] Barry Weissler: When, mister, when do I get mine?

[27:18] Barry Weissler: Some lucky people live safe and warm in cushy, made-up apartments.

[27:23] Barry Weissler: Some lucky women have sixty gowns and sixty made-up hats.

[27:28] Barry Weissler: So many are blessed by some, you tell us.

[27:31] ♪ Musical number: "The Old Design" — performed by Tommy Tune ♪

[29:10] Barry Weissler: April 7th, 1995. Louisville, Kentucky. As Stage Door Charlie, because the Weisslers didn't like buskers, was now being called, Ewan was greeted with neutral reviews, praising the dancing, but finding the book clunky and the tune a little too cheerful, and the box office didn't do so well. Now, normally, you'd be able to play for a while in one location, taking time to settle and figure out problems, but this schedule, with its fast one-week, two-week engagements, meant it was too hectic to settle and talk and fix, as opposed to four or six weeks in one area. So you really couldn't get any sort of work done, except changing the name. The Weisslers changed the name because they didn't think people knew what buskers were.

I don't think Stage Door Charlie is a better name for it, but they did, and I don't think audiences really care. I don't think, yeah, I don't think they care, but I could be wrong. If you feel like you wouldn't have seen the show because it was called Buskers, give me a call and we can talk. They now go to San Francisco in June of 1995. Not only is it now being called Buskers, no Allie, just Buskers, it's being put on the Tony Award broadcast. So, you know, the Weisslers are feeling so confident that when they booked the St. James for the fall opening, much like Grease, they had the whole outside of the theater painted in a canary yellow, with illustrations of buskers dancing on lampposts. And they hired New York buskers to entertain ticket buyers and got themselves a nice $5 million advance.

The building I painted from roof to sidewalk, side to side, was Tommy Tu. Vivid yellow all along the St. James. It's so good. It's so good. Most people just think, get a flashy marquee. You were like, paint the walls. It's such a brilliant marketing idea. I'm sorry it didn't come to fruition. Oh my God. But despite their confidence, as it always does, word on the street is starting to leak out that there might be problems. This is from Ken Mandelbaum in Theater Week. Can Busker Alley be improved enough to succeed in New York? Although the problem of getting the ever-present lampposts offstage has already been addressed, is there a way to make the central love story ignite? A way to make the always dapper tune believable as a lowly Cockney street entertainer?

A way to make the score sound less like a collection of music-hall ditties and more like a collection of character songs? A way to make the writers decide if their leading female character, played by the very able Darcy Roberts, is hateful or a sweetheart? Find out when the show begins previews at the St. James in October.

[31:47] Barry Weissler: July of 1995. Time to figure this out and the problem was twofold. The director and the book. What was it about Peter Stone that made him such a fantastic book writer? Peter was a great writer to begin with. He made very, very fine movies. Peter understood theater. He understood tempo. He understood language. Peter adapted Annie Get Your Gun for me with Bernadette Peters. Peter stepped in and literally saved my one and only. He just had that knack of knowing stage literature and what would work and what would build a character and the relationships between them. Now I know there's a genius. It's like, what's his name? Oh, Larry. Oh, God, what a good guy. What a nice guy. Okay. How does, from a producing perspective, and it doesn't even necessarily have to be Busker Alley, how does this conversation go from a producer's point of view, which is I'm replacing a book writer.

I'm helping a book writer. I'm bringing in somebody else. Where do you begin that conversation? It doesn't matter where you begin. It's always difficult. It's always a motivating situation. You have to care about their feelings, their aspirations, the writer's state of mind, where he doesn't think you're right, that he's right. You convince. You cajole. You caress. You get it done. It's not easy. But the goal is the show. The goal is fixing that show. 100%. Do you know how many writers there were on Waitress? I had three. I had to remove three sets of writers to get to Jesse Nelson and Sarah Bareilles. The Weisslers convinced Tommy Tune, who was always a consultant, they said to take over the direction, sidelining Jeff Calhoun, who got to keep the credit.

Well, let's go back to my one and only, which is a much better example of Tommy. Tommy had a dream. He thought of how he would like to do the show, took it to Boston with Twiggy. Peter Sellers was the director at the time. Tommy and Peter conferred, I'm sure. They put the show up. I wasn't part of it at the time. I came in later. They put the show up. Tommy released all creative aspects to Peter because he wanted to concentrate on the stage work. And Peter was not the right director for that work. And as we all know, the show failed miserably in Boston. Then Mike Nichols jumped in. Michael Bennett jumped in. I mean, he had a slew of brilliant, Peter Stone, Tony Walton. They all came to his rescue.

And we did the show top to bottom in New York. Tommy did nothing but perform. He left it in their hands. And the rest is history. Paramount couldn't make it work financially. And they turned the show over to us. We made it work. But this obviously caused a rift in their friendship. Did you have to take over the reins of that show at some point from Jeff?

[35:33] Barry Weissler: Yeah, I did. I did. That was painful for me and for him. Because we should explain to the viewers that you and Jeff have been friends for a long, long time. It has been your assistant on many shows. I've known him since he was 16. I met him in stock. He was dancing in the chorus in stock. And we started trading tap steps. And then, you know, we just lasted. Our friendship and our professional relationship lasted. Are you guys still friends in the wake of all the trouble with Busker?

[36:01] Barry Weissler: No, it's sort of we've changed. Really?

[36:02] Barry Weissler: Yeah. It's hard. There are casualties that happen in this business because of feelings being hurt and intense love of the theater. And things happen. But I think that can be repaired. The book writer was Toon's go-to fixer from my one and only in Grand Hotel, the magnificent Peter Stone, who had to work alongside A.J. Crothers to get this work done. Stone wanted to do a few things. Focus on Charlie and Libby's relationship. Cut down the side characters. And can we stop mentioning consistently the upcoming war? The ending he had trouble with, which meant the show would end with Charlie going back to life on the streets alone and Libby regretting her success. It's not a great arc, but the show was better and the audiences were now loving it. They also gave the character a really beautiful number called Why the Tears?

[37:20] ♪ Musical number: "Why the Tears?" — performed by Tommy Tune ♪

[38:00] Barry Weissler: And speaking of tears, I'm imagining there was a lot of them shed as Busker Alley was on the road. One of the interesting things about doing this podcast is, you know, seeking out people who will discuss these things with you. And I'm not surprised. For Busker Alley, most of the individuals did not really want to relive this. So the New York Public Library became a fantastic resource for me. And if you go down there, Peter Stone has all of his papers down there. And in the Busker Alley file, I found a letter dated July 21st, 1995, that A.J. Crothers sent Peter Stone saying pretty much, hey, this is where we're at and let's see how we can make this relationship work. Here are selections from that letter.

[39:43] Barry Weissler: July 21st, 1995. Dear Peter, in an effort to create the best possible rapport between us, I would like to share some of my thoughts on Buskers. A playwright friend warned me I would reach a point out of town where I wouldn't be sure what to fight for. Indeed, I did get to that point and I regret some things I was persuaded to do. I found myself dealing with the reality of the day. I am still nostalgic for the workshop in which the story was told simply and sincerely and dependably moved people to tears without direction. Repeated comments suggest many in the company feel the same way. The Charlie Baxter of the workshop was a gentle, loving man for whom busking had been a joy and a refuge since he was a kid.

A caretaker, he carried the act after his mother died and his father hit the bottle. An innocent of sorts in that his world had been very small and his experience limited. He was a charming eccentric, awkward with women, generous and open-hearted. I was asked to add the idea that he was, in fact, a virgin and I went for it. At least to the extent of having Arthur say to Libby, I don't know if Charlie's ever been with anyone. She was touched by that and gave herself to Charlie the night of his birthday. Tommy played the innocent with considerable charm and we were moved. The moment in which Libby said to Charlie, it's all right, you're invited, had people reaching for Kleenex. It never worked as well with Darcy as it did with Melissa Errico.

When in Louisville, a critic questioned the idea of Tommy playing a middle-aged virgin, people started to worry. If I had known then what I know now, I would have insisted on cutting that one line from Arthur and leaving Charlie's sexual history out of the show. I don't know how many women Professor Higgins has slept with before Eliza enters his life and I don't care. Instead, I gave in to the idea of Charlie nursing a broken heart from a love lost long ago. Originally, that was Arthur's backstory, but we had just taken it away from him along with the song Waiting for Anne. So it was just switched over to Charlie. It was a mistake, a downer for one thing.

[41:18] Robert W. Schneider: And it led Tommy into a new persona. No longer an innocent, he began to act very macho.

[41:26] Robert W. Schneider: The gentle, charming Charlie has never returned, except in rare moments.

[41:34] Robert W. Schneider: Because of the suras, a new phenomenon emerged in which the critic became the gossip columnist.

[41:39] Robert W. Schneider: Robert Feldberg, who was the first-string drama critic for North Jersey Media Group, in a season preview, said,

[42:13] Robert W. Schneider: Jeff Calhoun. But since everything from Toon's minimal chemistry with leading lady Darcy Roberts to the songs by Richard and Robert Sherman have been raked over the coals, it would seem that only divine intervention can keep Busker Alley from bombing.

[42:32] Robert W. Schneider: And this really got the ire of a lot of individuals because they said, why is the drama critic reporting on gossip and he's not allowing himself or the audience to perceive this show as its own entity? That was pretty controversial, but something I think we're going to see much later on in criticism, so possibly Busker Alley is the first to kick this one off. Then they go off to Tampa. Tampa, Florida. Its final city was Tampa, and the reviews there said it was not to be missed. And then Toon missed something. The floor. He fell off one of those lampposts and broke his foot. The doctor, who was probably so excited he was treating someone under the age of 80 in Florida, said to him, this is a pretty bad break.

This is going to be a very, very unique week because, believe it or not, Tommy, who is actually the greatest living showman in the business today, Tommy Toon, Tommy Toon, our star, is doing something which is I don't think another star would do. He actually last Sunday night in the last part of the performance broke a bone in his foot, and we didn't even know it was broken that night, but we found out it was. He's in a cast, and he is going on doing the show with the help of our choreographer director, Jeff Calhoun, and David Warren Gibson, his understudy. They're both fulfilling in the dancing parts of the show, and he does all the acting and the singing and all the fun that he does with his part, and it's an incredible team spirit that's going on in our show.

It's like a miracle, a show business miracle, really. The audience last night was on their feet screaming. It was just wonderful, thrilling. And, you know, you can see that thing. Oh, the show must go on. I mean, that really is. And this is in reality. This is in life what actually happened. It's like a great football team, and a star quarterback breaks his leg, and, you know, and the team just closes in around him and makes the show happen, and we just had the touchdown. It was great.

[44:31] Robert W. Schneider: What to do? What to do? Some even said Tommy was faking it. In 1995, columnist Liz Smith had to come to Tommy's defense in her column. Stories abound that Tommy didn't really break his right foot. Gossips say he's really A, desperately ill, B, cracking up emotionally, or C, about to abscond with the British crown jewels. Well, I know for a fact that my old friend Tommy is out on Fire Island recovering from the horrid thing that happened to him on stage in front of an SRO audience down in Tampa two weeks ago. His Broadway-bound musical, Busker Alley, was about one minute from closing curtain. Tommy took a final leap off the lamppost and, crack, it happened. He recovered his aplomb and finished the show, but producer Fran Weisler was in the audience, and she realized instantly that he was hurt.

For the rest of the run, Calhoun would come on stage with Tommy Toon's x-ray and say, welcome to ER, the musical. This is Jeff Calhoun. Just quickly tell you that Sunday evening's performance, with one minute left to go in the show, on this very pole, doing this step where he kicks and he goes around and he kicks again, this foot went under him and he broke his fifth metatarsal. So, welcome to ER, the musical. The doctor said the best thing for him to do to speed the recovery is to just stay off it for a while. Well, he had another week to perform here in Tampa, and he wasn't going to have that, and I can say I've known Tommy for 18 years. He's a remarkable man, and what he said instead was to please put a walking cast on my foot, and I will figure out how to be there and do that week, and the way he decided to do that was to split up all the choreographic responsibilities, and that's kind of why I'm here to help explain that to you. I will be doing the tap dancing for Tommy this evening.

[46:26] Jeff Calhoun: I hope you feel that way afterwards. Which, you know, this happened on Sunday night, so one day I called my mother and she put my shoes in a thing and she federal expressed them here, and I had them Tuesday, and that's what we would do. Now I want you, so you're not further confused, I want you to meet another gentleman that takes care of the other choreographic responsibilities than our tap dancing, and please help me welcome David Warren Gibson.

[46:56] Jeff Calhoun: All you have to remember is when David comes out, and he's going to come out at very strange times during the show, you're supposed to go, oh, that's Tommy too, and when I come out at equally strange moments, you're to think the same thing, so don't be disappointed. Just think you're getting three Charlies for the price of one. Enjoy the show. Thank you all very much.

[47:19] Robert W. Schneider: And Tommy's closing speech. Are there any questions? Once again, David Warren Gibson and Jeff Palahniuk. Thank you all.

[47:37] Robert W. Schneider: I think you did a great cast.

[47:44] Robert W. Schneider: Oh, and she's a champ. She ended up with, instead of a leading man, she played with Sybil. Thank you so much for being here. I know most of you knew about what happened, and I think you're brave and wonderful to come, and I love that you trusted us enough to know that we would put on the show for you. I love that, and I hope that next time I see you, under these circumstances, I'll be dancing again. And Toon would act and sing on crutches with a chartreuse cast, which I'm kind of obsessed with, and then Jeff Calhoun or David Warren Gibson would dance for Toon, then all three would bow together at the end. Calhoun's mom even FedExed his tap shoes to Florida. Thank you, Mom. Way to go.

[48:23] Robert W. Schneider: And by mid-October, while the Weisslers thought of getting a replacement until Tommy Toon healed and delaying previews by, you know, 10 days or so, Michael Riedel got into the act, calling it Busted Alley. This is a column from Michael Riedel. Unable to find a replacement for ailing star Tommy Toon, the producers of Busker Alley, a musical that was to open on Broadway next month, are expected to postpone the show until March, production sources said yesterday. The all-but-certain postponement appears to be the final act in a backstage drama that began to unfold 10 days ago when Toon, the musical's director and star, broke his left foot during a performance in Tampa, Florida. It was another blow to a show dogged by bad reviews and disappointing advance ticket sales on the way to Broadway.

Desperate to salvage the $6 million production, producers Fran and Barry Weissler last week scrambled to find a famous song and dance band to take over for Toon. They came close to signing up Gregory Hines, but backed off after Hines informed them he could only commit for six weeks, and Hines reportedly did not want to work weekends. The Weisslers also approached Jim Dale, but the actor, who won a Tony Award for Barnum in 1980, is locked into performing Oliver in London for the next several months. Another possible replacement, Robert Lindsay, who won a Tony in 1987 for Me and My Girl, has a film commitment. Barry Weissler was not available for comment yesterday. Sources said he was negotiating with his insurance company, which could provide some money to help him cover his losses.

Toon, meanwhile, was told by his doctor on Tuesday that his foot will probably be in a cast for six weeks, sources said yesterday. While he's recuperating, he will probably be working on his next project, a musical about the sinking of the Titanic. The first New York City performances was less than three weeks away. What are you going to do? Postpone until his foot heals? When would that even be? At least four months? Get a replacement? Who could replace Tommy Toon? Cancel and seek reimbursement from insurance? Pull a two-by-two? You know, keep him on stage the entire time like they did with Danny Kaye? Money was getting tight. You know, royalty, concessions, salary cuts were discussed. And so finally, enter Frank Rich, former drama critic of the New York Times, who came down and said, quote, bringing the show in with an injured Toon was not good.

What is that conversation like? Who initiates that conversation? What's the feeling like? It's devastating. It's awful. He already spent 10 million dollars. I mean, you know, it's not just the money. You know, we don't do it for money. The money, we do it to satisfy our own inner muse. That's what theater should be about. It shouldn't be about how much money can we make. If you do it right, you make money. You do it wrong, you don't. What we do is so hard. It is so arduous to create a theater piece and put it on stage. Remember, it's live. It's not a film. The easiest job I've ever had in my life is marketing. I keep thinking, oh, my God, should I change this or that on Waitress, the film? And then I keep saying to myself, forget it.

It's done. I don't have to worry about that. I don't have to worry about eight times a week or someone getting covid or having a cold or being angry. It's finished. All I have to worry about is marketing. So in Tampa, October 15th, 1995, the Weisslers closed the show. The St. James took down all the yellow paint for the November 15th opening, and Nathan Lane moved in with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. And Buskers was not going to be in the 1995-96 Broadway season, which is a shame because it would have offered a real anomaly in that season. Bring into Noise, Rent, Victor Victoria, those shows would have had a nice contrast with something like Busker Alley. Years later, a few years later, Tommy Toon sat down with Michael Riedel to look back on the process of Busker Alley.

I love the music in Busker Alley. Let me be very clear. That was a wonderful score. Our problem with Busker Alley was the book. It was not a story that anybody wanted to see. They just didn't were not interested in that story. And so we were we had moved it around. So it was something that people could pull for someone. And Busker Alley returned a few times, once in L.A. directed by Darcy Roberts and once at the York with Jim Dale and Glenn Close, directed by Tony Walton, for one night only. And that spawned something. Busker Alley had been announced for a Broadway production in the 2008-2009 season with Tony Walton as a director and designer and Jim Dale, who they were looking for originally, to star in it.

In December 2008, the producers announced that the musical would be delayed. And on August 25, 2009, the producers announced a collective withdrawal. They returned money to their investors and released the sponsors for their obligations. I wondered to Barry Weissler if Busker Alley was a show that could possibly return at some point. No, I think it's time has passed. It belongs to a different era in theater. Why is that? And what area is that? Well, it was you'd think of it as a neutral musical comedy today. And frankly, Broadway is just too expensive for something neutral. You got to be over that mark. It's got to be revolutionary. It's got to be special. If it's a crowd pleaser, it has to have all the form that makes people from Connecticut and Pennsylvania and New Jersey travel into the city to see something that they believe will be exciting. And then you better make it exciting. Busker Alley is a feel good, old fashioned musical comedy. It is benign, charming and with a delicious score. I just wouldn't use any lampposts.