When Everything Misfires

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A musical mystery by Arthur Laurents, based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett andThe Thin Man films; music by Charles Strouse; lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr.

Directed by Arthur Laurents; choreography by Tina Paul

Cast included Barry Bostwick, Joanna Gleason, Christine Baranski, Faith Prince, Jeff Brooks, Debra Monk, Chris Sarandon, Michael Lombard, Yvette Lawrence, Remak Ramsay, Kip Niven, Thom Sesma

Tony Award nominations: Charles Strouse and Richard Maltby, Jr. (Best Score)

Opened 8 December 1991, Marquis Theatre, 9 performances

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Sometimes the road to Broadway can be fraught with myriad complications that seem to be an omen that a musical will misfire. Usually one or two big items refuse to work. Often the book is the first thing to be blamed; many times the director takes the heat. Once in a while there is an aborning musical that has everything go wrong. A show that had one of the more tumultuous journeys to an opening night on Broadway was the 1991 murder mysteryNick& Nora. This musical is such a colorful example of a major misfire that we devote an entire chapter to it, taking an intimate and detailed look at just how many things can blow apart for a musical that is Broadway bound. Plagued with infighting, changes in creative leadership and cast members, wild rumors leaking to the public, nosy journalists, a run-in with the City Consumer Affairs Office, and a story that refused to coalesce,Nick& Nora was one of those musicals where everything indeed went wrong. The musical was based on the characters of Nick and Nora Charles created by Dashiell Hammett for his 1934 detective novelThe Thin Man, and perfected in the subsequent 1934 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film of the same name starring Myrna Loy and William Powell. They were a quirky married couple. He was a detective from the wrong side of the tracks, she was an affluent society woman, and together they playfully traded barbs, sipped cocktails, and solved mysteries. The charms of these two characters, the basic premise of their relationship, and the possibilities of the crimes they could solve together should have resulted in a scintillating musical comedy. So why didn’t it?

WhenNick& Nora was early in its development, the producers secured renowned writer-director Arthur Laurents with playwright A.R. Gurney brought onboard to write the book. Gurney, a celebrated playwright for his sophisticated wit and his capturing of W.A.S.P. America in plays likeThe Dining Room andThe Cocktail Hour, seemed like an ideal fit for writing the banter between Nick and Nora Charles. For a time, he worked with Laurents to outline a plot, but Gurney felt Laurents (who had written the books for two of Broadway’s greatest musicals,West Side Story andGypsy), was aching to write the book himself and Gurney bowed-out of the project. This is likely whereNick& Nora took a turn for the worst. Director Laurents had little objectivity where book writer Laurents was concerned. As director, he struggled to see that the story only worked in fits and starts, refused to trim scenes that weren’t working, and often blamed the songwriting team of Charles Strouse (music) and Richard Maltby, Jr. (lyrics) for the problems. By 1991, Maltby and Strouse were already accomplished tunesmiths, Strous