Ring The Bell!

My Favorite Flop

It's time for "a seventeen gun salute" as hosts Bobby and Kristina discuss 1953's Carnival In Flanders on the act one finale of My Favorite Flop.

ABOUT CARNIVAL IN FLANDERS

Based on the 1934 French comedy film La Kermesse Héroïque, Carnival In Flanders is set in 1616 in the small Flemish village of Flackenburg, where a Spanish duke and his entourage descend upon the community while the mayor plays dead, hoping that his ruse will force the visitors to depart. The musical features a book by Preston Sturges, music by Jimmy Van Heusen, and lyrics by Johnny Burke.

The road to Broadway for Carnival In Flanders was a troubled one. The film that the musical was based on was, and still is, considered one of the finest films every made and is ripe for musical adaptation. Initially, Harold Arlen was to have written the score, but the task ultimately fell to Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke instead, their only other theatrical credit being another Broadway flop. Famed singer and actor Bing Crosby believed in the pair, as they had already written many hits for him, and ended up financing much of the eventual production. The show went through a series of book writers, directors, and choreographers before it finally made it to The Great White Way.

The Broadway production was universally panned, with raves only for its female star, Dolores Gray, and lead dancer Matt Mattox. Despite everything, Gray was nominated and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for having only played 5 of the 6 performances the show ran on Broadway - the shortest-lived Tony-winning performance to date.

Original Broadway Cast

• Dolores Gray as Cornelia
• John Raitt as The Duke
• Roy Robers as Mayer
• Jimmy Alex as 3rd Officer
  
• Jean Bradley as Lisa
• Lorna Del Maestro as Mourning Woman
• Sandra Devlin as Mourning Woman
• Julie Marlowe as Mourning Woman
• Undine Forrest as Katherine
• Lee Goodman as Innkeeper
• Paul Lipson as Butcher
• George Martin as 2nd Officer
• Ray Mason as 1st Officer
• Matt Mattox as Courier
• William Noble as Orderly
• Paul Reed as Tailer
• Kevin Scott as Jan Breughel
• Pat Stanley as Siska
• Wesley Swails as 1st Citizen
• Bobby Vail as Barber
• Norman Weise as 2nd Citizen
• Lee Barry, Fred Bryan, Bill Conlon, Jean Cowles, Stokeley Gray, Dolores Kempner, Mara Landi, Mary Stanton, Dick Stewart, and Gloria Van Dorpe as Singer
• John Aristides, Harry Day, Pat Ferrier, Ronnie Field, Skeet Guenther, Patty Karkalits, Mary Alice Kubes, Greg O'Brien, Paul Olson, Richard Reed, Billie Shane, Michael Spaeth, Emy St. Just, and Elfrieda Zieger as Dancer