But Mary Tyler Moore as Holly Golightly seemed like such a swell idea back in ’66.

Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlin on Broadway
Playbill hero shot: Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlin on Broadway
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the broadway poster.

Despite having a book by playwright Edward Albee (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Finding the Sun), a score composed by Bob Merrill (People, Don’t Rain on My Parade), and a host of theatrical bluebloods with bold-face names behind the scenes, Breakfast at Tiffany’s—the musical—never actually opened on Broadway.

Originally titled Holly Golightly, the production closed after just four previews. The cast was directed by Joseph Anthony (The Rainmaker, The Best Man) and included Mary Tyler Moore (Dick Van Dyke Show, Ordinary People, Thoroughly Modern Millie), Richard Chamberlain (Shōgun, Thorn Birds), Sally Kellerman (MASH, Enemy of the People), Larry Kert (West Side Story, Company), and Priscilla Lopez (Chorus Line, In the Heights). It was designed by Oliver Smith (Hello, Dolly! My Fair Lady), choreographed by Michael Kidd (Guys and Dolls, Can-Can) with assistance from Tony Mordente, and produced by David Merrick (Gypsy, Promises Promises).

How could a production with so much talent behind it go so wrong? We may never fully know. (It also could be that the show simply turned out to be a dog.)

Merrick closed the show in previews because—being unusually forthcoming—he said, “We’re closing rather than subject the drama critics and the public to an excruciatingly boring evening.”

One of the original posters, printed prior to the show’s scheduled opening—with the word “SMASH!” covered in yellow tape—hangs on “The Flop Wall” at my favorite theatre district eatery, Joe Allen Restaurant in New York 10019.

Restauranteur, the late Joe Allen, and the Wall of Shame.

By Stephen Brockelman

As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services. _____________________________________________ A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back. In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.

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