A famous musical flop is returning to Broadway. Paul Simon’s The Capeman, which lost $11 million on Broadway in 1998 and earned Simon the nickname “The Flopman,” is being consider for next years’s Public Theater season, the New York Post reports. Oskar Eustis, the head of the Public Theater, is in talks with Simon about bringing the show back next year. “Oskar loves ‘The Capeman,’ ” a Public Theater spokesperson says. “He loves the music and the story. He has met with Paul Simon, but there are not concrete plans at this time.”
Well, they may not be “concrete,” but there are plans, according to the gossipy Post.
Eustis, sources say, wants to do a concert version of the show. The book—by Nobel Prize winning Derek Walcott—will be pretty much eliminated, which is a good thing, sources say, “because it’s dreadful.” But Walcott’s lyrics — and Simon’s tunes — are haunting. “Born in Puerto Rico,” “Satin Summer Nights” and the gorgeous “Time Is an Ocean” are first-rate songs that got lost in the mess that wound up on Broadway.
“The Capeman” was never recorded, but Simon made a studio album, “Songs From the Capeman,” the year before the show opened that’s well worth hunting down.
Simon performed songs from “The Capeman” at BAM last year, which is where Eustis got the idea of bringing back the show. Simon, the Post reports, might perform in the Public Theater version as well.
“The Capeman” tells the story of Salvador Agrón, a Puerto Rican gang member who murdered two teenagers in Hell’s Kitchen in 1959.
The original production starred Ruben Blades as old Salvador and Marc Anthony as young Salvador.
If Eustis can get Anthony to play old Salvador in the Public’s concert version — and if Simon’s in it, too — you’re looking at a hot ticket.
Read more at http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/flop_secret_LnXWmOJrTf39LB0gbRTTSO#ixzz0XdaRPxJ6
