The original kept going with those various stars, but for much of the run, it wasn't doing especially well. It was a sold-out smash with Channing and then again with Bailey, at least for some months, pretty amazing for a show that had been running four years.
But a few weeks after Rogers took over, it stopped selling out. It did well enough while she remained in it, but plummeted with Martha Raye, improved a bit with Grable (though generally not much more than more or less breaking even), jumped back amazingly with Bailey, at least for a nice while, went way back down with Diller, than came up a bit with Merman. But even with Merman, it didn't come close to selling out. And for much of Merman's run, she played to rather sparse houses. Merrick had made a deal with Fox to let them release the movie in exchange for them helping to prop up the Broadway production. I've never been able to find the exact details of this deal, but it seems to have helped Merrick run it during that last year during a lot of weeks when it didn't break even. |
