The Star-Spangled Girl (despite Kerr's pan) was actually a hit (albeit a small one). It ran over 7 months (261 perfs) and recouped its investment. My recollection is that it got generally mixed to positive reviews.
Despite a couple of plays that flopped, The Goodbye Girl was the first time that critics really tore into Simon. They excoriated him for writing a book which was far inferior to his original screenplay. Peters and Short were quite good and had excellent chemistry. Hamlisch's score and Zipple's lyrics were mostly fine. The critics blamed Simon for the show's failure and he had trouble handling it. The movie was shot all over New York and really took advantage of its great locations-- the city itself was as much a character in the film as were Mason, Dreyfuss, and Cummings. There is no way to capture that element on a stage. In the film Simon depicted the city's seamy underbelly and the story's gay undertones honestly and with humor -- in the stage version he whitewashed them. |
