nathalie_tl 's review for:

Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum

3.25

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often cited as one of The musical theatre non-fiction books, I can definitely see why. the sheer amount of information, and the absurd amount of research that must have been required to assemble it, is truly impressive. however, rather than an in-depth look at flops, it briefly chronicles and recounts a massive list of them. while i think this is valuable in many ways, it also makes it quite a slog to read. also, because such little time is dedicated to each show, it means that there's not enough material for you to get invested in the backstory of ones you're not familiar with, while also being disappointed by the lack of coverage of the ones you do know and want to hear more about. i think the book would function a lot better if it just chose fewer case studies and instead went into more depth on those.

that being said if an updated version were to release now i would ABSOLUTELY read it bc there have been so many iconic flops in the three decades since the book was written.