129:, who played five roles over the course of the evening: a scheming Hollywood producer, a lecherous garbage-disposal magnate, an enfeebled millionaire, a fame-hungry judge, and a female editor of erotica. Perelman did "at least" 10 rewrites of the script before a heavily altered version of the play opened on Broadway on December 26, 1962 at the
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humor pieces, Perelman began developing a similar project for the stage. The show consisted of satirical sketches loosely themed around what
Perelman saw as "the widespread yearning for creativity" among untalented members of the American public; he pointed to an incident wherein an elevator operator
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for their performances. In subsequent years, the play's commercial failure has been attributed to high production costs, mismanagement, and the fact that
Perelman's dialogue, "steeped in syntactical invention and idiomatic
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and fliers distributed in cigar stores, but his efforts were unsuccessful and the show closed on March 9, 1963 after 85 performances. Lahr and
Ghostley were both nominated for
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observed that "few flops have been as celebrated, mulled over and positively entitled to cult status as
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and met with him in the summer of 1963 to discuss the project, but the film was never made.
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Oliver, Edith (November 11, 1974). "Off
Broadway: Return of a Winner".
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After the success of "Malice in
Wonderland," a 1959 episode of the
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315:"Perelman Aims a Shotgun at Society's Varied Foibles,"
283:"At Yale Repertory, S.J. Perelman's 'Beauty Part,'"
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125:in New Hope, Pennsylvania. The production starred
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202:in Lahr's five roles, and a 1992 revival at the
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107:television series based on S. J. Perelman's
153:1962-1963 New York City newspaper strike
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352:Internet Broadway Database
263:Notes on a Cowardly Lion.
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117:In the summer of 1961,
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183:Perelman hoped that
232:Herrmann, Dorothy.
318:The New York Times
313:Hampton, Wilborn.
286:The New York Times
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151:opened during the
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131:Music Box Theatre
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110:New Yorker
87:stage play
85:is a 1962
41:1962-12-26
24:Written by
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206:featured
127:Bert Lahr
350:at the
194:A 1974
170:Yiddish
104:Omnibus
64:English
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73:Comedy
69:Genre
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