The latest trend in New York theater: reviving the biggest flops of all time.
As The Post reported, producers Kevin McCollum (“White Christmas” — ick!) and Jeffrey Seller are resurrecting “Carrie.”
A workshop of that infamous fiasco, about a teenage girl with telekinetic powers, will be held the first week of December. Sutton Foster, who, having been imprisoned in “Shrek” for a year, knows her way around a flop, will play the title role.
And while she hasn’t been to a prom in quite a few years, I’d say, she should bring some intensity to the role.
It’s good to hear she’s attempting a part that will require her to be something other than relentlessly spunky and cute.
The other famous flop that’s coming back is Paul Simon‘s “The Capeman,” which lost $11 million on Broadway in 1998 and earned Simon the nickname “The Flopman.”
Sources say 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.
Eustis, sources say, wants to do a concert version of the show. The book — by Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott — will pretty much be eliminated, which is a good thing 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, I’m told, just might perform in the Public Theater version as well.
“The Capeman” tells the story of Salvador Agron, a 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.
Maybe this trend of producing old flops will inspire the Roundabout, a regular “house of hits” these days, to follow up its revival of “Bye Bye Birdie” with “Bring Back Birdie,” which ran four whole performances in 1981.
Those two fantastic singers, John Stamos and Gina Gershon, could reprise their roles as Albert and Rose in the sequel, which will of course be directed by the great Robert Longbottom.
Tonys all around!
CORRECTIONS:
* I wrote that “Oleanna,” which is closing in January, will lose $2 million. In fact, the cost of the production was $1.7 million. And a spokesman says that while the show won’t recoup, the producers expect to return “some money” to the investors.
It’s a hit!
* Many readers pointed out that last week I mistakenly gave a Tony to Elaine Stritch for “Company” in 1971. In fact, Helen Gallagher won that year for “No, No, Nanette.” Stritch won her only Tony for her one-woman show “At Liberty.”
As Elaine might say, “Get a f – – – in’ fact-checker, kid!”