Well, theres a reason you havent heard ofSenator Joe.
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But what about the flops that barely even make akerplunkbefore sinking without a trace?
The show began its life, as most musicals do, with dreams of glory.
It came to its unlikely end with the arrest of a career criminal in a Manhattan phone booth.
Well get to the crook in a moment, but first lets meet the storys good guy.
OHorgan (19242009) was a complicated and fascinating figure.
(That was beforeSenator Joe.)
I worked on it for years, Kroeger says.
The theater is an emotional orgasm.
The townhouse would be repossessed, and the marriage would fall apart.
In 1979, as bilked creditors sought almost $13 million from her, she declared bankruptcy.
They just couldnt find a house that was open, Kroeger says.
And Ill never forget the day.
We had been working on this show for a long time.
And my first thought was,Well, thats the end of it, right here.
This is not a Broadway show.
Kroeger was right to worry.
For the very few people who saw the show, he says, thats the scene they remember.
(Note: I am one of the very few people who saw the show.
Its the scene I remember.)
The money was enough to fund the shows development.
Sets hadnt been built, and designers hadnt been paid.
Nevertheless, Holzer was hell-bent on bringing the show to Broadway.
She booked it into the Virginia Theatre [now the August Wilson Theatre], says Kroeger.
So for a little while we had our signs up at two theaters at once.
That was not the case withSenator Joe.
Tom wasnt really doing for the show what I felt needed to be done, says Kroeger.
The first preview took place on a Friday night.
That, however, is not unusual for a first preview.
Theyd had one of her potential investors wear a wire and arrested her for grand larceny.
Tom and I took a bus out to Rikers Island to visit her, says Kroeger.
But for some reason, they were turning away all visitors that day.
And that money was going into the show I wrote.
I never saw her again.
She was convicted and went back to prison, this time from 1990 to 1994.
He comes to Tom and says, We can do this in Moscow.
In 2001, at 78, she was sentenced to nine years in the penitentiary.
OHorgan, who never directed on Broadway again, died in 2009.
Hes not defensive about the show; he even holds something of a soft spot for it.
And yes, itwasa disaster, he says.
But there will always be this feeling in my heart of, you know, nobody really understands.
