The Abominable Showman was born 100 years ago today in St. Louis.
David Merrick would rise to become a prolific and powerful producer on Broadway. His PR ploys were legendary. Once, when a show had received less than stellar reviews, he found people with the same names as critics and ran their raves of Subways Are for Sleeping. To his credit, he ran the photos of the people. In addition to his temper and tantrums, he was also known for being oft-married: Lenore Beck, Jeanne Gibson, Etan Aronson, Karen Prunczik, Aronson again and Natalie Lloyd.
But for his faults and foibles, he was a master showman. From 1942’s The Willow and I up to 1996’s State Fair, his career spanned six decades and nearly 100 productions. The 1960s were his most prolific and successful decade. Within one week in 1960, he had three shows open: Irma La Douce, A Taste of Honey and Becket.
From 1958 to 1973, Merrick received at least one Tony nomination each year. In total he was nominated 38 times. He won Tonys for producing Becket; Luther; Hello, Dolly!; Marat/Sade; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Travesties and 42nd Street. He also received two Producer Tonys (when those were separated from Best Play and Musical in the 1960s) and two Special Tonys.
Here is an alphabetical list of the titles he produced on Broadway: Arturo Ui; The Astrakhan Coat; Becket; Breakfast at Tiffany’s; Bright Boy; Cactus Flower; Carnival!; Child’s Play; Clutterbuck; Destry Rides Again; Do Re Mi; Don’t Drink the Water; Dreyfus in Rehearsal; The Entertainer; Epitaph for George Dillon; Fanny; Forty Carats; 42nd Street; Four on a Garden; Foxy; The Good Soup; Gypsy; The Happy Time; Hello, Dolly!; How Now, Dow Jones; I Can Get It for You Wholesale; I Do! I Do!; I Was Dancing; I Won’t Dance; Inadmissible Evidence; Irma La Douce; Jamaica; Jeb; Keep It in the Family; Look Back in Anger; and Loot.
More Merrick shows were: The Loves of Cass McGuire; Luther; Mack & Mabel; Maria Golovin; The Matchmaker; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore; The Misanthrope; Moonchildren; Oh What a Lovely War; Oh, Kay!; Oliver!; One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest; 110 in the Shade; Out Cry; A Patriot for Me; The Penny Wars; The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade; Philadelphia, Here I Come!; The Philanthropist; Pickwick; and Play It Again, Sam.
Even more Merrick shows include: La Plume de Ma Tante; Private Lives; Promises, Promises; Rattle of a Simple Man; The Rehearsal; The Roar of the Greasepaint (The Smell of the Crowd); Rockefeller and the Red Indians; Romanoff and Juliet; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Ross; The Seven Descents of Myrtle; A Severed Head; State Fair; Stop the World – I Want to Get Off; Subways Are for Sleeping; Sugar; Sunday in New York; Take Me Along A Taste of Honey; Tchin-Tchin; There’s One in Every Marriage; Travesties; Very Good Eddie; Vintage ’60; Vivat! Vivat Regina!; We Have Always Live in the Castle; The Willow and I; and The World of Suzie Wong.
