Shows · The Conquering Hero
The Conquering Hero had a chaotic tryout which inspired Gelbart’s oft-quoted quip, “If Hitler is alive, I hope he’s out of town with a musical.” When the show received negative reviews in its second tryout town, producer Robert Whitehead fired the show’s director–choreographer, Bob Fosse, who had directed only one previous musical (Redhead, a hit).
- Opened
- 1961
- Performances
- 8
- Type
- Musical
- Era
- Golden Age
Productions1 on Broadway
| 1961 | ANTA Original. January 16, 1961 · Albert Marre | 8 performances |
Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.
Licensing not confirmed
| Rights | Not confirmed We have not been able to confirm the publisher. |
Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.
30 passages naming The Conquering Hero, found by keyword across 178 books. It's where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.
The Conquering Hero (Tom Poston), I Picked a Daisy (which had been set to star Robert Horton, and which years later with another composer and another leading man became On a Clear Day You Can See Forever ), and Mata Hari (Pernell Roberts). book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p829
Moose Charlap, composer of the hapless Whoop-Up (1958) and The Conquering Hero (1961). book:more-opening-nights-on-broadway-a-critical-quotebook-of-compiled-by-steven-suski#p530
Fosse himself had undergone a few bumpy years, with severe disappointments on his post-Redhead director/choreographer gigs: The Conquering Hero (1961), from which he was konked, and Frank Loesser’s costume operetta Pleasures and Palaces (1965), which died in Detroit. book:more-opening-nights-on-broadway-a-critical-quotebook-of-compiled-by-steven-suski#p920
Following the 1961 musical The Conquering Hero (from which he was fired), Fosse choreographed Frank Loesser’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961) and served as choreographer/codirector of Little Me (1962). book:more-opening-nights-on-broadway-a-critical-quotebook-of-compiled-by-steven-suski#p1094
Fosse’s next project was THE CONQUERING HERO? [January 16, 1961], from which he was fired, out of town; the show finally stumbled in with no director or choreographer credited. book:show-tunes-the-songs-shows-and-careers-of-broadway-s-suskin-steven-suskin-steven#p424
They also owned the album rights to three other musicals that starred (or were set to star) names from television (but these went unrecorded): The Conquering Hero (Tom Poston), I Picked a Daisy (which had been set to star Robert Horton, and which years later with another composer and another leading man became On a Cle… book:the-complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-dan-dietz-hardcover-2014-rowman-lit#p834
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