A Brief (And we mean Brief!) History
On February 22, 1983, the Eugene O’Neill Theater (230 West 49th St., New York, although considered a “Broadway” theater) was the scene of perhaps the biggest fiasco in the History of Broadway Plays, the opening and closing night of the Arthur Bicknell play, Moose Murders.
Digging Deeper
Not only did this miserable play only have the one night, its very name has become the archetype for lousy plays, those which open and close after only one show. Moose Murders is the low standard by which crumby plays are compared. Frank Rich, Broadway critic for The New York Times called it, “The worst play I’ve ever seen on a Broadway stage.” and also more colorfully referred to the play as, “The season’s most stupefying flop- a show so preposterous that it made minor celebrities out of everyone who witnessed it, whether from onstage or in the audience.” (For more exceptionally funny reviews and comments, see the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_Murders.)
Considered a “mystery farce,” the plot centers on the Holloway family that buys the “Wild Moose Lodge” in the mountains where they go for a small vacation. The family and several other people find themselves trapped by a storm, and they seek to pass their time by playing a murder mystery game. The idiot screenplay includes a Holloway son attempting to engage his mother in incest, murders, and a “mummified paraplegic” kicks a man in the crotch. Oh, the man that was kicked was wearing a Moose costume!
In spite of, or perhaps because of, the notoriety of this horrible play, several revivals have taken place, as well as bringing attention to Bicknell’s other plays. Question for students (and subscribers): What is the worst live play you have ever seen? (Has anybody seen Moose Murders?) Please give us your nominations for plays that rival Moose Murders for being terrible in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Bicknell, Arthur. Moose Murders. Samuel French, Inc., 2010.
