ABSTRACT
The saddest failure of Jerry Herman's career is Mack and Mabel. The show appeared to have all the right elements: box-office names Bernadette Peters and Robert Preston, genius director/choreographer Gower Champion, and ace librettist Michael Stewart. But it was another victim of its time, an era when rock musicals were preferred over traditional musical comedy scores. Deep at its core was a simple love story and an exceptionally appropriate score. The urge to turn what could have been a bittersweet musical drama into a huge musical comedy was fatal to Mack and Mabel.
