Bring Back Birdie

Or just revive him.

Bye Bye Birdie made a lot of money and folks were convinced that a sequel would do the same. Enough time had passed that there was a new generation of pop music to satirize but the show seemed content to simply repeat jokes and plot points from the original. Rose still wants to settle down, Albert still wants to be in showbiz, Mrs. Petersen's racism is still supposedly hilarious, and the new generation of kids are as crazy-mixed-up as the old.

They were awfully luck to have Chita Rivera reprise her role as Rose but she couldn't stop Bring Back Birdie from closing after 4 performances.

Read Frank Rich's review here. "If the first ''Birdie'' was invigorating, the new one is depressing right up until that curtain call...as if everyone involved had abandoned hope."

You'd think that would scare Charles Strouse off of sequels...