Success Doesn't Smell So Sweet???

There was talk that NT artistic-director-designate Nicholas Hytner's new musical The Sweet Smell of Success may follow him back to London, but that prospect is looking less likely now that it has opened on Broadway to disappointing reviews. The stage show, which stars John Lithgow, is based on the 1957 Hollywood cult classic about a morally bankrupt showbiz columnist, played by Burt Lancaster. The musical adaptation boasts an impressive creative team which, in addition to Hytner (whose other musical credits include the National's landmark Carousel), includes book writer John Guare (Six Degrees of Separation), composer Marvin Hamlisch and designer Bob Crowley. Following a "lacklustre" try-out in Chicago, the musical was substantially rewritten for Broadway but apparently without much success. When it opened last week (14 March) at New York's Martin Beck Theater, New York Times critic Ben Brantley lamented that "despite the vastness of the talents that have gone into creating this nocturnal landscape, you're likely to find yourself counting the moments until dawn."

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