For every successful musical like “Fiddler on the Roof” or “Chicago,” there’s a flop like “Dude” or “Via Galactica” that barely saw the spotlight of day.

Not Your Mom’s Musical Theater is bringing highlights from these Broadway disasters back to the stage with “A Series of Unfortunate Entertainment.”

Each of the series’ five concerts features one year from a different decade in musical history. Performances for 1962 and 1972 were held this spring, and the concert for 1982 will be held at 7 p.m. Sunday, July 8, at St. Peter’s Church in Londonderry. Concerts for 1992 and 2002 are scheduled for later this year.

It’s important to remember that the “unfortunate” in the series title refers to the musicals’ lack of success, not to the quality of the songs being performed.

As Jamie Feinberg, artistic director of Not Your Mom’s Musical Theater and director of the concert series, is quick to point out, all of these musicals made it to Broadway, so they usually have some good songs.

“If you just judged the musical by the songs you hear, you might wonder why it didn’t do well,” she said.

For this reason, Feinberg has included the historical context and other pertinent information for each musical whose songs are featured in the concerts. This information is shared through interaction between the performers and the concert’s emcee.

“It’s entertaining. It’s not just a history lesson,” Feinberg said. “We have a lot of fun reading quotes from The New York Times’ reviews.”

She has endeavored to showcase a variety of material in each concert.

“Some songs will be really funny songs, some will be really moving songs,” Feinberg said. “We’re just trying to present the best songs from the shows, with an occasional exception.”

One of these “best” songs that went over big with the audience was “Physical Fitness” from the musical “All American,” performed at the 1962 concert.

Feinberg described it as a “beefcake number,” similar to the locker room scene in “Damn Yankees,” that basically gives the audience an opportunity to look at athletic men without their shirts on.

“We presented it even though our gentlemen are not the most physically fit,” she said. “They totally sold it. The audience went nuts. People are still talking about it.”

Exceptions to the rule of good songs included selections from “Dude and “Via Galactica” in the 1972 concert. Both were creations of the writers of the much more successful musical “Hair.”

“By all accounts, ‘Dude’ was just a huge, disorganized mess, and the music was laughably bad,” Feinberg said.

“?‘Via Galactica’ was a very strange show. It was set in the future,” she said, describing how trampolines were set into the stage to make people look like they were flying.

Each concert also features songs from successful musicals to help provide context for the audience. The 1982 concert will incorporate a few songs from “Nine” as well as a selection from “Dreamgirls.”

One of the highlights of the less-popular portion of the program will be a female duet from “Woman of the Year,” based on the 1942 movie of the same name starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.

Thus far, audience response to “A Series of Unfortunate Entertainment” has been far superior to what it was during these musicals’ original runs.

“The audiences have been really great. People keep coming back,” Feinberg said, noting that attendees appreciated the historical context for the musicals and suggested that they perform it at schools for educational purposes.

“Basically, this is my idea of the best concert series,” she said, explaining that she’s always been interested in lesser-known musical theater, and flops in particular. “I just lucked out that there are a lot of actors and audience members that are also interested in them.”

Teresa Santoski can be reached at 594-6466 or
tsantoski@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow Santoski on Twitter (@Telegraph_TS).