Twyla Tharp’s revamp of Movin' Out was widely acknowledged to be the most rapid and total transformation of a Broadway show in many years. Michael Phillips, the Chicago Tribune reviewer whose stern review had been so controversially picked up by Newsday, also applauded, but added a question whose answer should interest us all: "How did this happen?"
Part of the answer lies is the very institution of the out-of-town tryout, the show business equivalent of the corporate “skunk works” idea: creating a space to experiment in which failures can be instructive and recoverable. As Tharp writes in her book The Creative Habit, “The best failures are the private ones you commit in the confines of your room, alone, with no strangers watching. Private failures are great.” Quite so: you can learn from them without embarrassing yourself. But the next-best kind is in front of a limited audience. If your new show is going to fail, better that it does so away from Broadway, giving you a shot at recovering before it hits the big stage.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Before Succeeding, You Have To Fully Confront Failure. But How? | Co. Design
Author:Tim Harford
