History VindicatedByHistory / Theatre

* Nowadays it's recognized as one of the all-time great operas, but Bizet's ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}'' famously opened to great indifference in 1875, with the promoter struggling even to ''give away'' tickets. Bizet died without seeing the success it would become.

* Creator/WilliamShakespeare was a popular and commercially successful playwright of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre at the time, and certainly a man of reasonable fame, however, in his day and age, Creator/ChristopherMarlowe, Ben Jonson (who ''did'' help in promoting the Bard with the First Folio Dedication), Thomas Middleton (exceptional writers all of them) were more famous and well-regarded as the pre-eminent playwright while Edmund Spenser and Philip Sidney would be considered the pre-eminent poet.

* This happened very quickly with Sophocles [[Theatre/OedipusTheKing Oedipus Rex]]. When it first played it won second place. Nowadays it's widely considered one of the best works of tragedy, not just in Greek drama but in all drama, while we don't even know the name of the play that beat it. Even at the time it was considered a defining piece of tragedy, with [[Creator/Aristotle Aristotle]] the following century writing glowingly of it as best fitting how drama should be made.

* Creator/{{Euripides}} suffered much the same fate in drama - he only won the yearly drama competition four times in his life (compared to Creator/{{Aeschylus}}'s 13 and Creator/{{Sophocles}}'s 20+) yet almost 20 of his plays survived to today (Aeschylus and Sophocles have seven each) and many of his plays are considered well ahead of their time socially, especially in terms of complexity of female characters. This would make him highly resonant among feminist authors. Interestingly, he was [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff much better received]] in the Sicilian colonies.

* Creator/{{Euripides}} suffered much the same fate in drama - he only won the yearly drama competition four times in his life (compared to Creator/{{Aeschylus}}'s 13 and Creator/{{Sophocles}}'s 20+) yet almost 20 of his plays survived to today (Aeschylus and Sophocles have seven each) and many of his plays are considered well ahead of their time socially, especially in terms of complexity of female characters. This would make him highly resonant among feminist authors.

* Creator/{{Aristophanes}} is arguably the best-remembered of the ancient Greek comedy writers. 11 of his plays have survived in full, compared to 6 partially-surviving works by Menander and fragments by several others. But there is no evidence that he was extraordinarily popular in his time. Like others writers of his time, his theatrical plays competed for awards in festivals, and he often lost. But the fact that medieval copyists chose to preserve his works is a testament to his continued appeal. Out of his surviving plays:

** ''The Wasps'' (422 BC), ''Peace'' (421 BC), and ''Theatre/TheBirds'' (414 BC) took second place. A testament to Aristophanes having harsh competition in the persons of Cratinus and Eupolis. The later two remained popular to Roman times, and Macrobius (5th century AD) even commented: "Everyone knows Eupolis". Unfortunately, the Medieval copyists chose to ignore these two authors for unknown reasons.

** Shakespeare always remained part of the English repertory (except for the period of the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar when theatres were closed), but it was only in the age of UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment that scholars, chiefly Creator/SamuelJohnson, started claiming him to be the greatest English writer. It was also in this time that Shakespeare became embraced in the Continent, especially by the Germans. Curiously , Shakespeare's greatest commercial success in his lifetime was Theatre/TitusAndronicus (now regarded as a weak play, though it has its cult), while ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' and ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' fared poorly when first introduced, with less than a half dozen 17th-century performances on record. ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' was also a bomb, yet today, it is second only to ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' as the most-performed work of Shakespeare.
** ''Theatre/TheTempest'', one of the Bard's later plays, also suffered from public disinterest. Its re-evaluation in the 19th century, and by post-colonialist critics in the 20th Century, it is now considered among the highest echelon of Shakespeare plays. Other Shakespeare plays, formerly considered minor works, like ''Troilus and Cressida'' (which became celebrated for its anti-war themes), and ''Coriolanus'' are now considered masterpieces (by the likes of Creator/BertoltBrecht, Creator/TSEliot and Harold Bloom).
* Creator/ChristopherMarlowe, formerly regarded as AlwaysSecondBest to Creator/WilliamShakespeare, also saw a radical reversal in reputation in the 20th Century. Authors such as Harold Bloom argue that Marlowe influenced Shakespeare. His plays became favorite among leftist writers and was popular in repertory (Creator/OrsonWelles staged ''Theatre/DoctorFaustus'', Creator/BertoltBrecht did ''Theatre/EdwardII''), while LGBT writers claimed Marlowe as a precursor. The fact that he was long rumored to be an atheist and, that the likes of Harold Bloom argue he died because of [[PersecutedIntellectuals political persecution and conspiracy]], lent him a great deal of "street cred" as a rebellious artist.

* Anton Chekhov's ''Theatre/TheSeagull'' is an interesting example. The premier of the play in St. Petersburg was a complete disaster with the audience almost universally booing to the point where actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya ended up losing her voice trying to project over the boos and Chekhov himself having to leave the audience to take refuge backstage, fearing for his life. The reception was so bad that, the next day, Chekhov would tell newspaper writer Aleksey Suvorin that he was quitting playwriting. Years later, the initial criticism died down and people began to appreciate it with Constantin Stanislavski's direction of it going over incredibly well in 1898. Today, it's now regarded as one of Chekhov's best plays.

* The musical ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' originally opened on Broadway in 1975 and, while not an outright flop [[note]]It ran for a total of 936 performances, a little over two years[[/note]], received mixed reviews and was overshadowed at the Tony Awards by the smash hit ''Theatre/AChorusLine''. The show seemed destined to be mostly forgotten until 1996, when City Center Encores! [[note]]an NYC theatre company dedicated to mounting concert versions of obscure musicals[[/note]] mounted a stripped-down version, which proved surprisingly popular and paved the way for a Broadway revival a short time later. The revival was an immediate hit and continues to run as of 2018 - currently second only to ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' for the longest-running show in Broadway history. (Ironically, it surpassed ''A Chorus Line''[='=]s original run in 2011.) Many critics have suggested that audiences in 1996 - weary of the then-recent O.J. Simpson trial - were more receptive to the musical’s cynical view of celebrity and the media than they were in TheSeventies. Indeed, one program described it as "Outrageous in the Twenties [when the original play debuted], controversial in the Seventies, and now reads like a documentary."
* Speaking of ''Phantom'', it and ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' also received mixed reviews when they opened in London and on Broadway. Needless to say, them being the longest running musicals of each venue has eclipsed any negative press.

* Stephen Sondheim's works, while hits with the Tony Awards, tended to draw criticism from critics and audiences alike as being chilly and emotionally remote with un-hummable tunes. In time, his works have gone on to become staples in American Theatre communities of all levels.

* The musical ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' originally opened on Broadway in 1975 and, while not an outright flop [[note]]It ran for a total of 936 performances, a little over two years[[/note]], received mixed reviews and was overshadowed at the Tony Awards by the smash hit ''Theatre/AChorusLine''. The show seemed destined to be mostly forgotten until 1996, when City Center Encores! [[note]]an NYC theatre company dedicated to mounting concert versions of obscure musicals[[/note]] mounted a stripped-down version, which proved surprisingly popular and paved the way for a Broadway revival a short time later. The revival was an immediate hit and continues to run as of 2018 - currently second only to ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' for the longest-running show in Broadway history. (Ironically, it surpassed ''A Chorus Line''[='=]s original run in 2011.) Many critics have suggested that audiences in 1996 - weary of the then-recent O.J. Simpson trial - were more receptive to the musical’s cynical view of celebrity and the media than they were in TheSeventies.

* The musical ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' originally opened on Broadway in 1975 and, while not an outright flop [[note]]It ran for a total of 936 performances, a little over two years[[/note]], received mixed reviews and was overshadowed at the Tony Awards by the smash hit ''Theatre/AChorusLine''. The show seemed destined to be mostly forgotten until 1996, when City Center Encores! [[note]]an NYC theatre company dedicated to mounting concert versions of obscure musicals[[/note]] mounted a stripped-down version, which proved surprisingly popular and paved the way for a Broadway revival a short time later. The revival was an immediate hit and continues to run as of 2015 - currently second only to ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' for the longest-running show in Broadway history. (Ironically, it surpassed ''A Chorus Line''[='=]s original run in 2011.) Many critics have suggested that audiences in 1996 - weary of the then-recent O.J. Simpson trial - were more receptive to the musical’s cynical view of celebrity and the media than they were in TheSeventies.

* Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}'' was initially considered a failure when put on in 1887. This verdict is somewhat harsh, since it was run directly following ''Theatre/TheMikado''. It did actually enjoy a bit of success later on in the run, but it wasn't put in the regular Gilbert and Sullivan canon until the 1920s where it has remained ever since.

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* Sarah Kane's first play, 'Blasted', was victim to many a negative critic for its use of violence. It wasn't until her suicide and posthumous performance of her last play '4.48 Psychosis' that many of these critics withdrew their complaints.

* The musical ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' originally opened on Broadway in 1975 and, while not an outright flop [[note]]It ran for a total of 936 performances, a little over two years[[/note]], received mixed reviews and was overshadowed at the Tony Awards by the smash hit ''Theatre/AChorusLine''. The show seemed destined to be mostly forgotten until 1996, when City Center Encores! [[note]]an NYC theatre company dedicated to mounting concert versions of obscure musicals[[/note]] mounted a stripped-down version, which proved surprisingly popular and paved the way for a Broadway revival a short time later. The revival was an immediate hit and continues to run as of 2015—currently second only to ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' for the longest-running show in Broadway history. (Ironically, it surpassed ''A Chorus Line''[='=]s original run in 2011.) Many critics have suggested that audiences in 1996—weary of the then-recent O.J. Simpson trial—were more receptive to the musical’s cynical view of celebrity and the media than they were in TheSeventies.

** Shakespeare always remained part of the English repertory (except for the period of the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar where theatres were closed) but its only in the age of UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment that scholars, chiefly Creator/SamuelJohnson, started claiming him to be the greatest English writer. It was also in this time that Shakespeare became embraced in the Continent, especially by the Germans. Curiously in his lifetime, Shakespeare's greatest commercial success was Theatre/TitusAndronicus (now regarded as a weak play, though it has its cult), while ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' and ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', fared particularly poorly when first introduced, with less than a half dozen 17th-century performances on record. ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' was also a bomb, yet today, it is second only to ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' as the most-performed work of Shakespeare.

* Creator/{{Aristophanes}} is arguably the best-remembered of the ancient Greek comedy writers. 11 of his plays have survived in full, compared to 6 partially-surviving works by Menander and fragments by several others. But there is no evidence that he was extraordinarily popular in his time. Like others writers of his time, his theatrical plays competed for awards in festivals, and he often lost. But the fact that medieval copyists chose to preserve his works is a testament to his continued appeal. Of his surviving plays:

* Creator/{{Euripides}} suffered much the same fate in drama- he only won the yearly drama competition four times in his life (compared to Creator/{{Aeschylus}}'s 13 and Creator/{{Sophocles}}'s 20+) yet almost 20 of his plays survived to today (Aeschylus and Sophocles have seven each) and many of his plays are considered well ahead of their time socially, especially in terms of complexity of female characters. This made him highly resonant among feminist authors.

* Creator/{{Aristophanes}} is arguably the best-remembered of the ancient Greek comedy writers. 11 of his plays have survived in full, compared to 6 partially-surviving works by Menander and fragments by several others. But there is no evidence that he was extraordinarily popular in his time. Like others writers of his time, his theatrical plays competed for awards in festivals, and he often lost. The fact that medieval copyists chose to preserve his works is a testament to his continued appeal. Of his surviving plays:

* Creator/ChristopherMarlowe formerly regarded as AlwaysSecondBest to Creator/WilliamShakespeare also saw a radical reversal in reputation in the 20th Century. Authors such as Harold Bloom argue that Marlowe influenced Shakespeare. His plays became favorite among leftist writers and was popular in repertory (Creator/OrsonWelles staged ''Dr. Faustus'', Brecht did ''Edward II''), while LGBT writers claimed Marlowe as a precursor. The fact that he was long rumored to be an atheist and, that the likes of Harold Bloom argue he died because of [[PersecutedIntellectuals political persecution and conspiracy]], lent him a great deal of "street cred" as a rebellious artist.
** Indeed, the overall Elizabethan/Jacobean Age saw a revival in reputation. John Webster's tragedies, ''The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'' came to be staged (even leading to film adaptations) far more often, with the likes of Creator/TSEliot arguing that Webster showed "the skull within the skin". The extreme violence which typified these plays and drove off critics (who saw them as shlock) came to be seen as cool in the 20th Century. Thomas Middleton's plays and comedies likewise underwent a revival as did Theatre/TheRevengersTragedy. Today, Shakespeare is seen as the most prolific and successful of a GoldenAge rather than its sole representative.

* Creator/{{Euripides}} suffered much the same fate in drama- he only won the yearly drama competition four times in his life (compared to Creator/{{Aeschylus}}'s 13 and Creator/{{Sophocles}}'s 20+) yet almost 20 of his plays survived to today (Aeschylus and Sophocles have seven each) and many of his plays are considered well ahead of their time socially.
* From what we can tell, Creator/WilliamShakespeare wasn't thought of as the pre-eminent playwright of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre at the time, although he seems to have been well regarded and reasonably famous. Only in the late 18th century did scholars start to pay serious attention to Shakespeare. Up until then, most of the praise had been for Ben Jonson and the (now largely forgotten except by academics) collaboraters Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher.
** Two of his plays, ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' and ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', fared particularly poorly when first introduced, with less than a half dozen 17th-century performances on record. Four centuries later they are two of The Bard's most celebrated plays.
** ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' was also a bomb in the Elizabethan period. Nowadays, it is second only to ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' as the most-performed work of Shakespeare.
** ''Theatre/TheTempest'', one of the Bard's later plays, also suffered from public disinterest, and its road to recovery was hindered by [[UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell the closing of English theatres following Cromwell's English Revolution]]. Its re-evaluation in the 19th century was one of the major indicators that Shakespeare had become the greatest playwright of all time.

* Arthur Miller emerged from the smash-hit release of ''Theatre/DeathOfASalesman'' as one of Broadway's biggest playwrights. Shortly thereafter, [=McCarthyism=] and related 50s political turmoil wreaked havoc on Miller's career. ''Theatre/TheCrucible'' made the mildest of profits and ''Theatre/AViewFromTheBridge'' completely tanked, although both are celebrated today as major pieces in Miller's profile.

* The musical ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' originally opened on Broadway in 1975 and, while not an outright flop [[note]]It ran for a total of 936 performances, a little over two years[[/note]], received mixed reviews and was overshadowed at the Tony Awards by the smash hit ''Theatre/AChorusLine;;. The show seemed destined to be mostly forgotten until 1996, when City Center Encores! [[note]]an NYC theatre company dedicated to mounting concert versions of obscure musicals[[/note]] mounted a stripped-down version, which proved surprisingly popular and paved the way for a Broadway revival a short time later. The revival was an immediate hit and continues to run as of 2015—currently second only to ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' for the longest-running show in Broadway history. (Ironically, it surpassed ''A Chorus Line''[='=]s original run in 2011.) Many critics have suggested that audiences in 1996—weary of the then-recent O.J. Simpson trial—were more receptive to the musical’s cynical view of celebrity and the media than they were in TheSeventies.

* Anton Chekhov's ''Theatre/TheSeagull'' is an interesting example. The premier of the play in St. Petersburg was a complete disaster with the audience almost universally booing to the point where actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya ended up losing her voice trying to project over the boos and Chekhov himself having to leave the audience to take refuge backstage, fearing for his life. The reception was so bad that, the next day, Chekhov would tell newspaper writer Aleksey Suvorin that he was quitting playwriting. Years later, the initial criticism died down and people began to appreciate it with Constantin Stanislavski's direction of it going over incredibly well in 1898. Today, it's now regarded as one of Chekov's best plays.

* The musical Theatre/{{Chicago}} originally opened on Broadway in 1975 and, while not an outright flop [[note]]It ran for a total of 936 performances, a little over two years[[/note]], received mixed reviews and was overshadowed at the Tony Awards by the smash hit AChorusLine. The show seemed destined to be mostly forgotten until 1996, when City Center Encores! [[note]]an NYC theatre company dedicated to mounting concert versions of obscure musicals[[/note]] mounted a stripped-down version, which proved surprisingly popular and paved the way for a Broadway revival a short time later. The revival was an immediate hit and continues to run as of 2015—currently second only to ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' for the longest-running show in Broadway history. (Ironically, it surpassed ''Theatre/AChorusLine''[='=]s original run in 2011.) Many critics have suggested that audiences in 1996—weary of the then-recent O.J. Simpson trial—were more receptive to the musical’s cynical view of celebrity and the media than they were in TheSeventies.

* The musical Theatre/{{Chicago}} originally opened on Broadway in 1975 and, while not an outright flop [[note]]It ran for a total of 936 performances, a little over two years[[/note]], received mixed reviews and was overshadowed at the Tony Awards by the smash hit AChorusLine. The show seemed destined to be mostly forgotten until 1996, when City Center Encores! [[note]]an NYC theatre company dedicated to mounting concert versions of obscure musicals[[/note]] mounted a stripped-down version, which proved surprisingly popular and paved the way for a Broadway revival a short time later. The revival was an immediate hit and continues to run as of 2015—currently second only to ''Theatre/ThePhantomoftheOpera'' for longest-running show in Broadway history. (Ironically, it surpassed ''A Chorus Line''’s original run in 2011.) Many critics have suggested that audiences in 1996—weary of the then-recent O.J. Simpson trial—were more receptive to the musical’s cynical view of celebrity and the media than they were in TheSeventies.

* Moliere's most celebrated work is ''TheMisanthrope'', which played to poor sales and dismissal during its initial run in the 1660s.

* The musical Theatre/{{Chicago}} originally opened on Broadway in 1975 and, while not an outright flop [[note]]It ran for a total of 936 performances, a little over two years[[/note]], received mixed reviews and was overshadowed at the Tony Awards by the smash hit AChorusLine. The show seemed destined to be mostly forgotten until 1996, when City Center Encores! [[note]]an NYC theatre company dedicated to mounting concert versions of obscure musicals[[/note]] mounted a stripped-down version, which proved surprisingly popular and paved the way for a Broadway revival a short time later. The revival was an immediate hit and continues to run as of 2015—currently second only to ThePhantomoftheOpera for longest-running show in Broadway history. (Ironically, it surpassed ''A Chorus Line''’s original run in 2011.) Many critics have suggested that audiences in 1996—weary of the then-recent O.J. Simpson trial—were more receptive to the musical’s cynical view of celebrity and the media than they were in TheSeventies.

** ''Theatre/TheTempest'', one of the Bard's later plays, also suffered from public disinterest, and its road to recovery was hindered by [[OliverCromwell the closing of English theatres following Cromwell's English Revolution]]. Its re-evaluation in the 19th century was one of the major indicators that Shakespeare had become the greatest playwright of all time.

* Sarah Kane's first play, 'Blasted', was victim to many a negative critic for its use of violence. It wasn't until her suicide and posthumous performance of her last play '4.48 Psychosis' that many of these critics withdrew their complaints.

* Arthur Miller emerged from the smash-hit release of ''Theatre/DeathOfASalesman'' as one of Broadway's biggest playwrights. Shortly thereafter, Mc-Carthyism and related 50s political turmoil wreaked havoc on Miller's career. ''Theatre/TheCrucible'' made the mildest of profits and ''AViewFromTheBridge'' completely tanked, although both are celebrated today as major pieces in Miller's profile.