[1][2] The musical tells the story of Jay-Jay, a 12-year-old runaway who tries to escape an abusive foster mother and the terrors of New York City by living in a tree in Central Park.
[3] In December 1985, Jan McArt, a performer and theater producer who was nicknamed "The First Lady of Florida's Musical Theatre," was introduced to Rhodes and became interested in the project.
[5] The show premiered as a "work in progress" on October 25, 1988 at McArt's Mallory Square Cabaret Theatre in Key West starring Fabray as Mrs. Miller, 13-year-old Richard H. Blake as Jay-Jay (the title character), Anthony Galde as Elmo, a gang leader and an ensemble of 9 actors.
Producer Jan McArt later told the Boca Raton News that because the show was being rewritten daily, DeHaven was having trouble learning her new lines and they needed someone who was "a quick study.
[15] Jo Anne Worley quit a California production of Mame[16] to join the cast on October 10 and the show's opening date was postponed until November 9 to allow her more time to rehearse.
[12] On October 24, 1989, Prince of Central Park began previews on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre and opened on November 9 with Worley and Blake in the leads.
The musical received overwhelmingly negative reviews by Broadway critics, who found that the show was both amateurish and made light of serious social issues such as street crime, drugs, homelessness and child abuse, while turning gritty New York City into a sentimental fairy tale.
[18] Though aimed at a family audience, critics noted that the show had moments of vulgarity, such as a scene in which two gay men happily emerge from the bushes after having sex[19] and jokes in which the character of Margie comments on her sagging breasts and her estranged husband's penis.
"[22] In his famously scathing and humorous review in The New York Times, Frank Rich wrote: "Prince of Central Park, the new musical at the Belasco, is a numbing evening of such guileless amateurism that it will probably have a future as a Harvard Business School case study, whatever its fate in the annals of drama.
[20]Rich's review went on to include a deliberately incorrect and funny summary of the plot: "In Act II, Jay-Jay and Margie bravely overcome outmoded legal obstacles and moral attitudes to get married.
"[20]Blake, who had turned down Michael Eisner's offer of a part on The Mickey Mouse Club to be in the production,[17][23] was compared by Rich to "an aging Mouseketeer."
"[21] To help boost the show, the actors agreed to work for scale and the Shubert Organization, owners of the Belasco Theatre (which had been unoccupied for two years) offered to waive its rental fee for four months until February 1, 1990.
But within a few days, after production costs quickly began to mount, Hirschfeld himself closed the show, stating: "I kept saying there should be no changes from the Miami Beach version.
Rich wrote that Hirschfeld went on to purchase the New York Post for two weeks (nearly destroying it) and later served time in jail and that in retrospect, the flop was one of the finer achievements of his career.