A Doll's Life

A Doll's Life
Original Cast Recording
Music	Larry Grossman
Lyrics	Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Book	Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Basis	A rehearsal of Henrik Ibsen's classic play A Doll's House
Productions	1982 Broadway

A Doll's Life is a musical with a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Larry Grossman. It is among the most notorious flops in Broadway theatre history.

The musical is set at a rehearsal of Ibsen's A Doll's House in 1982.

The Broadway production opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on September 23, 1982 and closed on September 26 after 5 performances and 18 previews. Directed by Hal Prince and choreographed by Larry Fuller with scenic design by Timothy O'Brien and Tazeena Firth, costume design by Florence Klotz, and lighting design by Ken Billington. The cast featured George Hearn, Betsy Joslyn, and Peter Gallagher.

The York Theater Company, New York City, presented a staged concert in December 1994.

Reviews were negative. According to The New York Times, "It was overproduced and overpopulated to the extent that the tiny resolute figure of Nora became lost in the combined mechanics of Broadway and the Industrial Revolution." According to John Kenrick, the musical had "an almost operatic score, but the book droned on about the unfairness of life and an overly-elaborate Hal Prince production only made matters worse."

Despite its failure, the show received several Tony Award nominations, and an original cast recording was released on the Bay Cities label.

Broadway wags dubbed the show "A Doll's Death." One even suggested "A Door's Life," in reference to the portal out of which Nora slams at the end of the original Ibsen play, and which 'danced' almost continually throughout the musical, far more interestingly than most of the rest of the action.