1997 The Goodbye Girl

A return to the stage coincided with Black’s reintroduction to Bond. In 1997, the idea was mooted for a musical version of the hit Neil Simon comedy, The Goodbye Girl. The 1977 movie had been a huge hit for Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason. As subjects for musicals go, it was perfect. Romance, theatre, comedy and killer lines such as ‘If you were a Broadway musical, people would be humming your face’ – it seemed like a sure-fire thing. The only trouble was, in musicals the sure-fire thing simply does not exist.