David Merrick's original production of the show, directed by Vincente Minnelli, premiered for a pre-Broadway tryout at Washington, DC's National Theatre in December 1967. The performance became legendary for all the wrong reasons. The evening was marked by numerous mishaps, including collapsing scenery, dancers stumbling, and unintended audience laughter during serious parts of the performance. The next day a Washington gossip column ran a story with the headline "Mata Hari Hilarious." Merrick cancelled the Broadway run, incurring a $500,000 loss. In December 1968, a scaled-down version, titled Ballad for a Firing Squad, was staged off-Broadway at the Theatre de Lys, but it closed after only fifteen performances.
