Moose Murders is legendary among flops on Broadway.
The New York Times theater critic
Frank Rich commented in his review of the play that there would now "always be two groups of theatergoers in this world: those who have seen
Moose Murders, and those who have not ... A visit to
Moose Murders is what will separate the connoisseurs of Broadway disaster from mere dilettantes for many moons to come." Rich's original review stated that "Even Act One of
Moose Murders is inadequate preparation for Act Two," and that "I won't soon forget the spectacle of watching the mummified Sidney rise from his wheelchair to kick an intruder, unaccountably dressed in a moose costume, in the groin." In an end-of-season review, he described
Moose Murders as "the season's most stupefying flop—a show so preposterous that it made minor celebrities out of everyone who witnessed it, whether from on stage or in the audience."
The New Yorker art critic
Brendan Gill said the play "would insult the intelligence of an audience consisting entirely of amoebas".
Associated Press drama critic Jay Sharbutt described the play as comprising "a lot of labored skulduggery, frantic slapstick, dashes upstairs, downstairs and sideways, assorted gunshots and half the population of this caper dispatched to a better world, if not better play" and declined to identify the cast "pending notification of [next of] kin". Douglas Watt of the
New York Daily News called it an "incredibly sappy murder mystery farce" that shouldn't happen to a moose and said that he had forgotten how it ended, while the
New York Posts
Clive Barnes said that it was "so indescribably bad that I do not intend to waste anyone's time by describing it." He commended Eve Arden for leaving it before it opened and commented, "Some people have all the luck."
Moose Murders became a touchstone of reference to be used in other reviews; a 1998 review of the television sitcom
Encore! Encore! described the show as "the 'Moose Murders' of sitcoms—it won't be here past Halloween, but the recollection of its awfulness will give you untold delight for years to come." A 1995 production of the play
Dracula in
Philadelphia has been described as having "taken on legendary-turkey status [among Philadelphia critics] on a par with
Moose Murders". Frank Rich himself later wrote in
The New York Times (reviewing the 1988 version of
Carrie), "Only the absence of antlers separates the pig murders of
Carrie from the
Moose Murders of Broadway lore." In the 2014 Broadway revival of
Terrence McNally's ''
It's Only a Play, the Moose Murders''' failure is inevitably brought up during the post-premiere hand-wringing. ==Revivals==