Failure as an option

Why can’t ‘failure’ be an option? What’s wrong with that?

What is it, anyway? 

Failure: ‘A lack of success. Something that falls short of what is required or expected’.*

So who decides? Whose requirements and expectations matter?

We make judgements all the time; in the rehearsal on Tuesday (as I saw it) the 'performers' were constantly making judgements as to what worked and what didn’t work (what was succeeding and failing) moment by moment.

Would it be Ok for it not to work as a comic opera - as publicised? Maybe it fails in that but it works, or is working, as something else…

I’m also curious about the influence of the academic institution on the work (both on the performers and the writers) given the context is a place where judgements about value and legitimacy are continually being made.

* from Encarta dictionary definition