THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES NYT review Nov 10 2025, 01:04:04 AM
I didn't think it was possible for the New York Times to become a repository for even more pathetic theater criticism than we saw last season with Jesse Green providing idiotic shill rave reviews for shows that didn't even rise to the level of community theater. But damned if they didn't make things worse by giving Laura Collins-Hughes the "Queen of Versailles" assignment. The woman writes like a very lightweight feature reporter who clearly
|
WICKED: One Wonderful Night Nov 7 2025, 02:28:29 AM
You folks must have been watching something other than the atrocity I witnessed Thursday night. I can't imagine another two hours of hideously realized garbage that could do a better job of putting people off the Part Two of the movie version of "Wicked." Above all else the show confirmed my feeling that both Erivo and Grande are simply awful actors. Their freakish appearances -- Grande's emaciated physique and tattoos and Erivo's disgusting nails
|
Jesse Green: When Hollywood Depicts Broadway Genius, the Results Rarely Sing Oct 25 2025, 08:59:09 PM
Odd and totally pointless -- that's what Jesse Green;s article is. Regrettably, after this piece of worthless drivel on "Blue Moon" and his astonishingly wrong assessment of "Smash the Musical". I have to conclude that Green must be something close to a complete idiot. Maybe it was attending all the garbage he sat through while serving as theater critic that done him in. But I digress.. I had the utter misfortune to sit through "Blu
|
DOLLY Jul 30 2025, 01:34:55 AM
Where has everybody been folks!? I've been complaining about Dolly's cash grab since the show opened and I saw the third preview.
A week before previews began I paid $195 for a seat in last row of the orchestra. Only when I sat through it did I realize what a dud it was and complained loudly to the company when they sent me a survey to fill out. I talked in postings too about what outrageous pricing they started with given what terrible shape the sh
|
Bio musicals have some built in problems with living legends Jul 27 2025, 05:15:59 PM
friends are seeing the show this afternoon. I will get their report in a couple of hours and post something after that. I saw the show a week ago when it was running. 3 hours 15 minutes. Word on the street is that they have cut a fair amount since then I'm sure they immediately got it under 3 hours to avoid overtime charges. But the show needs a lot more than cuts to the running time.
|
Dolly Parton Broadway Bio Musical aiming for Spring 2025 Jul 21 2025, 03:27:45 AM
Forget the merch activations folks. There's a lot more to worry about than merch for this show right now. I saw the third preview yesterday and as I noted in a longish post on the other website,"dolly" is a disaster of near Biblical proportions. Granted this was only the third preview but it is in sad shape. Really sad. I do not believe Bartlett Sher, the current director, is the man to save this show. From what I've seen of his work at L
|
SMASH Reviews Apr 10 2025, 10:53:08 PM
Jesse Green is NOT okay. I don't know what kind of game he thinks he's playing but he is most assuredly destroying any semblance of a reputation as a credible theater critic he may have left. No one except a fool who had never seen a great musical before could write what he has written. It's an abomination. If the New York Times cares at all about its reputation it should immediately send someone with a brain and some shreds of honesty back to "S
|
SMASH Reviews Apr 10 2025, 10:42:16 PM
|
Audra McDonald teaser video -- yikes!!! Nov 6 2024, 10:37:12 PM
Uh-oh. Has anyone listened to the just-released teaser tape of Audra singing the "Gypsy" score. If you have heard it, you should be very worried about how this production is going to turn out. As soon as I heard it, the first word that came to mind is "MISCAST!!"
The teaser immediately reminded me of the fatal mistake made in the original production of the ill-fated "Carrie" musical when Barbara Cook was cast as Carrie
|
SWEPT AWAY brilliant direction? Nov 6 2024, 10:22:02 PM
Would someone who has seen the show and commented favorably about the direction please explain to me how he or she reached that conclusion and still found the show flat and dull. Unless I'm missing something, the responsibility of the director is to create a show that excites audiences rather than putting them to sleep.
I also find it odd that there has been so little response of any sort to the show on this board. The Tammy Faye crowd is going bonkers posti
|
SWEPT AWAY first preview Oct 29 2024, 10:40:28 PM
Please someone save me from total madness. I was at the first preview tonight and all I have to say is what a horrid sack of excrement this whole endeavor is. What nerve it took for the producers to haul this piece of pretentious nonsense into New York City, which has seen a steady stream, of disasters this past year. But I’ve seen most of them and this is by far the worst. The first 45 minutes of the 90 minute show is filled with salty sailors prancing arou
|
Jason Robert Brown, Taylor Mac, Rob Ashford collaborating on MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL musical adaptation Jul 9 2024, 01:33:03 PM
Bravo Distinctive Baritone!! You quite accurately deciphered Chris Jones'. typically "supportive" review. Jones is incapable of directly saying a show doesn't work, especially when it's supposedly a Broadway bound vehicle.
I'm sorry. But one great performance rom Ghee does not a successful musical make. And I'm doubly sorry but a merely serviceable score also does not make a show successful. No matter h
|
Jason Robert Brown, Taylor Mac, Rob Ashford collaborating on MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL musical adaptation Jul 7 2024, 03:53:37 PM
Sorry folks. This musical won't become a success with the general public until the producers decide what this show wants to be. Those going in expecting a musical based on "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" will be sorely disappointed. Those expecting a drag cabaret act may have a more enjoyable time depending on how much they like Ghee.
Regardless of which way this show goes, Jason Robert Brown needs to step it up on the musical score front. &nb
|
HELLO, I'M DOLLY bio-musical headed for the stage! Jul 2 2024, 07:56:18 PM
Bartlett Sher???? you fellow posters are spot-on in questioning the sanity of those responsible for selecting this guy to direct Dolly's bio-musical. It makes no sense. Sher's not a pop culture type of guy for sure. and I doubt he's ever listened to a country music song in his life. If he has, I'm not aware he's ever communicated that publicly. This sort of stupid move is exactly why Broadway is hanging by a thread. Decisions
|
Jason Robert Brown, Taylor Mac, Rob Ashford collaborating on MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL musical adaptation Jun 27 2024, 02:33:13 PM
Yep, Chicago is fast getting a reputation as a try-out town for shows that — to put it mildly — need a whole lot of work. The “Midnight” musical had great source material, no doubt about it. But clearly the folks at the helm of this jumbled affair had no intention of even trying to be faithful to the source material. Under director Rob Ashford and book writer Taylor Mac (an odd and ultimately bad choice for this job) this “Midnight” badly
|
Hilty & Simard to lead DEATH BECOMES HER in Chicago spring 2024 May 15 2024, 11:33:52 AM
Here's the orchestra breakdown: Keyboards Ben Cohn and Cam Concur; Violin Michele Lukas; Violin and Viola Karla Gala; Cello Mark Lekas; Reeds Jim Gailloreto, Steve Leinheiser, David Orlicz, Jaco Slocum; Lead Trumpet Chuck Parish; Trumpet Josh Rzepka; Trombones Michael Joyce Tom Matt; French Horn Greg Flint; Guitar Steve Roberts; Bass Marc Hogan; Drum Damien Bassman; Percussion David Victor.
Altogether 18 personnel, but it sure doesn't sound like it in the theater.
|
Hilty & Simard to lead DEATH BECOMES HER in Chicago spring 2024 May 5 2024, 09:16:32 PM
Dear Betty: I wouldn't be so sure they are going to do the massive amount of work needed to fix this turkey. The bones to build from are simply NOT there. Two and one-half hours of poorly done camp is not enough. And right now, if one is being generous, that's all the creative team has got to work with. I'm shocked that none of the posters on this board -- or almost none -- are talking about the near total absence of a memorable &
|
Hilty & Simard to lead DEATH BECOMES HER in Chicago spring 2024 May 1 2024, 01:18:33 AM
Dear Broadway World message board readers. Please allow me to inject a note of sanity into the several favorable reactions to this travesty’s first preview. I was there tonight too. First off, this is NOT a Broadway musical. It’s a trashy Vegas comic act masquerading as theater. The show has no coherent script and no music except for one 11 o’clock number sung by the two leading ladies that is so ridiculously over the top that you listen in d
|
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS Opening Night Critics' Reviews Mar 21 2024, 08:12:06 PM
Greetings fellow opening night review monitors. If there is any justice left in the Broadway world around Times Square W4E should be declared a train wreck and dispatched to whatever graveyard is reserved for expensive theatrical disasters. Rumors began circulating in the hours before opening that massive work had been done to improve the show. I was at the first preview and only a miracle could have made that show much more than a boring mediocrity.  
|
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS Broadway Previews Feb 25 2024, 01:21:54 PM
I was at Saturday’s first preview. Let me get this off my chest first. I for one am sick and tired of greedy producers in this post-pandemic world trying to pawn of their half-baked theatrical soufflés on a public that for the most part wouldn’t know a good musical from a pile of trash. “W4E” most decidedly is in the latter category. There are plenty of problems with this show. Chief among them is Pigpen Theatre’s score, whic
|
You must log in to view off-topic posts.