mediocre shows with great scores?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 10:41pm

I was thinking about this today and I'm curious what you guys think.

What are some shows that, in your opinion, have great scores, but overall are not so great? The shows don't even necessarily have to be BAD, but rather noticeably inferior to the score.

[binau]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 10:45pm

ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, maybe. Some great songs ("ME AND MY TOWN", "THERE WON'T BE TRUMPETS", "ANYONE CAN WHISTLE") but it just doesn't work on stage.

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 10:47pm

I'm going to be very controversial here but...WONDERLAND (especially the concept recording). I'd probably say most Wildhorn except for BONNIE & CLYDE which is actually a great show too.

Updated On: 3/28/13 at 10:47 PM

[jnb9872]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 10:48pm

Surely this is the knock on MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, no? That the concept is too difficult to work without exposing some flaw(s) or another, but that the score is usually (if not unanimously) praised as one of Sondheim's most beautiful.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 11:10pm

Mack and Mabel; Rags; Candide come to mind.

[FireFingers]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 11:58pm

Love Never Dies. Sublime score. Wrecked by lame plot.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 12:52am

Wonderland

[AngelorPhantom1359]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 1:16am

The Baker's Wife. Great songs (Meadowlark, Gifts of Love, Where is the Warmth, Chanson) ruined by a plot that simply refuses to work on stage.

I'd like to second Love Never Dies. There are some really beautiful moments in that score, but the story just doesn't work.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 1:34am

Dear World, Anyone Can Whistle, Mack and Mabel, Golden Boy, Superman, Flora: the Red Menace, and the Rink

[brian.klimowski]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 4:16am

I agree! If Love Never Dies ditched the lyrics, plot and characters and became a concert suite, it would be great. I've always been a sucker for a lush ALW score!
I'd also say Chess. I've always loved that score!

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 5:02am

Just about anything written before 1940. The scripts in those days werent meant to be anything other than a clothesline to hang the songs on, which makes it all but impossible to produce any of them without doing some serious re-writes.

[DustyC]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 5:04am

Wonderland, Lysistrata Jones, High Fidelity and Glory Days.

[Dave19]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 9:08am

Not really a show, but an animated musical, I think "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" has a glorious score and is a very mediocre film.

I also love the score of "Home on the range", but don't like the film.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 9:50am

Side Show.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 10:02am

Love Never Dies is one of my favorite musicals at the moment, but I admit it took me multiple viewings to get used to the story. Once I gave in, the show as a whole was absolutely breathtaking, and it all made sense. I think for someone who's not familiar with the original, the book wouldn't be a problem as it is a very compelling story, it's just shocking to see the characters so drastically changed. I still think it the show has a future, it just needs some slight re-imagining. Perhaps a dream sequence in the beginning where the characters are again in Paris, and you see some slight character development.

[Theatrical Landladies]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 10:11am

Minnie's Boys
Chess
LND

[MCfan2]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 10:54am

Aspects of Love.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 11:10am

I'll challenge fashionguru's listing of THE RINK here. Saw the OBC 4 times, and loved everything about that show-- score, script, A J Antoon's direction, all of it.

I'm counter-submitting a slew of Sondheims:
PACIFIC OVERTURES
ASSASSINS
DO I HEAR A WALTZ
and heretically, FOLLIES

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 11:35am

The Little Mermaid. The cast recording is beautiful even if the show was a plastic mess.

[Princeton Returns]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 12:06pm

Aida? Ive not seen it, love the cd but understand the book had issues

[JBroadway]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 11:48pm

personal ones for me include:

john & Jen - I had listened to the CR and loved it, but when I saw it I thought it really didn't work.

American Idiot - I know it's not an original score but I find the music and arrangements much more more enjoyable than the show as a whole

West Side Story - I don't dislike the show, but I find the score far superior to the book

[NoName3]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 12:08am

Johnny Johnson

The Gay Life

On a Clear Day

[After Eight]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 12:54am

No Name,

Did you see The Gay Life? If you did, you would know the show was anything but mediocre. It was a sheer and utter delight from start to finish. And the score, of course, is magical.

With respect to the subject of this thread, time changes everything. What might have been considered a mediocre show back in the good old days now looks like a masterpiece compared to the things we get today that garner raves and awards.

I'd take Happy Hunting over Once, Out of This World over Book of Mormon, and Carmelina over Queen of the Mist, Parade, Light in the Piazza et al. any day of the week.

Wouldn't everyone?

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 1:06am

Little Women

[Emmaloucbway]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 1:23am

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.