Unpopular Opinions You Hold- Page 17

[GoodbyeLoveRENT]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 4:57pm

I also kind of agree with the liking the final cast of RENT more than the original cast, give or take a few people.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 6:01pm

^Well, he is stoned. (The character, not Gavin -- I assume!)

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 6:20pm

101 Dalmatians should not be turned into a musical after hearing the songs sung at Broadway in Chicago. When I heard "I Know It's Today" from Shrek the Musical I really enjoyed it and I thought the show had alot of potential and it turned out great.

101 Dalmatians doesn't have any potential at all with those songs.
Updated On: 8/4/09 at 06:20 PM

[kyleorlando]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 9:13pm

I love seeing her perform, I really do! Be it on a cabaret or theatrical production, but Betty Buckley makes my teeth ache!

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 10:29pm

I really WANTED to like the Sister Act recording, but I don't like it at all. I think the songs are obnoxious and forgettable (with the exception of 'Take Me to Heaven' and 'Fabulous, Baby').

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 10:34pm

"Gavin Creel plays Claude as if he's Forest Gump. I don't know what kind of 'acting' he thinks he's doing, but I've seen the show 5 times now and he's painful to watch. He looks and sounds like a 6 year old trying to pronounce the words in a picture book. Yes, it's a show about hippies, but that doesn't mean he has to act like his brain has been completely fried."

I'm sorry jansal, but what are you talking about? I know this is our opinion but I don't see that AT ALL.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 10:40pm

I prefer the final Broadway cast as an ensemble over the original cast of SPRING AWAKENING.

Some of the songs in SA are some of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. ("Whispering," "Touch Me," "The Song of Purple Summer," "Left Behind," etc.)

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 10:45pm

I'm with you, ColorTheHours. Spring Awakening has beautiful music. My favorite thing about the score is how it combines lush strings with mellow rock music. I think it sounds so rich and beautiful. Spring Awakening is one of Broadway's top 5 best scores. The lyrics are...far from perfect (but I will say, when they work...they WORK), but the actual music is stunning.

LaChiusa's Wild Party is miles better than Lippa's. By no means am I saying that Lippa's is bad, but LaChiusa's is is far supperior.

[Zeitoujo]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 11:45pm

I LOVE the current West Side Revival.
I had trouble understanding what Karen Olivo was saying during WSS.

[jansal]

Posted: 8/5/09 at 2:37am

His acting is a joke. He says the lines the same way a 5 year old would read a book and say 'The bear ate some honey,' except with less feeling.

[binau]

Posted: 8/5/09 at 2:48am

Who are you referring to?

[jansal]

Posted: 8/5/09 at 4:02am

Sorry, Gavin Creel.

[Cuneas]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 3:36am

I don't know if it's directly relevant, but I absolutely HATE William Goldman's book "The Season".

First of all, there's something questionable about a Hollywood screenwriter who is BOTH not a professional critic AND has never had anything remotely resembling a hit on Broadway to be writing a supposedly all-emcompassing expose on how the theater "works". But I get that that isn't entirely fair, and I could have gotten past it, I really could have. But come on, people! Look at the actual book and not at the author's name!

First off, the book is written in the same whiny, depressive tone that marred the novel version of the Princess Bride. I mean, anyone who's actually read any of Goldman print works without being blinded by adulation knows that he's one of the most unpleasant personalities ever to pick up a pen. The man called his son a "fat spoiled brat" for all the world to read in TPB, for crying out loud! He doesn't talk about his family much in this one (thank God), but he does manage to make the whole "poor everybody" (to quote the book itself) message of universal misery in the theater profession come off feeling more like his trademark "Poor me".

On top of that, the book has no conceivable value as a critical text. The prose itself is well-done--I'm not denying Goldman's a fine writer--but all his elaborate "rules" about the way theater "works" are pulled-out-of-his-arse garbage...any informed theater buff can think of twenty exceptions to every "rule" in the space of a minute. All the book offers is some one-sidedly negative Broadway local color and a few mildly amusing wisecracks. How in god's name did it ever get the reputation it has now?

We're talking about a man who went on a long diatribe about how all the theater critics were just failed writers who took out their jealousy on the playwrights...and then repeatedly insulted Jerry Herman in print for seemingly no other reason than having the audacity to score two smash hits in a row (I wonder...)

And that's just what he said about his rivals! He disparages Kander and Ebb's songwriting ability, and makes the unutterably stupid comment that Harold Prince isn't a particularly good director. Okay, this was early in Prince's career, but late enough for that comment to be a self-evident absurdity. The fact that Goldman was a personal friend of all three of these men makes these statements even more loathesome, but then, Prince and Kander are the two people who failed to salvage "A Family Affair", one of Goldman's few shots at getting a Broadway hit. Hmmmm...once again, I wonder...

He also proclaimed that Broadway was dead and there would never be any more good musicals, ever. This was in 1968. Two years later, the "Sondheim revolution" began. Actually, the only good thing about this turkey is that that particular stupid comment has given me excellent ammunition when I argue with the current "Broadway-is-Dead" types who think Broadway died around 1980. Part of the reason this book is so popular, actually, is because it's become to credo of the "Dead Broadway" movement, so it's quite ironic that it proves how stupid their whole credo is, albeit unintentionally.

Actually, I don't see what any fans of _Musical_ theater see in this schlock, because Goldman makes clear repeatedly that he _vastly_ prefers stage plays to musicals. Just in case
everybody else on the planet missed that.

But my favorite example of this book's excesses is this: AT ONE POINT, GOLDMAN SERIOUSLY CLAIMS THAT "HENRY SWEET HENRY" IS "EVERY BIT AS GOOD A SHOW AS 'MAME'". I know, I'm howling too. I guess we could be generous and just call that comment dated, but no. It's not dated, it's stupid. Actually, the whole book is stupid. What do people see in this thing?

"The Bible of Broadway"? Give me a break!

We apologize for the preceding overlong and overwought rant. I've just wanted to get that off my chest for years.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 7:02am

Cuneus -- but how do you really feel?

The story surrounding the telling of the Princess Bride is just as much fiction AS the actual story is FICTION!!!! There is no other version, either. It just happens to be told in the first person-- a FICTIONAL first person. He doesn't even HAVE a son. (Princess Bride is one of my favorite novels.)

He's allowed his opinions -- there are lots of people that prefer plays to musicals....some people even HATE musicals. And truly....are you going to hold an opinion he had in 1968 against him now, FORTY years later? MANY people have expressed the feeling over the years.

[Cuneas]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 10:01pm

There's a picture on the back of my copy of "The Season" of Goldman, a woman and two kids, labelled "William Goldman and his family". And either the kid of the left is a boy, or Goldman's youngest daughter must have gone through a pretty severe "ugly duckling" stage in her elementary school years. So whether Goldman was talking about his real son in TPB or not, I have to assume that either he does indeed have a son or he's so fixated on his TPB "backstory" that he got three actors to pose with him for a dust jacket photo for a completely different book. Which, now that I think of it, wouldn't surprise me. So maybe you're right.

And I'd have less of a problem with the book if every theater fan in the universe except me didn't seem to think it was a work of genius. Hearing this tripe hailed as the "Bible of Broadway" for years has unhinged me a little, hence the whole psychotic rant tone of my post. I'm not saying it's the worst book ever written on the subject, but "Musical! A Grand Tour" and "Ever After" don't get referred to publicly with that kind of embarrassing gushing and hyperbolic expression of "worship". I don't think "The Season" is rock-bottom, just that it's insanely overrated. Sorry if you're offended, but my opinion still stands.

And incidentally, the whole "Mame"/"Henry Sweet Henry" comparison is stupid in any era. Just beecause the shows were both new at the time and his statement was provoked by jealousy rather than rational thought doesn't make him any less wrong. Frankly, you'd think after Virgil Thompson's life-long hate-on for Gerschwin, people would figure out that professional artists don't make good art critics. Actually, even Sondheim (much as I love him) has made public statements about other people's work that make me extremely glad he's not a critic. I'll probably get lynched for saying that, but it's true.

[vodkastinger]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 10:20pm

Equus & Exit the King were better than any of the nominees for Best Revival of Play this year.

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 10:22pm

Vanessa Williams was a horrendous witch. Horrendous (but, I'm judging from a naughty video).

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 11:00pm

Fascinating and asture analysis. Cuneas. I'd also like to add that Goldman's acute homophobia is an especially repellent aspect of THE SEASON.

I had never heard about Virgil Thompson's hatred of Gershwin. My god, how can you hate George Gershwin? Jealousy? And even maybe a wee bit of anti-Semetism?

Sondheim's condescending nitpicky comments about Lorenz Hart have always sounded like a the statements of a good boy defending his Uncle Oscar mixed with a large dollop of curdled jealousy.

[withoutlovewithoutU]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 11:22pm

I really like Constantine Maroulis and think that he is a nice guy..... well, at least he was very nice and friendly towards me at the ROA stage door. A lot of people seem to think he is a jerk....

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 11:39pm

A lot of people don't "know" him and automatically put post-AI hate on him. Most people I've talked to that have met him at SD have said the same thing you did.

[byebyebaby12]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 1:19am

He gets grouped together with other Idol broadway wannabes but he really isn't. He does have a degree in Musical Theatre from Boston Conservatory. So, he does have an idea what he is doing.

[broadwayworldreader]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 2:40am

I hate rent and Wicked. I feel as if they've completely sold out in an attempt to bring broadway back to the masses aka $$$.

I think Bat Boy has some of the most catchy music in a show, while maintaining a cohesive style. Not to mention the lyrics! They are nothing short of AMAZING!!!

There's something extremely pretentious about Stephen Schwartz's music. and everything seems so damn whimsical.

I hate the entire concept of a Jukebox musical. It makes me just mad, yet somehow love the idea of the Disney musical.

Don't entirely understand why/how Roger Bart is still working. I think he peaked in Hercules, and that was strictly voice over. that's saying something.

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 10:49am

I would enjoy Wicked, Rent, and Spring Awakening MUCH more if they weren't so talked about all the time and obsessed over.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 10:55am

Equus & Exit the King were better than any of the nominees for Best Revival of Play this year.

Okay, are we the same person? (Add Speed-the-Plow for me, though.)

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 8/8/09 at 10:59am

I really don't get what is SO bad about the revival of WSS. If there were a different Tony, I don't think it would of been nearly as bad.