What is the worst production you have ever seen on Broadway? What is the worst show?- Page 7

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 5/25/24 at 10:14am

A Strange Loop

Disaster (Seth Rudetsky)

[perfectliar]

Posted: 5/25/24 at 10:43am

ryandk2 said: "Worst shows I've seen in the last 27 years:

The Goat or Who is Sylvia?: I so desperately wanted to leave, but I was in the middle of the row and there was no intermission.

Gypsy: Patti LuPone was just horrible to see in person. She can't sing -- just screeched the whole time -- and was shouting her lines the whole time. So painful!

The Humans andThe Band's Visit: Lots of hype, but just so boring."

You've been seeing shows for 27 years, and the worst things you've seen have been 4 universally acclaimed shows? You must have a track record for seeing only the highest caliber shows.

I do find so many of these responses funny. I didn't see Prymate but was around when it was on and remember having conversations about how such an insane, offensive, wildly absurd play made it to Broadway. But to see responses like this, or like others who are saying Phantom or Cats or whatever... y'all clearly haven't seen very much. Some of us saw In My Life, Dance of the Vampires, Glory Days, Amazing Grace, and Hot Feet, and those are just some of the most infamous ones from the last 20 or so years lol.

Aside from those, I was at the first preview of The People in the Picture, which was not only a snoozefest but didn't even have orchestrations in the second act. Roundabout is also responsible for possibly the worst adaptation of Hedda Gabler (in 2009, starring Mary Louise Parker) I've ever seen on a professional stage.

[broadfan327]

Posted: 5/26/24 at 7:19pm

perfectliar said: "ryandk2 said: "Worst shows I've seen in the last 27 years:

The Goat or Who is Sylvia?: I so desperately wanted to leave, but I was in the middle of the row and there was no intermission.

Gypsy: Patti LuPone was just horrible to see in person. She can't sing -- just screeched the whole time -- and was shouting her lines the whole time. So painful!

The Humans andThe Band's Visit: Lots of hype, but just so boring."

You've been seeing shows for 27 years, and the worst things you've seen have been 4 universally acclaimed shows? You must have a track record for seeing only the highest caliber shows.

I do find so many of these responses funny. I didn't see Prymate but was around when it was on and remember having conversations about how such an insane, offensive, wildly absurd play made it to Broadway.But to see responses like this, or like others who are saying Phantom or Cats or whatever... y'all clearly haven't seen very much. Some of us saw In My Life, Dance of the Vampires, Glory Days, Amazing Grace, and Hot Feet, and those are just some of the most infamous ones from the last 20 or so years lol.

Aside from those, I was at the first preview of The People in the Picture, which was not only a snoozefest butdidn't even have orchestrations in the second act. Roundabout is also responsible for possibly the worst adaptation of Hedda Gabler (in 2009, starring Mary Louise Parker) I've ever seen on a professional stage."

I agree with your sentiment in general, but I have seen about 200 musicals, and Cats ranks up there as one of the worst.  Its score is good, which saves it.

 

 

 

[justoldbill]

Posted: 5/27/24 at 10:00am

INTO THE LIGHT.  Who can forget the musical about the Shroud of Turin?

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 5/27/24 at 7:09pm

575757 said: "Worst Broadway - Lestat, or Illya, Darling



Worst Ever: Meredith Willson's 1491 with Chita Rivera and John Cullum, Shine It On with Lisa Minelli in San Francisco, Home Sweet Homer with YulBrenner in tryout, or Barbary Coast with Jerry Landing and Marcia Rodd which only played in San Francisco for very, very small audiences of maybe 100 in a 2200 seat house - a vanity production with full broadway designers and orchestrators."    "It's Liza with a Z, not Lisa with an S"........

 

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 5/27/24 at 8:30pm

For me, it was probably Roundabout's The Cherry Orchard from some years back (with Diane Lane, innocent). Just a full nothing of a production: no direction, no coherence, several very good actors completely adrift. I'd rather something be bad in an ambitious or interesting way than a complete and utter bore. Truly the most unexciting night of theatre I think I've had on Broadway. 

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 5/27/24 at 10:18pm

A few for me: 

Brooklyn (or however you spell it) I saw this on New Year's Eve matinee in 2003. It was the only show that was playing and wasn't sold out. I was so excited because the ad campaign made it seem like it was the new RENT and I wanted in on the ground floor. Man was I disappointed. The whole show, I tried to force myself to like it and convince myself that I would be seeing this show over and over and playing the recording on repeat. But it just never came together. 

Speaking of Rent, my next worst show is RENT. Which pains me to say. A few months before the closing notice was posted, I saw the show for perhaps the 15th time and the ensemble was out of character and off their marks for most of the show. It broke my heart to see my beloved show so disrpespected by its own actors, but that's what happened. 

My next worst show is ONCE. The way it started, with the audience invited up on stage and the actors kind of randomly started to sing and play instruments and the house lights not going down at the top of the show.....ugh. Everybody around me spent the first ten minutes going "has it started?" "No they make an annoucement when it starts"  "Shhh it started"  "No it hasn't. Anyway, back to our conversation"     And then when the show really started it just got worse. All I can remember is a guy was vacumming (or something) and the girl told him to stop. Or maybe the girl was vaccuming and the guy told her to stop. Who cares. All I know is the girl said no, and the audience exploded with laughter. I'm talking, tears-in-your-eyes, can't-catch-your-breath type laughter. And comments like "this is sooooo cute!" I thought ok I am done with this. I clearly don't get this show and I'm not going to. 

[sheridan]

Posted: 5/28/24 at 3:34pm

&Juliet as got to be the worse.  .