Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#1Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 5:13pm
Have you ever seen a play or musical that totally had you going and had you loving it and then something happened that just totally made the house of cards fall down?
Recently, I heard this complained about with STUNNING and its last half hour or so. I kinda felt like this with the last few minutes of RUINED, but I didn't think it ruined the play for me. It just took away a little from the overall experience.
What other shows have you guys experienced this in?
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#2re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 5:15pmThe part in Gypsy where Patti LuPone stops the show and screams at an audience member.
TalkinLoud
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/3/09
#2re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 5:17pmWell the first time I saw Gypsy, right near the end after Rose's Turn there's the scene where Louise comes out and asks Rose to go to the party with her. I was soooo pissed because I thought it was a tacked on happy ending, but then the sign came down and Patti started grasping for it. Phew!
#3re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 5:41pmdefinitely agree about Stunning. i was loving it and then the ending came and i was just sitting there like wtf?
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#4re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 5:47pm"He Could Be A Star" (or, in New York, "He Could Go and He Could Shine") in Billy Elliot. I was in raptures with the show up until that point.
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#5re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 6:09pm
Last 20 minutes of STUNNING, where the show veers from pseudo-profound-statement-comedy to dark drama. It's a sign that the playwright didn't know where to go.
RUINED's ending didn't bother me.
#6re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 6:10pmthe dancing dresses in Expressing Yourself in Billy Elliot really bugged me.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
#7re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 6:23pmFor me it's the last 5 minutes of "Pippin". Fabulous score and dancing for two hours and then the rug is pulled out from under the audience and we are told that we've been had. The show ends that way with no finale or anything. What a cruel cynical trick to pull on an audience. You could call it innovative and a lot of things but it is not musical theater.
"I long-ago realized that this country is a nation of
morons, when it comes to knowledge of anything outside, or beyond, pop culture." Steve Slezak
jordangirl
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
#8re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 6:26pmI absolutely LOVED Why Torture Is Wrong And The People Who Love Them until the Twilight Zone-eqsue do-over ending. They completely lost me at that moment.
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WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#9re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 6:38pmOh, I agree about TORTURE, JordanGirl. Forgot about that...what a terrible ending.
#10re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 6:39pmRent. "I jumped over the moooooon." The whole bit when Mimi returns from the dead at the end in a trans. It just takes away the seriousness of the moment for me.
winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#11re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 6:41pmFor me it would have to be the current revival of West Side Story. I thought that there were parts that were in Spanish that just made the dramatic parts of the show fall flat. For example, the scene where Anita tells Maria that Tony killed her brother and it was done in Spanish. It felt like a roller coaster where it was going up with dramatic tension and then speeding downwards VERY fast falling flat on its face.
"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear"
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#12re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 6:41pmi didn't want to like the ending of Why Torture Is Wrong, but i couldn't help like the cute ending. it was pretty random to just out of nowhere have them stop the show like that. it't not something i usually approve of, but i enjoyed it.
BROADWAY IMPACT!
TAKE ACTION! EQUALITY!
http://www.broadwayimpact.com/
#13re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 8:51pmWell the first time that I ever (yes, ever) saw Sweeney was the movie, unfortunately. I was so bored by the acting, and the singing, and depressed by the dark cinematography, I just wanted the movie to get done to see what happens at the end. Since everyone dies at the end, I thought it was really disappointing. Then I saw the George Hearn/Landsbury DVD and started to get the show. I then loved it. :)
Whoever says money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to shop. - Bo Derek
#14re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 8:53pmThat part in SWEENEY TODD where Patti LuPone was cast.
#15re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 8:55pm
onedaymore,
has your opinion of the Sweeney movie changed now?
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#16re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 9:00pm
qolbinau-No.
I still think the message Sondheim was trying to put out was hard to get in the film. Plus I don't think the movie makes Sweeney look as haunting as he was made out to be in the musical. Him and Lovett just look like they need a good shower. :P
Whoever says money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to shop. - Bo Derek
#17re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 9:03pm
hehe.
Though exactly what 'message' was Sondheim trying to put out?
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#18re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 9:06pmI saw a college production of Chorus Line and the girl playing Cassie had this whole diva attitude around her, even in line readings. She also was the only one not doing pseudo-Bennett choreography, and at the end most of my friends were going, "I liked it, but why did he pick Cassie?"
http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer
#19re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 9:16pm
Okay, deep time...
When Sweeney kills Pirelli, no one can truly justify whether it was moral to kill someone who was threatening to blackmail you. When Sweeney kills the Judge, no one can justify whether it was moral to kill someone who took your wife and is about to marry your daughter.
So the question (rather than message) that Sondheim puts out-what IS the definition of right? What IS the definition of morality? What was moral to Sweeney is moral to you?
Whoever says money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to shop. - Bo Derek
#20re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 9:17pmEvery time the actors stopped singing and started speaking dialogue in "9 to 5." Still gives me shudders.
willrogers2008
Featured Actor Joined: 12/9/08
#21re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/6/09 at 9:30pmPippin finale was Fosse or Schwartz concept ?
moowithme85
Understudy Joined: 7/6/09
#22re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/7/09 at 12:44am
LOL about 9 to 5 "shudders." I would like to say that I was loving the show until Allison Janney came out dressed as Snow White, but even that's not true...I think I was only digging that show until Marc tried to feel up Megan Hilty in his office.
And I completely agree about Mimi coming back from the dead in Rent. Don't get me wrong, I love the musical. But a "white light?" Please.
#23re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/7/09 at 2:12am
I know that August: Osage County is a funny play, but both times I saw it the audience laughed long and uproariously at most lines. Far be it from me to stop people from laughing, but it ruined the pace of the play.
The trip sequence does not by any means ruin Hair, but it does drag a bit.
It's taken me a while to start to appreciate Sunday in the Park, but I still think the first act just runs itself into the ground, especially after We Do Not Belong Together.
The final scene of Sweeney Todd drags a little. I always thought it should end with a fadeout after the police barge in on Toby holding Sweeney's body.
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#24re: Moments in a play or musical that almost ruin it?
Posted: 7/7/09 at 2:14am
Speaking of dragging...
The Dream dance sequence in "Oklahoma!" makes me sleepy.
Whoever says money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to shop. - Bo Derek
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