#1
Posted: 10/4/04 at 2:49pm
I came on here to get some early reviews of Brooklyn, to help me try to decide whether or not to go pay for a ticket to this thing. Well, after all the gushing raves I have read, that is exactly what I did. Only later did I find out about the whole "shill" controversy on this particular show. If this post can save one more person from shelling out hard earned dollars to see that travesty of musical theatre, then I've done my job.
Brooklyn has got to be, hands down, one of the worst things I have ever seen on a Broadway stage. The only redeeming thing in the show is the acting and a sometimes clever bit of direction. The costumes and set that everyone has been raving about are just gimmicky (literally) trash. This has to be one of the ugliest and most cluttered stages I have ever seen.
The score is just ridiculous, and the book might have been written by a fifth grader. The music and lyrics are just a big chunk of moldy cheese. It sounds like Celine Dion woke up all hungover one morning and while sitting on the toilet, decided to write a musical on a piece of toilet paper. Whoever thought this show needed to be on Broadway is going to have quite a rude awakening when the critics tear it to shreds after opening night.
People have made comments such as "Well, you shouldn't go in expecting a lot from the book, and then you'll enjoy it." HUH???? With tickets topping $100 these days, you better believe I expect a lot from the book, music, lyrics, and everything else in the show. Sure, it might be momentarily campy fun to watch a Madison Square Garden "singoff" with two divas wearing garbage bags, and there may be an ocassional interesting bit of stage wizardry, but these moments are few and far between, and once you "get" the "trash as props and costumes" gimmick, there's not much to fill in the holes of this swiss cheese nightmare.
Sure its always great to hear powerful performers, but the vocal histronics demonstrated in such songs as RAVEN or ONCE UPON A TIME have all been seen before in better, more coherent shows. These are clearly performers who have been directed to oversing weak material in order to compensate for the fact that what they are singing sounds like B tracks on an elevator music album.
An absolutely abominable experience.
Brooklyn has got to be, hands down, one of the worst things I have ever seen on a Broadway stage. The only redeeming thing in the show is the acting and a sometimes clever bit of direction. The costumes and set that everyone has been raving about are just gimmicky (literally) trash. This has to be one of the ugliest and most cluttered stages I have ever seen.
The score is just ridiculous, and the book might have been written by a fifth grader. The music and lyrics are just a big chunk of moldy cheese. It sounds like Celine Dion woke up all hungover one morning and while sitting on the toilet, decided to write a musical on a piece of toilet paper. Whoever thought this show needed to be on Broadway is going to have quite a rude awakening when the critics tear it to shreds after opening night.
People have made comments such as "Well, you shouldn't go in expecting a lot from the book, and then you'll enjoy it." HUH???? With tickets topping $100 these days, you better believe I expect a lot from the book, music, lyrics, and everything else in the show. Sure, it might be momentarily campy fun to watch a Madison Square Garden "singoff" with two divas wearing garbage bags, and there may be an ocassional interesting bit of stage wizardry, but these moments are few and far between, and once you "get" the "trash as props and costumes" gimmick, there's not much to fill in the holes of this swiss cheese nightmare.
Sure its always great to hear powerful performers, but the vocal histronics demonstrated in such songs as RAVEN or ONCE UPON A TIME have all been seen before in better, more coherent shows. These are clearly performers who have been directed to oversing weak material in order to compensate for the fact that what they are singing sounds like B tracks on an elevator music album.
An absolutely abominable experience.
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