BROADWAY SECRETS: Wherein we confess our controversial opinions — Page 8

I want a new, more broadway, host that is just as funny as Neil Patrick Harris....perhaps Nathan Lane or Kristin Chenowith?

Eek!
After her wholesale slaughter of the Oscar pre-show this year, no one should let Chenowith near a hosting role again.

I agree with liking(most of) season 2 of Smash better than season 1.

I don't see why there needs to be a rivalry between Stephen Sondheim fans and Andrew Lloyd Webber fans. I like both composers for different reasons (even though I like Sondheim more). I think both men are legends, though, and have had a profound influence on musical theatre and making it what it is today.

I liked Randy Graff's Fantine on the OBC recording of Les Mis. She's not my all-time favorite in the role, but I think she was good.

Updated On: 6/21/13 at 02:10 AM

beagle-I enjoy both Lloyd-Webber and Sondheim. (I think they're different and both are important. I prefer Sondheim, much like you, but that doesn't mean I won't catch Phantom every so often!)

I think we need more productions of less-often produced Shakespearean texts-a little less Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Lear, etc., and a little more of the works that don't go produced. (2 Romeo and Juliet productions in the fall! Come on, he was a very prolific writer!)

Controversial opinion:

Just once, I'd like to see a musical announced with the billing:

"Music by ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER
Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM"

Just to see the fan bases' heads explode. Sondheim's cynical, literate, provocative lyrics, teamed with the breathtaking melodies of ALW.

(Yes, breathtaking. When ALW began his career thirty years ago, he wrote in the rock and roll idiom, a musical language he knew and loved. His harmonic vocabulary may be limited, but that's because of where he started. He excels in the relatively simple, repetitive language of rock and roll, but when he tries today to write in a more classical, more sophisticated style, his limitations show through. His writing ability hasn't diminished, but when he changed styles, our expectations changed as well, and he couldn't meet them. Put the same melodies back in his comfort zone and they work. What sounded repetitious in the attempt at classical European sound that is Phantom or the pseudo-jazz style of Sunset Boulevard, for example, sounds driving and primal in Jesus Christ Superstar.)

A simple, palatable score paired with the best lyrics ever written... I, for one, think it would be a really interesting combo. Unlikely to ever happen, but interesting.

---

Updated On: 12/18/13 at 09:35 AM

Brand new here, and I had to chime in with my opinions:

I don't care for [title of show]. The music grates on my nerves.

I like only one ALW show: "Sunset Blvd."

Patti LuPone's voice annoys me terribly.

I left "Aida" at intermission because it was overwrought and ridiculous.

I'm tired of Bernadette Peters, especially after her poorly-done Mama Rose.

I think BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON recieved far less love than it deserved.

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN could make for a fantastic revival if Alex Timbers was the director.

Laura Benanti was robbed for WOMEN ON THE VERGE. She created a very well-rounded character as opposed to Nikki M. James' one-note and boring Nabalungi.

Jessie Mueller has been a star from the minute she hit the boards. She has never failed in any show she has done to date.

---

I'm new here, so here it goes!

Something about Megan Hilty annoys the crap out of me.

I HATE the musical Company (except for the song Being Alive). It might have been the movie that I watched (the one on Netflix), but Robert just annoyed the bejesus out of me.

I will always think the movie Chicago is better than the actual show. I always feel like there is something missing from the musical.

I'm in love with Big Fish, and I'm secretly pissed that it's closing.

I really want If/Then to do well on Broadway, but I honestly can't see it going far at all.

And thank you Singing Chef, Neil Patrick Harris also annoys me.

I think Lindsay Mendez vibratos her voice WAY too much in Wicked.

And I'm full heartedly in love with the 2010 revival cast recording of Promises, Promises.

And I'm getting sick of waiting for Kristin Chenoweth to revive On the Twentieth Century!

Updated On: 12/20/13 at 08:11 AM

I don't care for Stritch, Liza, Channing, or any other singer that used to have a voice, but now sound like a rickety old barrel rattling with the wind. Please stop putting people on the stage for maudlin sentimental reasons or just "to watch them crash and burn".

I can't stand Spring Awakening. I never really got the shows hype.

I think plays and revivals are the saving grace of Broadway.

Most modern musicals have terrible scores and stock plots and characters.

Orchestras will probably be gone in 10 years. At least in new musicals.

I think Spiderman was the most visually stunning show I have seen on Broadway.

---

I hate FOLLIES so much I can't even explain it

I think Sondheim die-hards are the most obnoxious people to walk this planet. The man has had his dud songs and shows but you might as well be trying to convince the Westburo Church that gays aren't hated by Jesus then speak of that to them.

I increasingly find myself being bored with modern shows and am finding opera more satisfying evening of theater.

I loved Lord of the Rings on stage

I still feel Avenue Q deserved what it won

I still love Cats and Starlight Express as pure entertainment

Grey Gardens should still be running.

^Agree full heartedly.