Badly Titled Shows
Badly Titled Shows
#1Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/3/10 at 10:36pmJust interested in opinions of shows that have suffered from titles that were nebulous or could stand a new marketing strategy. "Redhead" seems an obvious choice. While the title is relevent to the piece, neither it or the poster indicate what the show is really about.
chewy5000
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/1/09
2ndBalcony
Chorus Member Joined: 11/26/06
#2Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/3/10 at 11:00pm
Thread killer. After you've said "Urinetown", nobody else can say a word.
PS, I love Urinetown! - personal note: I was in NY trying to get in to see Wicked just after it opened. Yeah, right. While I was glumly walking back to my hotel, I saw this black theater with a totally obnoxious name. Well, WTH. I went in, and it was AWESOME!!!! I've seen Wicked many times since, but never enjoyed it as much as Urinetown on Broadway. And I did buy the Urinetown Bottled Water at the refreshment counter. Yum!
#3Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/3/10 at 11:01pmLove Never Dies
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
#4Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/3/10 at 11:23pm
Think MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET is an awful title.
JELLY'S LAST JAM makes me think of smuckers.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. - Eleanor Roosevelt
AwesomeDanny
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/30/09
#5Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/3/10 at 11:35pmI don't see why Urinetown is a bad title. I think humor is implied in the title. Also, the title sounds like "you're in town", so when you read the title, it adds to the humor.
#6Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/3/10 at 11:37pmJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dram-coat... too wordy
#7Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/3/10 at 11:40pmAwesomeDanny, I believe the posters who listed URINETOWN were including it because the title is actually mocked within the show for being so odd.
#8Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/3/10 at 11:45pmChitty Chitty Bang Bang
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
#9Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 12:38amPersonally, I always thought that "Watching the Children Play in the Park on a Sunday Afternoon When the Thunderstorms Theatrened and the Nannies Ducked for Cover" was really just a very bad name for a musical.
#10Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 2:57pmYes, Urinetown is in fact a great title - Little Sally's claims to the contrary. But I sure agree the Love Never Dies is an awful title.
Faced with these Loreleis, what man can moralize!
#11Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 3:13pmI never wanted to see Sunday in the Park With George because the title sounded so dumb to me... then I heard what it was about and was intrigued, and now I love it. But by the title alone, I never would have had anything to do with it.
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
#12Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 3:27pm
Ragtime- Brought to you by Tampax.
Pippin
Half a Sixpence
Subways are for Sleeping
1776
Bklyn
"I'm an American, Damnit!!! And if it's three things I don't believe in, it's quitting and math."
AEA AGMA SM
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
#14Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 3:27pm
An example of combining an ambiguous title with artwork that gives absolutely no idea of what the show is about:
No wonder the show couldn't find an audience
#15Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 3:44pm
Chu-Chem
Gutenberg! The Musical
Welcome To The Club
3 Guys Naked From The Waist Down
Cry For Us All
Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?
How Now Dow Jones
Lunch
Now Is The Time For All Good Men
Zanna Don't
....but the world goes 'round
#16Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 4:10pm
"The Will Rodgers Follies" always bothered me.
It seems like the had a better, longer title in mind, but couldn't afford to pay for all the words...
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
"Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70
"Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
Stage Door Sally
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/4/09
#17Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 5:53pm
I loved Urinetown, but it was badly titled. I know people who wouldn't go because of that.
Yeah the story pokes fun at the name, and so did the advertisements for it. I don't think it helped much in drawing a crowd though. Shame.
I also think The Play What I Wrote is a stupid-sounding title, but it suited the show which was quite silly.
#18Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 8:19pmI am obsessed with the show, but "Sondheim on Sondheim"...really?
http://backstagebarbie.blogspot.com
#19Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 8:27pm
I don't know so much as these two are bad so much as wordy and confounding...though to their credit, I remember them well:
Four Baboons Adoring The Sun
Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme
#20Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/4/10 at 9:14pm
I am obsessed with the show, but "Sondheim on Sondheim"...really?
sounds like a filthy porno...I kinda want to see it
#23Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/5/10 at 12:53pmEnron...at least for american audiences.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
#24Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/5/10 at 2:37pm
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES.
I often wondered how many people avoided it because they assumed it was performed in French?
Even most people who like the show cannot promounce the title properly.
"To love another person is to see the face of God!"
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