Badly Titled Shows
Badly Titled Shows#25
Posted: 7/5/10 at 4:32pm
SPIDER MAN--Yay! We know what that is! TURN OFF THE DARK--A bad lyric by The Cure?
GOT TU GO DISCO
ROCKABYE HAMLET (in the tree top?)
MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG--Maybe this title sold tickets in the 1930's when everyone was lightheaded from starvation, but not now.
A BROADWAY MUSICAL--And...?
DUDE
THE TAP DANCE KID--An ABC Afterschool Special
BABY--Just makes the imagination reel, no?
GREASE--Ewww!
13
HAIR--"I heard it's even better than NAILS!"
Badly Titled Shows#26
Posted: 7/5/10 at 7:56pmDancin-- Yeah, I kind of have to agree about La Cage. I heard the name when I was younger and thought it was a serious French show. (Then again, I avoided Les Mis during elementary school because I thought that was in French, too, so maybe I'm just really dumb.)
Badly Titled Shows#28
Posted: 7/5/10 at 8:21pmDo You Turn Somersaults
Badly Titled Shows#29
Posted: 7/5/10 at 8:28pm
Caroline, or Change could have stood a better title.
Badly Titled Shows#30
Posted: 7/6/10 at 12:06pmHello Love <- This for a musical based on Miracle on 34th Street?!?! Probably could have been a hit if there had been some connection of the title to the material.
Badly Titled Shows#31
Posted: 7/6/10 at 3:56pmBest Little Whorehouse in Texas- just seems... vulgar.
Badly Titled Shows#32
Posted: 8/23/14 at 3:08am
For me? 'The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism with a Key to the Scriptures'
As brilliant as Tony Kushner is, it's almost like he goes out of his way to be pretentious with his titles.
Badly Titled Shows#33
Posted: 8/23/14 at 3:26am
IRMA LA DOUCE
LYSISTRATA JONES
THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT - THE SMELL OF THE CROWD
HALF PAST WEDNESDAY (seriously though, the word "Rumplestiltsken" was in much larger text than the title, so why not just call it that?)
THE ACT
BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR
THE GIRL WHO CAME TO SUPPER (The Man Who Came to Dinner?)
Understudy Joined: 8/14/04
Badly Titled Shows#34
Posted: 8/23/14 at 4:44amsingtopher - I am not saying that it isn't a bad title but wondered why you thought it bad for American audiences specifically?
Badly Titled Shows#35
Posted: 8/23/14 at 5:41am
Raisin!
One example where just using the original title, A Raisin in the Sun and putting : The Musical after would have been preferable.
Badly Titled Shows#36
Posted: 8/23/14 at 8:50am
This one always leaps to mind for me.
Badly Titled Shows#37
Posted: 8/23/14 at 8:58am
Love Never Dies
Stephen Ward
Spiderman Turn Off The Dark (I don't understand why the 'turn off the dark' was needed)
Badly Titled Shows#38
Posted: 8/23/14 at 11:11am
I believe that was "Here's Love" (and not hello as in Dolly!) but either way, you're right - no connection to "Miracle on 34th Street"
And in the context of the show, the themes and its symbolism - "Hair" is a great title!
Badly Titled Shows#40
Posted: 8/23/14 at 2:40pm
LOVELY LADIES, KIND GENTLEMEN
Seriously??? I know it's a reference to a line in the source material but it's such a clunker.
Also, HOME SWEET HOMER.
Broadway Star Joined: 8/15/06
Badly Titled Shows#41
Posted: 8/23/14 at 3:02pmAUNT DAN AND LEMON. Whoever had an aunt named Dan? Who was ever named Lemon?
Broadway Star Joined: 2/21/06
Badly Titled Shows#43
Posted: 8/23/14 at 8:52pm
"ROCKABYE HAMLET (in the tree top?)"
I thought it was With a Dixie Melody.
Broadway Star Joined: 2/21/06
Badly Titled Shows#45
Posted: 8/23/14 at 8:59pm
And in the context of the show, the themes and its symbolism - "Hair" is a great title!
True. I wonder if Borstalboy is old enough to remember the 1960s. Hair (the substance as well as the show) was discussed to a degree that seems impossible (and laughable) now.
Badly Titled Shows#46
Posted: 8/23/14 at 9:14pmAny show with the F-word in it reeks of desperation, or at least reeks of desperation for attention. Some go for the so bad it's good kind i.e., "Urinetown" Some are purposely confusing: (I guess to get your mind working) "August: Osage County". Some are so bad you can't believe it's that bad (Phoenix). Some are incredibly dull: Dividing The Estate". But in fairness some are thankfully and exactly on target i.e., "Kinky Boots"
Badly Titled Shows#47
Posted: 8/23/14 at 10:37pm
MY FAIR LADY. We know it so well that we don't stop to ask, what the heck does it mean? I guess it's a cockney pun, sort of, but really...what the heck does it mean?
Badly Titled Shows#48
Posted: 8/23/14 at 10:46pm
SONG AND DANCE
I know it was only a musical for the first act, but that just sounds boring.
Badly Titled Shows#49
Posted: 8/23/14 at 11:14pmOne of my favorite bad titles is John Guare's drama A FEW STOUT INDIVIDUALS. Sounds like it's set on a fat farm, but it's not. There was also a drama produced at the Coconut Grave Playhouse in Miami several years ago called CRUSH THE INFAMOUS THING. But that's so clumsy, it kind of works -- that is, it makes you wonder what on earth the play is about.
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