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!"
Dancin-- 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.)
Do You Turn Somersaults
Caroline, or Change could have stood a better title.
Hello 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.
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas- just seems... vulgar.
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.
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
singtopher - I am not saying that it isn't a bad title but wondered why you thought it bad for American audiences specifically?
Raisin!
One example where just using the original title, A Raisin in the Sun and putting : The Musical after would have been preferable.
This one always leaps to mind for me.
Love Never Dies
Stephen Ward
Spiderman Turn Off The Dark (I don't understand why the 'turn off the dark' was needed)
Featured Actor Joined: 6/28/05
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!
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
AUNT DAN AND LEMON. Whoever had an aunt named Dan? Who was ever named Lemon?
Understudy Joined: 4/5/13
Broadway Star Joined: 2/21/06
"ROCKABYE HAMLET (in the tree top?)"
I thought it was With a Dixie Melody.
Broadway Star Joined: 2/21/06
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.
Broadway Star Joined: 9/23/11
Any 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"
Featured Actor Joined: 11/1/13
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?
SONG AND DANCE
I know it was only a musical for the first act, but that just sounds boring.
Stand-by Joined: 10/25/12
One 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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