Best and Worst Show You've Ever Seen- Page 4

[vfd88]

Posted: 6/12/10 at 6:15pm

Best:
-Company (2006 Revival)
-Hair (2009 Revival)
-Spring Awakening

Worst:
-Memphis (I saw the show in previews and was sure it would be a critical bloodbath. I'm now shocked and upset that it's the front-runner for Best Musical and many other categories.)
-Blue Man Group (Gave me a headache)

[wonkit]

Posted: 6/12/10 at 8:29pm

Best: SWEENEY TODD (1979 original with Cariou and Lansbury, probably the most vivid night in any theater for me, although I also loved the recent revival)
KISMET (1965(?) Lincoln Center summer, with Alfred Drake - OMG, words fail me)
COMPANY (2006 revival, thank you Raul Esparza)

Worst: BILLY ELLIOT - never connected for me
MAMA MIA!
CATS

ETA: Musicals only. If I start with non-musicals, I'll be up all night trying to decide.

Updated On: 6/12/10 at 08:29 PM

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:47am

Best:
In The Heights
Billy Elliot
Hair
Phantom
Mary Poppins
(just to name a few)
Worst:
Annie
STOMP- This show is just plain awful in my opinion. 90 minutes of noise. Most expensive headache I have ever had.

[backwoodsbarbie]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 10:12am

Best: A Chorus Line (2006 revival)

Worst: Billy Elliott

[DrewBill]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 10:29am

Best:
Sweeney Todd (1979 Original)
Nicholas Nickleby (1981 Original)
Angels In America (1993)
Gypsy (2007, LuPone at City Center)

Worst:
Cry-Baby

[Pippin]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 11:29am

"STOMP- This show is just plain awful in my opinion. 90 minutes of noise. Most expensive headache I have ever had."

You were expecting Pinter?

[Hannahbelle]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 11:37am

I'm writing about shows I've seen on Broadway
Best: Ragtime (original), Rent, The Lion King, Billy Elliot, Spring Awakening
Worst: Urinetown, Nine

[americanboy99]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 11:51am

BEST: Gypsy (LuPone revival)

WORST: Chicago (touring production of the revival, DREADFUL)

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 2:11pm

"You were expecting Pinter?"

Ha no, I was not expecting a deep theatrical experience, but I was expecting to at least be somewhat entertained.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 4:57pm

Best musical: Original production of Sweeney Todd, with Cariou and Lansbury
Best play: Long Day's Journey Into Night, Jonathan Miller's production with Jack Lemmon, Bethel Leslie, and Peter Gallagher

I'll take a pass on naming the worst, though I will say that at one time I might have agreed with the person who listed the original production of La Cage aux Folles as among his worst. When I first saw it, I thought it was the worst musical production I'd ever seen, but I've seen far worse since then.

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 8:52pm

Best(tie): Hair (2009 Revival) and Avenue Q
Worst (tie): Camelot (2009-2010 tour) and Beauty and the Beast (2009-2010 Tour)

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 10:48pm

"Worst: Urinetown, Nine"



Um. You have wretched taste.

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 11:33pm

Best: Sunday in the Park with George
Worst: The Fantasticks

[hpeabody930]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 11:47pm

BEST:
Hair (Central Park)
Passing Strange
Topdog/Underdog (6th street playhouse)
The Grapes of Wrath (6th street playhouse)
August:Osage County
Equivocation (Oregon Shakespeare)
Ruined
Sleep No More (ART)

WORST:
Paradise Lost (ART) bad bad BAAAAAAADDDDDD the only show I have ever left at intermission.

[philly03]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 12:03am

Best:
Ragtime (2009 Revival)
LuPone Gypsy
A Tale of Two Cities...the musical

Worst:
Hair
Joseph and the...
13

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 1:59am

Best: The Light In The Piazza.
Worst: Camelot with Lou Diamond Phillips.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 3:15am

Best: It's hard to say- I'm very bad at coming up with bests.

Worst: I think the worst professional show I have seen was Coraline, which was off-Broadway two seasons ago. Absolutely dreadful.

[silversurfer2]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 8:09am

BEST: A Chorus Line {Original} Spring Awakening, Sweeny Todd {Original} Sunday in the Park with George {Original & Revival}Angels in America {1993} and August: Osage County
WORST: CATS...enuf said.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 8:26am

Best:
1776 (original tour)
A Chorus Line (original tour)
Torch Song Trilogy (OBC)
Ragtime (American Premiere Cast - L.A.)
Lion King (OBC)
Cats (OBC)
Drowsy Chaperone (pre-Broadway)

Worst:
Rageddy Ann: The Musical (OBC)
Titanic (Broadway)
Mary Poppins (OBC)

Updated On: 7/16/10 at 08:26 AM

[chewy5000]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 8:38am

I don't really understand the hate for CATS. Maybe its just because I like trashy things...

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 8:46am

Seeing the OBC of Cats is one of the best theatrical experiences I've ever had. And I've never seen a big-scale musical that unconventional on Broadway, before or since.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:25am

Unconventional?

There are many adjectives I would apply to Cats; "unconventional" is certainly not one of them. Particularly not after having ever seen a piece of children's theatre.

[artscallion]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:30am

Best: The Light in the Piazza
Worst: The Pirate Queef

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:40am

You're full of crap, newintown. How many $10 million-dollar (read $25 million in today's money) children's musicals have you ever seen? I assume you've seen children's musicals with choreography like that, set to poetry?

I said BIG-SCALE, UNCONVENTIONAL ... Can't you read?

Updated On: 7/16/10 at 09:40 AM

[newintown]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:48am

Thanks, best12, you're sweet. Kiss your mama with that mouth?

I don't care how much money was spent on that piece of idiot fodder, there is now and never was anything remotely UNCONVENTIONAL about Cats. The show is brain-dead. It's children's theatre (with, as you brilliantly point out, a large price tag attached). Even in the dark year in which it premiered, there was nothing new about it. That's why the mindless herd embraces it.