Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 2/14/16- Page 2
Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 2/14/16
Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 2/14/16#25
Posted: 2/18/16 at 12:03pm
BroadwayConcierge said: "I am a staunch advocate for and believer of supporting subjective artistic tastes and diversity/range of opinions. But jeez, Neverland was just so gosh-darn bad, people. You can only go so far."
I understand where you're coming from. I don't understand people who like Cats, or people who liked Kinky Boots more than Matilda, but at a certain point you just have to shrug it off and accept it.
It's also not always so black and white for people. For me, I agree that Finding Neverland was not very well put together, but I also found things to like about it. I'm a sucker for Peter Pan sentimentality, and relatively forgiving of a show's flaws when I feel that it has an emotional core that resonates with me. What I bring to FN as an audience member is completely different from what you brought, and thus we had completely different experiences.
Updated On: 2/18/16 at 12:03 PM
Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 2/14/16#26
Posted: 2/18/16 at 12:41pm
Considering the high percentage of successful musicals that are garbage, taking umbrage that something you consider organically bad borders on delusional. The sole purpose of a Broadway musical (not counting the nfp's) is to make money. Most shows that are considered "good" artistically are flops. Which is why Hamilton is so extraordinary.
Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 2/14/16#29
Posted: 2/18/16 at 2:01pm
I'm shocked I've not seen Disaster on any papering services. If you've seen it on one feel free to PM me.
Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 2/14/16#30
Posted: 2/18/16 at 2:41pm
@PThespian liking a show and being literate don't really have a great deal to do with one another. I am probably as literate as any soul who posts here, but that doesn't preclude me from liking something that is not literate at all. Sometimes we just get a hoot out of something that's dumb. It's allowed. The "problem" is that some people like to sniff that they are culturally literate 24/7, and of course also there is the standard clique here who like to pretend their taste is "correct" which just proves how truly "illiterate" they are.
Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 2/14/16#31
Posted: 2/18/16 at 5:32pm
I understand where you're coming from. I don't understand people who like Cats, or people who liked Kinky Boots more than Matilda, but at a certain point you just have to shrug it off and accept it.
It's also not always so black and white for people. For me, I agree that Finding Neverland was not very well put together, but I also found things to like about it. I'm a sucker for Peter Pan sentimentality, and relatively forgiving of a show's flaws when I feel that it has an emotional core that resonates with me. What I bring to FN as an audience member is completely different from what you brought, and thus we had completely different experiences.
I understand that people have different tastes. Even people with bad taste have taste, if you think about it.
My huge problem with Neverland is that it's telling a story which is demonstrably untrue. I don't have a problem with fiction -- but it's very different when you tell the public that you are telling history. JM Barrie was a real person, and the "liberties" taken with what happened during his life (and to the other very real people in the show) are way over the top.
People who go see a show about a real person or a real story should be able to assume that the bulk of what is being told actually happened. And for Neverland, that's not the case.
Updated On: 2/18/16 at 05:32 PM
Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 2/14/16#32
Posted: 2/18/16 at 5:57pm
Mike66 said: "My huge problem with Neverland is that it's telling a story which is demonstrably untrue. I don't have a problem with fiction -- but it's very different when you tell the public that you are telling history. JM Barrie was a real person, and the "liberties" taken with what happened during his life (and to the other very real people in the show) are way over the top."
But that has no direct correlation with the quality of the show, or how much one can enjoy it. I can understand that something like that can leave a bitter dramaturgical taste in your mouth, but taking liberties with a true story is a practice as old as storytelling itself, and it is often a method of improving the storytelling. I don't personally know much about Barrie's life, but it's quite likely that some of the elements of his true story that were changed, would not have made for a very good story onstage (of course, many people feel that it didn't end up being a good story onstage anyway, but that's not my point). People don't go to Finding Neverland to learn about J.M Barrie's life. They have Wikipedia for that. They go to be entertained. You can have an amazing show that takes lots of liberties with the true story it's based on. Sometimes I see shows (the recent musical "Invisible Thread" comes to mind) which are based on true stories that really could have used MORE changes from what actually happened, because the real sequence of events just don't always work onstage.
"People who go see a show about a real person or a real story should be able to assume that the bulk of what is being told actually happened. And for Neverland, that's not the case."
Don't you think that's a bit of an exaggeration? I mean, sure they took LOTS of liberties, but the "bulk" of what is being told is how J.M Barrie was stuck for inspiration, met the family, grew close to them, felt inspired by them and wrote Peter Pan which was a big success. Isn't that pretty much what actually happened? It's not like they're claiming he wrote Moby Dick.
TD;DR - basically, being historically inaccurate doesn't automatically make it bad.
Updated On: 2/18/16 at 05:57 PM
Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 2/14/16#33
Posted: 2/18/16 at 9:16pm
Can someone tell me what is meant in this thread by calling Finding Neverland "not literate" or "sub-literate"? I very much doubt that the script consists of a series of pictures. :)
Videos
