Composers you either love or hate
Zeitoujo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/3/06
#1Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 8:07pm
My list is:
1. Sondheim
2. Lloyd Webber
#2re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 8:10pmI dont know if I actually HATE Sondheim....but I'm tired of him. Do we have to revive every one of his shows?? Enough! I appreciate his talent, I like one or two of his shows...but I'm very over him.
#2re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 8:14pm
Your post is unclear. Are you saying you LOVE both of them or HATE both of them or hate one of them and love one of them?
for what it's worth...
HATE: the Cry-Baby composers and Andrew Lloyd Webber
LOVE: Marc Shaiman, Tysen & Miller, Georgia Stitt (JRB's wife), Scott Alan
INDIFFERENT/OVERRATED: Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown.
Updated On: 4/14/08 at 08:14 PM
#3re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 8:18pm
I think they want Marmite composers. Ones where people are very definite on their opinion, ones with no "I think they're okay" fence-sitting.
Frank Wildhorn and Andrew Lloyd Webber, I reckon. The people who hate them are very vocal about hating them, but there's enough people around who think they're great to keep 'em going. I for one love Wildhorn, even though I recognise I should possibly feel shame at this fact.
#4re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 8:20pm
Sondheim, definitely, although for the record I LOVE him!
I feel like Schwartz would fall under this category... I consistently dislike his work
misschung
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/18/07
#5re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 8:32pmAgreed with Schwartz and Sondheim.
#6re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 8:40pm
Love: Andrew Lloyd Webber & Frank Wildhorn.
Hate: Schwarts, and the majority of Sondheim's stuff. And his attitude.
#7re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 8:43pm
"majority of Sondheim's stuff. And his attitude."
... says the poster who has Webber under the LOVE category.
but I'll stop right there.
Urban
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/05
#8re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 8:55pmIf you are talking about a sharp polarisation between theatre fans in general, definately Schwartz. People even love him or loathe him. He just doesn't have alot of the grey middle ground where people just go 'bleh'.
#9re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 8:55pm
Sondheim's attitude is all there's better things to life than composing music, like making video games.
Atleast Lloyd Webber continues to make it.
#10re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 9:05pm
Sondheim has been more successful than Webber and is much older. He's not at the same stage...
Webber is still writing crap upon crap.
Sondheim is relaxing, enjoying his hobby of creating board games (not video games), and working on BOUNCE rewrites.
#11re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 9:31pm
I don't entirely hate Sondheim. I do enjoy Sunday + Sweeney & if you want to include Gypsy.
But inregards to Sondheim being more successful than Webber? I say no way. Lloyd Webber in 1988, according to the Time Article, was worth a personal $200 million. (http://tinyurl.com/5ckw9z)
And if you're talking about shows, a lot of Lloyd Webber's shows play for about 1000 performances, give or take, while Sondheim's longest running show is 964. Lloyd Webber is much more popular and well-known to the general public, and his shows generally speaking run over a year. Sondheim shows do not usually, not even the 'recent' revival of Sweeney Todd which starred two broadway 'legends.' http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=12430
#12re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 9:34pmAm I the only one who thinks Adam Guetell's music sounds like nothing? He's got a few lovely songs, bit for the most part, I'm not a fan...
#13re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 9:37pm
Love: Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Jerry Herman
Not too fond of: Andrew Llyod Webber and Stephen Schwartz
#14re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 9:45pmLarry O'Keefe...love some...hate some...
#15re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 9:49pm
#16re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 10:01pm
dramarama - do you mean Larry O'Key Change?
see: LEGALLY BLONDE score
on the other hand, I loved his work in BAT BOY. gotta take the good with bad I guess..
Tom148502
Featured Actor Joined: 5/21/07
#17re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 10:10pm
I like Sondheim's work, but detest the ego-centric man
#18re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 11:18pmCount me in on Guettel. I've tried an tried, but Piazza's score does absolutely nothing for me.
#19re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 11:24pmI cannot stand Michael John LaChiusa's work. Everything I've seen of his has been more dreadful than the last.
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#20re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 11:26pm
i'm both with sondheim.
is that possible?
#21re: Composers you either love or hate
Posted: 4/14/08 at 11:35pm
I don't hate any of Sondheim's work, but like any other composer he has his ups and downs.
However, Andrew Lloud Webber has more downs than ups, but out of 100, he's had 5 ups. He can write some nice things, but I just think a majority of it are filler songs and fluff. He does however, write nice anthems.
Larry O' Keefe is definitely a hit or miss with me. Some of it is nice, some of it is...worse.
I don't have many composers that are hit or miss. I really just appreciate what each composer has to offer.
I understand how Sondheim can be hit or miss, but I've never found him ego-tistical. Just a different sense of humor, that's all. And as another poster said: he's older now, he wants to enjoy life, and any theatre composer can tell you how much of a challenge it is to write a show. I just think he likes to poke fun at it now.
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