GHOST The Musical Reivews — Page 5

Emotional junk food has its place. Everyone can use a good cry now and again.

Odds are, a good number of ticket buyers for Ghost are people in the mood to see something that pulls at their heartstrings.

Because they've chosen to see Ghost. They know what they're getting: a weepy romantic story.

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I don't like Ghost the Musical. In the same way I don't eat cheap hot dogs. (Other people like them though).

I get the feeling the critics are being a little savage because they know the show will by-pass them and find its own audience anyway.

I remember when Wicked got mixed to negative reviews... and Les Miserables was panned, and.

Maybe the yanks are just still tired of Brits putting big shows in to NYC? haha.

The score for GHOST, on the whole, is pretty terrible - but one can't deny it's a story that NORMAL people will enjoy seeing (not critics). It really annoyed me how all critics pointed out that a set broke in a preview... quite unprofessional of the critics.

I agree that Sam is a pretty dull character before he dies and the audience doesn't fall in love with him the same way Molly does - but the piece is still an exciting, and in some ways visually groundbreaking, piece of visceral theatre. The illusions are the best you'll ever see on stage in the East Coast; lighting and sound design are beautiful and the LED technology is extremely well created.

Still - I doubt the creative team really are bothered... they're going to throw MATILDA on Broadway next...

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It's not the creative team that care about the monetary side of things, though, aside from royalty payments. Ghost is all but forgotten in London in terms of the sterling work the creative team went on to do for Matilda.

It's Colin Ingram, the producer (at least I assume he's producing it in the States?), who's got more to worry about than anything.

Ghost has an ambitious international roll-out planned before the show is even really proven as a hit - the Dutch production opens later this year (HOW it's going to make any money in Utrecht I have no idea unless it's redesigned) and the Australian production has previously been mentioned. There's a lot riding on the success of this production in particular.

Philadelphia Enquirer - Positive
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20120424_Broadway_review___lsquo_Ghost_rsquo_.html?cmpid=138887484

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Bottom line.
When you make a musical out of a movie....especially a beloved hit movie like Ghost, Producers, Hairspray, Color Purple..
it better be as good and preferably add something that the movie didn't have.

In the case of Producers and Hairspray, the creative team succeeded. The music,performances, choreography, the set (who can forget Tracy upright in her bed for the opening number or Edna coming out of a can of Hairspray) the lighting was spot on and brought joy laughter and amazement to the audience.

The Color Purple and Ghost bring another kind of amazement. An amazement equaling WTF??

So the subject is Ghost. The songs are beyond awful. Some of the critics called then pleasant but bland. To me that is kind Why are Eurythmics and Cyndi Lauper and whatever awful Rock Group wrote Spiderman stay out of musicals? Go back to Party City where you belong!

The performers. Cassie Levy was generic and bland like the music.
Richard Fleeshman was humpy but saddled with generic bland music.
Oda Mae, nicely reinvented from Whoopi by Ms. Randolph was a delight. Again, her musical numbers could have been better.

If you can't improve on the movie.... just don't make the musical. It's as simple as that.

And what did Ghost the musical try to do? Make it like the movie with cinema projections. Add horrific music to interrupt the material. And some Magic Tricks.

Now make it disappear.

Perfectly said, goldenboy, for me, at least.

But there are a lot of people who are happy to watch something like Ghost, an awkwardly adapted movie that they like, with some irrelevant songs shoved in, a few high/loud voices, lots of lights, and some interesting special effects (not new special effects, though: these effects have been in use by magicians and theme parks for more than 20 years).

This is the audience being catered to by creators and presenters of bland pedestrian fare like Shrek, 9 to 5, Singin' in the Rain, Legally Blonde, etc., etc., etc.

To the fans of that kind of thing - you should try to understand that many of us loathe the transformation of Broadway from a place for fascinating & thought-provoking theatre to a theme park of mindless & two-dimensional amusement; if shows like Ghost become the norm, more interesting fare like Scottsboro Boys, A Catered Affair, The Light in the Piazza, Grey Gardens, etc., may vanish completely.

And that would be a tragedy.

Critical aggregation site Stagegrade gives Ghost a D. I'm pretty sure that makes it the worst reviewed Broadway show of the season.


Stagegrade

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It appears to be beyond some peoples' ken that sophisticated persons can enjoy art such as Grey Gardens, Pillowman, The Sorrow and Pity, Eugene Atget, German Lieder AND Ghost. Those people are lucky that such a broad spectrum of work gives them so much pleasure.

Those who make value judgments about entire audiences for specific art sound like very limited thinkers.

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I bet that majority of those people all enjoy a lot of shows that they put down, Jane.

Most of the negativity is just anonymous message board chatter.

I don't think it should really be taken all that seriously.

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"Make it disappear."

"Ghost should close today."

How generous toward the hundreds of people who are earning their living in this particular piece of entertainment. To say nothing of the audiences who might disagree, some quite strongly. And many have. Such absolute and draconian proclamations would be unheard of in any other industry. ("Close that factory!" "Make that store disappear!") Artists love their art, yet they are hard workers, too and shows are their jobs. It's not always about one's personal hopes and dreams for the evolution of the musical theater, or deeply held beliefs about art. Art and commerce are necessary bedfellows, always have been and always will be. If a sustaining number of people fail to purchase tickets, the free market will determine GHOST's fate. But to wish an enormous number of people disappearing paychecks and shuttered places of employment because of aesthetic outrage is as sad as it is unkind.

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Curtain Critic has its Overall score at 36, but is also showing a high Tech score of 73:

http://www.curtaincritic.com/Shows/GHOST_THE_MUSICAL_REVIEWS-143.html

After reading all these reviews, the likelihood of Spider-Man getting a Best Musical nomination doesn't seem too far from reality anymore...