Great Scores But Weak Shows?

JBroadway said: "There have been dozens of threads in this exact topic over the years"

Agreed.

The first musical that comes to mind is Bridges of Madison County.

@HamilHansen, I suggest you do some research on shows that got nominated for Best Original Score but didn't get nominated for Best Musical as a start.

Honestly, more scores are hampered by lousy books than vice versa, though there are a lot of notable ones - 70, Girls, 70, Merrily We Roll Along, and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are three big examples, but there are lots more.

I really loved the score for Bright Star - it sounded so different than usual Broadway fare. The book itself is weak, although Carmen Cusack and her co-stars made up for it.

Mack and Mabel -- Far and away Herman's best score, but the book is so bad that it doesn't matter

Chess -- I have seen three different productions, original London, original Broadway, and a scaled down version at the Signature Theatre in Shirlington, VA. The last was faraway the most entertaining, but still led me to think that it would never fully work on stage, because it is so cold.

Oklahoma -- Seeing the new version in October. Maybe, I will change my mind. Up to now, I have HATED every version the show I have seen (not a lot).

City of Angels -- Not sure it is a great score, but I have enjoyed it many times. I hate the show (not dislike, hate).

On a Clear Day -- Maybe not a great score, but a very entertaining one. The show definitely falls mega-short.

Rags -- I have not actually seen the show, but have heard that the show covered too much, and suffered because of that. Since it is one of my favorite scores ever (I didn't say best), I have to include this.

Merrily, We Roll Along -- at least in its original production. It was so bad that I didn't even appreciate the score initially. I saw it 2 years ago in Boston and the sort it just about perfect. That production should have been presented by the Roundabout.

Gigi -- I saw two Broadway productions, with the second much better than the first. I think the score is great, really given a terrific OCR, with at least 6-7 great songs. I play it constantly.

Titanic -- Maybe not a great score, but I love a lot of it, particularly the first 15 minutes. IMO the show never came up to the quality of the score, and I was very disappointed, though I did enjoy it.

Song & Dance -- At least on Broadway. Great score, horrible execution on Broadway.

Pippin. Great score and great Fosse choreography but the script is not that great.

I agree with many of those listed above, but I'd like to add:

Onward Victoria
Jane Eyre
Working
Is There Life After High School?
Anyone Can Whistle
Phantom (Maury Yeston)
The Baker's Wife
Seussical The Musical
Parade
Seesaw
War Paint
Steel Pier
Weird Romance (not Broadway)
Side Show
New Brain (not Broadway)
Dear World
A Class Act
King of Hearts
Magic Show (much of score)
Stop the World – I Want to Get Off

I'm sure there are more, but that's what I can think of now.

The last Broadway production of Flower Drum Song indicated that the show isn't very "revivable," but the cast recording gave me a new appreciation for the R&H score. The orchestrations were terrific, and I felt like I was hearing some of the songs -- like the normally disposable "Fan Tan Fannie" -- for the first time.

I second the person who mentioned Aspects of Love. The score is absolutely gorgeous, but ack...that book! Who's sleeping with who now and why should I still care?

And really I don't think the book to Follies is really that good. It especially sort of falls apart in the last half. But the score is one of the best ever written for the theater.

Updated On: 5/15/19 at 09:22 AM

Carousel for sure. Stunning score, but it's a total head scratcher to me that that weird show is considered a masterpiece of musical theatre.

But what first came to mind was Hair. One of my favorite scores to listen to (I have like 5 different recordings in my library) but every time I see the show itself I find it really underwhelming.

For a long time this was a pretty popular opinion on Pippin, due in part to the fact that the cast recording was very good and the only document of the Broadway production was a chopped-up video that removed many of the Fosse rewrites and additions. Time has been kind to the show, and both the 2000s "licensing edition" and the newly-standardized "revival version" of the show added back much of the Fosse material that was cut from the watered-down, more strictly Hirson-based version of the show licensed in the MTI "mimeograph" days, which did the show no favors.

JudyDenmark said: "Carousel for sure. Stunning score, but it's a total head scratcher to me that that weirdshow isconsidered a masterpiece of musical theatre.

But what first came to mind was Hair. One of my favorite scores to listen to (I have like 5 different recordings in my library) but every time I see the show itself I find it really underwhelming."

Hair produced so many top ten hits on covers. "Aquarius," "Easy to be Hard," "Hair," "Good Morning Starshine," "Let the Sunshine In."

And those weren't even my favorites. Love the "Black Boys" "White Boys" exchange, "What a Piece of Work is Man.' (Brush up your Shakespeare) And the dramatic segre from "The Flesh Failures" into "Let the Sunshine In." "Facing a dying nation," "A moving paper fantasy."

Did Rado and Ragni do anything nearly as successful again?