Has anyone seen SCANDALOUS lately...? — Page 6

First of all, did anyone go on 11/9? During the "Look at that girl" song, some huge fan or something made a racket and they had to hold the show - any word on what that was? (My guess was cooling fan for the lights.) Carolee swooped her cape to exit like a superhero. She's hilarious, and I was totally blown away by her voice (I've never seen her in something before). I really hope her next thing offers her more to work with. I'm now a Carmello Convert, and I want to see whatever she does next.

This show was too long for starters. Unless you're a Les Mis, and let's be real- there is always little chance something is, it's hard to justify that length. McPherson's life was interesting but the show seemed to go about it oddly. The pageant scenes seemed to suddenly appear. Also the advertisements led me to believe this was a show of a totally different tone. McPherson was a much more sympathetic figure than the Religion-Crazy Paris Hilton that the ads seemed to imply.

I also am really picky about death scenes and I felt this show was unsuccessful. [Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, though I'll try to be vague.] When most of the songs are just commentary, you NEED an emotional ballad about human relationships, but they were always Trite Upbeat Song followed by monologue about life event (sort of "BTW he/she's dead now") followed by Trite Upbeat Song.

I was entertained through most all of it. I don't regret seeing this at all (though my tickets were comps honestly). But my biggest complaint is that it is forgettable. Glad I know more about Aimee now, though (such as that she existed, for starters).

What a mess. When I tried to describe it to my boyfriend he finally asked, which was better, Scandalous or Wonderland. This shocked me for a second and I thought about it...and Wonderland was truly significantly more enjoyable. Never thought I'd say that about something! So sad to see something that's obviously SOOO much less expensive to operate, like The Performers, not make it and for this to continue.

I daresay she wouldn't get near Bryant these days. Her profile on TODAY is built on a re-invention (the other end of that Version 2.0 remake is Al Sharpton on MSNBC; to me, they are both part of a syndrome). She and Hoda never discuss politics or "social issues," a term I loathe, as it suggests back-of-the bus status to life-defining matters for most people. It's also possible that Gifford has mellowed and/or changed her rigid POV over the years, having worked in musical theater for at least a decade. If she still harbored strongly homophobic views, I doubt many of her collaborators would sign on. Not in 2012. She may be closer to Chenoweth in her "evolving" flavors Christianity and Republicanism. Just a guess.

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Updated On: 11/19/12 at 09:37 AM

Okay....

So I finally saw this tonight. And I didn't hate it. I certainly understand everyone's issues with the show, and the complaints are completely and totally valid. The score is instantly forgettable and every song sounds the same, the lyrics are pretty laughable at times, and the book is basically a Wikipedia article, in cliff-notes form. So why did I sorta enjoy it? Carolee. Carmello.

The woman has done for SCANDALOUS what Rob McClure couldn't do for CHAPLIN. She has lifted a poorly-constructed show out of the garbage and made it something worth seeing. Her performance is absolutely fantastic. As good as McClure is in CHAPLIN, I thought the show was a mind-numbing bore overall, but Carmello (and the rest of this cast, who deserve credit as well) has saved SCANDALOUS from being LEAP OF FAITH 2, for me. She is giving 150,000% to this role and this show, and she is magnetic onstage.

Roz Ryan is very funny (although she plays the token sassy black woman) and her voice sounds wonderful, George Hearn doesn't have much to do at all, the ensemble is very talented, and the orchestrations sounded lovely. The set is cumbersome, but it didn't really distract or bother me as much as I had expected.

I was on board with Carmello's performance from the second the curtain rose. She is an absolutely stunning musical theater performer and she carries this show on her back and sells every moment with gusto. It is really quite exhilarating to see someone like her get the chance to play a role like this, instead of relying on stunt-casting. She's clearly not going to win the Tony (I hope she doesn't get denied a nomination though), but the show basically plays like a Carmello concert at times. She acts, she sings, she dances a bit, and she does it all with incredible precision and power. The show itself is what it is (not very good at all), but Carmello is a god-send for this production.

Updated On: 11/20/12 at 11:09 PM

You guys are making me want to see it for Carolee. I would love to see her, in anything. I think you're right though; there were tons of tickets on TDF for just about any date you could want to go up until now. The last date available now is this Sunday.

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The category is "Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical." There are a LOT of (worthy) Tony winners and nominees who had so-so parts in so-so shows, or even horrible parts in horrible shows. Look at Hugh Jackman. What a complete disaster THE BOY FROM OZ was. And the way the show developed the character of Peter Allen was hardly inspired. But something about his performance absolutely transcended the material and made the show worth checking out. His performance that year was regarded by many as the must-see performance of the season. And the show was crap. Brian D'Arcy James in SHREK, Sutton in MILLIE, Norbert Leo Butz in CATCH ME, Andrea Martin in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, Jessie Mueller in ON A CLEAR DAY, Marc Kudisch and Jan Maxwell in CHITTY....and those are just off the top of my head.

I disagree wholeheartedly that the best performance award also should be someone with a good part, in a good show. It's, of course, refreshing to see someone give an incredible performance, with an an incredible part, in an incredible show, but unfortunately, we're lucky if that sort of thing happens once every few seasons. I don't feel bad for Carolee in this part. An actor can give a good performance (or at least an enjoyable one) and spin crappy material into something worth awarding with a nomination or an actual award. Giving her a nomination would hardly be a pity nomination...the woman is giving 3,000% to this performance, as bad as the material may be.

Exactly; Carmello is only transcending this bottom of the barrel material for a handful of her most extreme die-hard fans.

In Wicked's list above, Jackman (an unusually charismatic performer) is the only case of performer truly transcending bad material. The other examples are all questionable at best, for varying reasons.

There was one line (I think it was part of a song), where she sings, to her father, "You put your seed deep inside my soil..." and I was looking around to see if I was the only one who found it creepy. But, the show is so earnest, it's not like it was an intentional double entendre.

It is interesting how people only compare this to other bad/failed shows. Is it really bragging rights to be better than Leap of Faith?! (I actually preferred LoF to this)

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