Is Fun Home too good for Broadway- Page 4

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:00pm

Mr. Roxy,

 

A wise choice on your part. 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:02pm

I have to admit reading them is a lot of fun.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:05pm

Mr. Roxy,

 

That's where I have to disagree with you. I find reading them to be awful. But I've made ample use of the ignore feature --- and that helps immensely.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:08pm

you both literally post in like every thread.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:12pm

Gypsy,

 

I neither literally post in every thread nor literally post in like every thread. Nor do I literally read every thread nor literally read like every thread.

 

Updated On: 5/30/16 at 08:12 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:15pm

Gypsy

 

I do not post in any of the  myriad of Hamilton threads so I disproved your statement right there. Look at all the threads on just the first page and tell me how many I posted in. Your statement might make for good fodder for some but it is wildly inaccurate. By the way, I counted threads on the first page and in over 40 of them I posted in none of them

Updated On: 5/30/16 at 08:15 PM

[Broadway Forever2]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:18pm

I loved Fun Home a lot but it's doing fine for the type of show it is and it recouped. How is it too good for broadway? The message is so important and broadway is the biggest platform for it.  

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:19pm

"Advocates of free speech are all for it as long as you agree with whatever they say. Stray from that and that is where the **** hits the fan."

Someone criticizing what you say on a public message board does not mean your rights to free speech- which only has to do with the government arresting you for what you say- are being taken away. 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:30pm

Hey A-8 and Roxy, you don't seem to realize that pitchforks aren't automatically thrown at those with dissenting opinions about well-regarded shows. I've posted plenty about loved shows that I didn't care for (including FUN HOME) without getting pitchforks back at me. My approach has always been "who cares if someone agrees with me or not?" The angry villagers come after the ideologues on BWW, those who are blindly dogged in their attempts to convince others of their own rightness. 

Regarding FUN HOME, I had plenty to admire, but very little to love about the show. I was bored by the staging and design, and only lukewarm on much of the music and lyrics. I thought the performances by the 3 Allisons (and Roberta Colindrez's Joan) were absolutely dynamite and the fine orchestrations made the music richer than it might have been otherwise. But by the end of the show, I was beaten down and unmoved, particularly by the one-note depiction of Bruce as a doomed closet case/pedophile cliche. As a gay man, I felt that leaving Bruce as such a cypher might have been the real Allison Bechdel's experience, but that really hurt the show for me. Different strokes...

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:42pm

"My approach has always been "who cares if someone agrees with me or not?""

 

My approach as well. I don't try to convince anyone of anything. I say what I have to say, and that's it.

 

"The angry villagers come after the ideologues on BWW, those who are blindly dogged in their attempts to convince others of their own rightness. "

Excuse me, but there are plenty of ideologues here whom the villagers praise to the skies. And you'd better believe that these ideologues are convinced of their own rightness. It's just that in their case, the villagers agree with them.

 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:50pm

Well, I for one will never throw pitchforks your way, given that I actually worked on that original production of LA CAGE which you hold in such high esteem. :)

I may generally disagree with much of what you write, but never your right to write it. I'm always entertained to read your thoughts regardless.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:51pm

Roxy and After Eight, you both mention Hamilton in basically every single thread. So sure, maybe not literally every one like I hyperbolically mention.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 8:54pm

Someone,

 

That's very nice of you. And congratulations on that wonderful original production of La Cage.

 

Gypsy,

Nonsense.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 9:19pm

So, the person who says:

Criticize a certain show and the villagers will be after you with pitchforks and torches straight out of a Universal monster movie.

Then criticizes someone else by saying:

Your statement might make for good fodder for some but it is wildly inaccurate.

#potkettleblack

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 9:29pm

Um...didn't this show receive rave reviews, win the Tony, has been running for over a year and beat the middle-brow punditry on these boards and elsewhere who all predicted it would not do well on Broadway?  How does this fall under the definition of failure?

Updated On: 5/30/16 at 09:29 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 9:42pm

And to answer the original question, there is no such thing as "too good for Broadway" just as there is no such thing as "worthy of Broadway".  The only criterion for being on Broadway is money.  That's it.  All the debate as to what "deserves" to be on Broadway is as pointless as pretending your opinion is the only valid opinion and equal to fact, especially when there isn't an ounce of truth behind the persona.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 10:19pm

I will once again take this opportunity to say that I did not like Hamilton nearly as much as many, but have never been attacked for that opinion because I am not a sanctimonious, dismissive, and hateful old queen about it. 

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 10:29pm

I don't understand why someone would consider themselves a fan of the theatre if they hate almost everything they see.  It just puzzles me how one person can be so negative. 

Anyways, Fun Home is right where it belongs.  It might not effect everyone the way that it effects me, but I really do think that it will go down in history as one of the best musicals ever written.  It's just a very different show and not everyone is going to get it.  It represents a new kind of musical story telling that, before Fun Home, was pushed under the rug.  It might not be an epic, but it certainly has a lot of heart.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 10:41pm

"I am not a sanctimonious, dismissive... "

You're going to blister your palms patting yourself on the back that way. You might dislocate your shoulder as well.

Strange, though.You  were certainly sanctimonious, dismissive, smug, and ugly about Finding Neverland.

But that's ok, right?

Funny how that works.

People in glass houses... 

 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 10:56pm

Gypsy

 

If you see my posts you will see I never mention the title of the show. I do not post in  any of the numerous threads on it and I never rip it. As hard as it may be to believe, I could not care less about it one way or the other. I wish the cast of the show and the show itself all the luck in the world. I simply have no desire to see it . I have previously been attacked and called names for this very reason. This is why I have not posted in any of those threads for over 7 or 8 months.

 

I hope I have made myself clear. I do not pass judgment on it as I have never seen it. It is that simple.

Updated On: 5/30/16 at 10:56 PM

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 6:33am

Roxy, you bring up Hamilton in threads that have nothing to do with Hamilton (including this one) as an excuse to say that you have no interest in it. If you have no interest in it and you haven't seen it, then why mention it at all?

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 6:58am

"Roxy, you bring up Hamilton in threads that have nothing to do with Hamilton (including this one)"

 

And here you are bringing up Hamilton in a thread that has nothing to do with Hamilton. 

 

[sweeneytodd2]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 7:06am

After Eight,

I am curious to know more of your thoughts on arbiters of culture and the media mega-machine, which you've spoken about in this thread and others. Do you believe there is a cabal that assembles and decides which shows to make successful? What do they personally gain by rigging the Broadway season? What are their criteria for which shows to anoint? How do they resolve disagreement within the mega-macine? Do they vote? Are they reptillians? 

Updated On: 5/31/16 at 07:06 AM

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 7:52am

Sweeney,

 

There is no cabal or conspiracy, because there is no need for any. When you have people in positions of power who share the same mentality and aims, they don't need to conspire to achieve their goals. They just naturally think and act in unison.. They don't rig anything, for nothing needs to be rigged: everyone's on the same page. Together, their outlook and actions work to determine the present and future course of the theatre by steering it in the way they want it to go with respect to the kind of shows that will be written, produced, showered with praise, pushed for success, and granted it. And as we have seen, when the mega-machine flexes its formidable muscle, it is very successful in achieving its goals. As for disagreement --- what disagreement? How many unfavorable reviews were received by Once, Book of Mormon, Fun Home, Hamilton, The Humans, The Flick, COMBINED? Do they number even a half dozen?

Yep. Quite the jolly state of affairs, wouldn't you say?

Updated On: 5/31/16 at 07:52 AM

[sweeneytodd2]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 8:13am

Was that ever not the case? Did the smash hits of the golden age of Broadway receive a wider range of reviews than today's? How much influence do you believe reviews from traditional media outlets hold today? 

Updated On: 5/31/16 at 08:13 AM