Rent: both times I saw it. The original cast was terrible. They were horribly off key and screeching the whole night. I had a headache for days. The second time I saw it the cast was less screechy, but now the show did not speak to me.
Phantom Bored me to sleep both times I saw the show. I was woken up by my family for the falling of the chandelier.
Copenhagen: which surprises me since I love every other of his plays!
The recent Caretaker revival: I was out and asleep.
The recent Glengarry Glen Ross revival: wow I did not like this show. I was shocked at the reviews since the audience I saw this show with hated it! The scene change got the only applause.
"Judy Garland, Jimmy Dean, You tragedy Queen" ~ Taboo
"Watching a frat boy realize just what he put his d!ck in...ex's getting std's...schadenfruede" ~ Ave Q
"when dangers near, exploit their fear" ~ Reefer Madness the Musical
And Phantom? well, I recently went back with a group of high school pupils and must admit that it was MUCH better than I remebered it to be (in London that is....)
I get upset when people tell me the NT production of Caroussel was not great. I CRIED SOOOOOOO MUCH...... One of the best nights in the theatre EVER!
I did not see AIDA on Broadway, but I got to work on a very small, simply designed production full of fantastic, committed actors. The show is not perfect--several of the lines are cringe-worthy--but it has a definite emotional pull and it WORKS. "The Gods Love Nubia" is perhaps the most exhilarating first act closer of all time.
I also like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST a good deal more than most people, although it is certainly not perfect either. I suppose that makes me a corporate shill, but ask me if I care.
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
phantom, les mis but i am not sure what the critics thought and i know it wasn't loved by the critics but wicked wsa very dissapointing.
"At the opening night party, they had clowns on stilts, jugglers, a chocolate fountain, popcorn, hot dogs. [My son] looked at me like I had been holding back. Like, 'This is what you do?' I had to tell him, 'No, no, darling. Opening nights don't usually look like this.' It's usually a dark bar with a bottle of vodka." ?Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Jan Maxwell
plus i proudly share the title of the shortest member over the age of 10 with wickedrentq!
A lot of people are confusing entertainment value with artistic criticism...and I feel that a lot of people are theatre fans rather than being trained. Having said that, I think that's why there's such a huge variety of answers to this question. I, for one, have never trusted Ben Brandtly, but instead usually look at the reviewers at Time Out who are usually dead-on.
Also...how many people who asnwered this question actually read the reviews for the shows(the whole reviews). A lot of people listed shows that received very poor-mixed reviews. Les Miz, Spamelot, Gypsy(revival), Caroline or Change, etc. all received mixed-bad reviews. Just because it won Tonys or had a long run does not mean it was well reviewed. It's likely...but not a guarantee.
But, I recently saw The Producers, I really enjoyed it, but i still don't get what all the hype was about, I guess because fo the timing and the others on bway that year.
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird
I know I'm gonna have it for this but THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA. Sorry, but I just didn't like it one bit. Victoria Clark was brilliant, but she was the only thing I liked about this show.
I totally agree. Thom Pain was third rate Beckett, without an ounce of the wit or intelligence. PAINFUL to sit through.
I HATE all pretentious, self-indulgent, wholly unentertaining theatre -- the stuff that critics often don't like either but feel compelled to write a rave for, lest anyone think they're stupid ....... which all but one or two are.
If I had my way, Ivo van Hove would never again be allowed to infict his narcissism upon US theatregoers. Words simply don't describe my utter contempt for his versions of More Stately Mansions, Hedda Gabler, Alice in Bed (TORTUROUS to sit through -- I took a couple of friends who incidentally were both theatre directors with MFAs from big schools and they wouldn't speak to me afterwards), A Streetcar Named Desire (which my friends and I all dubbed a "bathtub name desire" for the bathtub upstage center which was the only set piece on an otherwise bare stage, that each of the characters removed their clothes and dived into at one point or another; Why? I could give all sorts of fancy schmancy explanations, but bottom line -- it was crap and Tennessee Williams deserved better).
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Funny, I thought Phantom had a really tough time with the critics. It wasn't "hailed as great" at least. At a guess without Lexis-Nexising the reviews, I would think the critical response similar to that of Wicked. Can anyone confirm?
I would put Spamalot on this list, and I agree with Stones in His Pockets (though I saw a regional production). And Doubt, a little bit. Not that it wasn't very good, but I don't think it's the best American play since Death of a Salesman that a few critics were making it out to be.
"WHEN is the winter of our discontent?"
"NOW is the winter of our discontent!"
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I couldn't imagine Stones in His Pockets done by a cast other than the original. The same goes for the The Pay What I Wrote. When a play is written by/for precisely an actor, or in these cases, two actors, they should be treated like one man shows. Was the production of Stones you saw even with Irish actors? I think seeing Americans do the show would be as bad as watching a WASP try to do Whoopi or Freak. It just doesn't work.
Producers, while totally amusing, (Nathan and Matthew... well mostly Nathan were the main selling points of the show). I did enjoy myself, but it was really overrated. Total fluff. But very well done fluff.
AIDA, deservedly was bashed. I was laughing through the whole show. But I am sure that Heather was amazing.. and held the show together. The show MUST be carried by an extremely good actress and a fierce singer, otherwise, everything falls flat underneath a lacking Aida.
RENT.. though moving, is cheaply moving. Very sentimental, one toned characters, Angel dies, and everyone is sad. Just because you cry alot during a show doesn't make it brilliant.