Missed Opportunities

Tarzan. How could such a wonderful movie with a great score be so bad? Terrible missed opportunity for a follow-up to Lion KIng and Beauty.

---

Updated On: 6/9/08 at 04:24 PM

The Pirate Queen - could have been so much better and still could be...

I like Matt's list, except I'd add Chess and Taboo.

I also remember thinking that Nick and Nora sounded GREAT before I saw it in previews.

---

They should never have screwed around with Dance of the Vampires and Chess like they did.

Honestly, I was looking forward to Lestat. But there were many missed opportunities. I think that in San Francisco, they had the makings of a good show or at least a show that would get people to buy tickets. When they panicked at the bad reviews and did an overhaul, that's what did in the show.

---

TABOO. I truly adore the score. Shame about the book, the timing, the lack of an out'-of-town.

THE WILD PARTY. Such an incredible score. And that cast! Why Wolfe, why?

I think we've witnessed a missed opportunity this season -- "The Little Mermaid." The film was so good, and the music is classic. It's a shame that the stage version is a misfire. I was really hoping that Disney would have redeemed themselves after the lackluster "Tarzan" and the only slightly better "Mary Poppins."

I actually thought WILD PARTY was one of LaChiusa's better books...it absolutely should have been done in a more intimate theater, tho.

---

Uhhh Carrie. My sweet baby, Carrie. Dear World, too. And Prettybelle needs a revival; it was wayyyyy ahead of it's time. Before I rant too much, there's a nearly identical thread on the board right now; we should probably not waste so much room and pick one or the other.

---

Seussical

Ooo, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE is pretty rotten all around. The score - I'm sorry - isn't really up to par. Well, yes, it was up to Sondheim's par at the time, but looking back it isn't. The songs are have seriously undeveloped melodies or unsatifying endings. Aside from a couple, very good songs like "Me and My Town" and "Everybody Says Don't".

And the Bway TABOO was much improved in all respects, but the book needed an out-of-town tryout to focus its story and allow the audience to truly care for someone.

And, sadly, WILD PARTY is LaChuisa's best book, but that's not saying much!

A lot of people will say Jekyll & HYDE, which I agree, but a lot of the problems people associate with the Broadway production were already with the pre-Broadway national tour anyway (most notably the Facade reprises). It may have been darker certainly, but with the exception of the character of Lucy it wasn't all ENTIRELY different as it's been made to be. Just very different direction, the base of the piece for the most part remained in tack with the minor subplots removed (like Gwinny and the Spider complaining about the rich...unnecessary to me.)

And I agree 100% with Chess. If they didn't screw around with the story and left it like London's, it would have somehow worked. It wasn't all that bad or not too bad to follow to begin with.

Woman in White...it probably could have been a better success by means of a few more months of playing time if they had decided to leave it alone and try not so hard to cut every last detail, especially some of the scene-changing melodies and some minute dialouge. And if they had let Judy Kuhn play Marian as intended when Maria went out, it could have picked up some sales possibly as well, but I guess we'll never know!

Updated On: 6/9/08 at 09:16 PM

"Jekull and Hyde depended on when you saw it. Rewrites were constantly done on it. When I saw it in Buffalo some of us were taling to the musical conductor at intermission and he said what we were seeing was not what was on Broadway. Too bad as it was an excellent show and Chuck Wagner was terrific. "

That was the "Broadway" National tour, but it was almost entirely different with the same sets/costumes. It followed the Broadway version with the Facades, but took out two of the not-so-popular songs from Broadway (Lost in the Darkness & Good 'n Evil) and put it in the two more popular ones (I Need to Know & Bring on the Men). They also took out a staple of the entire work, "No One Knows Who I Am" by Lucy, which itself had been re-arranged, re-worded and re-worked from time to time, and by the time it made it to Broadway it was slightly over a minute, after being about 3 minutes if I'm not mistaken on other recordings. That production always gets better reviews, and with it came a different director, in which hopes came they might pull a Scarlet Pimpernel...close the Broadway version and reopen with that...which never happened, most likely due to all the stunt casting that came on Broadwya after the tour.