Overrated Musicals- Page 3
Overrated Musicals
#50re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/4/07 at 11:48pmTom14850, I've been trying to respond to your PMs but it says you do not accept private messages.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Spacedog78
Featured Actor Joined: 11/3/06
#51re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/4/07 at 11:52pm
drowsy chaperone
cats
mama mia
ave q
lion king
les mis
chicago
producers
company (new)
#52re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/4/07 at 11:53pmMamma Mia and The Lion King.
http://community.livejournal.com/ltd_brands_suck/
#53re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 1:38am
Avenue Q*
Spring Awakening*
The Lion King
The Producers
Chicago
Wicked (although I love it)
* Never understood the raves about these two shows - medicore at best!
Funny how we all have such different opinions. I saw POTO some lists, which is one of my favorite shows, and was shocked to see Sweeney Todd, which I consider to greatest musical ever written. Aside from that, I think most Sondheim works are over-rated.
"What the hell happened to you? You look like a Make-A-Wish Kid. You know, I just knew you were gonna bring shame on this new family of ours, and it just figures you had to go make yourself over into some heroin-shootin skate board chic on the only day E! could interview you!" - Cherry Cherry, on her daughter Mary Cherry
jimnysf
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/10/05
#54re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:41am
Cats
Rent
Grease
Godspell
"I've lost everything! Luis, Marty, my baby with Chris, Chris himself, James. All I ever wanted was love." --Sheridan Crane "Passions"
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"Housework is like bad sex. Every time I do it, I swear I'll never do it again til the next time company comes."--"Lulu"
from "Can't Stop The Music"
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"When the right doors didn't open for him, he went through the wrong ones" - "Sweet Bird of Youth"
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"Passions" is uncancelled! See NBC.com for more info.
#55re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:50am
Phantom is definitely overrated and boring. Cats is way more exciting than Phantom ever was for me.
Spamalot is one of the worst Best Musicals in Tony history. Very overrated and won't stand the test of time.
The Music Man and Grease are also overrated. The NBC show makes it sound like Grease is brilliant. I don't think people realize how stupid the show actually is.
~Steven
#56re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:56am
mama mia
phantom
lion king
the current revival of chicago (not the show itself)
Your fupa is showing.
#57re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 6:50am
>> How can you say that without the set and stagging pictures in shows like Phantom and Les Miserables that they would be overrated. The set and stagging is what makes most shows great.
Not so. My test is how well a community theatre can handle the same material. If it still affects me at that level, then there's more than just the flashy stagecraft. I've seen productions of FIDDLER done by high school students that were emotionally miles above LES MIZ, and they didnt have anything near big time sets.
Face it: an overrated show is one where it's all eye candy, and you have trouble remembering much else a week after you've seen it. It may be exciting in the moment, but it has nothing to keep that memory of why you were excited going. CATS has some thrilling choreography, but it also only has one or two real melodies. Everything in PHANTOM blends together after a while because it all sounds so much alike.
But it's interesting the generational response to a show like MAMMA MIA. Personally, I love it because it doesnt pretend to be anything more than it is: a collection of Abba songs glued onto a paper thin storyline. You know *exactly* what you're getting the moment you enter the theatre -- nothing more, nothing less... as opposed to the roundly heard self-importance of SPRING AWAKENNG, which to me anyway is one of the weirdest, most incomprehensible stabs at a "rock musical" since DUDE. And I will lay easy money that ten years from now, a thread like this will say that SA was as bad an idea as CATS is considered now, while MAMMA MIA will happily be wandering the rep and community theatre and high school circuit... again, with no pretensions of being anything more than what it is.
http://docandraider.com
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#58re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 8:22am
How can a Broadway fan love Mamma Mia?
I challenge you to have a bad time at Mamma Mia. You have to go into a show like that realizing that you're not going to be seeing a substantial piece of theater. It's just fun.
bwaygal1
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/5/07
#59re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 8:28am
I will take the minority position and say Grey Gardens isn't overrated. (since I can't stop watching it!) I do think the Company revival was overrated and the revival of A Chorus Line. I like Spring Awakening.
"A birdcage I plan to hang. I'll get to that someday. A birdcage for a bird who flew away...Around the world."
"Life is a cabaret old chum, only a cabaret old chum, and I love a cabaret!"-RIP Natasha Richardson-I was honored to have witnessed her performance as Sally Bowles.
#60re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 8:29amDuh... Sondheim is actually UNDERATED! Everything he did didn't last for a year!
Somebody sit in my chair, and ruin my sleep, and make me aware of being alive!
#61re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 8:44am
I always felt that Cats was over-rated. It is one of those shows that was fine the first time but then I just thought oh my!
"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
#62re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 8:53am
Mamma Mia!
Lion King
Spring Awakening
The Producers
#63re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 8:56am
I love that we all have such varying oppinions.
In terms of over-rated, I think you need to consider the impact certain shows have in regard to their status.
I don't care for POTO, but it will most likely go down as the quintessential '80's style sung-thru popera. ACL is (IMO) a really boring show, but it's influence on many other shows is undeniable. (Many other "concept" shows as they were called were born in the '70's as a result)
Many historians consider West Side Story to be the greatest musical ever in terms of it's groundbreaking use of dance and direction.
I'm sorry I can't quote those "historians",(I read this a long time ago) but I'm sure Michael Bennet or B12B could elaborate.
Many of the shows we think are over-rated are perhaps just over-exposed right now.
....but the world goes 'round
Bruce Memblagh!
Featured Actor Joined: 3/27/06
#64re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 8:57am
Rent - pretentious nonsense. Fine when it opened. Now it is little more than a cliche of itself with characters it is hard for feel anything for except "for god's sake, try and do something meaningful with the little that is left with your life.
A Chorus Line. Again, great in its heyday but says nothing new. It is so dated to the point of being trivial.
Avenue Q. Fun for a few mins then the joke wears thin.
#65re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 9:10am
Definately agree with Rent.
Definately disagree with Into the Woods, for me at least, its so interesting melodically and dramatically, but like i said, maybe its just me.
I'll also throw in Aida. Half the score is fantastic. Half is terrible.
"...and in a bed."
NathanLaneStalker
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#66re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 9:40am
On Stephen Sondheim:
I can see why some people would say that he is overrated, but the honest truth is that he is not. As someone metioned above, his shows have lasted a little over a year on broadway: Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, Company, Follies, etc. didn't last over 2 to 3 years on broadway. He is very underrated.
"I'm tellin' you, the only times I really feel the presence of God are when I'm having sex and during a great Broadway musical." - Nathan Lane - Jeffrey
#67re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 9:42am
Spamalot (I listened to the recording a few times and now cannot stand it)
Grease
"The art of Illusion is the art of love; and the art of love is the blood-red heart of the world." - Tony Kushner, "The Illusion"
Christoph
Stand-by Joined: 4/20/06
#68re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 10:15am
The Lion King
Sweeney Todd - the John Doyle debacle
Dreamgirls
Ragtime
Fosse
twogaab2
Broadway Star Joined: 5/19/03
#69re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 11:20amoverrated, superfluous question.
TWOGAAB
"A Class Act" will never die!
kooky
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/12/05
#70re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 12:30pm
overrated or not, MOST of these shows are S T I L L running!
People making money and actors working - - - - - that's a good thing!
keen on kean
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/1/06
#72re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:00pm
Fosse
Aida
The Producers
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#73re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:11pm
Light in the Piazza
Chicago
Wicked (I enjoyed it, but it wasn't the amazing, life-changing piece of theatre I thought it would be).
Julian2
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/10/06
#74re: Overrated Musicals
Posted: 3/5/07 at 2:48pm
The interesting thing is most shows can be both. Is Wicked overrated? Yes (fangirls). Is Wicked underrated? In many ways, yes (many serious theatre lovers). So it all depends.
My list-
*Mary Poppins
I have several names, one is Julian2. I am also The Opps Girl. But cross me, and I become Bitch Dooku!
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