Shows you were in that you Hated — Page 2

The Sound of Music.

I was Herr Zeller (and im jewish) and trust me the show is boring and when you only come on stage in the end of act 1 and end of act 2...you want to kill yourself.

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lol-i was a nazi in SOM it sucked

Footloose. Ensemble = ( During the process I hated it, until the day after the last show and then I realized how fun it was, I just wasn't really taking it in or cherishing the moment.

FAME. One fun dance number and unlike most stories here the creative team were great but the show is just so so poorly written--I played the character (I don't even remember his name) based on the guy in the movie who really was gay-- I had the hideous song I Wanna Do Magic, my first scene the girl I like thinks I'm gay (again I can't even remember why) and then in my last scene--apparantly set three years later at grad we all realize I wasn't gay but just very shy. WHAT the F*CK.

In the end all of us sorta played up the camp factor of the show (the spanish girl in the matter of minutes turns into a huge drug user who dies with hideous sound effects when she falls onto the New York Subway tracks! etc...)

I've done a few bad Fringe shows etc too but I usually ultimately find something I enjoy about them.

DIdn't Charles Strouse write a Star Wars musical? I have a demo for a song for Hans (I'm serious) somewhere...

My only complaint about my experience in Guys and Dolls is this:
You know the song "Adelaide?" Cut from the revival, but was in the movie? Well we did that, and at one point I was supposed to twirl into the arms of one of the boys downstage right. And everyday during our rehearsals I would spin, and since he was kinda in the corner, and no one could really see him until I spun in his direction, he slacked off a lot. Slacked off meaning he talked on his phone to his girlfriend. That's right. During rehearsal. SO everytime I spun, he wouldn't catch me. TWO times I spun off the stage. He was RIGHT on the edge of the stage. And he never caught me. It was sad.

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yeah lizzy. that footloose is some challenging crap.

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Seriously..I could have dressed in drag and played a more convincing Bill than he did.

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"My only complaint about my experience in Guys and Dolls is this:
You know the song "Adelaide?" Cut from the revival, but was in the movie?"

That song was written specifically for the movie. Its never been in any Broadway production.

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I did what is in my mind the worst production of the "Fantasticks" ever. This theatre is known for putting on bad productions but I knew the Luisa and they didn't have a Matt so I went in, sang a song, and they said "rehearsals start tommorow." She had played Luisa before so she knew the show, I knew nothing...and I still don't know anything about it! I'm told the wall is supposed to be an actual character in the play....our "directors" explination of the wall..."The mute will hold a stick up, that's a wall, don't hit it." For "I Can See It" her direction was "Go forward, then move back. Wait, we haven't used the follow spot in this show, we'll put the spot on you....just do whatever." It was horrific. The Luisa has an absolutely incredible voice (she is a senior in high school planning on majoring in Vocal Performance. She was accepted to every school she auditioned at...including Oberlin Conservatory, CCM, Boston, and a few others) The music director decided to take the show into his hands, but that just made things even worse. His way of working with people is to make incredibly personal attacks against you, then say "well, that sounded good." Never in my life have I wanted to injure someone more than he. Someday I want to see a good production of the show and see what it is supposed to be like. Reading the script showed it to be a beautifully written show, you wouldn't have known that from our production....

I hated doing Our Town. Don't get me wrong. The play is amazing. But our director was a total ass. I was Constable Warren so I didn't have much to do but the rest of our cast was giving absolutely breathtaking performances. And the director would never have anything positive to say. One time, we did a runthrough of Act 1 which took my breath away and the director said, "It's too safe for my money." He would keep telling us "live in this world" i.e. live in the world of the play (yeah, he was one of THOSE types of directors") and then he was telling us we were being "too safe." You could never understand what this guy wanted. And somehow, most of the cast agreed with him. I think I was one of the few cast members who had a negative experience. I think the guy who played the Stage Manager had a problem with him too.

And get this. The director didn't even show up on the first day of auditions because he was doing a show in BOSTON!!!!!

But Our Town is a beautiful play and it was actually a very well-done production. But that director...what a jerk.

And I don't hate the show I'm about to talk about. For the most part, I loved doing it. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut...

Into the Woods. The Junior Version anyway. Our Baker was such an unprofessional. He showed up for practically none of the rehearsals. I was the Mysterious Man. We had already blocked the first scene between the Mysterious Man and the Baker. But of course the kid wasn't there. When he did show up and we ran the scene, he said, "We didn't do this yet." Yeah, he's the type of actor who thinks that when he's not around, the rehearsal process grinds to a screeching halt.

And everytime he spoke one of his lines, he sounded like he was reciting. He didn't start showing up for rehearsals regularly until we actually started doing tech for the show. So the directors had to keep stopping to coach him.

And then...

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!

When we ran the scene where the Baker finds out who the Mysterious Man really is, he's supposed to say, "Father! Could that be you? I thought you died in a baking accident." I was supposed to reply with, "I did not mean to run away from you, son." Then the "mooing" sound effect was supposed to be cued. At first, he kept missing the "Could that be you?" bit. There was music underscoring the whole scene. If anyone here reading this ever does Into the Woods, heed my advice. You must say all of the line otherwise...I kid you not...after the Mysterious Man says the line afterwards, you and the rest of the cast will be standing onstage waiting for that cow to start mooing.

But luckily, we fixed the problem so he did start saying the full line. However, when I asked him, "Didn't that make a difference?", he said, "No. It just dragged the scene out."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh.

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Updated On: 4/22/07 at 08:39 AM

"You know which one was boring though? Sweet Charity. I had lines because I was Ursula, so I had it better off than a lot of the people there, but it was...dreary and BLAH. Plus it's like a one-woman show."

I just finished a production of Sweet Charity. I was in the ensemble, and it was my second time doing the show, both times in the ensemble. I had NO fun the first time. We had AMAZING leads, but the ensemble was horrid and so was our director, choreographer, and music director. The one I was JUST in, though, was a MUCH stronger production at my high school. Yeah, the show kind of sucks. Yeah, there's virtually no detectable plot and there's only one "real lead." But I still think it's a pretty fun show if you let yourself get into it.

A show I really HATED doing was CATS. Oh my god, someone please tell that director that Grizabella isn't the only part in the show that requires at least a decent voice, and that casting an 11 year old as the Rum Tum Tugger is NOT okay, even if it IS an 11-14 year old production.

Joseph...Dreamcoat - I played Potiphar's Wife, and although the show is short, sitting backstage for that long is not my idea of a good time. Not to mention the painted-on cleavage...oi!

Li'l Abner - I played Stupefyin' Jones, so, once again, I got to sit offstage almost the entire time. I was also the dance captain, and most of the chorus would come to me be between scenes to teach them entire dance sequences that they definitely should have known.