The pitiful state of the broadway musical: the parade

All Shook Up is a great show with a great cast. I'm sorry you feel the way you do. To each their own.

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Updated On: 11/25/04 at 10:14 AM

I think you're confusing a good show with a show that deserves to be on Broadway. Aladdin at Disney's California Adventure is a good show, but doesn't deserve to be on Broadway. But it is your mindset which got All Shook Up, Good Vibrations, Mamma Mia, Hairspray, and other undeserving (and overrated) shows onto the Great White Way.

Overrated = MammaMia, yes

Good, solid if not overwhleming Show = Hairspray
"Best musical" good? Well......

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I have to vehemently disagree about All shook up. And wholeheartedly agree with Auggie. What a pathetic state Broadway is in. I'll admit that compared to Good Vibrations, All shook up seemed like sheer inspired genius but that is not saying much. I'm not quite sure I understand why the woman in ASU is singing what seems to the untrained ear,(mine),legit soprano, during an Elvis song but that's just the tip of the problem iceberg. Good Vibrations was unacceptable on all counts. It's never good to take a page out of the Footloose handbook and hire "real" looking kids. Call me old fashioned, but I still want my performers, especially dancers in skimpy outfits, in GOOD shape. The American Idol girl even managed to PRE-RECORD out of tune and had no idea what she was doing. When Brooke Sheilds comes off as the most talented, seasoned, palpable of the lot, there's trouble on the horizon.

One of those things is not like the others, and it's Hairspray. It has heart, brains, humor, an ORIGINAL SCORE and (unlike a jukebox show), its own internal logic, to which it sticks.

Brian Wilson is a genius songwriter. It's a pity Good Vibrations won't do anything to really advance an audience's knowledge of the man, the way the upcoming "Lennon" might do for its audience.

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Auggie, You even think Wonderful Town was bad?

Ijay, do read my entire post. I said Mr. Bernstein was spinning in his grave to be included with the compiled drivel. Perhaps I was too sub-tle. In case I was: Now hear this--I like Leonard Bernstein. I even liked Ms. Shields.

But I think Al Dente said it all: if a former model is the exemplary musical theater performance of the parade, well... I'm all shook up.

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Sorry, Auggie... I'm a bit slow this morning!!

I just checked All that Chat and it truly is telling when all of the adults are saying the same thing. I don't care how much you love Jackson, how well paid a shill you are, there is NO getting past the sorry presentations we just viewed. If I were the Vibrations producers, I would cut my losses and run. At the very least fire the costume designer and put the cast on a low carb diet, tomorrow.

Since the parade pretends to offer "Broadway's best..." where is the rest? Surely "Dracula" and "Brooklyn" could've been invited by NBC, who has the biggest audience (sadly). And the yet-to-open material: "Spamalot" and "La Cage..." "La Cage is in previews!

Weeeeell, we know why that LAST one isn't on, don't we? In 2004? They'll alienate a few thousand people who don't want those singin' n'dancin' sinners cavorting with their balloons. (Though I guess the cast of PASSIONS indirectly promotes "traditional values," of the heterosexual variety.) It's rather ludicrous, what's allowed and what isn't. Unless I'm wrong, "Avenue Q" didn't make it last year, right?

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Updated On: 11/25/04 at 11:02 AM

" It's like, 'Well, we need something to offset this copied story and the many tracks of music that sound the same, so let's add something. Racism!'. Yes"

It sounds like you don't know the origins of this show. It was a John Waters film, they have taken his plot written a new book and added the songs.. so the story complete with Racism came first.

Updated On: 11/25/04 at 11:08 AM

Well, it's pretty clear that PleaseChangeMe (great idea!) is no Oskar Eustis in the Dramaturgy Department.

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