This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
SueleenGay
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/9/03
#1This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 2:49pm
The recent discussion of the merits of Xanadu brought up an interesting point.
This show is covering it's ass! If you say it is BAD they will say, "Of COURSE it is BAD!! It is SUPPOSED to be BAD!!"
Think about it, a few other shows in recent memory had the same gimmick.
Drowsy Chaperone: It is a BAD 30's musical. They gave their selves free reign to do just about ANYTHING and not be criticized for logic or continuity...it succeeded, of course.
Spamalot did much the same thing...everything AND the kitchen sink because "Anything goes with Python!"
Martin Short's show was another example...
As entertaining as these shows MAY be (and that is another discussion altogether) I find it a disturbing little trend that kind of brings the level of writing into question.
Any thoughts?
PEACE.
#2re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 2:53pmWell, I'm the one that brought it up. So, I agree!
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
SueleenGay
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/9/03
#2re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 2:54pm
Do you see this as a bad trend?
(nevermind, re-read your response, Munk.)
PEACE.
Updated On: 5/24/07 at 02:54 PM
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#3re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 2:55pm
There's the advertising campaign!
Imagine it as one of those fold-out flyers.
"XANADU - It's SO bad that.....
....you MUST see it to believe!"
Updated On: 5/24/07 at 02:55 PM
popculture37
Understudy Joined: 8/14/06
#4re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 3:03pm
Hmmm. I agree that some shows do use the "Well, it's supposed to be campy/cheesy, etc" as a fallback, but for every show that's done so successfully, there have been others that haven't been able to make use of that at all. The revival a few years ago of Little Shop seemed to be riding on the idea that it's a campy show to start with-but that didn't stop lots of people from calling that production just plain bad. And most of the jukebox musicals rely on a similar theory; people defend them by saying stuff like "It's not supposed to be art, it's just there so people can enjoy the music of the (insert band name here) and have fun!
The fact that shows like Spamalot and Drowsy use this tactic successfully while others use the same tactic and fail suggests that there is a sort of art to creating "bad" shows that still work. I imagine that writers have to work pretty hard to figure out exactly where the line is between good-bad and bad-bad; like, they have to figure out how much cheesy stuff the audience will appreciate before it starts to get annoying, which I think is a fairly complex psychological issue.
I don't really see Xanadu achieving much success with this strategy though. To me, it sounds like the kind of thing that people will just see as bad, even if it has a good excuse to be bad.
#5re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 3:07pm
The problem with XANADU isn't that it's just bad. The problem is that it's dull and endlessly boring, and definitely horribly written.
If this show gets panned (which I think it will), I can see the producers using some of those headlines to their advantage. Can't you just imagine walking down 44th Street, and hanging from the Helen Hayes Theatre you see a sign that says:
"Horrendously dull - it's a complete mess!" -Ben Brantley, NY Times.
I can see them relishing in the badness.
Another problem with XANADU, that I forgot to mention in the other thread, is that the entire show is like an inside joke for the cast and crew. I felt like they were all laughing with each other and that we, as an audience, were on the outside of an inside joke.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
SueleenGay
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/9/03
#6re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 3:08pmBut the success of Drowsy is it is grounded in reality. The Man in Chair is in on the "badness" and loves the show in spite of it, whereas the characters in the musical "Drowsy" take it all very seriously. That is why that show works, I think. Same with Little Shop, the characters don't KNOW it is campy and it can not be played that way. It sounds as if Xanadu is just playing the "god we all know how bad this is, isn't this HYSTERICAL?" Which I think would be the kiss of death for a show like that.
PEACE.
#7re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 3:12pm
EXACTLY, leen.
Thought "Drowsy" doesn't thrive on being bad as much as it does fun.
You can generally only succeed in being campy when you don't intend on it. It's very difficult to get campy right on purpose.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
SueleenGay
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/9/03
#8re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 3:14pmKind of like when people try to tell me Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is CAMP. Sorry, they were trying to be bad. Now Valley of the Dolls? THAT is CAMP.
PEACE.
#9re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 3:17pm
EXACTLY.
"Beyond..." was made as a joke.
But "Valley of the Dolls" is like "Mommie Dearest" - they both intended to be good, that's why they're so hysterical.
Though a big exception to the rule is some John Waters movies - "Female Trouble," etc. Purposely campy, but still funny.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
#10re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 4:04pmAs a friend of mine says< 'There is camp. And there is kitsch. Never confuse the two."
http://docandraider.com
Tom148502
Featured Actor Joined: 5/21/07
#11re: This Show Comes With a Safety Net!
Posted: 5/24/07 at 9:35pm
popculture said: "some shows do use the "Well, it's supposed to be campy/cheesy, etc"
That's for those people who just don't "get it." 
Videos