"THANK YOU oh my god, finally someone else agrees with me. Love the score but the book does absolutely nothing for me."
Exactly! The score is probably one of my absolute favorites but the book is just... I honestly want to slap Maria when she decides to blurt out "my hands are cold!" in the middle of their meeting scene. I mean, really?
^Except for when Ramona Mallory plays her. (Also, are you aware there is a "D" in Armfeldt?)
ETA: Bootleggers deserve all the applause in the world. For some of us, an 8 hour drive/11 hour train ride/9 hour bus ride to NYC to catch one show (which is all we can afford) is not an option.
-AMERICAN IDIOT was the best musical of this century (so far). -I cannot stand Jerry Herman or anything he's written (the scores are so lame he has to borrow from himself, and 'his' good lyrics all came verbatim from their source material). -The original London cast recording of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is the only one worth hearing. -ANNIE is a very good musical that I cannot stand hearing/watching. -Meryl Streep is vastly overrated and I hate watching her 'act'. -Jerry Zaks hasn't done anything worth seeing in 20 years, if ever. -SOUTH PACIFIC is an intolerable show with one amazing song ('Carefully Taught'). -Lippa's THE WILD PARTY was infinitely superior to LaChiusa's. -Wildhorn and Webber wouldn't be Broadway laughingstocks if they knew how to hire lyricists and bookwriters.
EDIT: A few more things that stick in my craw: -Sutton and Hunter Foster are incredibly annoying (nice folks, but can't stand watching them). -RENT was one of the most irritating nights I've ever had in the theater. Get a job, you losers! -Jerry Mitchell's choreography all seems to be lifted from 80s Jazzercize videos. -I find it hard to like anything Sondheim has written from PASSION on. -I agree that the book for WEST SIDE STORY is mostly awful, but I was mad that the revival cut the Jet Girl's line, 'Ooh-Ooblie-Ooh'. -I'd rather listen to LES MIZ than watch it on stage (and the movie was blah).
Thanks for the chance to vent- I'm kinda new to the board and have been enjoying reading other's gripes here.
"What- and quit show business?" - the guy shoveling elephant shit at the circus.
patti, bette and barry should retire gracefully, not stick around too long and ruin their legacys
FINDINGNAMO, SNAFU, THEATERDIVE, JORDANCATALONO, LIZASHEADBAND, PALJOEY: You all claim to "IGNORE ME" I wish you would and stop constantly commenting on my posts. Thanks ......................................................................................................................................
The MOST POPULAR and DANGEROUS Poster on BWW! Banned by the PTA, PTC and the MEANGIRLS of BWW.....................................................................................................................
...Ukraine Girls really knock me out, they leave the west behind..........................
I don't like how, in my perception of how it is now, beautiful soprano voices are second-rate behind high belting voices. It's one of the only things I dislike about Seth Rudetsky.
I also don't like how people are dreamcast in soprano roles just because they have sung before (even if it was alto or mezzo songs they were singing).
I abhor Wicked, but I thank it for somewhat bringing Megan Hilty into the spotlight like it did.
This one remains unpopular to this day, so it fits here perfectly: I saw Women on the Verge three times during its brief run and I play the cast recording repeatedly. What can I say? I got what they were doing. The frenetic style was too much for some folks, but I thorougly enjoyed both the show and the star power.
Eric, I did see it at Signature and thought it a mixed bag. DiPietro made some fairly arbitrary changes (Emily is now Sally for no discernible reason) and some that I thought hurt. Jennie is no longer the self-centered, domineering force that drives Joe to the big city (now NYC instead of Chicago, again for no discernible reason) - he has his own ambitions. This leaves Jennie without a lot to play. He opened Act II with "Allegro," which I didn't think worked because 1. Joe had just arrived in the big city and was yet to discover its pace; and 2. He had to go back to the small town for "Money Isn't Everything" and then back to NYC. He cut "Ya-Ta-Ta," which was a good call (Tom Briggs did the same thing with his production at St. Bart's in NYC in the mid-80s.) In addition to Mom and Grandma both dying, so does Dad. Argh. So you loose that great moment at the end, during "Come Home," when father and son are reunited heralding a new beginning for both. He also moved "To Have and to Hold" from the Act I wedding sequence to near the end of Act II for reasons unknown. I much preferred the Briggs production, which I remember being heartbreaking. He similarly streamlined the cast to about the same number (maybe 15) but retained the all-important Greek chorus device which DePietro did away with. I also think Briggs moved "The Gentleman Is a Dope" to follow "Allegro," which made sense because her frustration with Joe had been dramatized for us before her big number. In short, there's a reason no one is doing the DiPietro adaptation. BTW, I'm a big fan of DiPietro, just not this time around.
I didn't hate Russel Croew in Les Miz. He wasn't the best Javert I've seen, but I did like his acting--he was very intimidating in the role. I also like the lowered keys--making Javert a bass added to the dark intimidating quality.
I didn't really care for last season's Broadway revival of Follies, but then again, I was spoiled by the beautiful Chicago Shakespeare production.
I think A Class Act is a terribly underrated show that deserved the Tony for best musical over The Producers.
Stephanie J. Block's singing in Drood is fairly disappointing to me. After listening to Betty Buckley's singing of the original so many times, I will not accept any head voice for that role.
Had Christina DeCicco been eligible for the Tony, she would have deserved it last year. She not only sang the score wonderfully, but she was one of the best-acted Evas I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot. Also, that revival was beautiful, and the only thing that didn't work was Ricky Martin, who gave an admirable effort.
Newsies deserved best musical last season. Once is extremely bland.
Death Takes a Holiday was absolutely thrilling, and it deserved all of those Drama Desk nominations.
The Fantasticks is a masterpiece in my top five favorite musicals.
Really, the guy who has said at different times that SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT as well as TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE were his favorite films, is pretentious?
Anyways, here's some opinions: -I hate RENT -I loathe AVENUE Q -I loved BOUNCE (The whole production) -Peter Sellars, Robert Wilson, and Anne Bogart are the best directors working today. -I hated ROAD SHOW -I think David Mamet still has one more good play in him -Roger Allam is better than Philip Quast