Unpopular opinions you hold — Page 39

Pasek and Paul haven't written a good score since Dogfight. I found DEH sounds mostly the same. And Greatest Showman is HORRIBLE. All pop anthems that don't advance the plot or provide character insight. 

I like both DEH and The Greatest Showman, music-wise. And I understand what Pasek and Paul were trying to do with the material. However, while I like their music, I acknowledge that they're the type of composers/lyricists that are dependent on the quality of the material they are given to come up with a good score. If the material is substandard, their scores tend to not deliver.

Also, they tend to write similar types of songs and there's almost a direct semblance between at least 2 songs in at least 2 of their shows that it's almost a cliche now. They repeat themselves too often for my taste. But I think that may be due to their lack of experience, their age, and the fact they write all these shows almost at the same time, as this was also a problem in early Alan Menken musicals. Either way, I'm still a big fan, but I recognize that they have flaws and they're probably not the second coming of Christ many people think they are.

Matilda- me too.  The book is a shocker.

I actually don't hate "Whose House is This."

Blair5 said: "Aside from Grey Henson, who was fantastic, I don't think any of the Tony nominations for Mean Girls were deserved. A few of the songs were good, but most were bland and unoriginal. "Stop" is such a rip off of "Turn It Off" from Book of Mormon that I wondered if it was actually intended to be a parody of that number. I feel like the songs and the show in general played it safe too often when they could (and should) have pushed the envelope a little more."

Yes! I can't think or other examples at the moment, but I remember when I listened to it for the first time a lot of the songs from Mean Girls reminded me of other songs. The "Stop" "Turn it Off" is one I've made with a lot of my friends so I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one hearing the similarities.

Whistle Down the Wind and The Beautiful Game/The Boys in the Photograph are A.L.Webbers 2 best shows.

Cats and Phantom are his 2 worst.

Elegance101 said: "The book for The Boys in the Photograph though ruins it completely. Any good work ALW did on that show is destroyed by Elton's book.

Also the lyrics are bad as well. "Hope there's lead in my pencil when I lose my cherry this very first time." Yes, that's about exactly what you think it is."

You've clearly never met a Northern Irish footballer...

I still wish we could have seen Alex Timbers Frozen, and Betsy Wolfe's Elsa

Oak2 said: "Impossible2 said: "Whistle Down the Wind and The Beautiful Game/The Boys in the Photograph are A.L.Webbers2 best shows.

Cats and Phantom are his 2 worst."

I'll give you your favorites as unpopular, but is "Cats/Phantom is bad/ALW's worst" really an unpopular opinion? From what I've seen overall most people on here and in most fan circles despise both. The one I usually see people citing as his best is probably Evita.

Of course, as said previously, I think his best work is Joseph - mostly because it's just pure cheesy/campy fun, which is what I crave (which means I do enjoy Cats, which I think is the actual unpopular opinion nowadays - I don't like Phantom though)"

Joseph is pretty awful too...

Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita are the only other 2 I can stomach and Sunset was ok.

Impossible2 said: "Oak2 said: "Impossible2 said: "Whistle Down the Wind and The Beautiful Game/The Boys in the Photograph are A.L.Webbers2 best shows.

Cats and Phantom are his 2 worst."

I'll give you your favorites as unpopular, but is "Cats/Phantom is bad/ALW's worst" really an unpopular opinion? From what I've seen overall most people on here and in most fan circles despise both. The one I usually see people citing as his best is probably Evita.

Of course, as said previously, I think his best work is Joseph - mostly because it's just pure cheesy/campy fun, which is what I crave (which means I do enjoy Cats, which I think is the actual unpopular opinion nowadays - I don't like Phantom though)"

Joseph is pretty awful too...

Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita are the only other 2 I can stomach andSunset was ok."

Haha, yeah, I figured you would also hate Joseph if you hate Cats! Though again, I feel like hating those works is more popular compared to his more "serious" works.  I'm personally not a big fan of Superstar myself. I love Evita though, and find Sunset boring.

My Sondheim opinions I know are DEFINITELY unpopular - I hate Sunday in the Park with George, Merrily We Roll Along, and Passion and dislike Company other than one or two songs.  My favorite work that he did both music and lyrics for is Assassins. (I do love A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, and Forum as well. I'm neutral on Follies. 

How wonderful the the theater world is that allows such wildly different opinions while still having enough shows that we actually like to sustain us as such varied audiences! 

I didn’t care for Dear Evan Hansen.

Oak2 said: "My Sondheim opinions I know are DEFINITELY unpopular - I hate Sunday in the Park with George, Merrily We Roll Along, and Passion and dislike Company other than one or two songs. My favorite work that he did both music and lyricsfor is Assassins. (I do love A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, and Forum as well. I'm neutral on Follies.

How wonderful the the theater world is that allows such wildly different opinions while still having enough shows that we actually like to sustain us as such varied audiences!"

Same on Sondheim. I think he’s a genius lyricist, but I dislike so much of his music that it honestly makes me wonder if I’m actually hearing it differently than other people, because I cannot fathom how someone could find it appealing. I mean that genuinely... like in the Laurel/Yanny way, because I of course don’t doubt people’s passion for his work. The disparity fascinates me. But so much of his music sounds like a car crash to me.

(Interestingly, I feel the same about a lot of the Great Comet score, and have seen that here’s a ton of overlap between those fans and Sondheim fans. If I was more of a scientist and had time for a Ph.D., I would totally research this, because we’re obviously hearing things differently!)