Unpopular opinions you hold- Page 9

[fosterfan2]

Posted: 8/7/11 at 1:28pm

I'm getting kind of tired of Kristin Chenoweth. I used to be a huge fan,but I think she's gotten too Hollywood.

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 8/7/11 at 3:09pm

Still convinced that once a show becomes a mega-hit its destined to be one of the most hated shows on these boards

The current off Broadway RENT cast is good...but judging just from preview videos, they are incredibly weak vocally with the exception of a few.

I like Lea Salonga's voice...however when she tries to "mix" belt its far from being the best thing ever.

On the topic of "Mixing" I think that with the extreme exception of a few...doing a mix belt just sounds like a very weak belt.

Mary Martin...not that great IMO

While I understand their significance to the Musical Theater world...I find most of R&H shows to be boring...especially "The King and I" and with the same plot (boy/girl meet, do not get along at first, start to fall in love, try to fight it, something happens that forces them to part, they come back together and all is happily ever after.)

Stephen Schwartz is a brilliant composer.

Harvey Feinstein's voice just grates on my ears.

I'm really starting to hate how EVERYTHING has to be a "riff" now. I've yet to see a musical in the past few years where their is not one girl/boy in the cast that feel the need to riff their junk off.

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/7/11 at 3:24pm

After watching the videos of Natascia Diaz as Cassie, I can't imagine how Charlotte d'Amboise was cast over her.

[staunchcharacter]

Posted: 8/7/11 at 9:26pm

I thought Dear world was one of Herman's best scores. And Lion king is nothing short of an artistic triumph. And Sutton Foster looks like she was just going through the motions with anything goes.
Updated On: 8/7/11 at 09:26 PM

[Cornelius2]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 11:30am

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.
Didn't "get it".
Didn't like it.
Wanted to walk out (but it only had one act and we were sitting
in the center of the row)

[singtopher]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 7:23pm

Not Broadway, but Andrea Bocelli is a fine singer, but he wouldn't be nearly as famous as he is if he wasn't visually disabled.

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 7:34pm

I completely agree with everything fingerlakessinger said. Especially on the Rodgers & Hammerstein topic. And while I'm at it, I'll just say that South Pacific is a dull show in which the protagonist's problems come from her own racism. Oh, and almost nothing happens until the end of the first act.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 8:15pm

Trudging through the entire thread, I'm really confused now-- are my short list of opinions popular or un?

Jennifer Holliday was unwatchable in the original Dreamgirls. I pitied her talented costars who had to share a stage with her.

Catherine Zeta Jones gave a perfectly legitimate reading of Desiree in ALNM (which doesn't prevent me from still treasuring Glynnis Johns original perf.)

Loved Lion King, Billy Elliott and about 2/3 of American Idiot-- Billy Elliott easily the greatest musical of the 21st century.

Hated Book of Mormon, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Spamalot. (Wait, aren't these all the same show?)

[shrekster224]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 8:27pm

Judging from what many of you have said the past few days, this must be an unpopular opinion. I hate Natascia Diaz and am glad they chose Charlotte over her.

I love Memphis and think it is a great show.

Love Rent off Broadway, and I got obsessed with the show because of it.

I actually liked Priscilla, too. Yea, it was really pink and cheesy, but it was fun.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 8:45pm

Shrekster, thanks for reminding me-- hated Memphis and its seemingly brain-damaged star, and hated Avenue Q for extra credit.

I feel much better now.

[littlegreen2]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 8:45pm

"Jennifer Holliday was unwatchable in the original Dreamgirls. I pitied her talented costars who had to share a stage with her."

I didn't see it live, but I have, well, "seen it" and I have to agree, though I think her Tony performance was emotionally debilitating.

[shrekster224]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 8:56pm

Charles, liked it more with Bryan Fenkart anyways.
Updated On: 8/8/11 at 08:56 PM

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 9:02pm

Gotta agree about Jennifer Holliday. Not an actress really and the voice is a very unpleasant sound. Screamed her way through Effie. Never believed her performance for a second. It's always killed me that she won the Tony over Ralph.

I had a similar reaction seeing Montego Glover for the first time recently. Lots of off-pitch screaming sold as "soulful singing". Also, the most tragic "acting" I've seen in a Broadway musical in a long time.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 9:55pm

Also, gotta give Kudos to everyone on this thread-- the most well-mannered thread on BWW. Sometimes being nice is just nice for a change.

[michellek45]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 4:14pm

I agree with shrekster about the Off-Broadway Rent cast. I would even go as far to say I like them better than the OBC.

That said, I think Tick, Tick, Boom! has a better score.

Lippa's Wild Party, while not the greatest musical ever, is underrated when compared to contemporary blockbusters. (Spring Awakening, American Idiot, Spamalot, etc.)

I'm glad I only had to pay $20 to see Book of Mormon. I would have been disappointed if I'd paid full price.

Caroline, or Change could have been an excellent show, but it suffers from a very weak book.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 4:30pm

I kind of have to agree about Rogers and Hammerstein. I adore the King and I, but South Pacific is beyond dull and boring. Oh and put me in the crowd that can't stand Memphis. I found pretty much everything about it to be terrible. From Chad Kimball's god awful performance to the terrible book and score... This show is just terrible. Addams Family was better than this thing. Oh and don't even get me started on Memphis's set design.

[bwayrose7]

Posted: 8/10/11 at 12:04am

-I love Wicked and find it rather moving.
-Despite a downturn in parts of season 2, I enjoy Glee
-I love Spring Awakening, especially the intricacy of the score. Ditto Next to Normal.
-I thought Billy Elliot was wonderful.
-Wonderland did not deserve the bad rep it got.
-Add me to the camp that can't stand Memphis.
-Catch Me was underrated; I'm sad to see it close.

[random person 112]

Posted: 8/22/11 at 6:32pm

I think merrily we roll along closed because besides for franklin shepard inc., not a day goes by, old friends part one mind you, and the hills of tommorow most of the songs are boring in and out of context and while the idea for the show is genius some of the songs are purely masturabatory for sondheim like the transitions so i have no urge to see this on broadway.

The frogs isn't that bad.

[broadwayvet101]

Posted: 8/22/11 at 7:10pm

i could not agree more. i have never posted on a message board here. i just registered to agree with this.

let me say: what the hell is so great about aaron tveit? He plays one color and one tone. There was no journey in catch me. He has no charisma in my opinion. Yes, he has a great range sure, but his voice is not the most pleasant to my ears. He is nobody's triple threat. His dance is amateur-esque and acting chops what? I know he is disappointed in his non-Tony nod for catch me, and when it happened in N2N. But there is a reason he was not nominated. Nothing about this boy pops. He is a tenor singer, that would sound great in the ensemble for added high notes.

i. am. over. tveit. I realize this may be unpopular, which is why I love this thread. :)

In other unpopular news: I loved Priscilla.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 8/22/11 at 8:12pm

I don't think everybody has to love R&H, but I'm confused by this sentence from fingerslakesinger:

"I find most of R&H shows to be boring...especially "The King and I" and with the same plot (boy/girl meet, do not get along at first, start to fall in love, try to fight it, something happens that forces them to part, they come back together and all is happily ever after...."

Perhaps fingers was talking about two different things, but while "boy/girl meet ... happily ever after" might describe Oklahoma! and Sound of Music, it doesn't begin to describe Carousel or The King and I. South Pacific has a happy ending of sorts, but not for the "boy/girl".

***

I've learned to love Jennifer Holliday, but I agree with the accounts of her in the original Dreamgirls. I thought the play stopped dead whenever she sang so that she could do a nightclub act/gospel revival. (Speaking of which, Jennifer Holliday in Anything Goes? Hmmm... It would be different.)

And while I'm bitching about Dreamgirls, what's up with Effie singing "And I'm Tellng You I'm Not Going" just before she goes out the door and out of the plot until late in Act II? Part of the "contract" of American musical theater is that characters singing solos to the audience are always telling the truth as they understand it. (The same may be said of Shakespearean asides.) If she says she's not going that emphatically, she shouldn't go (unless something else happens to change her mind).

I thought the ending of Act I tore down the conventions of the genre to no good purpose.
Updated On: 8/22/11 at 08:12 PM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 8/22/11 at 8:17pm

And BTW, I think one should reserve judgment on Ethel Merman and Mary Martin (even Gertrude Lawrence, for that matter) unless one saw them live. They were very much creatures of live performance (and before microphones, no less) rather than recording media.

Ethel Merman, to take the one I saw live in a musical on tour, was thrilling in ways akin to modern rock stars, only she did it without mikes. She was all about energy and brass, not singing pretty.

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 8/22/11 at 8:52pm

Gaveston...it may not fit perfectly to "Carousel" (it does to an effect though) it certainly applies to "King and I" with the exception of the happy ending. I meant to mention that in the original post but forgot to. And "South Pacific" fits right in there also.
Just my opinion however.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 8/22/11 at 9:01pm

Fingers, I see what you mean. But I would summarize those shows differently.

The "boy meets girl, etc." plot you describe is the traditional structure of comedy at least since Athenian New Comedy in the 4th century B.C.

Hammerstein's invention was to marry that structure to plot elements from more serious drama. So "boy" may get "girl" in R&H, or like Lt. Cable, "boy" may die in the war while middle-aged man gets woman in the end. I suppose the King and Anna "meet cute" (in modern parlance), but their relationship walked a very dangerous racial line in the day of the show. Even Curley and Laurie, perhaps the most traditional boy/girl couple in the R&H hits, don't live happily ever after until Judd dies and Curley is acquitted by a court.

None of this is to say you have to change your mind. I just want to note that R&H were doing something very different from the "boy meets girl" plots that dominated the musical comedies of Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, even during the same time period.

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 8/22/11 at 9:06pm

^You do have a point. But my problem is that they all had similar plots haha

[Jackson Upperco]

Posted: 11/26/11 at 11:13am

Sutton Foster is not believable as Reno Sweeney. She should never have been cast in that role. Her Tony win is a joke, and is a reflection of her talent rather than her performance. Ethel Merman's rolling in her grave right about now.