Unpopular theatre opinions- Page 2

[jvoom]

Posted: 6/11/20 at 5:07pm

Dolly Parton's score for "9 to 5" is criminally underrated, I'm baffled as to how it didn't get more love.

[MollyJeanneMusic]

Posted: 6/11/20 at 6:25pm

Not sure if this is as "unpopular" as it is "obscure," or maybe it's both - I wish that the My Fair Lady revival and SpongeBob SquarePants had won the opposite Tonys (as in, costumes should've gone to SB and set to MFL).  I saw My Fair Lady on Broadway and was absolutely FLOORED by the set, especially the way the turning of Higgins's house was utilized during "Just You Wait."  While I didn't get to see SpongeBob live, I have watched the proshot and many of the behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube, and their costumes seemed more innovative and unique in how they captured the essences of the characters without veering into theme park territory.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 6/11/20 at 7:45pm

I like Brooklyn the Musical. 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/11/20 at 10:44pm

Sunday in the Park with George is a painfully boring show with half-a-dozen, gorgeous songs.

On the other hand, I loved every minute of Passion on Broadway in 1993, and seeing it again in Pasadena just before quarantine shut it down only confirmed my original impression.

The Music Man pursues its objective with every bit as much creativity and skill as West Side Story. Tragedy is not automatically more important or serious than comedy.

Porgy and Bess, Street Scene, The Most Happy Fella and Sweeney Todd are operas, regardless of where they are performed, and belong in the canon alongside La Boheme and Carmen.

My Fair Lady is a distinctly American take on Pygmalion. Leave the endings of both alone.

Making the subtext of Oklahoma! literal isn't genius, it's pedantic.

The resolution of Guys and Dolls makes no sense, but that's true of a lot of musical comedies.

[InTheBathroom1]

Posted: 6/11/20 at 11:06pm

Come From Away is an average show with bad lyrics that has succeeded cause it makes older white people feel good about themselves.

The Great Comet used production design and direction to distract from the fact that the show has no substance.

[InTheBathroom1]

Posted: 6/11/20 at 11:06pm

Come From Away is an average show with bad lyrics that has succeeded cause it makes older white people feel good about themselves.

The Great Comet used production design and direction to distract from the fact that the show has no substance.

[soulmistin]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 12:49am

I don't like Hamilton. At all. I'm not a contrarian, I wanted to like it. I like rap, I like hip hop, I'm Gen Z, I like Lin Manuel Miranda himself. I frankly just do not like the show or its music and don't find it particularly well made or impressive in any capacity except the fact that it made it as far as it did. To add insult to injury, I honestly think the choice of POC cast in addition to that story is ludicrous. I'm glad artists of color felt empowered playing those roles, but I think the casting was the antithesis of what the show is supposed to represent. I'm an LGBT person. I would not want to play somebody who systemically benefited from my oppression unless they were doing something important with it. Even though I didn't like the show itself, I would've been less miffed if the story was at least something that really celebrated people of color rather than acting like it was progressive because there's people of color in it.

Updated On: 6/12/20 at 12:49 AM

[Lot666]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 7:43am

fashionguru_23 said: "I think Come From Away should have won Best Musical over Dear Evan Hansen"

Me too. I think Ben Platt was completely deserving of his Tony for what he did with the role, but the overall show was a less successful package than Come From Away.

I also think The Ferryman was the most over-hyped, boring, and pointless show of its season.

[VotePeron]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 10:01am

I have a zillion, but besides Matilda losing best musical (which I don’t think is an unpopular opinion) my top one is: Andy Karl deserved the win for Groundhog Day. Hands down.

[sng]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 10:08am

Every Best Musical winner from the 2010s is trash.

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 10:34am

soulmistin said: "I don't like Hamilton. At all. I'm not a contrarian, Iwantedto like it. I like rap, I like hip hop, I'm Gen Z,I like Lin Manuel Miranda himself. I frankly just do not like the show or its music and don't find it particularly well made or impressive in any capacity except the fact that it made it as far as it did. To add insult to injury, I honestly think the choice of POC cast in addition to that story is ludicrous. I'm glad artists of color felt empowered playing those roles, but I think the casting was the antithesis of what the show is supposed to represent. I'm an LGBT person. I would not want to play somebody who systemically benefited from my oppression unless they were doing something important with it. Even though I didn't like the show itself, I would've been less miffed if the story was at least something that really celebrated people of color rather than acting like it was progressive because there's people of color in it."

I think part of the idea of Hamilton, though, was that POC were in fact playing people who systemically benefited from their oppression and as a result were sort of reclaiming those roles and almost saying "look, you did not win, because here I am portraying you now".  It's a really interesting point you bring up and not at all trying to invalidate it or say that none of the actors felt that way, but I think the greater idea behind Hamilton was that this was an opportunity for white history to be told by the folks who never got to speak up during those times and to finally give them an opportunity to bring their voice to these events.

But for the record, I'm actually not a huge fan of the music either and have never really gotten into it.  But I can see and appreciate what they were going for with it, just personally not my thing.

Updated On: 6/12/20 at 10:34 AM

[matt1982]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 11:00am

I found Shuffle Along to be one of the most brilliant and thrilling pieces of musical theatre I have ever seen and it should have won best musical in 2016.

Dear Evan Hansen did not make me cry once.  In fact I rolled my eyes.  

I found Cynthia Erivo to be very average in The Color Purple.  

I enjoyed the Sally Field Glass Menagerie more than the Cherry Jones production.  In fact, Joe Mantello was the greatest Tom I've seen onstage.  

 

[joevitus]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 11:05am

I wish they'd revived the original Shuffle Along. I understand why they wouldn't (surely couldn't), but Langston Hughes cites it as the work that inaugurated the Harlem Renaissance.

[ImaginaryManticore]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 12:02pm

Merrily We Roll Along is one of Sondheim's best shows.

Book writers deserve as much recognition as composers and lyricists. You only have to compare the number of great scores every year with the number of great books to see how hard it is.

I love the serious, dramatic musicals of the 90s and wish more people were trying to make shows like that now.

Booking fees should be replaced with a levy to fund new theatre writing (okay I only just came up with that so I could say something original, but why not?).

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 2:22pm

I hate when people dwell on the past of awards shows and who "should have won". For some reason it just bugs me.

 

I am not a fan of Great Comet at all. I think it had a very specific audience, and that's why it didn't stay open longer. 

People who say people who hate bootlegs hate poor people are absolutely, 100% ridiculous. People now are so used to getting what they want, when they want. When I was young, I didn't expect to see shows for free because I couldn't afford it. I found other ways to entertain myself. Now so much of peoples lives are online that they expect to get basically anything they want. 

Honestly, Spongebob deserved more recognition. 

The whole debacle with Beetlejuice and The Music Man is the result of some greed, yes. But it was also totally justified. The show was doing poorly. Beetlejuice was going to close. Rudin wanted the theater, and they tried to find a way to compromise. But he was set on having TMM in The Winter Garden. Per an article in the NYTimes, they tried to find a way to shuffle TKAM, Beetlejuice and TMM, but Rudin was stubborn. Obviously I don't work in the industry so I don't know what went on behind closed doors. But the fans who are acting like it's the end of the world, and that TMM should be boycotted are ridiculous. The show wasn't doing well, they evoked the stop clause, and then the ticket sales went up. How on earth could they have predicted that would happen??

[mamaleh]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 4:04pm

BULLETS OVER BROADWAY was highly entertaining with delightful performances.  Marin Mazzie, Zach Braff and especially Nick Cordero (how I hope he recovers!) were exemplary.  I think the show failed because of lingering negativism; i.e,, "guilt by (unproven) accusation" against Woody Allen. 

25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE was an unmelodic mess.  

[TITLE OF SHOW], which I expected to love, was boring and plodding. 

I've always loved Bette Midler, but her voice was totally gone in HELLO, DOLLY!   

THE SOUND INSIDE was a pretentious bore.  

NEXT TO NORMAL was better at Second Stage than on Broadway.

I liked Chris Sullivan's Hermes in HADESTOWN downtown much better than Andre de Shield's on Broadway 

I very much disliked how the recent revisal of OKLAHOMA! changed the perception of Curly's guilty vs innocence.   Give me Trevor Nunn's beautiful production on DVD any day.   

 

 

Updated On: 6/12/20 at 04:04 PM

[kaybay2]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 4:27pm

I don't understand the appeal (for decades now) of Hello Dolly.

Sutton Foster's voice is like nails on a blackboard to me.

I think Jonathan Groff got a Tony nomination so that Hamilton could set a record for nominations.

I loved The Great Comet, and preferred Dave Malloy to Josh Groban. 

 

[joevitus]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 5:07pm

I may be the only person who agrees with you about Hello, Dolly!

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 6:30pm

kaybay2 said: "I don't understand the appeal (for decades now) of Hello Dolly.

Sutton Foster's voice is like nails on a blackboard to me.

I think Jonathan Groff got a Tony nomination so that Hamilton could set a record for nominations.

I loved The Great Comet, and preferred Dave Malloy to Josh Groban.

"

I fell in love with Hello Dolly, through the Barbra Streisand film. While, I think it deserves it place in the history, what I will never understand is the love of Carol Channing in the role. I never play the original cast recording. It can't stand the screaming cat noise she makes. HOWEVER, I feel like maybe she was better on stage than on record.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 6:34pm

The best aspect of Beetlejuice is it's lyrics, which are some of the wittiest, most clever lyrics I've ever heard.

[stoptheworld38]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 9:19pm

Lot666 said: "fashionguru_23 said: "I think Come From Away should have won Best Musical over Dear Evan Hansen"

Me too. I think Ben Platt was completely deserving of his Tony for what he did with the role, but the overall show was a less successful package than Come From Away.

I also think The Ferryman was the most over-hyped, boring, and pointless show of its season."

I know almost nothing about The Ferryman so I can't really say whether I agree or not (about it winning or about it being over-hyped/boring, but I had really been hoping for the Tony to go to Choir Boy or What the Constitution Means To Me.

 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 9:27pm

Schmackary's cookies are too salty. Does that count?

[skies]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 9:36pm

joevitus said: "I may be the only person who agrees with you about Hello, Dolly!"

Wow, there are three of us.

 

[joevitus]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 10:24pm

skies said: "joevitus said: "I may be the only person who agrees with you about Hello, Dolly!"

Wow, there are three of us.

"

lol

[AADA81]

Posted: 6/12/20 at 10:50pm

I loved A Catered Affair and thought the score was marvelous.

Phantom and Les Miz are two of the worst, most boring shows I've ever seen.

Caroline, or Change is the best musical of the last 20 years.

Sondheim's later scores, starting with Sunday in the Park With George, are overwritten, too obviously clever and over-reliant on rhyming patterns.

Disney musicals, as a rule, belong as attractions in Disney amusements parks, not in legitimate theaters.

Titanic has one of the best scores of all time.

Wicked has been the worst influence on Broadway musicals since Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote Evita.