WONDERLAND - Why so negative?

Worth seeing

There is one reason for the reviews WILDHORN Critics love to savage him whenever he opens a show. Quality has no bearing on their reviews

I expected negative reviews but some were downright vicious. This proves to me what I have always said. If a person can write a plat or compose music he or she becomes a critic to tear down someone who can do what they can not.Envy is not a trait to have.

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It was the worst thing I've seen on Broadway (mind you, I haven't seen Baby, It's You!) I couldn't stand the music, the book was painfully cheesy and unfunny, the leading lady was annoying and whiny. It was just a huge mess on all fronts. The two guys sitting in front of me fell asleep and much of my row left early. I was embarrassed for the actors.

If you like Wildhorn's music, maybe you'd like this...? I'd literally rather endure a mammogram than see this again. But if you like Wildhorn and "big and flashy", this might be right up your alley. Just don't pay full price for a ticket! Try to rush it or something, so if you don't like it, you're not hating yourself later.

Updated On: 4/19/11 at 10:45 PM

Well, I thought the show was a complete mess and deserved the bad reviews.

But that said, Mr. Roxy is right. Even if the show had been better, Wildhorn would have been battered, because he has no cachet whatsoever with the NY critical fraternity. In fact, he has the opposite of cachet, so whenever he comes around, they pile it on.

We saw it on Saturday. The book is a mess, but if you like the music (which we did) then it's worth seeing. The performances are a lot of fun.

If only they'd brought in a book doctor...

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I don't like to see people out of work or anything BUT...

I kind of hope this is closed by August because I have a boyfriend (who may or may not have posted this topic) who is dragging me to this and it seems so, so awful. :P

n2nbaby, have you ever had a mammogram? See my post above.

I think Wildhorn writes some good pop songs and some good melodramatic gems as well. I am sure Wonderland has a few. The one they keep playing outside the Marquis sounds great.

However, I have heard from many people that the book is mess and the songs are too generic. I was in Joe Allen with about 10 people who left at intermission.

I just think its bad but its got great commercials and marketing. Whatever people are expecting from the marketing isn't there when they arrive. Thats a recipe for disaster.

Families are expecting "Alice In Wonderland" and its not that. Adults are expecting a grown up Alice and its not exactly that either.

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As a huge Frank Wildhorn fan and a former huge WONDERLAND fan, this version is awful! The music is good, but go just for that. Frank writes good music, and the "general" public like it. Broadway folks would rather take the boring, "theatrical" music but Frank KNOWS he writes Pop tunes for the theatre because when people like Cole Porter and Gershwin were writing - it WAS the popular music of the day.

The show once upon a time had a great concept but the production on Broadway should just be a Wildhorn concert. I'd keep going... the book is yikes.

I still say see it though... It's just not one of the better things I'd seen!

Those of you who say it is the worst thing you have ever seen CLEARLY have never seen Urban Cowboy the Musical. OY!

I think the critics have nothing against Frank Wildhorn, but they do have something against talent that is not brought to fruition and shows that repeatedly come in to town needing lots of work. I believe the critics sense that Wildhorn has a talent as a composer, but again and again his work seems to be lacking polish. Songs are just good enough, and without the brilliance critics long for. You can't repeatedly bring shows to town after extensive out of town tryouts and have them be like a work in progress. Look at Wildhorn's website and all of the musicals he's working on. How can anyone possibly write 5 or 6 masterpieces simultaneously. It's like he's going for quantity over quality. We've all read how Sondheim will agonize over a song taking all the time it needs until it's right, till the hat is done. With Wildhorn it's seems the complete opposite, start the hat at 10am, finish the hat at 10:30am, 10:45am time for hat 2. The songs seems too easy, yet they have flashes of excellence. I saw his Camille Claudel at Goodspeed and it showed the promise of things Wildhorn is capable of. I don't think we can blame the critics. By now they're a little fed up and disappointed. Give them high quality and they will acknowledge it. (One would hope.)

If Frank WIldhorn wrote "Sweeney Todd", it would get raves. He just hasn't written a "Sweeney Todd" yet.

If Sondheim wrote Dracula, or Scarlett Pimpernell, or those awful songs in Victor Victoria, he would have received awful reviews.

The critics aren't anti/Wildhorn. They're pro/ quality.

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I could tell Wonderland would be terrible when I saw the preview videos on this site and discovered that it relied heavily on The Wonder Twins of Cheap Musical Theatre: pastiche and projections.

"Shape of a musical number with an abrupt tonal shift that reeks of winking, multi-culti tokenism!"

"Shape of a badly-timed and garish projection that could've been easily and more impressively realized by carpenters!"