WORST Directed Musicals You've Ever Seen- Page 2

[threetwoone]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 1:44am

While I don't necessarily agree with the comments about Shrek, I do agree that the direction of the Seattle Finale "I Smell a Happy Ending," was superior to a lot of the show. I'm talking about the post-opening night staging, as opposed to the preview staging. If anyone saw this live, they will agree it was genius use of the turntables timed to the music. The current finale does not achieve this as well.

[Dantes]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 8:43am

Some of the choices on here are as mind-boggling as usual (N2N, Rent, Company) come on people. Do you guys know anything about directing, all 3 of those shows were well directed

Now if you want a bad one, Carrie, Terry Hands should be hit with the script over and over again until he understands the material.

Updated On: 10/27/09 at 08:43 AM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 9:02am

The original production of Ragtime. Terribly unfocused and schizophrenic. Overblown in one scene, then minimalistic in the next.

[Jon]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 11:18am

To me, Michael Grief's staging for RENT worked for the material - the show had an "improvised" look, as if the actors had never been given any exact "blocking" and were. On the other hand that approach did not work at all for Grief's staging of Randy Newman's FAUST at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. The ensemble scenes just looked unorganized and under-rehearsed.

STEEL PIER was awful, and I put equal blame on Scott Ellis' direction and David Thompsons awful book. The score was excelent, the cast was great, and the Stroman's choreography was fine (except for poor Karen Ziemba's "pole dance" in her 11 o'clock number).

[tommigyrl5]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 11:36am

"Do you guys no anything about directing, all 3 of those shows were well directed"

While I don't "no" anything....I think I might KNOW something...

In N2N if you are in the front few rows, you can't see ANYTHING on the 3rd level. And regardless of seat - you BARELY see any of the actor's whole faces. They are in profile the entire time. That is not particularly good directing. Thats what I was told in graduate school anyway...and I agree.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 12:06pm

I hated the direction of Rent, but still loved the show. That would be the worst directed hit. I felt it was so lazy.

So many badly directed flops to choose from, but I'd have to say a tie between "Aint Broadway Grand" and "Thou Shalt Not".

[Christoph]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 1:31pm

Oh God, YES, Dayao. And thank you for saying it about John Doyle!

After that Sweeney Todd debacle that board members were inventing new superlatives to achieve orgasm over, I would never see another show he was directing. When I actually saw the show, I think my jaw hit the floor and then had an anvil dropped on it. Was it the decision that many of the leads were garbed like they wandered in off the street? Or the decision that when some characters "interacted" they were at opposite ends of the stage and just pretended to exchange things? Or was it the fact that the entire production looked cobbled together for approximately $19.99? Or was it the actors doubling as the scenery movers plus the orchestra? The maddening spectacle of watching them clunk their instruments down to catapult across the stage to be ready for their cues for dialogue scenes and then back again to reclaim their unceremoniously deposited instruments for the next song was excruciatingly painful to witness. The only shock was that Doyle did not have the actors also in charge of the lighting and doubling as ushers. No, it was a combination of all these directorial decisions plus more not to be mentioned. I do, however, thank Doyle for the unique experience of noting that when placed in a production that resembles something put on in the local high school gym that Broadway performers the caliber of Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris could indeed lower themselves to the level of the event rather than elevating it.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 1:41pm

Laurent's current West Side Story. Thank god the material is so strong he didn't kill it completely.

[Jon]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 1:59pm

I think Doyle's use of actors playing isntruments (which Iknow was originally for economic reasons) is a crutch that allows him to avoid actually making the actors move. His staging ove Brecht & Weill's "Mahagonny" had endless stretches where the performers JUST SAT THERE... as if he was afraid to ask opera singers to sing and walk at the same time.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 2:10pm

I had some problems with Doyle's production of SWEENEY TODD, but overall enjoyed it. I didn't mind the actors playing the instruments in the slightest, and the unconventional staging I felt stripped the show of the bloated Hal Prince production once and for all, letting me concentrate on the story and songs.

If that had been the entire production, I'd have been perfectly fine with it. But unfortunately they added the whole madhouse element, which I just didn't see as adding anything to the experience at all. It wasn't long before I started to wonder where on earth the hospital administrators had managed to find such incredibly talented lunatics.

[hmpeterson]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 2:32pm

McAnuff's Guys and Dolls. How can you take a classic and ruin it, ask Des McAnuff.

[kate2]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 2:42pm

I definitely agree about the Sweeney revival!

[Dagobert]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 2:52pm

I agree Nick and Nora should have been light and bubbly, like champaign, and instead we got oatmeal, and really lumpy oatmeal. The music and lyrics were not the problem. The book and especially the direction were. I maintain that is a musical that could be reworked and saved with the right touch.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 3:09pm

I thought the revival of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE was pretty stupidly directed. Setting the production in a deep-freeze and telling the actors that under no circumstances must they display anything resembling knowledge that other people exist is kind of a problem, and then using Powerpoint presentations instead of set design AND then stripping one of Sondheim's loveliest scores down to what sounded like two musicians with Casios they bought from a street vendor only added up to an excruciating experience.

[Dagobert]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 3:23pm

I saw neither of the Sundays in the Park on Broadway, but Ken Bloom, author of the Broadway musicals: The 101 greatest shows of all time, said he thought the Sunday revival as one of the few revivals that was better than the original...


Updated On: 10/27/09 at 03:23 PM

[Roscoe]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 3:28pm

Ken Bloom is wrong.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 4:04pm

Very wrong.

[binau]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 4:21pm

Very very wrong.

RE: N2N, was the poor view at the off-Broadway theatre etc.. too?

If I were to defend the direction, I'd claim that there is a reason the front row seats are the cheapest in the house. But I suppose if it is many rows back that seems like a problem..

Updated On: 10/27/09 at 04:21 PM

[Craww]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 4:54pm

I didn't have a poor view at N2N, either in the fifth row at Second Stage or in the first row at the Booth. I'm not going to join in an artistic argument about the direction of the show, but I know it's total BS to claim you "can't see anything". It's not comfortable in the first row, and you don't get the best view possible, but I was not dissatisfied considering the price. Especially with the bonus of how well you see the facial expressions. Which are displayed at far more angles than "just in profile". I'm baffled by that.

I don't really feel qualified in the specifics of stage directing to write any emphatic criticism, but if I had to say something? Worst directed show I've seen is probably Little Mermaid. Of the smaller shows I've seen, I'd go with LoveMusik.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 5:18pm

I actually liked The Woman in White, but Trevor Nunn's direction was awful, like it was for Gone with the Wind, all his other direction I have seen is great, even thought I loathe Cats, but cannot fault the direction. Les Miserable was a masterpiece in direction.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 5:27pm

I almost forgot the hideous Broadway production of Jekyll and Hyde. What happened to that show was far worse than anything I saw in Thou Shalt Not.

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 5:34pm

The first thing that came to mind was 9 To 5.

[Basely Tearful]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 5:56pm

I think the staging for Shrek is horrid. The score and performances are the only bright spots.

I think the Rent staging was never as strong as the material.

Of revivals I especially hated Sweet Charity and La Cage for their pedestrian, negligible stagings.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 6:01pm

I don't think JCS has ever been directed well.

Tom O'Horgan turned the production into a high-tech (for '71) spectacular with dancing midgets, laser beams, smoke and wind machines, and Jesus nailed to a giant golden triangle. No one understood what he was going for, and having learned from him what he was going for before his death, I still fail to see what his aim was.

Edwards turned the show into a mishmash of a different color, with elements from Star Wars (the Roman guards' costumes), The Matrix (the priests' attire), the Sam Mendes revival of Cabaret (Pilate in an SS officer's uniform, and the whole hopeless tone in general), Rent (the basic set and just about any of the costumes for Jesus and his crew), an S&M party (cue the whipping by hand, the strange chemistry between Jesus and Judas [and many of the apostles], and a creepy goth lynch mob that permeated the proceedings), and a smattering of the traditional palette.

The right production is yet to be done.

Updated On: 10/27/09 at 06:01 PM

[Basely Tearful]

Posted: 10/27/09 at 6:10pm

And regarding the Doyle comments...

This something he originally did to save money. I wouldn't blame him for producers wanting him to repeat this. He seems to be giving this concept a rest.

I'd take a million of his actor/instrument stagings (I consider his stage pictures/movement quite wonderful) over some of the lazy directorial work in my aforementioned La Cage and Charity.