What Was The Worst Musical You Saw- Page 7

[jdrye222]

Posted: 4/14/20 at 7:40am

I think mine are:

GOOD VIBRATIONS

SCANDALOUS

TALE OF TWO CITIES

LITTLE WOMEN 

URBAN COWBOY

KINKY BOOTS

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 4/14/20 at 12:12pm

frontrowcentre2 said: "Now I rather liked URINETOWN, and THE BANDS VISIT and PASSION. I did not like SUNSET BLVD. The performance I atttended in Toronto starred Diahann Carroll who appeared bored and uninterested in giving any kind of star performance.

The classic film is still a favorite, but Lloyd Webber used too much of the film dialogue as recitative and brought nothing new or innovative to the stage adaptation. According to an article in SHOW MUSIC magazine he chose to recycle a number of trunk songs which explains why the score is so wildly uneven."

Sunset Blvd is frustrating because so much of the music is excellent (the Hollywood pastiche is quite good!) and it often comes close to being a grand, gothic opera, but stretching it out to a two-act evening sucks all the witty, zippy energy out and too often it just feels like waiting around for the conclusion.

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 4/14/20 at 5:48pm

if you have to said: "Sutton Ross said: "Lestat and Scandalous."

While not great shows, they at least had Carolee Carmello in them. And she was/is incredible."

Gosh.... this just made me realize. Some of the worst shows I have seen were Addam's Family and Tuck Everlasting... ALSO with Carmello. AND she was in Finding Neverland. How is is that one of the best talents in theatre has been in SO many awful flops in recent years?

[joevitus]

Posted: 4/14/20 at 5:57pm

bryan2 said: "very strange that everybody hates CATS but it ran forever...mmmm I think people are afraid to admit they liked it or some of it....I know I loved seeing Betty Buckley belt out Memory also Lauri Beechman in the first National tour...it was worth the price of admission...."

Well, everyone doesn't hate it. Most Broadway aficionados do, but that's a smaller group. That it gets no lover here should come as zero surprise (it is a pretty terrible show, one or two good songs, tops).

[PatrickDC]

Posted: 4/14/20 at 6:14pm

joevitus said: "bryan2 said: "very strange that everybody hates CATS but it ran forever...mmmm I think people are afraid to admit they liked it or some of it....I know I loved seeing Betty Buckley belt out Memory also Lauri Beechman in the first National tour...it was worth the price of admission...."

Well, everyone doesn't hate it. Most Broadway aficionados do, but that's a smaller group. That it gets no lover here should come as zero surprise (it is a pretty terrible show, one or two good songs, tops)."

I long ago got over CATS but there was a time I adored it and listened to the double LP until I wore it out. It sat down in San Francisco for a year or maybe more and I saw it three times (then twice in NYC and once in London). It was the first true Broadway show I’d seen. Before that only some regional and local shows. So I was completely blown away by it. While I have no more interest in it and haven’t seen the recent film, I’m not ashamed in the least to say I loved the show that ignited my lifelong passion for musical theater. 

[Buddy's blues2]

Posted: 4/15/20 at 5:37am

A train wreck of a musical called "Paradise Found" at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London in 2010. Directed by Harold Prince and Susan Stroman and starring a very sweaty Mandy Patinkin it was dire to say the least. The excellent supporting cast couldn't do much to save it either. 

[VotePeron]

Posted: 4/15/20 at 9:40am

Tuck Everlasting, Hands on a Hardbody, Elf, War Paint, Beetlejuice, Emojiland, Finding Neverland, Motown...this list goes on and on. Really tired of celebrating mediocrity under the guise of camp.

[if you have to]

Posted: 4/21/20 at 8:42am

Scarlet Leigh said: "if you have to said: "Sutton Ross said: "Lestat and Scandalous."

While not great shows, they at least had Carolee Carmello in them. And she was/is incredible."

Gosh.... this just made me realize. Some of the worst shows I have seen were Addam's Family and Tuck Everlasting... ALSO with Carmello. AND she was in Finding Neverland. How is is that one of the best talents in theatre has been in SO many awful flops in recent years?"

Aw, I love Tuck and FN. Addam’s Family was not great, but again, she was wonderful! Not only is she in the flops, but she manages Tony nominations from them too! I honestly think she should have won for a Parade and Scandalous. 
 

[MediumSonya]

Posted: 4/21/20 at 1:52pm

I've been very lucky not to see any bad musicals on Broadway, but I attended a workshop of iLLA! at the Eugene O' Neill Theatre Center in the summer of 2017, and it was...not the best.

[Sytwix]

Posted: 4/21/20 at 2:42pm

Broadway
Amazing Grace
Book of Mormon
Pretty Woman

Off Broadway
This Ain’t No Disco
Bat out of Hell
Joan of Arc

[MlleDaae]

Posted: 4/28/20 at 11:03pm

Dirty Dancing The Musical 2008

First time I had ever experienced a professionally staged musical turn out to be a flop so bad I contemplated leaving before the end. Also, my first time seeing someone severely untalented on stage in a paying role.

[Menken Fan]

Posted: 4/28/20 at 11:26pm

I can't believe I haven't seen anyone mention James Joyce's The Dead. I don't think there was an intermission to escape.  My friends and I literally ran away from the theatre when it ended.

[Skywalker3]

Posted: 4/29/20 at 4:34am

9 to 5 the musical, London (and I believe US tour) version.

The book isn't great, the songs are mediocre. But at least the Broadway version had a great cast and direction.

For London it was like the director said, play it like you are a comic book character from the 60's and make sure they get it at the last row. Awful. 

Also the London production of Be More Chill made no sense to me. 

[Malinda5000]

Posted: 5/16/20 at 5:37pm

Frozen. The Little Mermaid.

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 5/16/20 at 5:42pm

ELF was really awful.

[Theatrefanboy1]

Posted: 5/16/20 at 6:39pm

Spider-Man (And I really did want to LOVE it), King Kong, the broadway production of Kinky Boots (And I LOVED the west end version . But I think it was the cast). Book of Mormon (but I think it was cast again cause I loved the touring company).

[Jarethan]

Posted: 5/16/20 at 7:44pm

MlleDaae said: "Dirty Dancing The Musical 2008

First time I had ever experienced a professionally staged musical turn out to be a flop so bad I contemplated leaving before the end. Also, my first time seeing someone severely untalented on stage in a paying role."

Funny you should mention that one.  I do not remember whether I included it in my post, because I tried to block it out of my memory.  About three years or seeing it with friends, they still tease me about being elitist, based on my intermission capsule review of the show: 'in the history of bad musicals that I have seen, this has to be the pantheon.'  Everything about it was awful, especially the leading lady.  She wants to be a ballerina or something...the woman I saw was so muscle bound that she reminded me of one of those Russian women we'd see in certain Olympic events years ago.  Definitely, as bad as they get.

[ItsMeRaul]

Posted: 5/16/20 at 8:15pm

Lennon, pre-Broadway in SF. We were shocked that it actually went to Broadway, and surprised that it even lasted 6 weeks.

Updated On: 5/16/20 at 08:15 PM

[mailhandler777]

Posted: 5/17/20 at 1:41am

My least favorite was Getting The Band Back Together. I went to closing on a TDF ticket. If I hadn't known someone in the show and they knew that I was there I would have left at intermission.

[joevitus]

Posted: 5/17/20 at 2:10am

PatrickDC said: "joevitus said: "bryan2 said: "very strange that everybody hates CATS but it ran forever...mmmm I think people are afraid to admit they liked it or some of it....I know I loved seeing Betty Buckley belt out Memory also Lauri Beechman in the first National tour...it was worth the price of admission...."

Well, everyone doesn't hate it. Most Broadway aficionados do, but that's a smaller group. That it gets no lover here should come as zero surprise (it is a pretty terrible show, one or two good songs, tops)."

I long ago got over CATS but there was a time I adored it and listened to the double LP until I wore it out. It sat down in San Francisco for a year or maybe more and I saw it three times (then twice in NYC and once in London). It was the first true Broadway show I’d seen. Before that only some regional and local shows. So I was completely blown away by it. While I have no more interest in it and haven’t seen the recent film, I’m not ashamed in the leastto say I loved the show that ignited mylifelong passion for musical theater."

When I saw it on Broadway in the mid-to-late 80's, there was a female audience member at intermission who kept apologizing for the show to everyone at the bar and insisting when she first saw it around the time it opened it had been really good. I don't tell this story to mock the show but just to point out the difference between seeing a show when the cast has high-voltage energy vs. those who have gone thorugh the motions a million times.

I don't begrudge anyone for liking the show (if you like the movie, perhaps a rest at a mental health care facility is called for). When I was a theater kid growing up, every other person in my acting classes had a Cats t-shirt, and the sheet music was always on top of the rehearsal piano. It was a huge phenomenon. I saw it way too late to feel it. Ironically, I saw A Chorus Line on the same trip, and it worked just fine for me (and I got to see Donna McKechnie in one of the very few performances she gave when she returned to the show at that time--by far the greatest luck I've ever had in terms of live performances I've been privileged to witness). Also saw Little Shop, which I'd seen elsewhere. No longer very magical with all but (I think) the original Audrey II voice actor all long gone. You could see how it would have worked when it opened, but it just didn't. 

[Malinda5000]

Posted: 5/17/20 at 1:56pm

Chaplin ... Just Awful.

Updated On: 5/17/20 at 01:56 PM

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 5/17/20 at 4:09pm

I’ve been pretty fortunate, the worst show I’ve seen on Broadway was Bullets Over Broadway. So much amazing talent (Marin Mazzie, Nick Cordero, etc.) going to waste.

[Larry6417]

Posted: 5/17/20 at 5:28pm

Easy Peasy!

ZHIVAGO (La Jolla Playhouse)

TIME & AGAIN (Old Globe)

FALSETTOS (tour revival)

SOFT POWER (Ahmanson, LA)

BIG DEAL (Bway)

KING KONG (Bway)

SPIDERMAN TURN OFF THE DARK (Bway)

TALES OF THE CITY (Curran, SF)

LESTAT (Curran, SF)

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Bway)

DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (Old Globe)

HANDS ON A HARDBODY (Old Globe)

JERSEY BOYS (Bway)

LEAP OF FAITH (Ahmanson LA)

I know there are more.....

 

 

[TNick926]

Posted: 5/17/20 at 5:59pm

Worst musical I ever saw on Broadway was INTO THE LIGHT. It was about the investigation of the Shroud of Turin, and starred Dean Jones. Wowza. Was it baaaaaadd!!

[ssecnirpc]

Posted: 5/17/20 at 6:19pm

Grey Gardens was just awful. I heard Christine Ebersole made it, but we saw her understudy. It was SOOOO boring and made no sense to me. I never understood what people raved about.