What are the worst musicals you ever saw — Page 7

The national tour of Dirty Dancing...and I even got free tickets. Horrible

I saw The Spongebob Musical earlier this summer and was not a fan. Most of the tech and design were great, but the book was awful, the characters/voices tried too hard, and the songs were forgettable at best. The best part of the show was the last 20 minutes, though it didn't quite redeem sitting through the previous two hours. I have no clue how it plans to succeed on Broadway.

I am a lover of bad musicals when they're interesting, a la American Psycho or the original Carrie. But mediocrity and lazy writing riles me up like no other, and for that reason I'm going to say the worst musical I've ever seen (and one of the only professional shows I've ever wanted to leave at intermission) is Memphis. I thought I had mentally exaggerated its badness for several years, but then I got a Netflix subscription and watched the recorded version and...yep, just as bad as I remembered it.

Also, The History of War at NYMF and The Sphinx Winx at Theatre Row (the spelling alone...) were intolerable, and neither had an intermission so I couldn't leave.

I have only been frequently going to the theater since I moved to Chicago, but trust me, I have seen some doozies.

I pity anybody who had to sit through First Wives Club during its Chicago run last year. I saw it right after previews and it was horrendous. The Playbills weren't up-to-date because it included songs that were no longer in the musical. Including the Bar Mitzvah scene that they were going on and on about in the first act. It also featured a Dee Snider-looking caricature of a flamboyant gay man who had the only redeeming song, "Payback's a B----." You ended up rooting for the second wives throughout the show because none of the first wives had redeeming qualities. The cherry on top of this melted, spoiled sundae was leaving out, "You Don't Own Me."

The show was even offering $12 orchestra seats toward the end of the Chicago run if that tells you anything.

The other show I disliked was Gotta Dance! You could just tell they were trying to make it into the retirement home's response to High School Musical. Just boring and poorly acted.

Please, don't waste your money if either of these shows come to Broadway.

BroadwayNYC25 said: "To all the people that said Fun Home,

The only reason you didn't like it was because you didn't understand it. The direction is so unique that not most theater goers would understand. The same thing goes for the characters. It is not often that you see three people playing one character. But, the reason it won Best Musical is because it is a beautiful piece of musical theater. If you looked at the people in the audience you would see how much it moves people. Audience members of all ages are connecting with those characters. It is a wonderful show that you are just incapable of wrapping your head around.



P.S. If you have something wrong with the fact that Allison is a lesbian and Bruce is gay than you are on the wrong website.





i think this is one of the most condescending posts I have ever read. Essentially, if you don't like Fun Home, you are a homophobe. Well, I am not a homophobe and I really disliked it. In particular, I was underwhelmed by the award winning direction, although I will concede that the Circle in the Square was just not a good theatre to see this in, also a sacrilege. And, I would have to be a moron not to realize the main character was portrayed at three stages of her life.

I am really sick of people who talk down to other people simply because they didn't like something you thought was amazing.

I feel like there is a distinct difference between worst musicals and musicals one dislikes, which are not always the same.

I DISLIKE Carousel intensely for so so many reasons. More recently, i really did not enjoy Once (i found it slow moving, thought the characters had a lack of chemistry, and i did not feel that the stylized movement integrated with the story).



However, I think Brooklyn was a badly written, ill conceived mess that left me nervous whenever i see that a show will have no intermission (that was the show that made me realize that it was not necessarily for expediency, but so there would be no escape.) It may have had good intentions, but that's about all.



I go to a lot of festivals, and have seen my share of truly awful shows, but i grade them on a different curve, and wouldn't call them out here.



It's also interesting to differentiate between bad shows and bad productions. (i think i may have enjoyed Once more with a different cast.) Not that i think anyone doesn't realize these differences, but it's perhaps useful to clarify/define what we mean by 'worst'.

:)

Man, so many people here just do not know the difference between "worst" and "overrated."

I can't believe no one's said First Date yet. Granted, I saw a very low-budget production of it, but I honestly couldn't believe that a show with writing that God-awful could ever make it to Broadway. I mean, it takes so many people and so much money to get something to Broadway, didn't anybody actually read it first? If you took every cliche out of that script you would be left with absolutely nothing. Talk about sexist, tired drivel.

Rock of Ages and Spamalot.

mostly_musicals, I'm curious to know what you didn't like about Carousel?

theatregeek6 said: "Without a doubt it was Via Galactica (1972), a wonderful cast (Virginia Vestoff, Raul Julia, Irene Cara, Ralph Carter, Damon Evans, Keene Curtis, etc) in a truly awful show. 7 performances was a gift for this badly written and conceived musical.

Runners up:

Spiderman

Dance with Me (1975)

The West End version of Saturday Night Fever.


"

Oh sweet Jesus yes! Saturday Night Fever was horrible. For some reason, I had it in my head that it was going to be a spoof. The horror that went through me sitting in the Palladium, when I realized they were doing a straight theatrical version was so palpable, I can feel it as I write the words. I was stunned when it opened in NY. It was that bad.



There was also a show from the 80's called Teddy and Alice about Theodore Roosevelt that was so awful, we still talk about it today, as a measure of awfulness like "it was bad, but not like Teddy and Alice bad".

Disaster! ugh... no words

In terms of material:

Ghost - wowza. Caught the national tour, and except for "With You," it was unbearable. Some of the effects were good, but most of them were just Disneyland magic tricks The lead men were not great, either.

Catch Me If You Can - I thought it was just the production, but after listening to it I still couldn't get in to it. The tour was horribly put together and the material didn't do any favors.

Camelot - Likewise, I thought it was just the production I saw (with Lou Diamond Phillips), but the show is just not strong compared to a lot of Golden Age musicals. I fell asleep during Act Two.

Jersey Boys - boring. That being said I'm not a Four Seasons fan, but the show itself was not good, in my opinion.

The Rat Pack - left at intermission.

Pippin, Act Two - how is the second act of a show THAT MUCH weaker than the first?

In terms of production:

Chicago - I caught the national tour about two or three years ago, and it was atrocious. The Velma could not have been less interested, Paige Davis was barely in key, John O'Hurley gave such a beige performance, and Mama Morton served as my only source of relief, hooting and hollering through her number, and spending the show cackling like Ursula the Sea Witch.

Gone with the Wind.

Viva Forever

Pirate Queen (good score; horrible plot; horrible book; boring as hell)