What are your top three worst shows ever (that everyone else seemed to praise)? — Page 4

dayao,

Setting aside your fluffy word-play, what's your exact reasons for thinking that Adam Guettel has no talent?

RuprechtJr.:
I didn't mean to imply that Guettel has no talent whatsoever. Based on what I've heard of his work so far, he does not even remotely display any of the brilliance of his grandfather, just as his mother in her admittedly somewhat limited composing career never even came close to matching the talent of her father. But let's face it. Very few living composers today possess the composing genius of a Richard Rodgers and although it is probably unfair his grandson is judged with more scrutiny than other current musical theatre composers because of this connection. I agree with COOOOLkid that the orchestrations were the only interesting thing about Guettel’s score.

I for one have not written him off as a composer and sincerely hope in the near future Guettel will compose something that will change my opinion of his music. He is still young enough to dazzle and surprise those of us who don’t particularly like his score for “The Light in the Piazza”.

mywonderwa11: Sorry to misinterpret your comment but since I do not know you personally I am unfamiliar with your manner of expression and unfortunately took it personally. I agree that many of us here, myself included, can be too thin-skinned and uptight sometimes. We all need to take things said here a little less seriously and just enjoy the fun of communicating our opinions to each other.

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Les Miz

Mama Mia

Phantom

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Mamma Mia
Mamma Mia
Mamma Mia

And as for The Light In The Piazza...being a professional clarinetist, orchestration and the musical score are some of the most important things to me in a musical. And The Light In The Piazza i hated, but the score was the only endearing thing to me about that musical. It was rich, sonorous, and it wasn't banal. Their was just enough contemporary flare in the score to make the score very likable. The rest of the show however...lol.

In recent memory:

PASSING STRANGE
CURTAINS
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE (I gave it a respectable review when I saw it but after thinking about it more I thought that last season's production was plodding and painfully slow. The original production was leaps and bounds better.)

I have two lists.

For popularity, I just didn't get:

The Producers
Spamalot
The Phantom of the Opera

For critical acclaim that I just didn't get:

Caroline, Or Change
Curtains
The first act of Grey Gardens

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Grease
Hairspray
Bye Bye Birdie

"An Original Musical" was the only number in the show that I could tolerate, and I think it's quite funny. The rest, not so much.

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3. Grease!
2. Rent
1. The Lion King

And from a fanbasis (DEF not critics), I think Carrie truly is top 3 worse show ever. I don't know what else is just as bad, but I have no idea why so many people will go over their backs to defend it and request a revival/rights to it...the only reason why people would see it is either the fans or to see how could anything be that bad. It was an utter mess!

Mamma Mia!
Phantom of the Opera
Sweeney Todd

Guys and Dolls
Spamalot
Legally Blonde

Updated On: 8/18/08 at 06:12 AM

NEXT TO NORMAL -- no, everybody didn't love it, but it did manage to inspire some really fevered devotion out of all proportion to its actual quality. Dreadfully lame show, a catch all of dysfunctional family cliches.

GREY GARDENS -- bad book, bad score, bad direction, bad show with some fine performances. Folks ate this thing up, don't ask me why.

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE revival -- I don't hate the show, but I really detested this surrealistically over-rated revival, with some of the worst, most outrageously misconceived performances I've ever seen from its two leads, and the less said about that overgrown Powerpoint presentation of a set the better. Sheer undiluted horror. Brits, please, leave our musicals alone. You don't know what you're doing.

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