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

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 8/16/08 at 5:04pm

IMO, the orchestration for The Light in the Piazza was what made the music so brilliant.

[RuprechtJr.]

Posted: 8/16/08 at 5:07pm

dayao,

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

[thereisnofuture]

Posted: 8/16/08 at 5:24pm

Grease
The Color Purple
Mamma Mia

[dayao]

Posted: 8/16/08 at 5:55pm

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.

[Plum]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 1:30am

Cranky today.

Doubt (not bad, just terribly overrated in a season when at least 2 plays were better)
Wicked- I can't listen to Idina Menzel.
Spring Awakening- some of the most spectacularly inane lyrics I've ever heard, and I watched The Boy From Oz

[lakezurich]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 1:34am

Les Miz

Mama Mia

Phantom

[musicalmaster703]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 1:37am

Passing Strange
Love the show itself but hated every minute of it in the theater.

Updated On: 8/17/08 at 01:37 AM

[je veux te voir2]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 1:38am

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.

[sroderick2]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 4:50am

Just to go back to the whole "RENT changed theatre" debate:

Now that I think about it (at 2 in the morning), it didn't change theatre in a huge way like all the others that Smaxie mentioned. But it was one catalyst in a slowly progressing trend: that of more modern styles of music in Broadway shows. Hair was the first and thus more groundbreaking, but the coming of Rent 30 years later was the one that really got the ball rolling. The success of Rent made it ok for other composers to come forth with their alternative scores and have success. The next big rock musical (Spring Awakening) came only 10 years later, and the next two years saw the well-publicized Broadway opening of another rock musical (Passing Strange), as well as a Latino/hip-hop musical (In the Heights). I suspect we'll be seeing more variety and more rock musicals in the future! :)

Also, in a way, Rent brought Broadway theatre back to the youth, who hadn't had a big Broadway musical with their music since Hair.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 7:55am

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.)

[dramarama2]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 8:14am

Cats
Phantom of the Opera
Chicago

[hubee]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 9:03am

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

[mywonderwa11]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 11:16am

Dayao...I agree! I'm sorry about the misunderstanding!

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 11:23am

Grease
Hairspray
Bye Bye Birdie

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 11:23am

In order of lack of preference:

1. La Cage Aux Folles..bar none, the show I've liked the absolute least in 27 years of theatregoing.

2. The Lion King...amazing opening, the rest is stultifying.

3. Phantom...is it over yet?

[little_sally]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 2:52pm

"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.

[Friendofethelm]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 10:36pm

I've never cared very much for 1776. The score is, IMO, mediocre, both musically and lyrically; the book strains for humor and the characters, despite their famous names, are not very interesting.

Next, LES MISERABLES. I remember seeing it in 1987, trying to focus on Valjean and Javert, but wound up confused, bored and wondering when it was going to end. Ten pounds of musical stuffed in a five pound bag.

Finally, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Heaven only knows how many children were dragged to that show, devoid of the magic, joy and dramatic impact of the movie, and came out convinced by their parents that that was what theatre was supposed to be: totally predictable, mechanical, and processed to the point where you don't have to think, listen or feel.

[philly03]

Posted: 8/17/08 at 10:50pm

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!

[Kate-Monster]

Posted: 8/18/08 at 12:13am

Cats
Phantom
Company
Honorable mention: Cabaret w/Raul Esparza. Terrifying. Absolutely freakin terrifying.

Updated On: 8/18/08 at 12:13 AM

[AdamIsGodImJesus]

Posted: 8/18/08 at 1:27am

Mamma Mia!
Phantom of the Opera
Sweeney Todd

[jeniferrenepatricia]

Posted: 8/18/08 at 4:57am

Rent
1776
Mamma Mia!

[Princeton2]

Posted: 8/18/08 at 6:12am

Guys and Dolls
Spamalot
Legally Blonde Updated On: 8/18/08 at 06:12 AM

[Sleeper2]

Posted: 8/18/08 at 9:18am

Wicked
Title of Show
Sunday in the Park with George
Curtains

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/18/08 at 9:46am

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.

[Noel&Cole]

Posted: 8/18/08 at 9:56am

I Still do not understand the praise for IN THE HEIGHTS. I thought it was boring and amature.

SPELLING BEE was something everyone seemed to love but me. I used to tell friends who were in town "You should see it, I hated it but everyone else seems to love it so don't go by me"

And I guess the FANTASTIKS. For a show that ran 40 years, I just dont get it. 3 songs in and I'm asleep.