What shows do you like but feel they are too long?- Page 2
What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
#25re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 1:48pm
"Ragtime fo' sho'. Amazing show...waaaay too long."
How long is it?
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sparkleplenty
Stand-by Joined: 9/4/07
#26re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 4:13pmI feel that "Ragtime" seems weighty enough to deserve its length, but so-called "light-hearted" shows that go on and on, with me, wear out their welcome - Wicked, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, come to mind.
#27re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 4:16pmAs much as I loved it... Young Frankenstein. I thought there were about 12 places it could have ended before it did.
#28re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 4:19pm
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
The first act is kinda long
#29re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 5:24pmsweeney and POTO
#30re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 5:36pm
Yeah, the first thing I thought when I saw this thread was Ragtime.
I see what you're saying sparkle but even the creators admitted they wrote moments like "Sarah Brown Eyes" just so they had more for Audra McDonald to do.
I just feel like there a few of those moments in that show, where with so much brilliance to go around, with just a few more cuts, it could have been EVEN better.
I also remember feeling that Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was SUPER long, even though I absolutely loved it, I just kind of wante dthem to get to the point.
And at a recent production of Cabaret I saw the first act was an hour and forty minutes. Thats LONG for one act.
"...and in a bed."
#31re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 5:39pm
I agree with Sunday
also, although I love it, Gypsy...
You're reminding me of people you hear at the movies asking questions every ten seconds, "Who is that? Why is that guy walking down the street? Who's that lady coming up to him? Uh-oh, why did that car go by? Why is it so dark in this theater?" - FindingNamo on strummergirl
"If artists were machines, then I'm just a different kind of machine...I'd probably be a toaster. Actually, I'd be a toaster oven because they're more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese" -Regina Spektor
"That's, like, twelve shows! ...Or seven." -Crazy SA Fangirl
"They say that just being relaxed is the most important thing [in acting]. I take that to another level, I think kinda like yawning and...like being partially asleep onstage is also good, but whatever." - Sherie Rene Scott
"If artists were machines, then I'm just a different kind of machine...I'd probably be a toaster. Actually, I'd be a toaster oven because they're more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese" -Regina Spektor
"That's, like, twelve shows! ...Or seven." -Crazy SA Fangirl
"They say that just being relaxed is the most important thing [in acting]. I take that to another level, I think kinda like yawning and...like being partially asleep onstage is also good, but whatever." - Sherie Rene Scott
#32re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 5:48pmAlthough I have crazy love for both of them, I agree, Sweeney and Ragtime. And I would have to add Marie Christine to the list as well. Some absolutely stunning moments, but a snooze for me in others...I did actually fall asleep the first time I saw it!
#33re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 6:11pm
FIDDLER ON THE EFFING ROOF! i think its beautiful especially towards the end, but god could i shoot myself during the some of those scenes. I just ushered a theatre where it played for a few weeks, and that first act is pushing 2 hours, with another hour and something after intermission. L'haim (sp?) could be a lot shorter. That wedding was like, what? an entire half an hour? ...please
also any rogers and hammerstein. though maybe im bias cause im just not a fan of r&h.
but i, for one, never think les miz drags. I think it is at the perfect equillibrium where everything in the show is important, and they move on at the just the right time before i get bored.
Updated On: 3/27/08 at 06:11 PM
#34re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 6:17pm
For me South Pacific was long in certain parts, as well as Sunday in the Park with George.
With Sunday, I was there last wednesday (3/19) in the 2nd to last row when a woman fainted because of how hot it was and this was during the first act when I was thinking that a break would be nice right about now. They called an ambulance and had to wheel her out. I believe that it distracted everyone in the last 4 rows of the orchestra.
SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#35re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 6:40pmGuys, you have to remember that Les Mis was adapted from a 1500 page novel.
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
#36re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 6:43pmParade. I had no problem with Les Mis.
He's a faker, and you've been taken in by his con. And in doing so, you are enabling him. He is doing more damage to aspergers than papa's words ever could. -Chane/Liverpool on me having asperger syndrome.
#37re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 6:43pmParade. I had no problem with Les Mis.
He's a faker, and you've been taken in by his con. And in doing so, you are enabling him. He is doing more damage to aspergers than papa's words ever could. -Chane/Liverpool on me having asperger syndrome.
#38re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 7:10pmI agree with amalou, CATS has a few numbers that it could stand to cut.
"You will understand that Bww is a forum that allows Theatre people, Fussy old Queens, and chorus boys of Mama Mia to release their everyday life's frustration by being Snarky, B**chy, and sarcastic."
-BwayBoundJoe
#39re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/27/08 at 10:47pmCouldn't agree more with Grey Gardens. That show was interminable.
#40re: What shows do you like but feel they are too long?
Posted: 3/28/08 at 4:05pm
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN.
At the Toronto premiere most of the reviewers (myself included) felt the first act was bloated. It still is. There are a few scenes there that could be dropped entirely without in any way harming the narrative.
This was really driven home recently when a community group did a rather lethargic staging devoid of any tension. The leads were fantastic but the show didn't play well at all.
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Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
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