Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#1Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 5:47pmOn A Clear Day Comes to mind. It makes the original look like it was totally clear. Sherlock Holmes could not figure out the revival.
Poster Emeritus
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#2Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 5:55pm
The '95 revival of How To Succeed. To me, J. Pierrepont Finch should be played innocently. Matthew Broderick played it with a wink, like he was getting something over on everybody. Plus the graphics they used in the show were out of place and a distraction.
The '94 revival of Grease. Rizzo is supposed to be a sexpot (the opposite of the virginal Sandy). Rosie O'Donnell screaming into a microphone wasn't Rizzo.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#2Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 5:55pmPippin. I'd rather watch On a Clear Day with Jessie Mueller out sick one hundred times before I'd sit through Pippin again.
"Get mad, then get over it." - Colin Powell
#3Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 6:38pm
The Addams Family was a massive disappointment. The cast was great and it's a great idea for a musical but the execution was really pretty terrible.
Women on the Verge was also disappointing, although I love the cast recording and I would like to see it given another production without all the crazy projections and moving set pieces and perhaps with a slightly revised book.
#4Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 6:46pm
Finch in How To Succeed is a bit of a cipher- the way you play him can vary a lot and change the interpretation of the character massively.
Robert Morse was a cheerful slimeball, who knew he was being disingenuous and tricky and LOVED it. Matthew Broderick seemed like a decent but hapless fellow, who kept following the book's advice and somehow managing to come out ahead, while making it up as he went. A bit of a "nerd made good" type. Daniel Radcliffe seemed like something of an Everyman with a "can you believe how lucky I keep getting" vibe. Perhaps the production overall was somewhat less cynical than it used to seem, because we are more aware of the fact that business is mostly politics and nepotism, and aren't shocked by that anymore.
Interestingly enough, Darren Criss's Finch seemed closer to the Broderick-style "well, here goes nothing" flying by the seat of his pants Finch.
#5Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 6:50pm
I was pretty disappointed at HAIR when it returned to the St James a couple of years ago. I couldn't really understand anything anyone was really saying (I mean physically I couldn't decipher the words), and I just didn't 'get it'. It didn't seem like a coherent piece of story telling me to me.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 3/30/13 at 06:50 PM
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#6Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 6:58pmI couldn't put my finger on it, but the last revival of On The Town seemed to drag and be joyless. The only thing I could think of was that the energy of the production got lost in the huge Gershwin. (I didn't get to see it at the Delacorte). But I left thinking, how can you screw up On The Town?
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#7Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 7:04pmYes, the recent revival of HAIR. Trying to pretend we were in 1968 didn't work for me. And the nudity in silhouette? What did they say in the 60s? Cop out.
"Through The Sacrifice You Made, We Can't Believe The Price You Paid..For Love!"
#8Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 7:07pm
On the one hand there are disappointments such as the original ANNIE, which I thought failed to live up to the hype.
Then there are the more profound disappointments such as the original MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, where I foolishly believed the creators could do no wrong.
#9Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 7:13pmI thought The Producers and The Book of Mormon did not live up to their hype.
"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop
#10Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 7:14pm
Lestat and A Catered Affair.
Love the creative teams for both shows, and the original source materials, but the shows themselves sucked.
OperaBwayLover
Broadway Star Joined: 5/17/07
#11Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 7:18pmThe recent tour of the South Pacific revival. The best parts of the show were the sets and the actor who played Joe Cable; everyone else was awful. Nellie had a bad Arkansas accent, Emile was hard to understand at times, and there was an overall lack of energy onstage.
#12Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 8:09pm
RENT. Admittedly, I saw it in the wrong setting (the cavernous - and since demolished - Shubert in LA), but I hated every single character. Especially Mark. He was every pretentious knob I went to film school with who thought their home movies were art. The only songs I liked at all were "La Vie Boheme" and "Seasons of Love," and just barely. I know I'm in the minority, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.
Huge musical fan ever since seeing SHENANDOAH at age 8 on B'way, followed by the '76 the revival of FIDDLER with Zero Mostel.
Working on my own Musical Comedy.
neonlightsxo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/08
#13Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 8:10pmHands on a Hardbody.
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#14Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 8:22pmThe original PIPPIN. It was one of those shows where the staging was better than the libretto. Went back to see it a second time just to make sure.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#15Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 8:26pmBombshell. Of course to be fair, I saw it in Boston before the rewrites and FBI investigation.
#16Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 8:36pmThe current tour of Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby... I wasn't expecting much, but this was truly terrible in every sense of the word. I left at intermission.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#17Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 8:46pm
The 2011 return of the Hair revival was hopelessly dead compared to the brilliance of the 2009 production.
American Idiot was also terribly disappointing.
I know you.
I know you.
I know you.
#18Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 8:48pm800 year old Cathy Rigby is still playing Peter Pan?
#19Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 8:56pmWhy not? She never grows up? PMPeter Pan.
"Through The Sacrifice You Made, We Can't Believe The Price You Paid..For Love!"
broadwayjim42
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/19/03
#20Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 8:56pmMost recently, "Anything Goes." Maybe it had something to do with it being only the second preview, aside from the two big numbers, I found it maddening listless. At the time, I thought my daughter's high school production had more zip.
#21Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 9:21pmYOUNG FRANKENSTIEN. I sat there wondering how you could screw up such bullet-proof material, and yet they did.
http://docandraider.com
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#22Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 9:25pm
LEAP OF FAITH
or as I like to call it....
HEAP OF SH*T
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#23Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 9:30pm
I saw Wicked the weekend after it opened. Ordinarily it wouldn't have been my kind of thing. But I liked the novel well enough and foolishly hoped it would be the very last pop culture take on The WIzard of Oz ever, (ha ha, as if that will ever happen in this country).
Then the show had its tryout in San Francisco and the posters on this board had orgasms by how utterly amazed the amazingness of the amazing show and the amazing performances by Sally and Maureen added up to the ultimate in amazingdom and you could even feel right in the audience how those two women were real life best friends!
I really wanted to like it but it was such a mess. It just felt like the biggest, most bloated corporate mess to me. And I will never understand how they removed the fact that Glinda is the antagonist in the novel. Instead they turned it into two good girls who have a misunderstanding. And please do not get me started on the cheating ending. I think about it and it gives me flashbacks. I have never trusted raves around here for any other mega-corporate production again.
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Updated On: 3/30/13 at 09:30 PM
#24Which Musical (Original or Revival) Was A major Dissappointment For You?
Posted: 3/30/13 at 9:37pm
Top (or bottom depending on your definition) three for me....
1. SUNSET BLVD - Original film is a classic and an all-time favourite of mine. Could have made a wonderful stage musical but Andrew Lloyd Webber could not be bothered to write an original score and recycled a bunch of cut songs from previous flops. Sloppy mish-mash of songs nothing sounded lie it was from the same musical (because none of the songs were.) Sets were spectacular but I don't go to theater merely to be dazzled by scenery...That's a sauce that can enhance the material, not substitute for it. The Toronto production was miscast and poorly sung and acted. (I did not see it on Broadway, ad have actively encouraged a couple of local community theatre groups Not to do this show.)
2. COPACABANA - a pre-Broadway try-out that never went to B'way. The Manilow song was expanded (stretched out) to a full length show. A huge waste of time. Terrible score with no redeeming songs.
3. THE ADDAMS FAMILY - Wrong composer, weak book hampered by a clear lack of any idea what the show should be Terrible waste of time and talent.
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Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
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