Who Comes Up This Crap?

[bestofbroadway]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 9:19pm

"Dr. Sex, the new musical inspired by the doctor behind The Kinsey Report — the famed American study of human sexuality — has commercial aspirations following its world premiere in Chicago."- Playbill.com

With musicals like The Jerry Springer Opera, Taboo, Mama Mia...all I have to say is- who comes up with this crap and who decided that this is what Broadway audiences want to see? Not me!
Updated On: 11/14/03 at 09:19 PM

[LouW95]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 9:28pm

Let the people decide...Mamma Mia has been playing to packed houses for over a year while Into The Woods, Follies and other so-called celebrated shows could just manage to make it through a year (if not less with TKTS help). A little less genius and more fun might be what is needed now. Trust the people.

[BillFinn]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 9:29pm

I think Debbie Does Dallas: the Musical outweighs all of those. Porn Flicks turning into musicals. God I love my country.

[bestofbroadway]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 9:47pm

I don't mind variety...my point is that there ISN'T ANY. There has been a flood of commercial trash in recent years. What we need ARE more Into The Woods, Follies and "other so-called celebrated shows." I just can't figure it out. I don't know a single person who wants to see the recent trash that is flooding Broadway. If this is the direction Broadway musical theater is headed in than I don't want to have anything to do with it. There is a difference between "fun" and "trash." Millie is fun, Urinetown is fun (and genius), Wonderful Town is fun, Taboo is trash, Mamma Mia is trash, and all these ideas like Dr Sex are trash.

[bestofbroadway]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 9:53pm

I also find it sad that now a days, a shows run determines it's quality. That is not the case at all.

Posted: 11/14/03 at 9:55pm

bestofbroadway...its the common demoninator mentality that's pervaded the Great White Way. A sign of the degeneration of American society a la the fall of the Roman empire.

Maintain your principles less the TV/trailer trash mentality that's engulfing Broadway swallows you up as well.

Yours for a better Broadway! Updated On: 11/14/03 at 09:55 PM

[LouW95]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 9:57pm

The bottom line is selling tickets-even if it rubs you the wrong way. Into The Woods cant compare to MammaMia as far as ticket sales are concerned so that is what is being produced...it is Show BUSINESS..not saying it is right, just a simple fact.

[LouW95]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:01pm

Why dont you get up a group and produce a show you consider upgrading for our society...see what I am talking about first hand.

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:03pm

Lou, no offense, but sometimes you come across as an idiot.

I know its show business, and pure hucksterism. But I don't have to like it, do I?

It contintues to get worse because idiotic and robotic theatre goers can't decide for themselves.

I'm taking no prisoners tonight! lol

[Sunfish]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:06pm

But SHOW BUSINESS used to produce really fantastic shows. Now the great shows are few and far between. What happened? Have tastes deteriorated so greatly?

[LouW95]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:12pm

You need a soapbox and your own board...Just love people who start with "no offense, but..." Gee, where have we all heard those words before???. Sorry you cant handle my differeing opinion. End of my time with you.

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:15pm

You're ending your time w/everyone Lou, all the time. Don't I recall you quitting this board in a huff once or twice or trice before. Seems like you're the one who has difficulty with differing opinions buddy. You're entitled to your opinions same as everyone else. Relax.

Yours for a better Broadway!

[LouW95]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:21pm

I have good language skills and do not need to resort to name-calling as you did. If you can learn to avoid words like "idiot" and generalizations such as "everyone", a discussion might develop. On one other occasion, I left a thread due to the likes of you. Thank goodness for those who wrote to me and enjoyed a good argument without namecalling...you cant do that so bye bye Bulldog.

[dotmarie]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:21pm

I agree. It seems that more and more tasteless shows are being produced lately. And it irritates me that people will take, for instance, Mamma Mia, before Into the Woods. Which isn't right, because obviously people have their own tastes, but being a teen and loving the song "I Feel Pretty" while everyone else in my grade makes endless fun of it, I feel like I was born in the wrong time period, or something. Tastes of the general public HAVE changed very much.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:34pm

i don't think that we decide now what is great and what is not. that judgement is usually left for history. lest we forget, follies opened to what were at best, mixed reviews and lost it's entire investment. $800,000. the show was mounted for $800,000. how much would it cost today? when you're finished calculating that, you should know why it's harder to produce what is instantly recognized as groundbreakingly successful work on broadway. it just costs too damn much to do it on a regular basis.

love her or hate her, rosie did pony up $10M. i wish it would have worked a little better because her show had the potential to be all of those things. it's not and i know close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, but heck i can play woulda coulda.

there are very few people willing to bet the millions that it takes to do a musical on broadway on their instincts...heck not enough people who are interested in the arts have that kinda money to toss around. but before you kids all bury broadway and american society, let's just remember that there've been bad years before and there will be bad years again. plus face it, broadway is competing for attention and audiences more then it ever has.

i think you folks all have every reason to be upset at the recent output, but i don't think that the death knell has sounded just yet. but hey what do i know? i liked beauty and the beast.

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:41pm

Interpret my comments how you want. You've demonstrated a need to play victim before. This isn't unusual. I'm not hurt or offended by your bye bye.

Cheers.

[newyorkuniq]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:48pm

Kinsey is being made into a movie starring Liam Neelson and Laura Linney (I was an extra) ...maybe they could ride the publicity wave?

Posted: 11/14/03 at 10:52pm

"Dr. Sex" was done in Chicago in 2002 as part of Stages 2002. According to the promo

"This musical about the emaking of the Kinsey Report tells the story of a frisky bisexual who becomes the Grandaddy of the American Sexual Revolution."

Does this really sing to you?

Yours for a better Broadway!

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 11:01pm

hmmmmm, think they could get the right's to monty python's "medical love song" for the show? that and plenty of full frontal female nudity alone will have me shelling out the "VIP" prices night after night regardless of how badly it sucks...er i mean "is."

Posted: 11/14/03 at 11:03pm

LOL. Sex always sells.

funny if Broadway turns totally into nudity and burlesque.

Cashing! Cashing! Cashing!

[MusicMan]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 11:13pm

Let us not forget: if producers insist on presenting risk-free brain-dead crap like Mamma Mia in lieu of entertainment with an idea (I'm not talking Sondheim which has always been a tough sell), audiences will take what their given. Nature, after all, abhors a vacuum. If Rosie O'Donnell hadn't had her epiphany over TABOO (frightening to think what THAT was all about), do you think any of us would have even HEARD of that sorry excuse for a show?
Also, people (yes, even producers) are looking for the next new thing. Everybody wants to be considered cutting-edge, avant-garde, cool--just like Sondheim was considered 30 years ago. Unfortunately, they don't have the craftsmanship or showmanship or knowledge or talent, or wit or the smarts of Sondheim and his collaborators. So they have to rely on shock tactics--shows like Debbie Does Dallas and Dr. Sex. This kind of creativity reminds me of the wonderful speech from HANNAH AND HER SISTERS. Max Von Sydow, playing a dour intellectual painter, is surfing TV and laments, "You see the whole culture...Nazis, deoderant salesman, wrestlers...beauty contests, the talk show...
Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling?"
And so it goes.

Posted: 11/14/03 at 11:16pm

Well said.


Yours for a better Broadway!

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 11:31pm

geez, musicman, i can't imagine why you haven't been snapped up by some forward thinking broadway power player who can give you free reign and unlimited funds to develop the kind of new and edgy show that you so obviously seem to know so much about. btw, how is it that you manage to get through daily life without either killing or being killed by one of us wrestling fans?

[MusicMan]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 11:34pm

Take it up with Woody Allen, papalovesmambo, not me.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/14/03 at 11:36pm

somehow i knew he'd be to blame. he is after all the root of all evil in the universe. mia told me so.