Worst Broadway Show of 2017 — Page 2

War Paint. I had high hopes based on the stars, but I actually nodded off more than once.

ohhiccup 2 said: "I don’t understand what was so awful about Amelie that garnered it such terrible reviews because I really enjoyed it - though maybe it was because my expectations were SO low. "

I also loved it. But maybe it had something to do with being front row center. I’m sure it lost something further back....

greenifyme2 said: "ohhiccup 2 said: "I don’t understand what was so awful about Amelie that garnered it such terrible reviews because I really enjoyed it - though maybe it was because my expectations were SO low. "

I also loved it. But maybe it had something to do with being front row center. I’m sure it lost something further back...."

I also liked it quite a bit (and still listen to some of the songs regularly) but it might have to do with what was going on in my life at the time.

rjm516 said: "Can't believe people saying Bandstand, which was solid and important, when things like 1984, Parisian Woman, M Butterfly, all kinds of actual crap is out there."

Agreed. I liked Bandstand much more than GHD, War Paint, and Anastasia.

After Eight said: "There were some really badplays and musicals this yearon Broadway. It makes you yearn all the more for the shows of 50 years ago.



Rather than catalogue the names of alltheclunkers this year,I'll just selectthe worst of the lot: The Children."

I actually think there were a higher number of bad plus and musicals per season 50 years ago than today. 50 years ago, things cost so much less to produce (in REAL dollars) that there were many really bad productions every year. Not so much nowadays, when there are many admittedly fewer productions, but mostly very professional even if you don't like them. Even if you personally don't like a lot of the new musicals, you have to concede that a lot of people do. That was not the case (apps) 50 years ago when no-one liked Come Summer and Jimmy and Dr. Jazz and Copperfield and The Yearling and Anya and Kelly and and Chu Chem and A Time For Singing and How to be a Jewish Mother (off the top of my head, but there were others) or plays like Of Love Remembered and Nathan Weinstein, Mystic Connecticut and The Great Adventure and And Things That Go Bump in the Night and UTBU and Slapstick Tragedy and The Seven Descents of Myrtle and Avanti and Little Malcolm and the gambling play with Tom Ewell and the piece of junk that managed to have both Julie Harris and Geraldine Page (can't even remember their names) and Love in E Flat The Love Suicide at the Schofield Barracks, and all those plays that closed in a week based on universally bad reviews. Then there were the truly mediocre, borderline junk ones IMO that ran, e.g., Walking Happy (I have not seen a musical since then that did not have a single song in the last 25 - 30 minutes), How Now Dow Jones, Skyscraper, What Makes Sammy Run (500 performances because Steve Lawrence was a big star at the time, but a complete bore). Again, if I researched it, I would come up with many more horrible shows that just go to prove the there was a lot of crap 50ish years ago, just as there were a lot of terrific things, as you pointed out.

These are the ones I can remember off the top of my head this minute...but there were a LOT more, especially non-musicals. Again, that is not to say there were not great productions too -- there were -- I am just pointing out that IMO you are seeing things through rose colored glasses.

I did not "hate" anything I saw this year so I just voted on the basis of reviews I read on some of the shows and overall opinions of others. BTW - I saw some people mentioned "Bandstand" and was a bit surprised. I saw it and liked it very much but to each their own.

While I didn't think Amelie was nearly as bad as some make it out to be, I do think it could've been executed much better. A musical adaptation of such a "cinematic" story doesn't really call for the "splashy Broadway" treatment. I think it would go over decently in a more intimate venue, and perhaps with a more serious tone; the movie wasn't as playfully giddy as the show...

I did not hate anything this year, but I was greatly disappointed with The Glass Menagerie. It was my first time seeing the play. You would think a classic with the great Sally Fields, would be anything but boring. But bored I was. I was also very uncomfortable watching the actress who played the daughter. Especially her opening scene, going up the stairs.

Reading through this thread, I realize that since HELLO, DOLLY! opened, I haven't seen much of anything else. I don't know whether that's good or bad.

Updated On: 12/19/17 at 04:05 PM

Surprised no-one has mentioned our absolutely least liked show of 2017: THE GREAT COMET...! Highest expectations and lowest return on our investment of any show we saw this year. We weren't bored exactly, more like horrified at the rank amateurism that was celebrated as a brave artistic choice in scene after scene. Why anyone would have chosen to musicalize those particular pages of War and Peace was absolutely beyond us based on the result.

By contrast GROUNDHOG DAY was one of our great delights of the year, a complete surprise since we weren't particular fans of the movie, nor of Minchin's MATILDA. But GHD was jampacked with creativity and wit in the service of a story absolutely worth telling. The final 20 minutes was thrilling and moving in equal measure. Go figure.

Not that it was great but I liked Amelie better than Anastasia. With all the talent going into Anastasia, it's a wonder that it really is terrible,

But PRINCE OF BROADWAY wins for worst for me cause I was really like WTF was that?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I expected it to live up to my expectations, which it didn't. The score isn't all that great and I don't get why they decided to add in a 27-second overture of "Pure Imagination".