Worst Revival Ever — Page 6
#127
Posted: 5/13/17 at 7:24pm
MAN OF LA MANCHA with Raul Julia and Sheena Easton. I can still hear her saying, "Take the clouds from your eyes and see me as I really am!" with her Scottish brogue.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#128
Posted: 5/14/17 at 12:01am
I personally don't get it when somebody complains about an old thread being revived- I personally think it's awesome. It's cool to see people's opinions from things 10 years ago. It gives you a different perspective.
I normally like revivals, so I don't think I can say a worst revival, but there are shows that are done too much I.E Gypsy, Cabaret being revived with the exact same production, ect.
#129
Posted: 5/14/17 at 1:25am
In my theatre going experience, two stand out-
Sunday in the Park with George (the 2008 London transfer), the projection technology, while striking at first, felt like a gimmick. Call me old fashioned, but I actually like seeing the hand made set pieces (the trees from the painting, soldier, etc.) fly in and out. That's what makes the original so magical. The leads were also terribly under-whelming.
Ragtime (the 2009 revival) Saw it at Kennedy Center before the Broadway transfer. Marcia Milgrom Dodge's "bare bones" production (a trend still irritatingly en vogue) was not only lackluster, but highlighted the problems with the show. Leigh Ann Larkin, (fresh off her triumph as June in the LuPone revival of Gypsy,) as Evelyn Nesbit was particularly flat, and I remember thinking "it's like they're forcing her to be up there." It was the first (and only) time I felt let down by an actor onstage, because I had seen how good she /could be/ in Gypsy. The only good thing about the Ragtime revival in '09 was Christiane Noll as Mother.
#130
Posted: 5/14/17 at 2:45am
The Richard Chamberlain MY FAIR LADY, hands down. A friend took me for my birthday because HE wanted to see it. Then HE wanted to leave at intermission. With blood in my eye, I insisted we stay for the whole thing. HE wasn't happy.
Well-well-well-what-do-you-think-of-that-I-have-nothing-here-to-pay-my-train-fare-with-only-large-bills-fives-and-sevens....
#131
Posted: 5/14/17 at 11:32am
hork said: "I also kind of like that My Fair Lady scene. It's like Seurat meets Magritte, or something."
It's pretty explicitly Magrittesque (see: "Golconda"
, and I like it a lot - I'd love to see it in motion.
#132
Posted: 5/14/17 at 8:58pm
I will agree Ragtime revival was awful. It was a show I wanted to see so badly. It was a snooze fest. Having seen the original Chicago with Verden and Rivera, the revival is a huge improvement on the original. Bernadette in Gypsy, one of the worst nights in a Broadway theater ever.
#133
Posted: 5/15/17 at 12:22pm
I very much disliked the EVITA revival, and the recent SIDE SHOW revival was like watching paint dry...
"I shall stay until the wind changes."
#134
Posted: 5/15/17 at 12:51pm
My issue with the Side Show revival was that none of the new material actually solved any of the problems or was better than the material it replaced. The thing that came closest to working was the flashback to the twins' history, and even that made the mistake of having them sing a version of "I Will Never Leave You" in such a literal fashion that it became laughable.
And then there were the tiny little lyric changes within songs that would not have been caught by anyone new to the score (obviously), but for someone like myself who had listened to the original recording obsessively in my youth, and worked on one of the first regional productions, were jarring to my ear. And, like the full-out song replacements, just felt like change for the sake of change with no actual improvement being made.
#135
Posted: 5/15/17 at 11:56pm
My all-time worst musical revival experience was the 2006 West End revival of Kander and Ebb's "Cabaret". Anna Maxwell Martin had no personality to be Sally Bowles whatsoever. After the show was over, I rather loudly gave my opinions about how bad I thought the show was. Little did I know that the production crew was sitting in the row in front of me! I hoped and prayed that this revival would never make it to Broadway, thank God it didn't!
Updated On: 5/15/17 at 11:56 PM
#137
Posted: 5/16/17 at 9:21am
Guys and Dolls in 2009
"Charlotte, we're Jewish"
#138
Posted: 5/16/17 at 1:21pm
BYE BYE BIRDIE with John Stamos. What a hot mess that was!
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
Updated On: 5/16/17 at 01:21 PM
#139
Posted: 5/16/17 at 1:26pm
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever - think it was my least favorite Broadway revival I've seen over the years (although Jessie Mueller was a saving grace).
#140
Posted: 5/16/17 at 2:58pm
The 90s Hello Dolly should be in the running. I just felt embarrassed for the cast.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#141
Posted: 5/17/17 at 11:53pm
The ON A CLEAR DAY revisal with Connick. Nothing could have touched the original with Barbara Harris and those amazing songs, but this was abysmal in every way.
SITPWG at Roundabout? Glorious.
Yes, MATTRESS was a complete misfire, a total bore.
#142
Posted: 5/18/17 at 1:37pm
The 2001 revival of Follies although as people keep naming others I start rethinking my list (like Side Show). I didn't mind the latest revival of Fiddler. i thought they did some interesting things in the production that worked and I really liked Danny Bernstein.
#143
Posted: 5/18/17 at 4:09pm
That last revival of LITTLE ME was abysmal. I had always loved the score and was a fan of Short and Prince but it was as if I was seeing them both in a mediocre college production of the show. I generally like Prince's voice but at the performance I attended she was hitting notes that were painfully off key. Though Short won the Tony that year for dominating the stage with his full arsenal of familiar characters, Rob Marshall's direction was no better than his choreography. The show's big production numbers took one back to those really bad cheesy sixties variety shows you can still catch on YouTube. I asked an old timer during intermission if he had seen the original and how it compared. He said there was no comparison and that the original was actually fun. I've watched a video of the short lived 1982 revival and though it wasn't great I still found it had merit compared to this version. Still not as bad as ON A CLEAR DAY.
#144
Posted: 5/18/17 at 4:21pm
This isn't technically a revival, but the scaled-down orchestrations that came with the 2007 London production of PARADE were such a disappointment. I know why they had to do it, but it still disappointed me.
The omission of BIG NEWS plus the replacement of PEOPLE OF ATLANTA with HAMMER OF JUSTICE bummed me out too.
"I shall stay until the wind changes."
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