Worst Worst Musical- Page 5

[AspectsofLoveLover]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 2:41pm

No I wasn't speaking to you! Promise!

[MeleeQ]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 2:43pm

Brooklyn or In My Life.

and Into the Woods is one of my favorite shows of all time, but I don't much care for what they did with the revival.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 2:47pm

good...I was only trying to clarify what this thread is about. I think the thread title indicates universally bad musicals.

NYdir...I love some of the biggest stinkers of years gone by.
Prettybelle (never made it to bway)
Metro (only recording is in Polish)
Canterbury Tales (gotta love the late 60s shows)
Carrie

Bad theater makes me appreciate good theater.

[crazyfangirl]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 4:15pm

Wait, hold on, who here hates CAROLINE OR CHANGE???? Whoever it is, I will sit you down and....poke you...with many pointy objects.

I agree, though, that there is a difference between BAD THEATER and THEATER YOU DON'T LIKE. Like I said, I personally don't like THE MUSIC MAN, but I can appreciate WHY people DO like it. Its not as if I think it's badly written or anything. It just bores me to tears. Same with OKLAHOMA. Of the old-time musical set, though, I think GYPSY is tops.

That's why I made up two lists. Which is theater that is just bad, wrong, ill-concieved, and what were they thinking, PERIOD. And the worst of the worst I think is probably a toss-up between CARRIE and DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES. Book-wise, choreography-wise, common-sense wise... I mean, I will grant you MAMMA MIA is rubbish, but I don't think you can argue that as a concept, it is worse than CARRIE. I mean, there is bad theater, and then there is bad theater that you walk out of thinking... no, really--WHO thought this would be a good idea? Who? Seriously, who? Like MAMMA MIA (to use the above example) might be garbage, ike GOOD VIBRATIONS was garbage, but you can see where producers would think it was a good idea and they'd make money. You can see where the sense lies. But on WHAT PLANET are DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES and CARRIE even good IDEAS for musicals? Really now.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 4:21pm

To be sure, cgf, Carrie should be on the list, but there were so many things that were good about it. The score, cast, story all were going in the right direction....and for all of the mistakes along the way, it was certainly something to see.

[Calvin]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 4:29pm

If we're talking the actual musical itself, it's gotta be a tie between "Hot Shoe Shuffle" and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane: The Musical." Yeesh.

If we're talking a specific production, then I'd say the most recent tour of "Starlight Express." Any show that hands out 3-D glasses to an audience and makes them watch the race scenes on a screen should not even be considered theater.

[NYC_or_Bust]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 4:30pm

I like GV better than I liked WICKED. So for me...WICKED is the worst of the worst

[beyondthebreakofday]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 4:33pm

Jukebox musicals. All of them.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 4:50pm

I'm going to just say basically what I said in defense of my disliking The Music Man on the "BEST Best Musical" thread:

There's nothing wrong with not liking a musical that's considered a classic. I just really don't like The Music Man. Part of that may be due to having been subjected to mediocre or downright awful productions of it, but I don't think that I'd like it anyway. I don't like the score, I'm not a huge fan of the storyline. I don't think that that should mean something negative about me as a musical theater fan.

I NEVER said that I thought that it was the worst musical ever made (nor would I). I never criticized other people for liking it. I did say "nost annoying musical I've ever seen," which is true, but it's just an opinion. I happen to love The King and I, Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music, etc. The fact that a show is acknowledged as a classic doesn't mean that everyone has to like it. You can't put it on a "worst musical ever made" list just because you personally hated it, because I think that that entails something being universally acknowledged as bad, but there's nothing wrong with having a contrary opinion.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 4:56pm

Here is the obnoxiously long list of all musicals ever nominated for Best Musical.

1776
42nd Street
A Chorus Line
A Class Act
A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Grand Night for Singing
A Little Night Music
A Year with Frog and Toad
Ain't Misbehavin'
Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death
Amour
Annie
Applause
Aspects of Love
Avenue Q
Baby
Ballroom
Barnum
Beauty and the Beast
Bells Are Ringing
Big Deal
Big River
Black and Blue
Blood Brothers
Blues in the Night
Bring in 'da Noise/Bring in 'da Funk
Bubbling Brown Sugar
Bye, Bye Birdie
Cabaret
Candide
Carnival
Caroline, or Change
Cats
Chicago
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
City of Angels
Coco
Company
Contact
Crazy for You
Cyrano
Damn Yankees
Dancin'
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Do Re Mi
Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope
Dreamgirls
Evita
Falsettos
Fiddler on the Roof
Finian’s Rainbow
Fiorello!
Five Guys Named Moe
Flower Drum Song
Follies
Fosse
Funny Girl
Golden Boy
Grand Hotel
Grease
Grind
Guys and Dolls
Gypsy
Hair
Hairspray
Half a Sixpence
Hallelujah, Baby!
Happy End
Hello, Dolly!
High Spirits
How Now, Dow Jones
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
I Do! I Do!
I Love My Wife
Illya, Darling
Into the Woods
Irma La Douce
It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues
Jamaica
James Joyce's The Dead
Jane Eyre
Jelly's Last Jam
Jerome Robbins' Broadway
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Juan Darien
Kismet
Kiss Me Kate
Kiss of the Spider Woman
La Cage aux Folles
La Plume de Ma Tante
Leader of the Pack
Les Misérables
Little Me
Mack and Mabel
Mame
Mamma Mia!
Man of La Mancha
Me and My Girl
Meet Me in St. Louis
Merlin
Milk and Honey
Miss Saigon
Movin' Out
My Fair Lady
My One and Only
New Girl In Town
Nine
No Strings
Oh, Captain!
Oh, What a Lovely War
Oliver!
On the Twentieth Century
Once on this Island
Once Upon a Mattress
Over Here!
Pacific Overtures
Pajama Game
Parade
Passion
Pipe Dream
Pippin
Promises, Promises
Pump Boys and Dinettes
Purlie
Quilters
Rags
Ragtime
Raisin
Redhead
Rent
Romance/Romance
Runaways
Sarafina!
Seesaw
She Loves Me
Shenandoah
Side by Side by Sondheim
Side Show
Skyscraper
Smokey Joe's Café
Song & Dance
Sophisticated Ladies
South Pacific
Spamalot
Starlight Express
Starmites
Steel Pier
Stop the World - I Want to Get Off
Sugar
Sugar Babies
Sunday in the Park with George
Sunset Boulevard
Sweeney Todd
Sweet Charity
Sweet Smell of Success
Swing!
Swinging on a Star
Take Me Along
Tango Argentino
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The Apple Tree
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
The Boy from Oz
The Civil War
The Full Monty
The Goodbye Girl
The Happy Time
The King and I
The Lieutenant
The Life
The Light in the Piazza
The Lion King
The Me Nobody Knows
The Most Happy Fella
The Music Man
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Phantom of the Opera
The Producers
The Rothschilds
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Secret Garden
The Sound of Music
The Tap Dance Kid
The Who's Tommy
The Wild Party
The Will Rogers Follies
The Wiz
They're Playing Our Song
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Tintypes
Titanic
Two Gentleman of Verona
Urinetown
Walking Happy
West Side Story
Wicked
Woman of the Year
Wonderful Town
Zorba

[LilysEye]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 5:25pm

For those of you who scream 'Brooklyn'! in response to this question, I have just one comment (and this is for you, bare-nakedlady):

Though it's one of the worst musicals I've ever seen, it also had some of the *very* best performances I have ever witnessed. So, props to the Brooklyn cast! May you all obtain much, much better work in the future :)

And, c'mon guys, there's so much trash out there, it's ridiculous:

Miss Saigon
Phantom of the Opera
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Blood Brothers
Beautiful and the Damned
Jekyll & Hyde
and many, many more that I've blocked from my memory because they've traumatized me so.

Though, honestly, I think there's always at least one redeeming quality about any show (whether it's a single song, a particular performance, the costumes or the set, whatever) and for those of you who said "Thou Shalt Not," I have just two names for you: Harry Connick Jr. and Norbert Leo Butz. Seriously, what's not to love?!? :)

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/9/05 at 5:45pm

"I mean, I will grant you MAMMA MIA is rubbish..."

It's hard to call a show rubbish that has been a megahit in every country it has opened worldwide. It's ability to entertain is undeniable and I really don't see how that could not be considered theatre, especially given that the history of musical theatre was originally built on the ability to entertain, not plot construction or cerebral lyrics or complex composition.

Worst shows I've seen:

Notre Dame de Paris
The Civil War
Thou Shalt Not
Closer to Heaven

Funny thing about Canterbury Tales is that it was a major hit in London and ran for something like 10 years.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 1:14am

The PROBLEM is that people don't understand the difference between like and good and dislike and bad. And, when you get these concepts into your head, you will understand why people are having a fit here.

If the thread was Least Favorite Musical, then have at it. List The Music Man and Dreamgirls and Kiss Me Kate to all your heart's content. Because THAT would be ALL about opinion.

But as the thread was regarding what is the WORST musical, you just look absolutely foolish listing The Music Man when there are SOOOOOOOOO many HORRIBLE musicals out there in line ahead of it. This thread is where we should be delving into educated consensus to identify what are truly the worst musicals in history, just as the Best Best thread should be our attempt to qualify what the musical canon should truly consist of.

NOT: Oh my gawd, y'all, like I totally HATE The Music Man because my friend's sister's boyfriend was in it at his high school and it was like totally AWWWWFFULLLL!

That gets us NOWHERE.

And one more thing, if Idina or Sutton starred in a revival of The Music Man or Oklahoma!, you guys would be going on and on about how those musicals are like the bestest musicals in the whole whole world I mean like serious!!!!



P.S. Calvin, I was in Baby Jane!! lol

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 1:31am

I don't know if you're referring specifically to me, but other than what was basically a carbon copy of my other post, I never mentioned The Music Man in this worst musicals thread because, well, that'd just be stupid (I reposted my comment here because people had been making comments about both threads). A lot of people had listed it in the BEST Best Musical thread, though, and I happen to disagree. I definitely don't think that it's the best Best Musical, or even the best musical in the year that it won, since I find West Side Story to be leagues more enjoyable and, importantly to the topic at hand, influential.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 1:32am

my post was directed in general.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 1:33am

Okay, cool. Just wanted to clear that up. :)

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 1:34am

Dracula : The Musical was TERRIBLE, but I loved it.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 1:39am

Now, THAT is a perfect example of the opposite way it can go! :)

There are plenty of musicals that are bad that I adore.

[Calvin]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 10:50pm

Oh, honey, I'm sure you were fabulous in Baby Jane. Actually, I liked the cast. I loved Millicent Martin and the woman who played Blanche (I can't think of her name).

It was just a badly written show. I just remember that song "You're there, Blanche. You're there, Blanche. Reminding me of why you're in that chair, Blanche."

[roquat]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 11:08pm

I am sticking with THE SOUND OF MUSIC as one of the worst musicals of all time and will continue to do so even if every nun on earth comes at me holding a cross. I don't care if it's considered a "classic"--is there anyone on this board under seventy who would go to see it for their own pleasure (i.e., if someone you knew wasn't in it)? The CARRIES of this world are more interesting in their catastrophic awfulness than that sickeningly virtuous barrel of pap could ever be.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 11:38pm

"How Do You Solve a Problem Like Mr. Roquat?" :P

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 11/11/05 at 3:11am

Sound of Music isn't the worst, it's just the most over-done and old.

[defying_gravity2]

Posted: 11/11/05 at 3:18am

Call me crazy, but I liked Brooklyn. The show didn't make a whole lot of sense, but it did have a few good songs and great costumes. What won me over were the performances. Eden is amazing and I wish her the best of luck in the future.
I don't care for jukebox musicals(GV..don't get me started) but I liked ASU. I thought it had a cute story.
My list of worst shows isn't very long. I just love musicals, even some of the bad ones. Here goes: LENNON, GV, Movin' Out. Carrie, Titanic.. I didn't see Baby Jane, but it doesn't sound like it would be good. Like I said, I enjoy all shows. Bad shows are fun sometimes...

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 11/11/05 at 3:23am

I liked Brooklyn too! I heard cirtics call it a "bad spin-off of Rent". I saw both shows, and liked Brooklyn much better, does that make me weird?

*Edengasm*

[emo_geek]

Posted: 11/11/05 at 4:33am

Just looking at this thread proves how different we all are, but we have one common interest and that is theatre. Let this be a lesson to all of you that we are inspired in different ways, a view things in differently then the guy sitting in the seat next to you

(and I get an orgasm everytime I hear Eden)