Worst musical to win best musical?- Page 4

[bryan2]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 1:18pm

I personally do not think a highlight shows like Fosse should win best Musical...it isnt original and it isnt really a show but a kind of best of...I liked Fosse but only for what it was. I hated Jerome Robins Broadway because it seemed like a bunch of high school productions pieced together with overacting throughtout..the obnoxious Jason Alexander-I did love Charlotte, and Debbie Shapiro but it was a mess to me
BORING as hell

Contact is not a musical it is a 2 hour dance (liked it)
when not one person sings it is not a Musical

PASSION is the worst to win stick needles in my ears
how can a show a total of 8 people saw win a tony...
Avenue Q close #2 a FXxxg puppet show now come on
Lion King overblown scream festival
-Ragtime was so much better-

[undercoveractor]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 1:53pm

My thoughts on this.
1.TITANIC deserved that award, I loved it then and still do.
2.MEMPHIS ranks as one of the most offensive and badly constructed shows that I have ever seen, so I would rank it at the top of my list. I refuse to believe that any person on that creative team is a Southerner...and if they are, shame.
3. SPAMALOT was a lot of fun, but I would have voted for any of the other shows nominated that season over it.
4. THE WILD PARTY (LaChiusa) ranks to me as the most underrated show I have experienced in my years of theatergoing. Someday it will get its due, I hope.
5. I will always be sad that RAGTIME did not win in 1998 and Urinetown! did not win in 2002. Those shows are miles above the shows that did win....in my opinion.
6. Many have listed TWO GENTLE MEN OF VERONA as a worst and I do not agree. Clearly, FOLLIES is one of the greatest musicals ever written, but TWO GENTLEMEN is a fantastic show. I would love to see a really solid production of it.
7. Lastly, I would say although I enjoy AIN'T MISBEHAVIN, the real gem of that season was ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. That show is near perfection....and it needs to be revived, but please not with Chenoweth.

[moncruzz]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 2:44pm

There is NO WAY Billy Elliot is "the worst musical" to win the award. Just because you PREFER Next to Normal, does not mean in any way it was the worst...
I <3 both musicals, 2009 was a great season. Can we leave it at that?

Back to the topic, How about The Will Rogers Follies?

[Christoph]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 2:49pm

The Lion King, but then that was not a stellar year either. I think both The Lion King and Ragtime rank as two of the most overrated musicals ever - and they were both the frontrunners that year, although truthfully I would have preferred Ragtime get the award. At least it did not have the "Show me a window I am going to jump!" reaction from me that The Lion King brought out.
Updated On: 6/10/11 at 02:49 PM

[PortalGamer]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 3:38pm

contact has a book the third act is about a mans frustrations on trying to find and connect with a girl. This is for the worst show not shows that we think a less superior to win against greater shows. The Lion King is for the kids market. I am not sure why fosse won its just a review sorry I meant revue. I did not see memphis the reviews sucked so why did it win the tony over Fela ! (But I do ask why did Fela or Memphis got nominated) Fela was strange and Memphis must have been the same old thing we have seen before. As for SA it got the best reviews of the season.

Updated On: 6/10/11 at 03:38 PM

[peerrjb]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 3:41pm

Hallelujah, Baby!

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 4:02pm

I don't understand why people diminish Avenue Q to a mere "puppet show." I think it's more than that. The show reminds me of absurdist plays. I also found it a little bit existential. And I found it to be highly entertaining.

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 6:32pm

A few things I must say:

1. The word you're looking for is "revue", not "review"
2. I found Titanic, while not a perfect show, quite enjoyable. For me, it's hard not to like a Maury Yeston score
3. Why all the hate for Passion? It's a beautifully constructed piece with one of the most gorgeous scores and best-written books in musical theatre history. I found it captivating and heartbreaking, so I'm sorry not all of you feel the same way.
4. I think In the Heights has to be up there with the worst to win this award solely for its book. It has a really great, energetic score, and that production had great direction, choreography, designs, and a really great ensemble of actors, but no show can do well without a great book. It was just unbelievably predictable and bland. Listening to the cast recording creates such a better experience than the pain of seeing the show.
Updated On: 6/11/11 at 06:32 PM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 6:47pm

Glad to see people defending Passion. I love the show, too.

Posted: 6/10/11 at 9:07pm

I've given up on defending Passion (for now anyway). It's in my top three Sondheim shows, and I think it's an amazing piece. I know Sondheim fans who dislike it too--I think maybe it's just too intense for some people and makes them uncomfortable.

[Almira]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 9:15pm

Eric, the reason you should stop defending PASSION is because it doesn't need to be defended. It is an extraordinary piece of theatre the has only grown and will continue to grow in appreciation with the most sophisticated and discerning of theatre goers.

My vote for worst musical to win Best Musical:

THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES

Updated On: 6/10/11 at 09:15 PM

[PortalGamer]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 9:22pm

true I meant revue sorry

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 10:15pm

Frontrowcenter, not to pick on you friend, but you complain about Sunset Blvd and then praise Applause for its source

Eric,
It's all in the adaptation. The authors of APPLAUSE were hog-tied by the original film authors and prevented from using much more than the basic story. I think Comden and Green created a solid (if unexceptional) book under the circumstances. The TV version was great fun: CBC ran it several times in 73-74. I recall even CBS did a summertime repeat of it but it hasn't been sired since. Many of Margo's "bitchy" lines were gems. (about Eve she says "Isn't she a treasure? I think I'll bury her!") and even in those days they allowed Margo's final line "Eve, You 4-star bitch...Thank you!" (I audio taped the program and listened to it over and over until I memorized most of the script. Makes it hard to watch ALL ABOUT EVE because the line are so different.) Now maybe if I had seen the film first I would have been put off by the diluting of the source material but at the time I thought it was a clever script and great fun as a musical.

SUNSET was the reverse. By the time the musical came along I had seen and loved the classic film. But when the London cat CD set arrived it sounded like they were just taking the film's dialogue and turning it into *Rather boring) recitative, and the plugging in songs that merely re-stated what had already been established in the recitative passages. I so no inventiveness in the adaptation and felt that it only worked because it was copying the move so slavishly. Seeing the show on stage was one of the worst professional theatre productions I had ever witnessed. Then reading how ALW took a bunch of trunk tunes and ordered his lyricist to add new words to the melodies explained why the score is so inconsistent. Say what you like about APPLAUSE but at least the score sounds like it was created for that one specific show. (even so, APPLAUSE is variable..You have to sit through the terrible opening chorus "Backstage Babble" and through a dull character song "Think How it's Gonna Be"
to get to "But Alive." (The TV version wisely drops the first 2 songs.) At the time I was most impressed by "One Hallowe'en" and the final song "Something greater" but puzzled why Margo wasn't made into a musical comedy star. (Maybe because no one would Believe Betty Bacall as a musical comedy star?)

It seemed more logical with SUNSET that Norma be a screen musical star (along the liens of a Debbie Reynolds who could have done a take-over of the role on Broadway - LOL) whose career faltered when musicals went out of vogue. It could even have allowed for some pastiche/spoofs of Busby Berkley style production numbers. Maybe with 42ND STREET current at that time it would have been pointless.

While I would never argue for APPLAUSE as one of Broadway's greatest musicals, it was (and is) much more enjoyable for me than ALW'S SUNSET BLVD. I can listen to the APPLAUSE cast album without feeling it was a missed opportunity, wasting a really good source material.

Updated On: 6/10/11 at 10:15 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 12:54pm

Thank you for for another insightful posting. Your messages are always a pleasure to read.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 1:17pm

BIG RIVER was the worst IMO. I hated it so much I was tempted to move out of the country!

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 2:09pm

I love that people are some people are saying Will Rogers Follies. I never saw the show, nor have I been even remotely in contact with any of its material. However, I am still upset that it beat Miss Saigon because Miss Saigon was the show that got me into musicals. So my disdain for this show is not on its merits (or lack thereof), but because of my bitterness.

[Someday]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 2:34pm

Miss Saigon was probably the most exciting show that year. But the best was The Secret Garden – excellence from top to bottom, in every department.

[CoolestNerdEver]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 3:51pm

Anything Andrew Lloyd Weber has ever done (that has won.) I find him to be absolutely terrible. And 1986, Sunday should have won. I hate Phantom

[D2]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 4:04pm

^^^
"Anything Andrew Lloyd Weber has ever done (that has won.) I find him to be absolutely terrible. And 1986, Sunday should have won. I hate Phantom"

Uhm...

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE lost to LA CAGE AUX FOLLES in 1984.

INTO THE WOODS lost to PHANTOM OF THE OPERA in 1988.

Details. They matter. So does spelling but that's a whole other issue.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 6:20pm

I completely agreed with Will Rogers Follies winning. It was a very strong season and I saw all the nominees for Best Musical and they all could easily have won for various reasons. Miss Saigon was big and impressive and a real tear-jerker with some gorgeous music, but the lyrics were soppy and embarrassing. People were still upset over the casting controversy at the time. Will Rogers Follies was incredibly clever and creative. A brilliant concept gorgeously realized with some of the best visuals of the season. It was big, splashy classic Broadway featuring a nearly-forgotten style that seemed both nostalgic to the old, yet fresh and new to the young without ever appearing dated. The CD is a fun listen, but if you have never seen it, it's hard to imagine the amount of opulence, grace and style that was occurring on stage.

[undercoveractor]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 6:54pm

In 1991, I was a Senior in High School and was very disappointed that MISS SAIGON did not win. My tastes have matured as I matured and what I can say that I completely understand why WILL ROGERS FOLLIES won. It was a lot of fun, it was gorgeous, and the Tommy Tune staging was inspired.
BUT after I finally saw THE SECRET GARDEN a few months later, my loyalties moved to that show. To this day, it remains one of the top 5 most moving, inspiring, and perfect evenings I have ever had in a theatre. The score, the book, the design, the cast...everything was on the same page and working together to make magic.
In a season where all 4 of the nominated shows (ONCE ON THIS ISLAND was the 4th) had healthy runs and became part of the regularly produced and loved canon of Musical Theatre, THE SECRET GARDEN remains my favorite. I loved them all and cherish that season as one that had an incredible show in 4 vastly different genres.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 5:52am

reNt would have to be the top of list, a huge mess of a show!

[paradox_error]

Posted: 6/12/11 at 6:04am

Oh come on... Rent isn't perfect, but it doesn't deserve to be on this list. It's strong enough to justify its award, though it's not nearly as good as the hype would suggest, I'll give you that.