Worst show YOU HAVE BEEN IN?- Page 4

Posted: 12/11/04 at 5:57pm

Definetly the Wizard of OZ. I was originally cast as the Scarecrow, but my swim coach hated my director and vice versa, so I just ended up back stage doing crew. It was quite the ego drop. Our Dorothy was an awful singer. At the auditions, all the girls sang "Over the Rainbow" and this girl named Kristin actually made our MD cry. He literally bawled it was such a good thing, but Kristin happens to be 1/2 Native American and doesn't look like the part of Dorothy. Our dog would only answer to Margie (It was real). The OZ sets were horrible. Just a bunch of platforms at different levels painted different colors. The only cool part of the set was the Witches castle. Our auditorium at my HS has two balconies on stage and balcony right was the witches castle. We made a huge staircase that lead from the stage all teh way up there, and then this huge crimson glass ball thing that had auntie em's face projected onto it. It looked really cool. And for the whole tornado scene we shot the movie onto our panoramic. What else? We also used the projection for the Wizard's face. Over all, it sucked, but had it's good parts.

[LyTeMyCanDyI]

Posted: 6/13/05 at 11:46pm

Tom Saywer. Aparently roles were to hard ofr 4th graders, so for a 60 minute play we had 6 different Toms, 3 Bens, 3 Hucks, 2 Beckys, Two Mrs. Harpers(?), 2 Sids, and thankfully one Aunt Polly (me!) It was so hard trying to figure out why Tom was suddenly blnde and then asian and then black and then a white kid again. Oh wait...it was the sombrero...they all wore a sombrero...that helps...NOT REALLY!

[cathywellerstein]

Posted: 6/13/05 at 11:51pm

i was in a production of wizard of oz as well. though it was a lot better than i thought it would turn out to be, it still wasn't great. i don't think that WoOZ is a very good stage show. i love the movie, but on stage.... i don't know. there would have to be an amazing production for me to actually like it.

[Footlooser]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 12:42am

It would have to be a toss up between "The Student Prince" with a lead who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, or "Grease" in HS with all the swearing, smoking, sex, and anything that makes it Grease gone.

[felineofavenueb]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 1:45am

Cinderella, when I was in seventh grade. The show itself, performance wise, wasn't all that bad - in fact, given our school's afinity for performing arts and liberal budget, I'm told it turned out very well. However, it was THE WORST experience I've ever had in a show, mostly becuase of the director, who was an idiot. He admitted to us that he had pre-cast us before auditions ("it's a formality that you have to go through"), took liberties with the show including a living clock and a mouse who sings with Cinderella - me - during "In My Own Little Corner" and adding a chorus of FLOWERS to waltz during "Ten Minutes Ago", was hugely favoritist, and just generally awful. Our MD was awesome, thank the Lord, but too much of the chorus just didn't want to be there. It sort of worked out well for me, becuase I was supposed to just be the mouse and a flower, but between cast members that didn't want to show up for rehearsal, I also became a townsperson and a chef. Downsides, though, were having to learn two new songs 3 weeks before the show. Ugh. Having read all this, it wasn't as bad as it could've been, but the experience ruined Cinderella as a show for me FOREVER.

[Hairspraydoll]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 1:55am

Grease. Nuff Said.

[gertiecummings]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:37am

I was in the Best Christmas Pageant Ever earlier this year. The director irritated me to no end. She treated me like a child and actually said to me one day in rehearsal "I would've expected more from a college drama major." She always made a big deal about what a privelege it was to be a part of her theatre, and this was just your average two-bit community theatre. She actually said to me that she normally didn't cast people who hadn't seen any of the shows there because she wanted them to see the standard they had. I literally cannot wait to get that show off the resume.

[mollyllom]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:38am

XD What felineofavenueb forgot to mention was that she was ORIGINALLY supposed to be a CHAIR. "In my own little corner, in my own little chair"--thus the duet with Cinderella. However, the directer changed it at the last minute, like, what, 4 days before opening night? I think simply because of costuming, and, as we already had like 5 mice, it was easy to get my dear friend a mouse costume.

I, on the other hand, was Joy, an evil stepsister. He decided my character would be the fat one, and so every time I sat down, the other people in the room were supposed to jump up like I made the floor shake or something. He also considered having me wear padding so people woudl GET the fat joke, but that also never went through, so we ended up looking like prats bouncing on chairs =D

Nevermind the creepy director acting REALLY weird around our 13-year-old Cinderella...he would push the Prince aside in rehearsals and say "no, michael, do it like THIS" and then demonstrate how to be romantic or something....ewwww

[Blair]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:47am

In the 8th grade, we did a one act play called "It's All In The Cards". The play itself was utter crap. I still don't know what it was about. Something to do with ex-gangsters? We had to literally make up our own blocking, and our "director" didn't do ANYTHING but tell us to rehearse. She was too busy doing stuff for the cheerleaders, for whom she was the coach. The girl who played my older sister was a foot shorter than me. Just bad.

[BroadwayBound06]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 7:22am

...10th Grade... Into the Woods Jr. Nuff Said.

[Joelbeans]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 9:04am

Reading all these responses only one show comes into mind. It really wasn't a bad show, but a funny thing that happened. I directed Joseph.... and it was a really good show, but at the beginning of the second act I had our four narrators starting the act sing the prologue to the second act to the kids. well the female kids weren't called, and as always there are always more girls than guys in the cast so the lights came and there were only four out of twenty kids sitting in front of the narrators. Well the narrators got the giggles, not just one, but all of them, and one of them actually ended up peeing her pants because she was laughing so hard. I was working at a nursing home at the time and some of my residents from the home were there that night so after the show I ran out before the residents left and got one of the depends from the people that came from where I worked and handed it to my narrator that peed on stage......very funny

[nmartin]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 9:33am

Wizard of Oz. A very long time ago. The whole show was awful, but,dear God, my costume was the worst. I was the Wizard, but instead of a suit, I had to wear a huge Mama Cass embroidered moo-moo. Folks, I am not kidding. I looked like an Ethan Allan couch reduced for quick sale.

[zippyjen]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 11:14am

in 6th grade we did shakespear's ceaser. Yeah don't do ceaser in the sixth grade!

[Millie42]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 11:25am

Cinderella in 12th grade.

I know I wasn't good because I couldn't stand the character...but that was only the beginning.
My prince---could NOT act. I fed him lines every night ON stage. Opening night, he completely abandoned the blocking and was just all over the place. And then there was the whole thing where he would shake, his body and voice, and his eyes would roll back in his head everytime he had to touch me (we're talking in dancing, singing, holding my hand). So, it was pretty much impossible to create a chemistry--- The kisses looked horrible and were just miserable.
These things happen when 4 guys total try out for a musical...

Oh, yes, and then I quit theatre for 2 years because it had been such a bad experience!

[cathyhyatt]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 11:32am

Lil' Abner.
the casting was pretty well done but that show just SUCKS. The score is terrible and the whole story is cheesy. The production itself was alright although we didn't really have a great set and not the best director.

Also, one of the productions I was in of The Wizard of Oz (yes, I was in more than one - 3 to be exact, ahhh!)
It was casted really REALLY poorly, the ensemble was really bad, the costumes for the munchkins were TERRIBLE, and it basically just sucked. Honestly the only person who was good was the kid who played the Scarecrow. But since he was so good and everyone else wasn't it just made everyone else look worse. It was a sad, sad production. I couldn't wait till it ended.

Both of the shows were directed by the same person...I'm sure that's saying something. Usually I miss a show when it's over but when these were over I can't even begin to tell you how happy I was. Everytime I do a show I get something out it and learn something from it. The only thing I learned from these shows was to not do any with that director anymore.

[Millie42]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 11:40am

"Our dog would only answer to Margie (It was real)."

Captain, I'll have you know that I just started laughing out loud at work...

[ashley0139]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 12:03pm

I did a production of Beauty and the Beast. Not the Disney version, oh no. It was the original German version. In English. No music. God, how I hated that show. Ever heard of Bessie, Bossie, and Mary Ann? Me either. The director was the worst. I was 15 or 16 at the time and the guy playing the beast had to be 35. He smelled and sweated so much- it was disgusting. Blocking was horrible and most of the cast was pretty bad. I didn't make any friends that show either. What a disaster.

[littleredridinghood]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:00pm

Into the Woods at my camp this past summer (though I got into Sondheim because I bought the CD, so I guess I'm thankful for that...). Just letting you guys know: it was COMPLETELY illegal. I think every show at my camp is. We're not a theater camp.

Anyway, we only did the first act, but second act things happened, like the scene between the Baker's Wife and Cinderella's Prince. Most of the songs were gone entirely - the only songs left were the Prologue, Hello Little Girl, Giants in the Sky, I Know Things Now, Stay with Me, and Ever After. These songs were cut down beyond belief - the entire Prologue was about three minutes long (and spoken, except for Cinderella and Little Red's stuff)! Most of the other songs were about a minute and a quarter each, at most. The only thing anybody really remembered was the fact that the Baker's Wife and Cinderella's Prince seriously stood on stage making out for about a minute. Then, the Baker and Baker's Wife did a scene in place of "It Takes Two," and made out for another minute at the end. Our first full-cast runthrough was, you guessed it, the night we did the show for people.

Our set consisted of the curtains closed in the back with some Christmas lights draped over them, and a ladder with a giant piece of paper over it, which we drew a tree on. The lyrics to "Giants in the Sky" were written on the steps of the ladder because Jack kept forgetting them - only, whoops, the night of the show the ladder got put the wrong way and Jack couldn't see his lyrics and kept being like "blah blah blah..."

The talent was bad. The Baker's Wife was awful - she's one of my best friends, but she was. The Baker was okay, but he really didn't have much to do with all the cuts. Jack had a VERY thick accent and you couldn't tell what the hell he was saying/singing, though he was cute and did have a pretty good voice. Cinderella could sing, but they cut out all her songs. The Witch was pretty good. However, we had someone originally that was actually excellent, but she quit because she "didn't get the lead role," meaning Cinderella. The Princes (there were three, by the way, and two narrators) refused to sing, so they had a random "Agony"-esque scene that mostly involved them doing Three Stooges-type stuff. I was Little Red Riding Hood, and was apparently the standout of the show. If you know my singing and acting ability, this REALLY says something about it (the show, not my ability). The Wolf seriously could NOT howl. As in, he couldn't do it. What?! Snow White was made into a major character, with her own written-in scene with such BRILLIANT lines as "I'll go get my Gucci change purse!" Oy!

Costumes almost didn't exist. My cape came down to about halfway between my shoulders and my lower back. It was pathetic. Rapunzel's Prince wore this big fuzzy pink Adidas tracksuit. The Narrators had those little beany hats with the propellers on top that you spin. Cinderella's dress consisted of a short black skirt with a GIANT slit in it and a rather revealing black top - she looked more like Slutarella and people kept making comments. Her shoes were white flip-flops with gold lanyard tied around the parts that go over the foot.

I could go on for YEARS about what was wrong with the show. The funny thing is, I've got to be thankful for it for introducing me to Sondheim, ha. Let's just say that had I known about Into the Woods before I started doing this show, I never would have done it.

[incendiary_wit]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:04pm

Bang, Bang, You're Dead. A terrible play to begin with. Add feuding siblings, terrible hours, and only two showings with no audience larger than 50. Thank god it wasn't taped and cannot be used as blackmail when I'm famous. Oy, it was awful and cursed. Terribly cursed...but another (and very long) story.

[rock00]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:07pm

Assassins. I'd been waiting for years to do the show and was lucky enough to get cast in the role I wanted. Unfortunately, the director was a complete incompetent and his talentless girlfriend was the "vocal" director. We had all of three music rehearsals that weren't just singing along with the cast recording and then didn't have our first complete run-thru until tech week. Good call only allowing a limited amount of rehearsal time to the music in a musical, let alone a Sondheim show. It sucked and I sucked in it. Yech.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:07pm

Wasnt in it but I saw it. A middle school production of 'Grease' but since time ran out and they didnt have time to rehearse or ever begin to block most of the scenes, they cut them out, moved random songs around and called it 'Almost Grease'. Im not kidding.

[gymman]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:09pm

"The Red Mill"--ugh!

[nmartin]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:13pm

Wickedrocks, Did you tell the director you 'almost' enjoyed it?

[littleredridinghood]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:26pm

"Wasnt in it but I saw it. A middle school production of 'Grease' but since time ran out and they didnt have time to rehearse or ever begin to block most of the scenes, they cut them out, moved random songs around and called it 'Almost Grease'. Im not kidding."

I was in a TERRIBLE (though not quite as terrible as Into the Woods, mostly just because Into the Woods is AMAZING to begin with and we KILLED it) production of Grease in 8th grade called...Almost Grease. Haha.

[judy_in_disguise]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:26pm

It's a toss up:
a highschool production of Fame
or
a highschool production of Return to the Forbidden Planet.,