Wrong creative team — Page 2

An adaptation of the ADDAMS FAMILY film with a Marc Shaiman score would have been sublime! That is among my 5 worst experiences at a Broadway show.

I disagree about SECRET GARDEN...I think it is PERFECT! Among my top 5 Best Broadway experiences. And the idea of a Lippa RAGTIME gives me a shudder up the spine. So glad that Flaherty & Ahrons created that piece.

For me, the score to WOMEN ON THE VERGE is among the best of the past decade, but I think that the team that put it on stage is mostly to blame for it not working. I love Sher, Zuber, Yeargan, and Gatteli were not the wacky production team that the piece needed.

Frozen as a whole...I've said for a while Menken should have done the music liked originally planned (still wondering what happened with that surprise change that no one knew about). It should have been a Menken/Schwartz collaboration or all Schwartz if they truly wanted the Wicked vibe to come through. It's there but fails.

Steve C. said: "I agree with several previous posts. "The Little Mermaid" was woefully mishandled. How does Disney decide on creative?? "TLM" could have been as good as or better than "Aladdin" or "Beauty And The Beast". I've never left the theater feeling so bad for the actors as when we saw "TLM". That cast was stellar and totally wasted. Everyone has their own opinions and it's great when shows like "Tarzan" or "Hunchback" get an extended life, (along with actors, dancers and singers getting work!). I don't know what's happening with "Frozen" ; let's hope they don't muck that up.

Problem is Aladdin, Hunchback, and Tarzan were also woefully misguided/mishandled. Tarzan is not stage material to begin with, it should never have happened, every song feels like it doesn't belong. LM...coudl have worked, but I think it's just too damn hard to do so in any conception. Aladdin...more stage worthy than most, but just needed a little creativity but it falls flat and relies way too much on it's comedy. Hunchback...THERE is the movie that SCREAMED 'stage' more than any other, like LK it has such a grandiose, epic, sweeping feel to it. And it fails. It was trying to be something it wasn't. Among it's many other problems.

I've said my thoughts of Frozen elsewhere. It can work, but NEEDS retooling. A LOT of it. It doesn't help Disney doesn't have the guts like they used to in the 90's. Some of those would NEVER be made today.



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Steve C. said: "Hi JennH, (very good call)

You are right on so many things. I truly think that "Aladdin"'s success is due mainly to Casey Nicholaw. Getting a good/great director that's not afraid to get her or his hands dirty is well, what Broadway Legends are about. I also think you're right about Di$ney being way too frugal, especially when you have a show like "Frozen" with so much potential.



Exactly. Frozen on the whole, still has so much amazing untapped potential that the movie didn't realize, that the stage musical still can. For that to be realized, it's needs rewriting, reworking, etc. I don't care how children or layman frozen lovers will complain about how their favorite scene or line. I get it's engrained in their brains, but honestly...the script is waaayyy to awkward and modern and the the story's structure is jaunty and jarring, more episodic than linear and I think it's needs to be more linear. hence it's need for reworking. I don't care if scenes are reworked/changed and some of the stupider lines cut. I don't care that's it's ingrained in peoples brains. It's less than stellar writing and needs to be changed, I'd rather it be changed and GOOD, than not changed and not good. Because if the DCA production is any indication of not being able to just throw Frozen on stage, than yeah if bluntly necessary changes aren't made, it WILL be bad, and become nothing but a tourist trap show. At least B and the b and LK are good, well written, well flowing shows. They still are Disney's best stage musicals.

Disney stories are earnest and beautifully honest, which Aladdin on stage is not. Comedy is fine, but it just relies too much on it. The whole lovely 'discovering you self worth' theme the movie has is all but gone, same with Hunchback. Because they wanted to go back to the book, which the movie overall is not, it didn't work. It had an identity crisis. They were trying to meld the book and movie, hence identity crisis. The TIMELESS theme Hunchback has is COMPLETELY gone in the musical. Which killed any compelling feeling I could have had.

Updated On: 8/5/16 at 12:15 PM

TotallyEffed said: "I listen to Grey Gardens practically every week, but I often dream of a Sonhdeim adaptation.



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Interesting and I certainly see what you mean. Everybody here seems to rave about "Another Winter in a Summer Town", but other than having one of the greatest hooks of all time, I don't see how the song has much content. (And I certainly understand the sentiment, coming from Ft. Lauderdale and having retired to Palm Springs, though my experience is the opposite: too many summers in winter towns. LOL.)

Sunset Boulevard

Big Fish

Spider-Man



All could have been great on stage.

icecreambenjamin said: "...I think that song is one of the greatest songs ever written for musical theatre. It's filled with meaning.





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Oh, yes, I see now that you are correct!

But, seriously, a claim is more convincing when it is accompanied by supporting arguments.

I admit you could argue that "Another Winter" does not really progress; it has one theme throughout, and the real turn comes after the song. But I do think it is an articulate, beautiful song about something deeply felt and real. Doesn't have to be for everyone.

I would have loved a Marc Shaiman SISTER ACT. Having adapted the music for the film, he would have done such a great job crafting new songs in that style. I typically love Alan Menken, but that just score did not do it for me.

Rodgers and Hammerstein were the wrong team to adapt John Steinbeck. They turned Sweet Thursday into Pipe Dream, but were obviously uncomfortable with the grittier characters and aspects of the material. It might have been much better had Frank Loesser, the original choice, written it. But even so, in the mid-'50s a serious show featuring a prostitute as a main character was probably going to be challenged.

Elton John's music for Lestat is pretty awesome, but the show needed a better book, lyrics and director.

The entire production team for Love Never Dies managed to unlearn the exemplary lessons of Prince's team on the original show.

Indeed. Sadly, the lesson they tried to learn was that a global long-runner is an unmatchable pension fund. (Nick Hytner calls his gorgeous country house Ho Chi Minh City because it was paid for by 'Miss Saigon'.