have u ever witnessed a butchered musical,,,

[ally_kay_on_broadway]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 4:52pm

has anyone ever witnessed a brutal massacre of a good musical?

a theatre in my city did 'miss saigon' and it was just....YUUEEEGGHHHHH i LOVE that show..but i cannot believe i paid $150 for 2 tickets...the helicopter scene was just...eek...i don't think you should do that show if you're on a budget..

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 4:54pm

I go to NYU, I sure have seen a musical butchered. Company, anyone? Blech. Sweeney didn't fare much better either.

[jaded_october]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 4:54pm

the tour of chicago that went around last fall. terrible.

[Pinguin]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 4:56pm

HAHAHA...SarahHIYE, I saw that show too. What a travesty. I just remember sitting there during "Another Hundred People" going EXCUSE ME?

I also saw a TERRIBLE non equity production of Aida this past winter in LA. Not only did they not have the budget but they didn't cast enough people, it was just sad.

Updated On: 5/29/05 at 04:56 PM

[ally_kay_on_broadway]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 4:56pm

awwwh a bad 'chicago'? thats tragic!!

[jaded_october]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 4:57pm

yeah. it was terrible. its one of those shows thats either amazing or the worst thing youve ever seen. i saw the latter.

[CatieElphie1]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 5:01pm

I once saw an 1 and a half hour production of Les Mis.......talk about butchered...they cut like, 2/3 of the script...

[littleredridinghood]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 5:05pm

At camp, I was in an absolutely awful production of Into the Woods and Chicago (both more than a little illegal, I'm sure). Chicago wasn't great, but Into the Woods was so cut-down and modified and CHANGED that if poor Sondheim saw it, he'd probably die.

[jaded_october]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 5:20pm

i cant even start on high school shows. we did into the woods this fall... i thought it was okay for what our director did with it. he's a horrible director and we added alot of our own things to it at the last minute. it was as good as it ever was going to be.

we also did boys from syracuse. that was a disaster.

and bang bang youre dead was .... oh god it was bad.

we also did chicago in march (i had to drop out because i had surgery) and it was just.... fjsdlk.


what is it with people making chicago bad all of the sudden?

[ally_kay_on_broadway]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 5:22pm

its because the movie came out!! and everyone thought they could do it cause it was 'cool'!!!!

[littleredridinghood]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 5:32pm

"we added alot of our own things to it at the last minute."

Yup, that was the problem with our Into the Woods...most of the dialogue was definitely NOT from the script, it was only the first act (though there was the scene between Cinderella's Prince and the Baker's Wife), most songs were missing or severely cut, there were three princes, Snow White had her own scene with genius dialogue such as "I'll go get my Gucci change purse..." It's a good thing I didn't know the show as well as I do now, or I don't think I would have been able to get through it.

[baddadnpa]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 5:33pm

Sweeney Todd, get it?

[i*heart*fame]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 5:38pm

Um, when I was like 10 or so I was in a definately illegal production of into the woods because they rewrote the 2nd act to give it a happy ending.

[jaded_october]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 5:44pm

"Sweeney Todd, get it?"

LMFAO.

[Sporti2005]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 6:02pm

ummm, i went to go see a middle school production of west side story.

enough said.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 6:22pm

I saw a youth theatre production of PETER PAN that was not only butchered but in clear violation of licensing agreements as well. the cast was made up of mostly kids ages 5 to 13 and the only adults in the cast were peter and hook. the guy playing captain hook was rather good but he had to perform without hook's signature red I dunno... "get up" and was forced to perform his show-stoping number "Hook's Waltz" on the neverland set with a single sail that came down from the wings to suggest a pirate ship. as they did not have enough money or stage crew to build a pirate ship or even change the set from the neverlands to the ship.

peter was played by an extremely buxom woman in her mid-thirties who was constantly flying out-of-site and into the wings while still singing. (sure it wasn't her fault but it was funny as all hell.) her long blond hair was all tucked into a stupid green peter pan hat from Disneyland. tinker-bell was a red handheld laser operated by someone in the balcony. while the overture was playing they had tinker-bell "dancing" around the stage and it wasn't until she made her entrance with music that we realized it wasn't just some stupid kid messing around with a laser.

the "Ug-A-Wug" number was moved from it's usual place in act two to being the first song sung in the opening Neverland scene and sung only by the Indians. "Wendy" was replaced by a solo for peter entitled "A Lovely Little House" which I have never heard as even being cut from the original production or anything so I don't know where the hell it came from. finally while Wendy was played by an Asian chick - who I must say was not bad at all - she grew up as grown-up Wendy to be an overweight light-skinned white woman with red hair. the same overweight light-skinned white woman with red hair that played Tiger Lilly. all and all it was just a very disturbing production and I have never been back to see any other shows by that company... Updated On: 5/29/05 at 06:22 PM

[cathyhyatt]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 6:24pm

I REALLY bad production of "Into The Woods" at a nearing high school.

You can probably find my post about it on the board somewhere...

I still have nightmares, guys.

[jaded_october]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 6:26pm

wow... gross.

i know this isnt a musical, but i recently saw hamlet and it was terrible. they made laertes a comic relief. wtf?

sorry, back onto musicals..

Updated On: 5/29/05 at 06:26 PM

[OrdinaryJukebox1]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 7:28pm

I just saw a community theater production of "Cabaret"...one of the worst pieces of sh*t I've seen in years...County Players in Wappinger's Falls NY doesn't know WHAT they're doing...bad, bad, bad, bad, bad...my program was ripped in two and destroyed by the end of the show...

-Vincent

[shira467]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 7:33pm

I just saw a butchered version of "Another 100 People" last night at a Sondheim revue here in LA -- It was just...painful.

My high school mutilated Once Upon A Mattress...Oy.

[Over_the_Moon]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 7:38pm

Haven't we done this once before...or twice...

[Act4ever]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 7:43pm

Hah... when I first saw this topic, i thought it was going to ask something about seeing some creature being butchered


Anyway...
Into the Woods
Beauty and the Beast
Les Miserables
Aida

High school theatre CAN be wonderful.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 7:55pm

How about PETER PAN without the flyine sequence?

BYE BYE BIRDIE without the Shriner's Ballet?

Seen 'em both!

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 8:33pm

I saw a local high school do a Once On This Island production the year after my high school did. It was awful...all white cast, all 4 gods were played by females, Agwe was a soprano, Rain did not have the same effect...they obviously had no male talent and Daniel sounded terrible.

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 5/29/05 at 8:42pm

My camp puts on some great shows, but also some really terrible ones. I don't like Seussical, but my camp made it worse. They cut out half of it, had an awful cast (except for a few people) and really bad sets.
My camp also cut out half of Grease and had an awful cast.
Peter Pan-No one flew!