how funny is Something Rotten vs. BOM?

[rdsport323]

Posted: 9/15/15 at 11:53pm

I'm trying to decide which show to watch tomorrow night, and I've narrowed it down to Something Rotten or Avenue Q.  I've heard that both are quite hilarious but I have very little to no knowledge of what either two are about.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 9/15/15 at 11:54pm

Wait, Book of Mormon or Avenue Q? 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 9/15/15 at 11:54pm

double post -- delete

Updated On: 9/15/15 at 11:54 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 9/15/15 at 11:55pm

Wait, which is it? Mormon or Avenue Q? Your message and subject line are different.

Something Rotten is funny in a trite, low-hanging fruit way. There's not much "there" there. The jokes in Mormon are deeper. There's some low stuff there, too, but it's more complex. I felt the humor in Something Rotten was very simplistic and too easy.

[haterobics]

Posted: 9/15/15 at 11:56pm

My rankings:

 

- Avenue Q

- Something Rotten

- Book of Mormon

 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 9/15/15 at 11:58pm

Also, I saw Avenue Q twice, and I thought it was fine, but it probably would've worked better for me had I seen it right out of college rather than 5-6 years later.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 9/15/15 at 11:58pm

I personally LOVE all three shows. You really can't go wrong with any.

 

In this instance, I would go with Rotten!, only because it's a new musical, and we're not at the point of being able to predict its run trajectory. BOM and Q will both reliably be there for quite a while.  

 

Also, go for the goddess that is Heidi Blickenstaff. 

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 12:03am

Go for Avenue Q. I think it's the smartest out of the three.

[willep]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 12:29am

Personally, as much as I wanted to love it, I didn't find Something Rotten! very funny. It wanted to be, but it just didn't work for me. I really enjoyed Book of Mormon a lot, the humor there is a lot more intelligent. I haven't seen Avenue Q.

[Pippin]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 1:52am

here's a simple quiz:

 

do you like "South Park" and tap dancing? see BOM.

 

do you like dick jokes and tap dancing? see Something Rotten.

 

Do you like Puppet nudity and hate tap dancing? see Avenue Q. 

 

I hope this helps.

[hork]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 1:52am

Avenue Q is hilarious, and brilliant. I haven't seen Something Rotten, but Book of Mormon is not funny at all. It's very immature, South Park-y humor, based almost entirely on lame pop culture references and obscenities, most of which just sort of sit there, as if pop culture references and obscenities are inherently funny.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 2:04am

I'd see AVENUE Q.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 4:54am

Seen all three and laughed at all.  

Rotten while cute, overstays it's welcome. Near the act one finale,  I felt it was nearly over and most of act two felt unnecessary. I adore Heidi, but her part is totally unnecessary.  Reinders role makes more sense, but couldn't stand her.

 

BOM...certainly not for  everyone, personally I'm not a fan of South Park, but I though the show was a hoot.

 

Q? Raunchy, fun and clever. But not for the conservative set 

Updated On: 9/16/15 at 04:54 AM

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 7:40am

They're all bad, witless, and sophomoric. 

[sabrelady]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 7:45am

After Eight said: "They're all bad, witless, and sophomoric. 

 

"

Well, I'll grant u Ave Q...

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 7:55am

Disagree After 8

 

Believe  Rotten best of the 3 

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 8:28am

I found "A Musical" and "Make an Omelette" hilarious, but the rest of it is banal and trite in my opinion.  Even those two numbers, while entertaining, are just mashups of references that you enjoy because getting the references make you feel good about yourself.

BOM and Avenue Q are much better constructed.  I'd give the edge to BOM.

[ebontoyan]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 8:37am

I found Something Rotten the most entertaining

[aj88]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 8:40am

Honestly, I thought Avenue Q was the best show of the three as a whole...although I haven't seen it since the summer of 2003 (aside from videos since).

BOM didn't live up to the hype for me but I still highly enjoyed it.

Something Rotten just worked for me. It certainly wasn't perfect and they probably could have used an out-of-town tryout to really clean up sections, particularly Act Two...but I saw it both times and I really enjoyed myself (Fun Home and The Visit were better shows but that is another discussion).

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 8:49am

Avenue Q

The Book of Mormon

Something Rotten

 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 9:51am

And as with everything: its a three way tie!

[haterobics]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 10:07am

I think Avenue Q got the most nods, despite it not appearing in the title, heh.

[rdsport323]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 12:02pm

Thanks for the suggestions all.. Yeah I mistyped my title.. Of the three shows, I've only seen BOM so I wanted to compare the two to it.

 

But I think I will settle with Avenue Q.  Someone in front of me at the TKTS line said that SR was hard to understand even though they incorporate a lot of plays into the story which was very well written or something to that effect.  

And the person who said Fun Home was better, I'm actually seeing that this Matinee, and Ave Q this evening.  

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 12:34pm

Avenue Q should be funny to anyone who grew up watching Sesame Street and anyone who went to college and tried to make a middle-class living in an upper-class world.  It definitely did help that the show came out when I was 23 and just out of school.  But even now when I see it--it's funny.  

 

Something Rotten had tons of Shakespeare and musical references, so if you're not up on that or if you think that an in-joke about Les Miz is just too low-brow for you, then it won't be funny. But anachronism jokes about the Renaissance?  LOVE.  

BOM is satire. So, underneath the laughter, the show is supposed to leave us angry---angry enough to want to do something about the serious issues raised, such as female genital mutilation, poverty, AIDS, violence, among others. So yes, it's funny to see someone yell curse words at impressionable young missionaries. But after you're done laughing at that, you reflect on the issue behind it and realize there's nothing funny at all. 

Updated On: 9/16/15 at 12:34 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 9/16/15 at 1:41pm

rdsport323 said: "But I think I will settle with Avenue Q.  Someone in front of me at the TKTS line said that SR was hard to understand even though they incorporate a lot of plays into the story which was very well written or something to that effect. "

Did they mean diction-wise or plot-wise? The plot is hardly there, so it's not hard to follow at all.