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What's the very worst musical you ever saw?

Merboy

By Merboy
in Live Theater & Broadway

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Merboy
Merboy

And I knew one of you guys would know that line!

Merboy
Merboy

I'm reminded of that line from TGG when they are talking about the local theatre lady, Phyllis Hammerow... lol https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0589829/

samhexum
samhexum

Jerome Robbins' Broadway. I went with 2 friends. I left the theater at intermission, telling them I'd meet them afterwards for dinner. They left 1 or 2 numbers after intermission.    

bostonman Grand Master

bostonman

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Grey Gardens. Wretched waste of several hundred bucks for 2 tickets.

 

I'm sorry you feel that way. I was musical director for the Boston regional premiere, and I had a wonderful time. I know some people feel Act I isn't very good, or not necessary, but I love the way it sets up the world we expect (from the documentary) in Act II. I also think it's a very evocative and whimsical score.

 

Our Big Edie (Act I)/Little Edie (Act II) in that production was to have done the regional premiere of War Paint (same composing team) last spring, and I was really looking forward to seeing that...but...well...the pandemic happened, and...

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Merboy Experienced

Merboy

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Did you see the LA cast (2016) or the original NYC (2006)?

 

The LA production suffered due to the casting of Rachel York and Betty Buckley. They didn't work at all.

 

Christine Ebersole in the original, however, was transcendent. A star performance.

Christine Ebersole performed a song from that on the Tony Awards. It was fabulous.

 

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bostonman Grand Master

bostonman

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I have seen some doozy amateur and regional productions. As far as Broadway/tour, it would be a tie between Billy Elliott, Once, and Falsettos. All three were painful to sit through. Ghost was also horrendous, but I wasn't as bored as with these three.

 

Ghost IS painful. Once is not really my thing, but I had a friend on the tour and I enjoyed her performance. I saw the older tour of Falsettos and the more recent revival on Broadway. My only complaint about the recent revival was the set - just seemed ugly to me.

 

I wasn't very familiar with Billy Elliot until the HD from London was shown in 2014, and I was really moved by the show. Then I wound up doing a regional production a few years later, and it was truly one of the highlights of my career (and that's not hyperbole). And I have to say, though I'm not a big fan of pre-recorded music in Broadway shows, I'm ultimately glad that the music for the Swan Lake "dream ballet" (where Billy dances with his "older self" and they fly in the air as a part of the sequence) was recorded so I didn't have to play or conduct, and just watch that dance every night. So magical and emotional. Our Billy later went on to win the Boston equivalent of the best actor Tony (the Elliot Norton Awards), beating out two very seasoned adult actors in other productions. ? I still miss that production.

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MaybeMaybeNot Community Regular

MaybeMaybeNot

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Ghost IS painful. Once is not really my thing, but I had a friend on the tour and I enjoyed her performance. I saw the older tour of Falsettos and the more recent revival on Broadway. My only complaint about the recent revival was the set - just seemed ugly to me.

 

I wasn't very familiar with Billy Elliot until the HD from London was shown in 2014, and I was really moved by the show. Then I wound up doing a regional production a few years later, and it was truly one of the highlights of my career (and that's not hyperbole). And I have to say, though I'm not a big fan of pre-recorded music in Broadway shows, I'm ultimately glad that the music for the Swan Lake "dream ballet" (where Billy dances with his "older self" and they fly in the air as a part of the sequence) was recorded so I didn't have to play or conduct, and just watch that dance every night. So magical and emotional. Our Billy later went on to win the Boston equivalent of the best actor Tony (the Elliot Norton Awards), beating out two very seasoned adult actors in other productions. ? I still miss that production.

Falsettos was just incomprehensible to me. It's like someone wrote a bunch of songs and knew nothing about telling a story. I know people lobe it because it deals with gay characters, but it was painful to sit through.

 

I remembered another one to add to my list, the tour revised version of The Last Ship. Another show written by people who clearly didn't know how to do what they were trying to do. So boring.

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bostonman Grand Master

bostonman

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Falsettos was just incomprehensible to me. It's like someone wrote a bunch of songs and knew nothing about telling a story. I know people love it because it deals with gay characters, but it was painful to sit through.

 

Perhaps because I've known the show for a very long time (first hearing the original "March Of The Falsettos" when the album was first released in the early 80's), I find the story pretty easy to follow. Your mileage may vary, lol. Bill Finn can be a very quirky writer, but I really like his stuff.

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WilliamM Grand Master

+ WilliamM

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Perhaps because I've known the show for a very long time (first hearing the original "March Of The Falsettos" when the album was first released in the early 80's), I find the story pretty easy to follow. Your mileage may vary, lol. Bill Finn can be a very quirky writer, but I really like his stuff.

 

Agree. I saw "The March of the Falsettos" in New York City in the early 80s before listening to the album. Perhaps the actor who plays Whizzor has to be believable as an attractive and somewhat interesting figure.

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bostonman Grand Master

bostonman

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Agree. I saw "The March of the Falsettos" in New York City in the early 80s before listening to the album. Perhaps the actor who plays Whizzor has to be believable as an attractive and somewhat interesting figure.

 

I wish I had been able to see that first production (at the old Playwrights Horizons). But it WAS fun seeing Stephen Bogardus, the original Whizzer, still playing the role on the 1990's tour. And I really enjoyed Andrew Rannells in the recent revival, though I remember a lot of people not liking him so much.

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WilliamM Grand Master

+ WilliamM

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I wish I had been able to see that first production (at the old Playwrights Horizons). But it WAS fun seeing Stephen Bogardus, the original Whizzer, still playing the role on the 1990's tour. And I really enjoyed Andrew Rannells in the recent revival, though I remember a lot of people not liking him so much.

 

I saw a production in one of the small theatres of the Sydney Opera House in the early 1990s I missed Stephen Bogardus, although the Aussie Whizzer was very good too

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Best Kisser Apprentice

Best Kisser

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I'm sorry you feel that way. I was musical director for the Boston regional premiere, and I had a wonderful time. I know some people feel Act I isn't very good, or not necessary, but I love the way it sets up the world we expect (from the documentary) in Act II. I also think it's a very evocative and whimsical score.

 

Our Big Edie (Act I)/Little Edie (Act II) in that production was to have done the regional premiere of War Paint (same composing team) last spring, and I was really looking forward to seeing that...but...well...the pandemic happened, and...

I saw both productions and thought they both were wonderful..each for different reasons. Ebersole was a force until herself, but so was Buckley. I agree that Rachel York probably was a bit miscast (she screwed up many lyrics that I saw), but still captured the essence of Grey Gardens. Some beautiful music as well...

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Becket Veteran

Becket

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I agree with Merboy about some of Phantom being boring. But the good stuff!!! Really touched my soul.

 

"Masquerade. Faces on parade. Hide your face so the world will never find you." For a guy trying to live in the closet, this was my first kick in the ass to get the hell outta there.

 

"Wishing you were somehow here again." Tear filled acknowledgement that you can't go back, and that the people you loved who are gone are not coming back either. But the ones you have right here and now are worth living your life with. Be grateful for that.

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hornytwells Veteran

hornytwells

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New York. Ebersol. Hated it. And yes, I am gay.

I personally loved Ebersole and the show, but I am guessing that if one is not already a fan of the documentary and knows the background that this musical may be totally perplexing. Like Drowsy Chaperone, (which I also loved) I think it might play to a rather exclusive audience.

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Rod Hagen Grand Master

Rod Hagen

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I personally loved Ebersole and the show, but I am guessing that if one is not already a fan of the documentary and knows the background that this musical may be totally perplexing. Like Drowsy Chaperone, (which I also loved) I think it might play to a rather exclusive audience.

 

That's a good point. I understand why people like/love the documentary. To me it always seemed unnecessarily cruel, and I'm not a particularly nice person. However, I absolutely went to the musical with an open mind because so many ppl, whose opinions and tastes I respect, loved it. And yet, I hated it.

 

Back to your point HTW, years ago I asked a friend to watch a move about Die Weisse Rose, and I thought it was awesome. But he knew nothing about Sophie Scholl and so he hated it. Some works of art do assume a level of familiarity with the subject. I love that. I love being lost and having too look everything up later, or, better yet, looking it up beforehand. My books are filled with words and lines underlined to look up once I'm finished with the book; it's part of the fun. But, not for some people.

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bostonman Grand Master

bostonman

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Strangely enough, it's not that London didn't laugh at it. It's that it wasn't the original Broadway company.

 

That group was magical. Perfectly cast.

 

London got actors who did a lot of mugging and it ruined the comedy.

 

I wish that I had been able to see the original Broadway company live. That was truly a perfect cast.

 

I did see a summerstock production with Jo-Anne Worley as Tottendale. And she was very good in her own way, but she had a very different approach than Georgia Engel did, so thing played very differently - and it took some getting used to.

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