What's the very worst musical you ever saw?

[bostonman]

Please tell me the costumer gave her a long string of pearls to wear

 

Ha! I don't remember, but I don't think so (or I probably would have remembered, lol).

 

Though, regardless of a different comedic style, the "icewater/vodka" scene still had me on the floor. Love that!!

[rustyrex]

Mama Mia....I was damn near grossed out by the whole production. To put the stank on top of it there was this annoying woman who was drunk laughing at every damn scene.

 

Hamilton - way overrated

 

Cats - Need I say anything else?

[hornytwells]

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.

Absolutely agree, having seen both casts, although I altho think the concept is something that New Yorkers really related to

[hornytwells]

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.

 

I never found the documentary cruel as I didn't think the directors were mocking them, and I felt they actually became very fond of them. It was a fascinating study of a dysfunctional mother daughter relationship, but I still felt that there was a genuine love between them despite everything. I can see why some could find it exploitative but I find it actually quite emotional

[Best Kisser]

Mama Mia....I was damn near grossed out by the whole production. To put the stank on top of it there was this annoying woman who was drunk laughing at every damn scene.

 

Hamilton - way overrated

 

Cats - Need I say anything else?

I agree with you except on Hamilton. The first time seeing it was everything and more than I expected...

[handiacefailure]

Drowsy was fucking brilliant. If people don't understand pastiche, I don't want to be their friend anyway

 

I saw that show 12 times. It was incredibly entertaining and funny.

 

Drowsy was great. I love Sutton Foster (I think it was her first show after Thoughly Modern Millie). Also saw it in West End because Elaine Paige was in it.

[+ WilliamM]

Elaine Stritch at liberty and Sail Away.

 

I loved At Liberty. However, it was difficult to talk to Ms. Stritch without her taking over the conversation. Elaine invited people in back stage after the performance. She did realize I did not say .much. Elaine: send me a letter at the theater instead.

 

Of course, I really enjoyed Noel Coward's Sail Away, all those years ago.. She was a true force of naturel. This was a brief revival of the musical at at a small theater in Carnegie Hall on the 100 th anniversary of Mr. Coward's birth Stritch, "Noel thought he would be forgotten.'

 

She was an A plus story teller, even if stories about Ethel Merman may have a bit exaggerations.

Edited February 4, 2021 by WilliamM

[handiacefailure]

Elaine Stritch at liberty and Sail Away.

 

I loved At Liberty. However, it was difficult to talk to Ms. Stritch without her taking over the conversation. Elaine invited people in back stage after the performance. She did realize I did say .much. Elaine: send me a letter at the theater instead.

 

Of course, I really enjoyed Noel Coward's Sail Away, all those years ago.. She was a true force of naturel. This was a brief revival of the musical at at a small theater in Carnegie Hall on the 100 th anniversary of Mr. Coward's birth Stritch, "Noel thought he would be forgotten.'

 

She was an A plus story teller, even if stories about Ethel Merman may have a bit exaggerations.

 

I would have loved to have seen Stritch at Libery live. I own the DVD. I have to wonder about the part about the Golden Girls though since she said she tried out for a CBS show and Golden Girls was on NBC. I was fortunate enough to see her live in A little night music with Bernedette Peters. I saw it with the original cast of Angela Lansbury and Cahterine Zeta Jones and wasn't something I wanted to see again but wanted to see those two together, they should have done a rerelease of the cast recording, those two were a lot better.

 

I still laugh remember watching her on the Today Show and her saying Fuck and the censors never caught it:)

[samhexum]

Elaine Stritch

 

Thank God she didn't get the part as Dorothy on GOLDEN GIRLS. The show wouldn't have been the same with her in the role instead of Bea Arthur.

[bostonman]

I loved At Liberty. However, it was difficult to talk to Ms. Stritch without her taking over the conversation.

 

During the show?? (just kidding...)

 

At Liberty was a lot of fun - AND very moving as well. One of my least favorite musical theatre songs is "Something Good" - one of the two songs Rodgers attempted to write by himself for the film of The Sound of Music. I have no hesitation saying how much I despise it. (The tune is fine, it's the lyrics that are horrendous.) But in At Liberty, Stritch used that song as her finale, and it was so incredibly touching given the personal history she related during the show, that she got the tears flowing. (And let alone that it was a ballad, which one would think was not Stritch's wheelhouse lol.) I will never forget that.

[+ WilliamM]

Thank God she didn't get the part as Dorothy on GOLDEN GIRLS. The show wouldn't have been the same with her in the role instead of Bea Arthur.

 

Why? Because Stritch would take over the show? Didn't Bea Arthur do a similar one person show around the same time as Stritch. To be fair, I never watched Golden Girls

[bostonman]

Golden Girls was fun (and they did some great "musical" episodes and had constant references to musicals as well- notably a few sly references to Lady In The Dark), though my heart really belongs to Maude.

 

And yes, Bea did Bea Arthur On Broadway, which was very good (I didn't see it, but the CD is nice). She does this great little musical trick (again, with a very slight nod to a device in Lady In The Dark) where she keeps singing a bit of a famous song's bridge (but not the rest of the refrain), always trailing off into conversation, and only later sings the complete song. The first time I heard this, I found myself absolutely racking my brain to figure out what the song was, knowing I knew it very well, but i couldn't figure it out. When she finally sang the whole thing, it was a great revelation.

 

Actually, revising the above, one of those Lady In the Dark moments was on Maude - a solo episode with her talking to a psychiatrist, and finding herself unable to remember a song her father used to sing to her. (In this case, it was "Where or When," not "My Ship").

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Elaine Stritch at liberty and Sail Away.

 

I loved At Liberty. However, it was difficult to talk to Ms. Stritch without her taking over the conversation. Elaine invited people in back stage after the performance. She did realize I did not say .much. Elaine: send me a letter at the theater instead.

 

Of course, I really enjoyed Noel Coward's Sail Away, all those years ago.. She was a true force of naturel. This was a brief revival of the musical at at a small theater in Carnegie Hall on the 100 th anniversary of Mr. Coward's birth Stritch, "Noel thought he would be forgotten.'

 

She was an A plus story teller, even if stories about Ethel Merman may have a bit exaggerations.

 

Stritch is a legend for good reason. There never seems to be an uninteresting story involving her.

 

Yes, she was a pain in the ass, but she earned that in a lot of ways.

 

I had a client who was very good friends with her and we'd go visit with her at the Carlyle, sometimes having dinner and sometimes just popping in pre-performance to say hello. She was always kind to me, but she liked me.

 

I wouldn't want to be on her bad side.

[samhexum]

Why? Because Stritch would take over the show? Didn't Bea Arthur do a similar one person show around the same time as Stritch. To be fair, I never watched Golden Girls

Because the 4 women had perfect chemistry that would've been lessened with any substitution. And Stritch came across as coarse and not particularly warm in the (few) TV roles I saw her in. And Bea's Dorothy is my all-time favorite TV character, so a definite hard pass on the thought of Stritch in the role.

 

I took my Mom to see Bea's one-woman show in Westchester (Nyack) shortly before she (my mom) had a stroke and lost most of her faculties. She only mentioned GG twice.

[bostonman]

Because the 4 women had perfect chemistry that would've been lessened with any substitution. And Stritch came across as coarse and not particularly warm in the (few) TV roles I saw her in.

 

I took my Mom to see Bea's one-woman show in Westchester (Nyack) shortly before she (my mom) had a stroke and lost most of her faculties. She only mentioned GG twice.

 

So sorry to hear about your mom.

 

You're right about Golden Girls - that was a perfect quartet. And it's among the reasons why the sequel (The Golden Palace, without Bea) didn't work.

[samhexum]

You're right about Golden Girls - that was a perfect quartet. And it's among the reasons why the sequel (The Golden Palace, without Bea) didn't work.

 

Despite having Cheech Marin and Don Cheadle in the cast. Dorothy's 2-part visit was the highlight of the season.

[handiacefailure]

Thank God she didn't get the part as Dorothy on GOLDEN GIRLS. The show wouldn't have been the same with her in the role instead of Bea Arthur.

 

I think she would have been great as Sophia LOL

[handiacefailure]

Why? Because Stritch would take over the show? Didn't Bea Arthur do a similar one person show around the same time as Stritch. To be fair, I never watched Golden Girls

 

I saw Bea perform her one woman show in Toronto and she was very funny. Her and Elaine have similar qualities, they both say what's on their mind. The recording is one Apple Music. I thought it was funny to hear her talk about how much TV changed over the years. They wouldn't allow her to say "son of a bitch" in an episode of Maude and in the pilot of the Golden Girls Sophia called Dorothy's date something like a duffus and the line was suppose to be he's a douche bag and they wouldn't allow her to say douche bag on the air back then.

 

I loved Maude even though I was really young when it came out. She said Walter's alcoholism was a taboo subject back then and it was the first tv show to have characters go into a gay bar and her having the facelift was a big deal. And I don't think I've seen any tv shows in years where they discussed a woman having an abortion

[handiacefailure]

Why? Because Stritch would take over the show? Didn't Bea Arthur do a similar one person show around the same time as Stritch. To be fair, I never watched Golden Girls

 

I think Bea and Elaine are very similar. Elaine did a show called "nobody's perfect" that I wish they would put out on DVD that I can't find anyplace that ran for a few seasons in the UK. I'm told it was like a UK version of Maude which is a show I love to this day.

[+ WilliamM]

I saw Bea perform her one woman show in Toronto and she was very funny. Her and Elaine have similar qualities, they both say what's on their mind. The recording is one Apple Music. I thought it was funny to hear her talk about how much TV changed over the years. They wouldn't allow her to say "son of a bitch" in an episode of Maude and in the pilot of the Golden Girls Sophia called Dorothy's date something like a duffus and the line was suppose to be he's a douche bag and they wouldn't allow her to say douche bag on the air back then.

 

I loved Maude even though I was really young when it came out. She said Walter's alcoholism was a taboo subject back then and it was the first tv show to have characters go into a gay bar and her having the facelift was a big deal. And I don't think I've seen any tv shows in years where they discussed a woman having an abortion

 

Yes, Liked her very much in Maude.

[samhexum]

one of those Lady In the Dark moments was on Maude - a solo episode with her talking to a psychiatrist, and finding herself unable to remember a song her father used to sing to her. (In this case, it was "Where or When," not "My Ship").

I loved Maude even though I was really young when it came out. She said Walter's alcoholism was a taboo subject back then and it was the first tv show to have characters go into a gay bar and her having the facelift was a big deal. And I don't think I've seen any tv shows in years where they discussed a woman having an abortion

Yes, Liked her very much in Maude.

 

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION IS...

 

Florida or Mrs. Naugatuck?

[+ WilliamM]

I think she would have been great as Sophia LOL

 

Elaine was at her best at special events. She was wonderful at a Merman tribute, which included Bette Midler, but not Mary Martin (fortunately for Stritch).

[bostonman]

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION IS...

 

Florida or Mrs. Naugatuck?

 

Mrs. Naugatuck, hands down. ?

[handiacefailure]

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION IS...

 

Florida or Mrs. Naugatuck?

 

Florida, but liked Mrs. Maugatuck also. I didn't care for Victoria, fortunately she wasn't in that many episodes.

[handiacefailure]

Elaine was at her best at special events. She was wonderful at a Merman tribute, which included Bette Midler, but not Mary Martin (fortunately for Stritch).

 

I loved her in the Sonheim Birthday special when Patty Lupone sang "Ladies who lunch" and when she Patti said does anyone still wear a hat, they showed Elaine wearing a red a hat. That was Elaine's big song and was great how her and Patti hugged after Patti finished singing it. Was cool that Patti played that part in the revival of Company after in the West End.

 

I liked her performance at the White House too and felt really bad for her. She acted like she had dementia when she was singing, she sang "I'm still here" for the Obama's and used the opening line she used at the liberty and forgot the punch line and she messed up a couple lines in the song and her pianist had to help her out with a couple of the words she forgot but she still got a standing ovation from the Obamas.

 

I liked her in the show Two's Company and she said "does anyone still wear a hat" as a line in on of the shows and "I'll drink to that" in another episode, you'd have to be a true Stritch fan to catch the humor in those.