What's the very worst musical you ever saw?

[+ WilliamM]

To be fair, Barbara Cook stopped working with Elaine after a charity concert at Lincoln Center on a Monday night. Something must have happened during rehearsal, because the concert seemed to go well. Cook was usually a forgiving person, but NOT always, and not just with Stritch

[+ WilliamM]

To be fair, Barbara Cook stopped working with Elaine after a charity concert at Lincoln Center on a Monday night. Something must have happened during rehearsal, because the concert seemed to go well. Cook was usually a forgiving person, but NOT always, and not just with Stritch

[bostonman]

A wonderful colleague that I team teach with admitted today that First Date was among the worst shows he has seen on Broadway. (This in conjunction with one of our students who is working on a song from it, lol.) Anyone care to comment on that show? I never saw it, but I feel the score is ok, but not particularly outstanding.

[bostonman]

A show that should be in this thread that I didn't see live on Broadway, but I did experience through the commercially released original cast video - the stage adaptation of Victor/Victoria. While the film is really fun and funny, and well-produced/cast/directed/etc, the stage show was a terrible chore to have to sit through. And the patchwork score (you may remember that Henry Mancini died as the show was being written, and the consistently uneven composer Frank Wildhorn filled in) is just not very satisfying. ("Paris Makes Me Horny" may be among the worst songs ever written for a musical.)

 

Famously, Julie Andrews (who does indeed turn in a tour de force performance on the aforementioned video, even if it's nowhere near as sharp as in the film) got the only Tony nomination for the show, and she turned down the award, claiming that the rest of the production was "egregiously overlooked." I can't agree, Julie, I think the Tony committee was right.

[handiacefailure]

A show that should be in this thread that I didn't see live on Broadway, but I did experience through the commercially released original cast video - the stage adaptation of Victor/Victoria. While the film is really fun and funny, and well-produced/cast/directed/etc, the stage show was a terrible chore to have to sit through. And the patchwork score (you may remember that Henry Mancini died as the show was being written, and the consistently uneven composer Frank Wildhorn filled in) is just not very satisfying. ("Paris Makes Me Horny" may be among the worst songs ever written for a musical.)

 

Famously, Julie Andrews (who does indeed turn in a tour de force performance on the aforementioned video, even if it's nowhere near as sharp as in the film) got the only Tony nomination for the show, and she turned down the award, claiming that the rest of the production was "egregiously overlooked." I can't agree, Julie, I think the Tony committee was right.

 

I loved Victor/Victoria. I really wanted to see it when Liza was performing her role. I saw it travelling but love the music (but I'm a huge fan of Frank Wildhorn and Linda Eders). I've seen the DVD of the live production and liked it.

 

May have to do with the talent in it also. My friend that saw it in the local travelling production with me loved that performance but he also saw it with Toni Tennielle and said she was awful.

 

One thing I didn't like about the production with Liza is I love the song "crazy world" that closes out act one and when Liza was in it they replaced it with the song "who can I tell" Not sure of the reasoning behind that.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

"Paris Makes Me Horny" may be among the worst songs ever written for a musical

 

Dining at the Lido,

Loosens my libido,

Like a big torpedo.

 

Terrible, yes, but terribly wonderful when delivered by Rachel York.

 

[+ WilliamM]

Ii liked Julie Andrews in the musical, Liza not as much

[bostonman]

One thing I didn't like about the production with Liza is I love the song "crazy world" that closes out act one and when Liza was in it they replaced it with the song "who can I tell" Not sure of the reasoning behind that.

 

It's not all that uncommon for new songs to be written/replaced when new stars appear in a show. Merman had new songs added in Hello, Dolly. The song "A Change In Me" was added to Beauty And The Beast when Toni Braxton joined the show (and the song has stayed ever since). Or, sometimes stars demand changes - Merman, again, was upset that latecomers were missing her sing "I Get A Kick Out Of You" at the top of Anything Goes in 1936, so Porter cut the song "Buddie Beware" towards the end of the show and replaced it with a reprise of "Kick."

 

My guess is that either Liza didn't much like "Crazy World" or wanted something that was more specific to her talents. Or, that the producers decided she should have a song uniquely hers.

[+ WilliamM]

I role written for Julie Andrews isn't necessarily right for Liza

[samhexum]

One thing I didn't like about the production with Liza is I love the song "crazy world" that closes out act one and when Liza was in it they replaced it with the song "who can I tell" Not sure of the reasoning behind that.

My guess is that either Liza didn't much like "Crazy World" or wanted something that was more specific to her talents. Or, that the producers decided she should have a song uniquely hers.

I think Bjorn sang it best:

[samhexum]

I role written for Julie Andrews isn't necessarily right for Liza

 

What, you couldn't see Liza as Mary Poppins? ??

 

How about Julie opposite Dudley Moore in Arthur? ?

[bostonman]

What, you couldn't see Liza as Mary Poppins? ??

 

 

I would kill to see the looks on Jane and Michael Banks' faces as Liza started to belt out "A Spoonful Of Sugar" (makes the vallium go down??) ?

[+ WilliamM]

What, you couldn't see Liza as Mary Poppins? ??

 

How about Julie opposite Dudley Moore in Arthur? ?

Liza might be right for the musical Peter Pan, who who would play Captain Hook?

[samhexum]

Liza might be right for the musical Peter Pan, who who would play Captain Hook?

How about...???

[+ WilliamM]

Is that Bob Hope?

[samhexum]

Is that Bob Hope?

Hugh Jackman and (as Jack McFarland said) his huge ackman.

[bostonman]

Liza might be right for the musical Peter Pan, who who would play Captain Hook?

 

I'd be scared for Liza doing all that flying, lol. But I think Liza could be Captain Hook lol. ?

[samhexum]

I'd be scared for Liza doing all that flying, lol. But I think Liza could be Captain Hook lol. ?

 

On the other hand, Liza might not need a harness and invisible wires to do the flying. ☺?

[handiacefailure]

I role written for Julie Andrews isn't necessarily right for Liza

 

And Julie's husband wrote it. Sort of like Jeckyl and Hyde. I like Deborah Cox as a singer for the genre she is known for but she was awful as Lucy in Jekyl and Hyde. Frank Wildhorn clearly wrote that role for his then wife. Linda Eder was meant to play that part. It's too bad she never returned to broadway, I know she took some time off to be a mother but she is a very talented singer.

 

There are videos of Linda performing Someone Like you and a new life on YouTube. Would ahve loved to have seen the show with her in it on Broadway.

[+ WilliamM]

On the other hand, Liza might not need a harness and invisible wires to do the flying. ☺?

But Ethel Merman would need help flying, although she actually was a tiny woman.

[handiacefailure]

One I thought of that was AWFUL and we almost left at intermission was Nunsense 2. A friend of mine loved Dody Goodman and Dawn Wells and wanted to see it since they were starting in it in Detroit. I have been to some bad shows but wanted to leave at intermission and dozed off in the second act.

 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Naked Boys Singing on here. Nice eye candy but no real story line and no good songs except the opening song.

[samhexum]

One I thought of that was AWFUL and we almost left at intermission was Nunsense 2. A friend of mine loved Dody Goodman and Dawn Wells and wanted to see it since they were starting in it in Detroit.

 

That's almost as bad as me seeing Shaun Cassidy and Jerry Hall in Bus Stop in London. But at least I was in London, not Detroit.

[bostonman]

One I thought of that was AWFUL and we almost left at intermission was Nunsense 2. A friend of mine loved Dody Goodman and Dawn Wells and wanted to see it since they were starting in it in Detroit. I have been to some bad shows but wanted to leave at intermission and dozed off in the second act.

 

As you may know, there are a whole series of Nunsense sequels now, each one worse than the one before. Writer Dan Goggin (music/lyrics/book), who was never a truly great songwriter to begin with, just squeezes thinner and thinner stuff for each new show - songs, weirder and weirder concepts, and the same old same old Catholic jokes. It's painful.

 

I can say this especially because I've done some of them. I took over as music director for the last 3 years of the long Boston run of the original Nunsense - and that was a lot of fun (and also a really valuable experience for me as I was starting to "cut my teeth" as a young professional music director in Boston). A year into that gig, Goggin has just written Nunsense II (The Second Coming) - and was eager for our company to do the area premiere. We wound up doing both shows in rep, which was craziness, because both shows had an identical structure (essentially all of the sequels do) and it could be tough to keep the various materials straight. (Weekends were uniquely challenging, as we did the 2 shows chronologically on Saturdays, but then backwards on Sundays.) At the time it was hard to judge whether Nun 2 was bad or just too unfamiliar, but all we knew was that when we reached that 2nd Sunday show and were back "home" to end the week, it felt really good, lol. (And then many weeks, exhausted as we were, we went to a favorite haunt, the Border Cafe in Harvard Square, and had margaritas and mexican food and had a blast, lol. A great way to end the performance week.)

 

Then we closed. But it wasn't long after that when I got a call from the producer as to whether I'd like to play keyboards for an upcoming run of Nunsense 3. This was the "country" version - Sister Amnesia's Country Nunsense Jamboree. I wasn't dying to do it from an artistic standpoint, but it was a new show, the pay was good, and one of my former Nunsense colleagues was playing Amnesia - plus Goggin (who I had met briefly but not really ever worked with) was directing, and the original Nunsense musical director from NYC would be leading the band - so hey,. why not?

 

I'll spare the details of the experience (it was a gig, nothing more than that, unfortunately), except to say that the show didn't sell well at all to Boston audiences. It was supposed to be a 6-week run with a possible/probable extension. We weren't going to be able to make it that far. Though I didn't have a great time working for Goggin, I have to say I do thank him immensely for the gesture he made - he wound up putting up enough of his own money into the production so that we could at least play out the 6 weeks and get paid what we had been promised. Thank you for that, Danny.

 

Later on, a local regional theatre produced Nunsense 4 (Nuncrackers, the Christmas version) which I saw (but turned down the chance to do when I heard the CD), and I did wind up playing for their later production of Meshuggah-Nuns (that's either the 5th or 6th show - can't remember - it's the nuns on a sinking cruise ship with the members of a cruise company of Fiddler, with both Jewish and Poseidon Adventure jokes included) - and only because the friend who was musical director really needed a reliable sub, lol.

 

To be honest, if I ever got the chance to do another production of the original show, I think I would - it's not the greatest material in the world, but it's fun, and it feels like Shakespeare compared to the other shows, lol. But those sequels again - no thanks... o_Oo_Oo_Oo_O

Edited February 6, 2021 by bostonman

[MaybeMaybeNot]

A wonderful colleague that I team teach with admitted today that First Date was among the worst shows he has seen on Broadway. (This in conjunction with one of our students who is working on a song from it, lol.) Anyone care to comment on that show? I never saw it, but I feel the score is ok, but not particularly outstanding.

I thought it was plenty of fun. Zachary Levi gave an amazing performance.

[OCClient]

Saw a musical in San Diego years ago starring and produced by one of the big names from the British invasion. All I remember was a scene where Shirley McClaine materialized, arriving on a large sleigh. Back then she was thought of as "out there," so the scene was funny. Wasn't really her, just looked like her. Anyway the show was forgettable. I can't find any record of it on the interwebs. Bless his heart he tried, but one could almost see the look in his eyes, putting a brave face on a painfully mediocre show.