Wrong creative team- Page 2
Wrong creative team
#25Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/4/16 at 6:14pm
An adaptation of the ADDAMS FAMILY film with a Marc Shaiman score would have been sublime! That is among my 5 worst experiences at a Broadway show.
I disagree about SECRET GARDEN...I think it is PERFECT! Among my top 5 Best Broadway experiences. And the idea of a Lippa RAGTIME gives me a shudder up the spine. So glad that Flaherty & Ahrons created that piece.
For me, the score to WOMEN ON THE VERGE is among the best of the past decade, but I think that the team that put it on stage is mostly to blame for it not working. I love Sher, Zuber, Yeargan, and Gatteli were not the wacky production team that the piece needed.
broadwayguy91
Broadway Star Joined: 12/23/15
JennH
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/14/13
#27Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 11:10am
Frozen as a whole...I've said for a while Menken should have done the music liked originally planned (still wondering what happened with that surprise change that no one knew about). It should have been a Menken/Schwartz collaboration or all Schwartz if they truly wanted the Wicked vibe to come through. It's there but fails.
#28Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 11:11am
I agree with several previous posts. "The Little Mermaid" was woefully mishandled. How does Disney decide on creative?? "TLM" could have been as good as or better than "Aladdin" or "Beauty And The Beast". I've never left the theater feeling so bad for the actors as when we saw "TLM". That cast was stellar and totally wasted. Everyone has their own opinions and it's great when shows like "Tarzan" or "Hunchback" get an extended life, (along with actors, dancers and singers getting work!). I don't know what's happening with "Frozen" ; let's hope they don't muck that up.
I Can Has Cheezburger With This?
JennH
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/14/13
#29Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 11:36am
Steve C. said: "I agree with several previous posts. "The Little Mermaid" was woefully mishandled. How does Disney decide on creative?? "TLM" could have been as good as or better than "Aladdin" or "Beauty And The Beast". I've never left the theater feeling so bad for the actors as when we saw "TLM". That cast was stellar and totally wasted. Everyone has their own opinions and it's great when shows like "Tarzan" or "Hunchback" get an extended life, (along with actors, dancers and singers getting work!). I don't know what's happening with "Frozen" ; let's hope they don't muck that up.
Problem is Aladdin, Hunchback, and Tarzan were also woefully misguided/mishandled. Tarzan is not stage material to begin with, it should never have happened, every song feels like it doesn't belong. LM...coudl have worked, but I think it's just too damn hard to do so in any conception. Aladdin...more stage worthy than most, but just needed a little creativity but it falls flat and relies way too much on it's comedy. Hunchback...THERE is the movie that SCREAMED 'stage' more than any other, like LK it has such a grandiose, epic, sweeping feel to it. And it fails. It was trying to be something it wasn't. Among it's many other problems.
I've said my thoughts of Frozen elsewhere. It can work, but NEEDS retooling. A LOT of it. It doesn't help Disney doesn't have the guts like they used to in the 90's. Some of those would NEVER be made today.
"
#30Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 12:02pm
Hi JennH, (very good call)
You are right on so many things. I truly think that "Aladdin"'s success is due mainly to Casey Nicholaw. Getting a good/great director that's not afraid to get her or his hands dirty is well, what Broadway Legends are about. I also think you're right about Di$ney being way too frugal, especially when you have a show like "Frozen" with so much potential. 
I Can Has Cheezburger With This?
JennH
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/14/13
#31Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 12:15pm
Steve C. said: "Hi JennH, (very good call)
You are right on so many things. I truly think that "Aladdin"'s success is due mainly to Casey Nicholaw. Getting a good/great director that's not afraid to get her or his hands dirty is well, what Broadway Legends are about. I also think you're right about Di$ney being way too frugal, especially when you have a show like "Frozen" with so much potential.
Exactly. Frozen on the whole, still has so much amazing untapped potential that the movie didn't realize, that the stage musical still can. For that to be realized, it's needs rewriting, reworking, etc. I don't care how children or layman frozen lovers will complain about how their favorite scene or line. I get it's engrained in their brains, but honestly...the script is waaayyy to awkward and modern and the the story's structure is jaunty and jarring, more episodic than linear and I think it's needs to be more linear. hence it's need for reworking. I don't care if scenes are reworked/changed and some of the stupider lines cut. I don't care that's it's ingrained in peoples brains. It's less than stellar writing and needs to be changed, I'd rather it be changed and GOOD, than not changed and not good. Because if the DCA production is any indication of not being able to just throw Frozen on stage, than yeah if bluntly necessary changes aren't made, it WILL be bad, and become nothing but a tourist trap show. At least B and the b and LK are good, well written, well flowing shows. They still are Disney's best stage musicals.
Disney stories are earnest and beautifully honest, which Aladdin on stage is not. Comedy is fine, but it just relies too much on it. The whole lovely 'discovering you self worth' theme the movie has is all but gone, same with Hunchback. Because they wanted to go back to the book, which the movie overall is not, it didn't work. It had an identity crisis. They were trying to meld the book and movie, hence identity crisis. The TIMELESS theme Hunchback has is COMPLETELY gone in the musical. Which killed any compelling feeling I could have had.
#32Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 3:18pm
I listen to Grey Gardens practically every week, but I often dream of a Sonhdeim adaptation.
#33Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 3:34pm
TotallyEffed said: "I listen to Grey Gardens practically every week, but I often dream of a Sonhdeim adaptation.
"
Interesting and I certainly see what you mean. Everybody here seems to rave about "Another Winter in a Summer Town", but other than having one of the greatest hooks of all time, I don't see how the song has much content. (And I certainly understand the sentiment, coming from Ft. Lauderdale and having retired to Palm Springs, though my experience is the opposite: too many summers in winter towns. LOL.)
Alex Kulak
Swing Joined: 8/4/16
#34Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 4:07pm
Andrew Lloyd Webber writing the music for Aspects of Love. I think I'd appreciate it more if I couldn't count all the show's melodies on one hand.
#35Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 4:56pm
Sunset Boulevard
Big Fish
Spider-Man
All could have been great on stage.
#36Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 5:57pm
GavestonPS said: "TotallyEffed said: "I listen to Grey Gardens practically every week, but I often dream of a Sonhdeim adaptation.
"
Interesting and I certainly see what you mean. Everybody here seems to rave about "Another Winter in a Summer Town", but other than having one of the greatest hooks of all time, I don't see how the song has much content. (And I certainly understand the sentiment, coming from Ft. Lauderdale and having retired to Palm Springs, though my experience is the opposite: too many summers in winter towns. LOL.)
"
I think that song is one of the greatest songs ever written for musical theatre. It's filled with meaning.
#37Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 6:56pm
icecreambenjamin said: "...I think that song is one of the greatest songs ever written for musical theatre. It's filled with meaning.
"
Oh, yes, I see now that you are correct!
But, seriously, a claim is more convincing when it is accompanied by supporting arguments.
#38Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 8:15pm
^I'm not trying to make a claim. Just expressing my opinion.
#39Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/5/16 at 10:40pm
I admit you could argue that "Another Winter" does not really progress; it has one theme throughout, and the real turn comes after the song. But I do think it is an articulate, beautiful song about something deeply felt and real. Doesn't have to be for everyone.
#40Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/24/16 at 10:21pm
JennH wrote: "[I]f the DCA [Disney California Adventure] production is any indication of not being able to just throw Frozen on stage, than yeah if bluntly necessary changes aren't made, it WILL be bad, and become nothing but a tourist trap show."
Jenn, I just saw "Frozen" at DCA yesterday, and I think Disney did a fabulous job with the projections and staging. The dancing and singing, IMO, are Broadway quality, and I loved the puppets. A team with Broadway experience put the production together, and I think it works. The only things that I really thought didn't work were the stage versions of some of the film's iconic moments (specifically, Anna's peering through the keyhole and doing the tick-tock clock thing with her tongue). These don't work because the camera can emphasize them, but the stage can't.
A 45-minute show can't give the characters the depth a Broadway musical can. I feel that the stage production caters more to adults than the movie did, especially in terms of showing the sisters' grief over their parents' deaths. I would round out the characters even more, such as by making the king and queen worried about what the subjects would say if word of Elsa's magic leaked out, and writing a song to express that worry, perhaps about why they don't trust the press. I'd also suggest having Elsa know something about Hans's lack of character, and having her warn Anna, but having Hans convince Anna to trust him instead of Elsa. Additionally, I would have Hans kiss Anna, and have her ask him (in song) why the kiss didn't heal her. Finally, I think the non-human characters (Olaf and Sven) should have a song together, perhaps about how to help the clueless humans.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised that Disney decided to mount a more serious, adult production than "Aladdin" was. "Aladdin" was fun, but "Frozen," IMO, is real theatre.
Audrey
Audrey, the Phantom Phanatic, who nonetheless would rather be Jean Valjean, who knew how to make lemonade out of lemons.
#41Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/25/16 at 11:03am
I would have loved a Marc Shaiman SISTER ACT. Having adapted the music for the film, he would have done such a great job crafting new songs in that style. I typically love Alan Menken, but that just score did not do it for me.
"I shall stay until the wind changes."
#42Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/25/16 at 11:40am
The Addams Family musical was a colossal letdown in its score and book. Particularly egregious as there were not one but two high-quality movies- with distinct and memorable music!- from which inspiration could've been drawn.
Instead they chose to swipe tropes from You Can't Take it With You and La Cage aux Folles and stick it with another generic Lippa score. It ended up losing everything that makes The Addams Family unique and beloved.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
carolinaguy
Broadway Star Joined: 10/13/06
#43Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/25/16 at 12:43pm
Rodgers and Hammerstein were the wrong team to adapt John Steinbeck. They turned Sweet Thursday into Pipe Dream, but were obviously uncomfortable with the grittier characters and aspects of the material. It might have been much better had Frank Loesser, the original choice, written it. But even so, in the mid-'50s a serious show featuring a prostitute as a main character was probably going to be challenged.
Just remembering you've had an "and"
When you're back to "or"
Makes the "or" mean more than it did before
Broadway Star Joined: 12/31/69
#44Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/25/16 at 1:10pm
CHESS.... I really wish we could have seen what Michael Bennett would have done with it before he had to bow out. Trevor Nunn's London version, while fine could have used some help. And don't get me started on the atrocious Broadway version (that awful drab set and costumes - too much gray)....ugh
Updated On: 8/25/16 at 01:10 PM
finebydesign
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/17/07
#45Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/25/16 at 2:38pm
Elton John's music for Lestat is pretty awesome, but the show needed a better book, lyrics and director.
SamIAm
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/04
#46Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/25/16 at 4:14pm
ADDAMS FAMILY. By the time they brought in Zaks as a show doctor it was too late to make the changes that would have really improved the show.
"Life is a lesson in humility"
#47Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/25/16 at 7:05pm
The entire production team for Love Never Dies managed to unlearn the exemplary lessons of Prince's team on the original show.
AEA AGMA SM
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
#48Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/25/16 at 10:35pm
I don't think there is any creative team that could have made Love Never Dies truly work. The lesson they should have learned from Prince and his team and their work on the original was that there was absolutely no reason to revisit these characters.
#49Wrong creative team
Posted: 8/26/16 at 3:28am
Indeed. Sadly, the lesson they tried to learn was that a global long-runner is an unmatchable pension fund. (Nick Hytner calls his gorgeous country house Ho Chi Minh City because it was paid for by 'Miss Saigon'.
