Has anyone seen SCANDALOUS lately...?- Page 2

[egghumor]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 9:03am

AIMEE:

Yeah I was LOST, now I'm FOUND (hallelujah!), let's all hoop and hollah and GIT DOWN!

[egghumor]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 9:12am

Fascinating excerpt from 1992 People magazine profile of KLG:

So while other kids greeted the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, Kathie Lee was busy "doing needlepoint to Streisand," cheerleading, and singing folk songs with her sister at Veterans Administration functions and local coffeehouses. When she was 17, she won Maryland's Junior Miss Pageant and went off to the national contest where her idol, Anita Bryant, was a judge. Kathie Lee was disqualified from the finals (in her usual bubbly way, she'd made friends with a member of the pageant staff, not knowing that it was against the rules even to talk to boys), but after high school she landed a job in Key Biscayne, Fla., working as a nanny to Bryant's four children. Says Gifford, who was later dismayed by some of Bryant's public statements condemning gays: "She was very very good to me."

In 1972, grooming Kathie Lee for a career in Christian entertainment, Bryant arranged for her to attend Oral Roberts University in Tulsa on a full music scholarship. Gifford eventually became one of the minister's World Action Singers, a group Roberts featured on his evangelical TV show. But Kathie Lee never felt entirely comfortable at the university. "They tried to cookie-cutter all of us," she says. "I wanted the diversity of life. God went to the trouble to make us unique. They wanted us to believe the same way, think the same way."

A few credits shy of graduating, Kathie Lee left Oral Roberts, rented an apartment in Tulsa and wrote a spiritual diary about coming of age in the '60s (which was eventually published in 1976 as The Quiet Riot and earned her $10,000). In 1975 Kathie Lee made the big move to Los Angeles and began the struggle to launch a performing career—auditioning for commercials, landing big parts in soap operas and recording gospel albums.

---

and several decades later, Kathie Lee went on to splatter her many gifts across the stage of the Neil Simon theater on Broadway in the form of SCANDALOUS.

[newintown]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 9:33am

broadwayguy2's review is perfect, nothing need be added. Thank God for brainless overarching mediocrities like Kathie Lee - without them we'd have much less to laugh at.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 9:56am

George Hearn just gets trotted around with this look on his face that screams "Yes, I have to say this".


Nothing had me legitimately interested in seeing this disaster until I read this.

It's also the first time I've legit LOL'd in awhile.

So, thank you so much for that, broadwayguy2.

[dexter3]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 10:51am

broadwayguy2, that is one of the most awesomely specific and hilarious reviews I've ever read. Ever.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 10:54am

Oh, I failed to mention that Aimee's mother is a crazy religious zealot who does nothing but pray and serves God, thinks that EVERYTHING - especially Shakespeare is evil, constantly berates her daughter and tells her to pray, calls her wicked and says she'll burn.. Marget White anyone? She even wears a black dress and a wig that look strangely like what Betty Buckley wore in Carrie.

If you get a comp, take it! It's well worth the $27 rush though too, I'd think.

Poor Hearn plays Aimee's father at the top of the show.. poor man is in head to toe denim with a fake beard and essentially gets led around the hand by Candy Buckley (who looks like Betty) or Carolee doing nothing but spouting off the occasional Hallmark card one-liner about loving each other, not fighting with your mother or daughter. It feels like he lost a bet. Then he comes back as a rival preach with a secret - wearing a white blazer, turtleneck and gold chain - NO JOKE, where basically pops onto the stage has a few dastardly lines - and looking for all like a tall, heterosexual Leslie Jordan as Beverly Leslie and then pops back out..

bjh leaves out one of the other gems of lyrical genius. A drunken Irish jig on a ship sailing to Ireland::

"Come on sweet lassie / Now show me your assie / Then pour me a Guiness / we'll get down to bi'niz / Ya sweet little lassie from Cork."

YES, she rhymes "GUINESS" and "bi'niz". I think I slipped out of my seat for THAT one.

The Adam and Eve sermon has poor Ed Watts in a speedo as Adam and a lisping, gay snake telling them to eat the fruit.. let's not even get into the Moses Sermon that involves Roz Ryan as Moses, ensemble members throwing around the stuffed "F3ck Frogs" from the Book or Mormon merchandise stand and a Pharaoh with a love of puns.

Aimee's 'I want' song is quite literally titled "Why Can't I?"


We could go on for DAYS. Do not miss this disaster. I can tell you without a doubt in my mind that bootlegs will be a hot item in the future and you will have "I was there" stories for years.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 11:05am

newintown,
Thanks.. but I think in this case, one can never add too much.

dexter,
Thank you.. it's hard to be vague and make general sweeping statements on this one.. ever piece just begs mention and discission.

mysteriousgrowl,
Hope it was a good LOL... now see this mess yourself!

NotYourMemories,
??

[newintown]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 11:26am

Keep going, broadwayguy, keep going! Everything you say is right on.

I'm glad I saw this massive turkey, but there are looooong stretches that are boring-bad, rather than funny-bad. There isn't one effective moment that I can recall. Poor Carmello is working like a horse (and probably damaging her voice) to (unsuccessfully) kick some life into this thing.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 11:42am

Carolee is just screaming "I'm working like a dog here, just throw me a bone". I think the awfulness works to her favor in a bizarre way because you pity her and desperately root for her. Not for Aimee, mind you. But for Carolee.

Can you even remember the outcome of the trial? It blurs together. The "11 o'clock ballad of banal lyrics and big belts" blends into a judge riding in on a set piece that can only be described as a rummage pile remnant of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and all of a sudden, the full company is on stage, standing around delivering a spoken-word montage of criticism and praise of Aimee and then giving us a "where are they now" of the organizations she started. End of show.

I think part of my theatrical soul died when Carolee started stomping around in mourning and trying to tear up a Bible that JUST wouldn't rip as Candy Buckley stood there - just waiting to scream "And Eve was WEAK!"

yes, there were stretches.. that's part of how I was able to scribble down a few lyrics.. which I promptly started to text message to my boyfriend at intermission, while he was still stuck at work and missing the fun.

[NotYourMemories]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 11:47am

broadwayboy2, your review was fabulous. My only concern is that you didn't mention that she has a "feckin' great assie".

This all does make me wonder how Stephen Sondheim would do as a perky morning television host.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 11:50am

Ha!
Well, I mentioned that lyric in a follow up post because I was trying to squeeze everything else into the first.
Yeah... the lyrics just scream a faux-Sondheim quality. They want to be so smart and clever and just are NOT.

[newintown]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 11:52am

I don't think they ever resolved the trial. Which is just one aspect of the show's most fatal flaw - the Church Producers and Born-Again-KLG are afraid to take any position at all on Aimee's undeniably faked kidnapping. They tiptoe around the most important event of her life without taking any position on it at all. It isn't as though they were artfully advocating an ambiguous point-of-view; they are clearly terrified to make the Goddess-Who-Founded-Their-Church look bad.

Which is a shame - a nutty, fascinating monster like Aimee Semple McPherson could have been the subject of a good show.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 1:26pm

Broadwayguy - thank you for one of the most beautiful, thorough, and hilarious reviews I have read in my life!

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 1:46pm

newintown,
So VERY true. There is no point of view, no purpose, no continuity. You can see the remnants of the original framing device - the narration during the first 30 minutes of the show - but they abandon it. The focus on this trial. The (rather comedic) worry and hope during the search, the trial (depicted in song) and even the scheming to influence the outcome of the trial, but the verdict is a throw away.
To be sure, Aimee's life is absolutely rich with events that could make for juicy dramatization. There was no need to focus on the kidnapping as (what they wanted to be and failed to make) the emotional center of the show.. let alone that for every devious, disgusting and diabolical things that Aimee does, they go out of their way ten-fold to redeem her - and always with a trite "but look, she is a Christian, so it's okay" attitude.
KLG loves to say that it's a secular show about a religious figure. How?!? A secular look at her - I a sympathetic light as a protagonist - would show her to be a woman of ambition who didn't want to be limited by the expected role of women, who loved her children, etc etc... and yes, the children. EVERY SCENE after she gives birth mentions those damned children, but where the hell were they?!? Her daughter even plays a significant role in the end of the show where that pregnant girl turns up at the Temple and all they do is talk about her like some mysterious Phantom. ESPECIALLY with all the harping about not wanting to be like HER mother, why do we not see how SHE was as a mother??

phreak, you are very welcome.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 1:47pm

Jeez, I GOTTA see this NOW!

After reading that incredible review, I want it to go back the old title Hurricane Aimee!!!!!!!!!

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 2:02pm

Do it!

It's really funny thinking about the changes in title after seeing it. I'm not sure why they would have titled it "Hurricane Aimee" to start. "Saving Aimee" seems pretty appropriate based on the action of the Mother and Emma Jo (Roz Ryan) in the latter part of act two. "Scandalous" sums up her life, yes, but it seems rather like a gimmick.. especially, as I said, how they shoehorn that word in at every opportunity and after the first few, it becomes a joke. A wink and a nod. The makings of a drinking game.

Just bad, bad, bad. Anyone who has a fascination with flops will find much fodder on stage at the Neil Simon.

[jimmit]

Posted: 10/26/12 at 3:01pm

I should have realized that one of many reasons this show is so bad is that Aimee's church (which still exists) is a producer.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 2:17pm

I *do* feel that there should be a catalogued list of the hysterical quotes from this show... My friends and I have had a constant joke of looking at one another and just saying "She died of an overdoe"

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 3:18pm

Shows like this make me wish an updated version of Not Since Carrie would be published.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 3:30pm

Great (and very funny) review

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/27/12 at 4:56pm

In all honesty, the thing I found most infuriating was Kathie Lee in the audience.
All visible creative team members were in seats or in the rear of the house with pad and paper in hand, taking furious notes, talking in a corner at intermission, etc.
Ms. Gifford, on the other hand, came dressed for a social occasion, with a cute clutch purse, not a pad or a pencil anywhere in sight and not only before the show, but during the entire intermission, she was holding royal court in the theatre. No, she wasn't being bombarded by fans. I honestly didn't see anyone - fans included - approach her, but you better believe she was working the crowd and aisles like a runway, walking up to people to start concersations, dig for compliments and then move to the next. She is credited with the book, the lyrics AND additional music. Most of the abhorant writing is HER doing and she is the only creative team member who seemd to just not care about the show itself.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 12:03am

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that the set suggests the show takes place in Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

[Movidude742]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 12:14am

Hearn is so unrecognizable as Aimee's father that he got entrance applause when he first enters as Brother Bob . . .

[egghumor]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 12:44am

I wonder which response Mr. Hearn prefers? Perhaps he likes going unnoticed as long as possible.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/28/12 at 2:34am

jnb,
YES! Yes, it does... I knew it was telling me something! I even looked up Angeles Temple on-line and the set didn't recall it at all..

Moviedude,
I laughed at that when it happened...

egghumor,
So very true. Poor Hearn.. he tries so hard and you can just see him rolling his eyes when the lights go out on him on stage. Standing out front and talking after the show, you could see MAYBE 5 people at the stage door who weren't clearly waiting for friends in the company. Poor George Hearn sneaks out with his head low and looked INCREDIBLY mortified when he was recognized.. but once he realizes that the few people waiting for him wanted to discuss Sweeney Todd and La Cage and ignored what they had just seen him do, he very visibly perked right up. Poor, poor man.