BROADWAY SECRETS: Wherein we confess our controversial opinions- Page 23

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 11/15/15 at 4:20pm

 

I find the music in Les Miserables so repetitive and boring. It sounds like the National Anthem stretched to two and a half hours. There is no cohesion thematically or lyrically why certain musical motifs keep coming back.

Avenue Q should be a one act show. First act was so funny, but with another act the novelty wore off.

Last Five Years is a more enjoyable listen as an album than watching it in any iteration. As is Hair.

Light in the Piazza is truly overrated.

Cabaret has too many songs.

People's opinions on A Little Night Music should not be weighed at all against that horribly directed, staged, orchestrated, set designed and acted recent revival

 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 11/15/15 at 4:47pm

rattleNwoolypenguin said: "Last Five Years is a more enjoyable listen as an album than watching it in any iteration."

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 11/15/15 at 5:22pm

Strong disagree on Lea Salonga. Her albums/concerts are also fabulous and I saw her in Cinderella and she did not disappoint.

 

"How does Sierra Bogess get work??? She is dull as dishwater. I'd rather watch paint dry or bank surveillance video than watch her cooch in anything. She must have some good dirt (pictures/goats/use your imagination)  on someone to keep getting roles. And originating them at that!!!!"

 

She seems like a very nice and charming person from her vlogs. I assume she's fun to work with. I didn't like the way she sounded at all on TLM album and unfortunately the one time I've heard her sing live, I think she was sick. So I'm reserving judgment.

 

I enjoyed Hair in the theatre but it's a really great album.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 11/15/15 at 8:55pm

I find Sutton Foster's singing in "Anything Goes" quite irritating. 

[ChildofEarth]

Posted: 11/15/15 at 9:00pm

I wasn't particularly moved by the most recent revival of Spring Awakening. I think the original was more cohesive and conveyed the story better.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/15/15 at 9:11pm

Auggie27 said:

Every single thing Tom Stoppard ever wrote, a couple of scenes in "The Real Thing" aside, bores the bejesus outta me. Few plays are as insufferable, on the page or stage, as "Arcadia."  The single longest night in the theater, ever.  Waterboarding? Nothing compared to 20 minutes of "Arcadia."

"Equus" is brilliantly written, riveting theater, and a lot of hooey. For all its agonizing, not really about a damned thing. 

Goldman's original (circa Winter Garden) book for "Follies" is smart, sharp and wonderful, the most unfairly maligned script in the history of musical theater.

I hated "Our Town" until I was middle aged; I now think it's one of the most perfect works of art ever conceived.

Landford Wilson won the Pulitzer for the wrong play. And on that subject: the fact that Annie Baker has a Pulitzer and John Guare does not makes me effing crazy.  

"

I pretty much agree with all of Auggie's points, although I do love some Stoppard (including Arcadia and I have a soft spot for Rosencrantz but that may be due to being in a production that I loved doing.)  I actually prefer his screenwriting work (even that bizarre recent Anna Karenina or tv work like Parade's End) and adaptations...

Fifth of July absolutely should have won the Pulitzer--I imagine Landford's prize for its prequel was partly an acknowledgement of that fact.

Is it still controversial to anyone but "Widow Goldman" that the original libretto of Follies is great?  I know for decades the show had the reputation that it suffered from a poor book, but...

Equus is thrilling and yes *utter* hooey.  I wonder if even Shaffer believed what he was selling, but boy does it work if you don't overthink it (or even slightly think about some of the psych stuff.)

Maybe I'm not old enough--I still find Our Town dull, though I do like Skin of Our Teeth.

And yes, I have no idea how Anne Frank won the Pulitzer!  To me, it feels like a number of decidedly mediocre literary (well in this case not really literary, but) adaptations from the mid century done for the stage.  What amazes me is Goodrich and Hackett's other works, at least their movie works are charming (well It's a Wonderful World is not a fave either,) and nearly all of them are so completely different than Anne Frank--The Thin Man, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Father of the Bride, etc...

 

[BobBenson]

Posted: 11/15/15 at 11:58pm

VintageSnarker said: "Strong disagree on Lea Salonga. Her albums/concerts are also fabulous and I saw her in Cinderella and she did not disappoint.

 

 

 

"How does Sierra Bogess get work??? She is dull as dishwater. I'd rather watch paint dry or bank surveillance video than watch her cooch in anything. She must have some good dirt (pictures/goats/use your imagination)  on someone to keep getting roles. And originating them at that!!!!"

 

 

 

She seems like a very nice and charming person from her vlogs. I assume she's fun to work with. I didn't like the way she sounded at all on TLM album and unfortunately the one time I've heard her sing live, I think she was sick. So I'm reserving judgment.

 

 

 

I enjoyed Hair in the theatre but it's a really great album.

 

"

 

 

Dude. Dude! You didn't like the way she sounded on THE LITTLE MERMAID album and the only time you heard her live, she made your ears bleed. You're just proving my point, bro. She needs to go. I hear there's a shift she can pick up at the Bakersfield, California Pottery Barn. Has her name all over it!

 

[peapod41]

Posted: 11/16/15 at 3:02pm

I think Gwen Verdon was a great dancer but her speaking voice gets on my nerves. 

I don't understand the point of  Wicked or why it is so popular.

Chita Rivera is my favorite performer. Her talent is unsurpassed.

Ethel Merman belted and screeched out her songs. I don't call what she did singing.

[Petralicious]

Posted: 11/16/15 at 3:11pm

I do not understand the Smash, Glee, Nashville, Empire hate. They are so much fun and the closest thing to real theater, music that we have and we should cherish them. 

 

Are they 100% accurate? Probably not, but nether are shows about Police, Firemen, Doctors and Zombies.  

Updated On: 11/16/15 at 03:11 PM

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 11/16/15 at 11:46pm

The Book of Mormon is trash, not only in music and lyrics but subject matter, sense of humor, and any kind of support for an overblown and damaging cult full of the exact kind of people who want to see people like me dead.

[rcwr]

Posted: 11/16/15 at 11:49pm

any kind of support for an overblown and damaging cult 

 

I AGREE. I've seen people upset that it mocks Mormonism and people glad that it mocks Mormonism. But I've always felt that it doesn't mock Mormonism except warmly. 

[c0113g3b0y]

Posted: 11/17/15 at 1:05am

Charley Kringas Inc said: "The Book of Mormon is trash, not only in music and lyrics but subject matter, sense of humor, and any kind of support for an overblown and damaging cult full of the exact kind of people who want to see people like me dead.

 

"

you sound as pressed as a freshly ironed shirt, tbh

[strawberry]

Posted: 11/17/15 at 1:41am

Lion King was okay when I saw it in 2005, and haven't seen it since; probably won't again.

I enjoyed Amazing Grace, and wanted to see it again the next time I visited New York City.  It was touching and I cried at all the right place.  I think it left out the religious references except for when they sang the titel song.

I don't have a desire to see Book of Mormon.

I passed on getting a photo with Aaron Tveit or getting his autograph when I saw him Wicked.  (Okay, I regret this one.) 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 11/17/15 at 1:55am

c0113g3b0y said: "Charley Kringas Inc said: "The Book of Mormon is trash, not only in music and lyrics but subject matter, sense of humor, and any kind of support for an overblown and damaging cult full of the exact kind of people who want to see people like me dead.

 

 

 

"

 

you sound as pressed as a freshly ironed shirt, tbh

 

"

lmao

[skies]

Posted: 11/17/15 at 1:59am

"Hello Dolly" has an incredibly boring book and most of the music is pedestrian.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 11/17/15 at 12:23pm

I think it [Amazing Grace] left out the religious references except for when they sang the title song.

  

Well, the entire point seems to be that when the protagonist was a nonbeliever, he was an evil slave-trader, but when he found Jesus, he became a holy abolitionist. In other words, the whole plot is a religious reference. It's not a huge leap to see the show as one big (and very offensive) argument that religious people are just better than nonreligious people.

  

Also, historically, this is a load of baloney, since John Newton continued to sell human beings long after he accepted Christ into his life.

  

[Edited because, apparently, what you see is not what you get!]

Updated On: 11/17/15 at 12:23 PM

[SuperSecretBoyband]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 5:47am

I saw Gypsy in London with Imelda Staunton and while I enjoyed I didn't really get the hype. Why are we supposed to be happy at the end when Louise invites Rose to the party? She was just an overly pushy stage mother.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 8:50am

(Does this thread remind anyone else of "In and Out," the still charming Kevin Kline starrer, in which late in the film a group of matrons confess secrets. "I hated 'The Bridges of Madison County,' 'My husband has three testicles!" 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 2:17pm

I think I already said this one, but BOOK OF MORMON should be a one act, and so should GENT's GUIDE. Both would be far better shorter and with no break in the action.

[harrisbenjaminco]

Posted: 11/23/15 at 5:56pm

I am kind of falling in love with Carrie the musical and I think the duets between Carrie and her mom are bad ass.

[MoDance0934]

Posted: 11/23/15 at 8:21pm

I know everyone is a fan of Sierra Boggess... I too love her voice and talent, but her personality just seems fake...

Hunchback of Notre Dame at La Jolla and the Paper Mill - By far the best production in Regional Theatre. I'm pissed that it's not going to Broadway because I think it would've been a box office hit.

 

[VonTrappFamilySinger]

Posted: 12/25/15 at 12:20am

I was not that moved by Gentlemen's Guide, and I have yet to hear someone else feel the same. 

I also didn't like The Producers. I guess I'm odd for not finding Nazis funny??

I think Something Rotten is the funniest show I've seen.

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 12/26/15 at 1:40am

VonTrappFamilySinger, I agree with you that "Something Rotten" is hilarious. I'm not sure that our opinion is controversial.

My controversial opinion is that "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" is confusing and boring.

[hork]

Posted: 12/26/15 at 2:41am

Is anyone "moved" by Gentleman's Guide? It's a comedy, after all.

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 12/26/15 at 4:29am

Mr. Nowack, I don't think Book of Mormon would work as a one-act show because some of the songs would probably have to be cut.

 

My controversial opinion about BoM is that Hasa Diga, Eebowai should probably be translated as "Screw You, God" because "F-- You God" gets even liberal folks worried about a lightning strike inside the theater.

 

Audrey Liebross