Good shows with unusual/bad staging

[dramarama2]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 7:46am

Ok, I love the Last 5 Years. It is a really great score and Norbet and Rene Scott were both fantastic, but looking at videos (the entire show is on the Tubes of You), the staging just seems really bizarre to me. The set, for one, reminds me somehow of Roman ruins, and seeing as how this is an intimate 2 person show, why would anyone think a complex turntable system was required when it's only used to make characters look like they're walking or to bring on ridiculous looking set pieces? (Most of 'A Part of That' is delivered from Cathy - who's sitting on a massive pile of books?)
Maybe I just don't get the whole concept but, the elements of JRB's songs and Prince's staging don't match up. This show has always seemed intimate to me, but the way the songs are delivered with little movement but a ridiculously large and unnecessary set just kind of ruins it for me.

Any other examples of a show with good writing? But badly executed, or hindered by unusual/bad staging.

Updated On: 9/2/09 at 07:46 AM

[Mark_E]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 8:27am

I reay enjoyed Rock of Ages when I saw it (ok that doesn't make it a "good" show) and the one thing it had was terrible direction. There are a hell of alot of partial view scenes in that show because alot takes place in the two back corners of the stage.

[saveusmike]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 11:00am

The show wasnt that good, but the set was even worse.
Mamma Mia!

Flipping that one piece around every scene doesnt make it feel like they actually are in a diffrent place.

Posted: 9/2/09 at 11:12am

Last 5 Years was great top to bottom.

I think Titanic's physical production was weak- The score would be great in concert (and is on CD) but the production never quite worked visually.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 11:23am

The Wiz at Encores!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 11:31am

Stoppard's ROCK AND ROLL was hands down the worst piece of stage direction I've seen in years. Just as the play started to get going, as some type of interest or energy was being generated, the scene would come to an end, loud rock music would start playing and a black curtain would descend on which was projected information about the song, the band and the studio in which the song had been recorded, none of which was even remotely relevant to the play. Then the curtain would go up, and there would have been only minimal adjustments to the turntable, and all of the interest and energy of the previous scene was totally GONE.

Torture. The Trevor Nunn way. A 90 minute play dragged out for three solid hours. Unforgoddamngiveable.

Updated On: 9/2/09 at 11:31 AM

[HollyGolightly2]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 12:12pm

Sweeney Todd 2005 revival. Not bad, just... Unique. I personally didn't care for it.

[winston89]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 12:52pm

Roscoe, if that's all you got out of Rock and Roll then I think you missed the point dude.

I just wanted to add that if you look at the play itself. It is in the script that they play the given songs the way they did and show the info about them.

Updated On: 9/2/09 at 12:52 PM

[morosco]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 1:40pm

SIDE SHOW (a show I liked very much) had an awful set.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 2:16pm

Rent.

Posted: 9/2/09 at 2:19pm

Sweeney Todd was absolutely horrible- why do you choose to direct a show in a way that bewilders and befuddles an audience? If a beginning directing student had staged that for a grade they would have been urged to seek a different career.

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 3:23pm

I strongly disagree about ReNt. I think the staging was one of the strongest elements of the production along with the score.

[dshnookie]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 3:23pm

Equus - I didnt care for all that box turning/repositioning. The horse stalls were nice, though.

Also, In The Heights (slightly) running from an open space of the stage, through a door and back on that same open space and it's supposed to be Daniela's Salon, Rosario's dispatch or Usnavi's bodega was a little weak to me.
Updated On: 9/2/09 at 03:23 PM

[Pgenre]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 4:09pm

DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES.

John Rando spent the entire MONTH of previews in Texas attending to his dying mother and John Carraffa more often than not put forth a few steps and told the dancers to "just groove". That's why Crawford took the reigns and directed the show himself, essentially. Steinman was long gone by that point (he didn't even come to opening night).

Those was THE LEAST of the show's problems.

Score is still divine, though.

And the end of Act I had one of the most chilling theatrical moments I have ever seen. Than Mordden agrees, if that means anything.

P

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 4:10pm

told the dancers to "just groove"

Lol, I can't believe I missed this show.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 9:17pm

It was definitely something I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it myself.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 1:04am

Aww, I lovedd DotV and everything about it
It was so campy it was good!

[philly03]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 1:13am

A Tale of Two Cities had a fantastic set, with horrible and copy-cat-esque direction and staging.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 1:13am

My avatar will forever be an effigy to DOTV.

"Her blood is ready, racing wild and free,
Liquid lightning! Let it run!
It's like a choir that's on fire,
In her body,
Exultate, exultate,
It's come,
The time has come."

It's come, indeed!

A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
I'll Show You Yours,
If You Show Me Mine,
P
Updated On: 9/3/09 at 01:13 AM

[heo1128]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 2:54am

As soon as I read the thread title, I immediately thought of Last 5 Years. Couldn't agree more. So unfortunate...the music and premise are fantastic.

WTF was that set supposed to be, anyway?

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 4:15am

John Doyle's staging of the revival of COMPANY was dreadful. As in his SWEENEY TODD, characters who were "conversing" recited their lines to the audience from different parts of the stage. Also, the actor/musicians repeatedly marched in circles while singing and playing...I thought I was at halftime in Giants Stadium. The staging was bland and thoroughly confusing to anyone unfamiliar with the piece.

[ABB2357]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 4:39am

Those frustrated with Doyle's SWEENEY TODD should check out his staging of THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY for the LA Opera (available on DVD). I loved SWEENEY, but MAHAGONNY was a flat, turgid disaster that reeked of pretension. I tried my best to enjoy the score and the fine performances, but Doyle sunk the evening beyond repair.

More recently, I thought Doug Hughes's OLEANNA was a mess, and the play is my favorite of Mamet's. Too many mistakes to get into here, but the actors seemed barely directed at all. It didn't make sense until I saw his terrific production of FARRAGUT NORTH at the Geffen, which made it clear what west coast venue had received the better share of his attention.

[YipHarburg]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 12:22pm

A classic example of this is the original production of the musical version of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.

Underneath the ugly set, laughable costumes and awkward staging was a much better show waiting to be discovered.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 2:38pm

Roscoe - I think you would have enjoyed the Goodman production of Rock and Roll I saw last June. One set, mostly platforms and scaffolding, no blackouts that I can recall, and no projects with song information. It was quick and fluid and I think the show ran about 2 hours 20 minutes. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I left really enjoying the show.

Jekyll and Hyde on Broadway - Awful set and terrible projections reminiscent of a family vacation slide-show. The act one closer was just embarrassing to watch.

All You Need is Love in the West End - A wonderful revue of Beatles tunes with incredible arrangements that was destroyed with the ugliest set design I've ever seen in the West End or Broadway and a useless attempt to stage it in a way that tried to tell some sort of story (which was never conveyed as the device was used intermittently at random). Had they simply ramped up the lighting, used a few multi-level platforms and let the songs speak for themselves, it could have easily been a hit.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 9/3/09 at 11:36pm

Throwing in my support for the bulk of DOTV's score, a lot of which was terrific, and also agreeing with the thread's title; the show was definitely a victim of unusual (and that's being polite) staging.

The show DOTV was based on, Tanz der Vampire, was superior to the Broadway re-working. It had a consistency of tone lacking in the Broadway version, the humor and chills smoothly integrated as in the film on which the musical was based. In its first incarnation, it was a touching and provocative work, and DOTV will forever remain a symbol of the detrimental effect business and politics can have on art.

I agree with Ken Mandelbaum's assessment of the situation: "Would this original version, in a straight translation, have succeeded on Broadway? I doubt it. New York critics long ago turned against this sort of romantic pop opera, if they ever favored it to begin with. But at least the original wasn't the schizophrenic, unplayable mixture of camp and Gothic seriousness...available at the Minskoff."