Badly Titled Shows

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Borstalboy
#25Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/5/10 at 4:32pm

SPIDER MAN--Yay! We know what that is! TURN OFF THE DARK--A bad lyric by The Cure?

GOT TU GO DISCO

ROCKABYE HAMLET (in the tree top?)

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG--Maybe this title sold tickets in the 1930's when everyone was lightheaded from starvation, but not now.

A BROADWAY MUSICAL--And...?

DUDE

THE TAP DANCE KID--An ABC Afterschool Special

BABY--Just makes the imagination reel, no?

GREASE--Ewww!

13

HAIR--"I heard it's even better than NAILS!"


"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali
Updated On: 7/5/10 at 04:32 PM

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Schmerg_The_Impaler
#26Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/5/10 at 7:56pm

Dancin-- Yeah, I kind of have to agree about La Cage. I heard the name when I was younger and thought it was a serious French show. (Then again, I avoided Les Mis during elementary school because I thought that was in French, too, so maybe I'm just really dumb.)


In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy

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Kevn520
#27Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/5/10 at 8:07pm

The Burnt Part Boys

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DottieD'Luscia
#28Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/5/10 at 8:21pm

Do You Turn Somersaults


Hey Dottie! Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany

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GlindatheGood22
#29Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/5/10 at 8:28pm

Caroline, or Change could have stood a better title.


I know you. I know you. I know you.

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Mister Matt
#30Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/6/10 at 12:06pm

Hello Love <- This for a musical based on Miracle on 34th Street?!?! Probably could have been a hit if there had been some connection of the title to the material.


"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

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maggiemar142
#31Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 7/6/10 at 3:56pm

Best Little Whorehouse in Texas- just seems... vulgar.

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Michael Kras
#32Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 3:08am

For me? 'The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism with a Key to the Scriptures'

As brilliant as Tony Kushner is, it's almost like he goes out of his way to be pretentious with his titles.

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mjohnson2
#33Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 3:26am

IRMA LA DOUCE
LYSISTRATA JONES
THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT - THE SMELL OF THE CROWD
HALF PAST WEDNESDAY (seriously though, the word "Rumplestiltsken" was in much larger text than the title, so why not just call it that?)
THE ACT
BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR
THE GIRL WHO CAME TO SUPPER (The Man Who Came to Dinner?)


Anything regarding shows stated by this account is an attempt to convey opinion and not fact.

kp
#34Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 4:44am

singtopher - I am not saying that it isn't a bad title but wondered why you thought it bad for American audiences specifically?

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EricMontreal22
#35Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 5:41am

Raisin!

One example where just using the original title, A Raisin in the Sun and putting : The Musical after would have been preferable.

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Smaxie
#36Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 8:50am

This one always leaps to mind for me.




Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

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Princeton Returns
#37Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 8:58am

Love Never Dies
Stephen Ward
Spiderman Turn Off The Dark (I don't understand why the 'turn off the dark' was needed)

jemjeb2
#38Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 11:11am

I believe that was "Here's Love" (and not hello as in Dolly!) but either way, you're right - no connection to "Miracle on 34th Street"

And in the context of the show, the themes and its symbolism - "Hair" is a great title!

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FloydJoe2
#39Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 11:34am

Bootycandy.

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Mr. Nowack
#40Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 2:40pm

LOVELY LADIES, KIND GENTLEMEN

Seriously??? I know it's a reference to a line in the source material but it's such a clunker.

Also, HOME SWEET HOMER.


Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated

madlibrarian
#41Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 3:02pm

AUNT DAN AND LEMON. Whoever had an aunt named Dan? Who was ever named Lemon?

Green_Flash
#42Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 5:23pm

HANDS ON A HARDBODY

Timmer
#43Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 8:52pm

"ROCKABYE HAMLET (in the tree top?)"

I thought it was With a Dixie Melody.

Timmer
#44Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 8:53pm

Henry, Sweet Henry

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GavestonPS
#45Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 8:59pm

And in the context of the show, the themes and its symbolism - "Hair" is a great title!

True. I wonder if Borstalboy is old enough to remember the 1960s. Hair (the substance as well as the show) was discussed to a degree that seems impossible (and laughable) now.

Tom5
#46Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 9:14pm

Any show with the F-word in it reeks of desperation, or at least reeks of desperation for attention. Some go for the so bad it's good kind i.e., "Urinetown" Some are purposely confusing: (I guess to get your mind working) "August: Osage County". Some are so bad you can't believe it's that bad (Phoenix). Some are incredibly dull: Dividing The Estate". But in fairness some are thankfully and exactly on target i.e., "Kinky Boots"

yfs
#47Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 10:37pm

MY FAIR LADY. We know it so well that we don't stop to ask, what the heck does it mean? I guess it's a cockney pun, sort of, but really...what the heck does it mean?

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Elfuhbuh
#48Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 10:46pm

SONG AND DANCE

I know it was only a musical for the first act, but that just sounds boring.


"Was uns befreit, das muss stärker sein als wir es sind." -Tanz der Vampire

cmorrow
#49Badly Titled Shows
Posted: 8/23/14 at 11:14pm

One of my favorite bad titles is John Guare's drama A FEW STOUT INDIVIDUALS. Sounds like it's set on a fat farm, but it's not. There was also a drama produced at the Coconut Grave Playhouse in Miami several years ago called CRUSH THE INFAMOUS THING. But that's so clumsy, it kind of works -- that is, it makes you wonder what on earth the play is about.