Haha, Taz, that's a great pull-out quote! I have to say there's no way in hell that THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE was worse than BABY, IT'S YOU! which was just appalling in every way possible and embarrassing for everyone involved, I still laugh when I look at the Song List on the Playbill for Act II (there's like 30 songs!). THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE--which I saw on the same weekend--was too bland and inoffensive to be the worst show of the year and it featured a fully committed Donna Murphy.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
They were both awful, but what made People in the Picture worse to me was that they all thought they were putting on some serious, high-brow Holocaust drama. No one involved in that production seemed to have a clue just how awful it was.
Adamgreer, I get that. I mean, they were 1 and 2, so they might as well have shared the spot for number 1. I still think that Murphy's performance makes it better than BABY, IT'S YOU! but Murphy is also my favorite musical theater actress so I can't be very objective on that front.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
BABY and PICTURE were both trainwrecks. But BABY was fun to laugh at, whereas I felt like I was being suffocated by horror while sitting at PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE. Just so bad.
I honestly can't articulate how wrong I think they are by picking THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE as the worst show. It had a lot of heart, which cannot be said for some of the other shows; and like others have said, Donna Murphy's performance alone means it can't be the worst. As someone who is very connected to the Holocaust and have researched it for years, I felt it presented a really honest depiction of a survivor who isn't always likeable but is always genuine.
And I LOVE the cast recording and have been listening to it nonstop since I got the cd. I really don't get the hate.
"Years from now, when you talk about this - And you will - Be kind. "
It was one of the better shows I saw last year. Tender, human, sentimental, touching, great perf by Murphy. What's not to like?
A trite, cliche-ridden book, a horrible score that wasn't even fully orchestrated at the performance I attended, a second act that dragged on FOREVER (and a death scene that went on for a good 20 minutes), an embarrassingly bad number about dancing dibbyks, choreography that looked stolen the Community Players' production of Fiddler on the Roof, and an ugly set.
What I've heard of People in the Picture makes me never want to hear more (and even the BWW highlights clip was so dull I couldn't finish it), but I do grumble when I see the complaint is "They made a musical about the HOLOCAUST??" I dunno, I wish we'd have gotten past the "How dare they try to musicalize THAT" attitude...
Every review of Measure for MEasure I read felt it was misguided and missed the point of the play but I never saw one that made it sound THAT bad to make the list.
"I thoroughly enjoyed HIGH. I still don't understand the hate that show received."
I didn't hate it, I just thought it was unbelievably bad. A terribly overwrought book badly directed. Great cast, but they let Turner off the leash, and that wasn't a good thing.
The People in the Picture had its moments (I loved the dancing dybbuk number), but yeah, that death scene, oy! Also the number everyone kvelled about, Selective Memory, just went on forever.
I do grumble when I see the complaint is "They made a musical about the HOLOCAUST??" I dunno, I wish we'd have gotten past the "How dare they try to musicalize THAT" attitude...
There's a good musical to be made about the Holocaust. This wasn't it.
I think they did and there's another problem with EW's theatre coverage. At least for movies you kinda know where both of their major critics come from to balance their reviews (and both get to make their own lists). EW seems to just have whoever is available or in New york do their random theatre reviews (including both movie critics) and then someone completely different made this list.