Has anyone seen SCANDALOUS lately...?- Page 6

[SKAcasting1127]

Posted: 11/13/12 at 5:43pm

"Is she lost or is she found?"
"Was she abducted? Or just fooling around?"

[Hourglass Song]

Posted: 11/15/12 at 4:04pm

First of all, did anyone go on 11/9? During the "Look at that girl" song, some huge fan or something made a racket and they had to hold the show - any word on what that was? (My guess was cooling fan for the lights.) Carolee swooped her cape to exit like a superhero. She's hilarious, and I was totally blown away by her voice (I've never seen her in something before). I really hope her next thing offers her more to work with. I'm now a Carmello Convert, and I want to see whatever she does next.

This show was too long for starters. Unless you're a Les Mis, and let's be real- there is always little chance something is, it's hard to justify that length. McPherson's life was interesting but the show seemed to go about it oddly. The pageant scenes seemed to suddenly appear. Also the advertisements led me to believe this was a show of a totally different tone. McPherson was a much more sympathetic figure than the Religion-Crazy Paris Hilton that the ads seemed to imply.

I also am really picky about death scenes and I felt this show was unsuccessful. [Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, though I'll try to be vague.] When most of the songs are just commentary, you NEED an emotional ballad about human relationships, but they were always Trite Upbeat Song followed by monologue about life event (sort of "BTW he/she's dead now") followed by Trite Upbeat Song.

I was entertained through most all of it. I don't regret seeing this at all (though my tickets were comps honestly). But my biggest complaint is that it is forgettable. Glad I know more about Aimee now, though (such as that she existed, for starters).

[finebydesign]

Posted: 11/15/12 at 4:10pm

"First of all, did anyone go on 11/9? During the "Look at that girl" song, some huge fan or something made a racket and they had to hold the show - any word on what that was?"

Damn, I wish I hadn't read any further than that. I was hoping it was some crazy Kathie Lee Gifford fan from the mid-West having a violent revelation during one of those "show-stoppers."

[dtzumbrunnen]

Posted: 11/18/12 at 10:05am

What a mess. When I tried to describe it to my boyfriend he finally asked, which was better, Scandalous or Wonderland. This shocked me for a second and I thought about it...and Wonderland was truly significantly more enjoyable. Never thought I'd say that about something! So sad to see something that's obviously SOOO much less expensive to operate, like The Performers, not make it and for this to continue.

[LouW95]

Posted: 11/19/12 at 2:07am

Maybe Kathie Lee can ask her old buddy Anita Bryant, whom she is still loyal to, to play the lead. This would attract all the right wing nut cases who are still in denial about the recent election. By the way, about 7 years ago KLG did a special report on Where Is Anita Bryant Now for GMA. Promoting a hatemonger is Scandalous!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/19/12 at 9:37am

I daresay she wouldn't get near Bryant these days. Her profile on TODAY is built on a re-invention (the other end of that Version 2.0 remake is Al Sharpton on MSNBC; to me, they are both part of a syndrome). She and Hoda never discuss politics or "social issues," a term I loathe, as it suggests back-of-the bus status to life-defining matters for most people. It's also possible that Gifford has mellowed and/or changed her rigid POV over the years, having worked in musical theater for at least a decade. If she still harbored strongly homophobic views, I doubt many of her collaborators would sign on. Not in 2012. She may be closer to Chenoweth in her "evolving" flavors Christianity and Republicanism. Just a guess.

Updated On: 11/19/12 at 09:37 AM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/19/12 at 12:41pm

Auggie,
I beg to differ.
Ms. Gifford often has moments on air where she let's those colors fly. She is regularly prone to talking about how being Christian makes her better and she feels sorry for people who are not and she wishes they could find Jesus.
What REALLY bothered me was a few months ago when they had a guest on discussing several things in the news, including two *legally* married lesbians (Ellen and Portia, I believe). The guests referred to them with the terms "married" and "wives" and the ever lovely Ms. Gifford felt the need to 'graciously' point out on air that "the can't really be married" and they are "partners, not wives."
I wanted to fly through my television and through a glass of merlot in her face.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/20/12 at 11:09pm

Okay....

So I finally saw this tonight. And I didn't hate it. I certainly understand everyone's issues with the show, and the complaints are completely and totally valid. The score is instantly forgettable and every song sounds the same, the lyrics are pretty laughable at times, and the book is basically a Wikipedia article, in cliff-notes form. So why did I sorta enjoy it? Carolee. Carmello.

The woman has done for SCANDALOUS what Rob McClure couldn't do for CHAPLIN. She has lifted a poorly-constructed show out of the garbage and made it something worth seeing. Her performance is absolutely fantastic. As good as McClure is in CHAPLIN, I thought the show was a mind-numbing bore overall, but Carmello (and the rest of this cast, who deserve credit as well) has saved SCANDALOUS from being LEAP OF FAITH 2, for me. She is giving 150,000% to this role and this show, and she is magnetic onstage.

Roz Ryan is very funny (although she plays the token sassy black woman) and her voice sounds wonderful, George Hearn doesn't have much to do at all, the ensemble is very talented, and the orchestrations sounded lovely. The set is cumbersome, but it didn't really distract or bother me as much as I had expected.

I was on board with Carmello's performance from the second the curtain rose. She is an absolutely stunning musical theater performer and she carries this show on her back and sells every moment with gusto. It is really quite exhilarating to see someone like her get the chance to play a role like this, instead of relying on stunt-casting. She's clearly not going to win the Tony (I hope she doesn't get denied a nomination though), but the show basically plays like a Carmello concert at times. She acts, she sings, she dances a bit, and she does it all with incredible precision and power. The show itself is what it is (not very good at all), but Carmello is a god-send for this production.

Updated On: 11/20/12 at 11:09 PM

[lupone76]

Posted: 11/22/12 at 8:50am

Wickedroks, I saw it last night and couldn't agree with you more. Carolee is an amazing force and actually makes an awful musical like this bearable to watch. She is really such an amazing talent. It's too bad her amazing singing voice has to be wasted on such a generic mediocre score. Carolee, I have always thought is underrated in the Broadway community. She is so much more talented than many of her peers who are much bigger Broadway stars and given plum roles. It's amazing to me that the show was 10 years in the making as it feels like it was slaped together in a year. As I noticed the the theater was not even close to full, there were empty seats all over the place. I don't think this will last another week. Hopefully, Carolee will be offered a plum role in a much better show that is worthy of her talents.







Updated On: 11/22/12 at 08:50 AM

[GatorNY]

Posted: 11/22/12 at 2:10pm

You guys are making me want to see it for Carolee. I would love to see her, in anything. I think you're right though; there were tons of tickets on TDF for just about any date you could want to go up until now. The last date available now is this Sunday.

[newintown]

Posted: 11/22/12 at 3:09pm

There are certainly some who can get their kicks from watching a skilled performer working with dung material.

And there are others who just feel sorry for the performer, wasting their talent on dung.

A Tony nomination should be reserved for a good performer selling good material. That is all.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 4:07pm

The category is "Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical." There are a LOT of (worthy) Tony winners and nominees who had so-so parts in so-so shows, or even horrible parts in horrible shows. Look at Hugh Jackman. What a complete disaster THE BOY FROM OZ was. And the way the show developed the character of Peter Allen was hardly inspired. But something about his performance absolutely transcended the material and made the show worth checking out. His performance that year was regarded by many as the must-see performance of the season. And the show was crap. Brian D'Arcy James in SHREK, Sutton in MILLIE, Norbert Leo Butz in CATCH ME, Andrea Martin in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, Jessie Mueller in ON A CLEAR DAY, Marc Kudisch and Jan Maxwell in CHITTY....and those are just off the top of my head.

I disagree wholeheartedly that the best performance award also should be someone with a good part, in a good show. It's, of course, refreshing to see someone give an incredible performance, with an an incredible part, in an incredible show, but unfortunately, we're lucky if that sort of thing happens once every few seasons. I don't feel bad for Carolee in this part. An actor can give a good performance (or at least an enjoyable one) and spin crappy material into something worth awarding with a nomination or an actual award. Giving her a nomination would hardly be a pity nomination...the woman is giving 3,000% to this performance, as bad as the material may be.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 4:49pm

I agree with you on principle that people in crappy shows can be nominated for their good performances, but I honestly don't get all of the Carolee love for this. I really don't think she rises above the material. In fact, I found her acting to be incredibly amateur. Her vocals were fine, but far from her personal best. I don't think she deserves a nomination at all.

[newintown]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 4:55pm

Exactly; Carmello is only transcending this bottom of the barrel material for a handful of her most extreme die-hard fans.

In Wicked's list above, Jackman (an unusually charismatic performer) is the only case of performer truly transcending bad material. The other examples are all questionable at best, for varying reasons.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 6:49pm

I'd hardly call myself a "die hard" Carolee Carmello fan. She's extremely talented and I enjoy her performances, but I'm not a groupie. I just enjoyed her performance in the show and couldn't begin to imagine how insufferable the experience would have probably been if it starred anyone less equipped to handle that part.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 11/24/12 at 8:20pm

There was one line (I think it was part of a song), where she sings, to her father, "You put your seed deep inside my soil..." and I was looking around to see if I was the only one who found it creepy. But, the show is so earnest, it's not like it was an intentional double entendre.

It is interesting how people only compare this to other bad/failed shows. Is it really bragging rights to be better than Leap of Faith?! (I actually preferred LoF to this)

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 11/25/12 at 2:31am

I thought the same thing about that seed line, but no one else seemed to react so I disregarded it.