The current annie set is mediocre. But i wouldnt call the show the WORST production values.
The entire design for LEAP OF FAITH was atrocious.
The set for BABY ITS YOU was a TERRIBLE design, but it was well built, and had good production value. too bad the design was just bad...
the broadway play ELLING was terribly designed, and terribly built...
I liked the recent Jeckyll.... I had never seen the show before, and i felt the simplistic designed worked for what they were trying to create.
WONDERLAND was a HOT MESS.
Tarzan wasn't that bad.
And while the current BATB set is simple, and different, its is DEF not the worst production values. Simplistic set, but vivid in color, shape, texture. Almost felt the whole set was designed as a stained glass window...
I thought the set for The Lyons was similar to what jnb9872 said about the sets for the recent Glengarry Glen Ross - it was strange seeing so much wasted theater space and the sets looked were very cheap. In the West End I thought the staging for The Bodyguard was atrocious - very dark and cheap looking, and the strobes and smoke didn't help make it exciting. I was hoping the shutter of the camera that acted as the curtain would close and not allow anyone to see the rest of the show.
IN MY LIFE. The sets were poorly designed and looked unfinished at the performance I saw (raw wood was conspicuous on various spots of the push-out set).
I thought the sets for the last revivals of THE SEAGULL and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC to be quite ugly.
"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
Re: A Little Night Music. - the revival compared to the original - a sad letdown and that goes for the dreary, ugly costumes too.
Ditto : the hugely successful Chicago revival. Too bad the jury box set is just an excuse for a cheaper production. The original sets and costumes rocked. (Actually kind of liked the costumes in the revival, but they would not work in the original set design).
For me it is Porgy and Bess in San Francisco (the new national tour). I missed it when it was in NYC, so I figured that I would just see in the San Francisco and it would be the same. Right? Wrong. It was really awful, playing at the Golden Gate Theatre, which is a really run down theatre, the set, costumes, and lights just did NOT work well together at all. I can't speak for the broadway production, though, which may have been lovely.
Anything regarding shows stated by this account is an attempt to convey opinion and not fact.