Worst broadway shows you've seen- Page 5

Posted: 8/14/14 at 2:26pm

Nobody mentioned IN MY LIFE? And for our West End patrons, TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 2:30pm

Metro

[meyerd584]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 3:39pm

Sunday In The Park... (recent revival)
Exit The King
Addams Family
All The Way (Despite Cranston's performance)
Matilda (Except for three song: tuneless, boring and not funny or cute)
Bare

And...
The King and I. I've always hated that show.

[MissJaney2]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 3:44pm

I've never seen a truly wretched show on Broadway. I have, however, seen some that I wanted to be better than they were -- Lucky Guy, Bullets Over Broadway and Mamet's Race come to mind.

Shows on tour are another story -- the production of Phantom I saw was so excruciating, I was cheering for the chandelier. But nothing can top the recent national tour of La Cage aux Folles starring George Hamilton. Apparently "almost" only counts for horseshoes, hand grenades and the notes Mr. Hamilton attempted to sing. By the end of the show, my friend and I, along with the couple next to us, were trying not to audibly express our horror every time he opened his mouth. Bless his heart.

[eperkins]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 4:44pm

Scandalous was far and away the worst show I have seen. And I've seen a lot of shows that - weren't very good. My jaw literally dropped, astounded at all the bad choices in that show. Edward Watts was it's only redeeming feature.

[KC91WFU]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 9:47pm

Matilda
Crazy for You
Elf
Phantom of the Opera
Nobody Loves You (excluding Rory O Malley's performance)
Jesus Christ Superstar

[SNAFU]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 9:57pm

Oh, how could I forget? Doonsbury!!

[chrisampm2]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 10:16pm

A Tale of Two Cities

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 10:37pm

This thread proves that no matter how good a show is, one person or a number will not like it. When you have someone in this thread hating The King & I you say WTF. One poster did not even mention Carmello in hating Scandalous whereas she got the best reviews of all.

Big Fish flopped , in part .as many armchair critics and the media jumped all over the score. Check on Amazon and you will see the reviews of the cast album are uniform raves and the Chicago critics liked it. It comes to NY and you know the rest

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 10:40pm

Sweet Smell of Success. I walked out at intermission.

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 10:43pm

Don't you guys know you can't insult "Big Fish" without Roxy appearing? Its like "Bloody Mary", only 10x more annoying

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 10:48pm

Take a chill pill Broadway . If someone mentioned Big Fish it was eons ago. I mentioned now and not anyone else so you obviously have no clue what you are saying. Think before putting your mouth in gear.

I just mention it as an example. Personally, I do not give a flying **** re shows anymore. If Mrs R wants to see something fine. I cannot get excited re seeing shows anymore. If I see something, fine and if I see something else it will be the same reaction. One show is just like another . I am not wasting time fighting against the tide. If a show flops, who cares. I used to care but not anymore

Updated On: 8/14/14 at 10:48 PM

[homeimp]

Posted: 8/15/14 at 1:06am

One vote for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. It is the only Bdwy musical I've attended where not one person stood to give it a standing ovation. Well, somebody actually did stand, but sat down quickly when nobody followed suit. I have seen over 400 NYC performances now.

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 8/15/14 at 4:33am

Hmmm, there are a few layers of awful I would have to highlight.

- Just Plain the WORST Show I Have EVER Seen:: The Little Mermaid
- Worst "SO bad, I LOVE It" Show:: Dance of the Vampires
- Worst "Hated It But Everyone Else Loves It" Show:: Titanic
- Honorable Mentions of Awful:: The Addam's Family, Elf, Saturday Night Fever

[MusicAndPassion]

Posted: 8/15/14 at 8:43am

I hated Passing Strange when I saw it. Thought it was an awesome idea poorly carried out. Two stand out performances, but that's it. Went in with very high hopes... But it stuck with me over the years and I moved that from my number one stop when I saw...

Rock of Ages. Dumb. Predictable. Bad performances. Terrible set. An audience that made me want to sit through children aimed musicals.

The Addams Family was pretty weak. It's score was great and some performances, too. Brooke Shields was flat out bad. Her big dance is still a joke to my friends and I when we get together and discuss this.

Peter and the Starcatcher. I was expected so much more, hated Christian Borle's performance (Brantely called it Dickensian, I called it too much [And I love DIckens]). The story was okay, and the audience matched Rock of Ages's audience.

Those are my Top 4 worst shows.

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 8/15/14 at 9:02am

The Wiz

Contact Which won Best Musical and no one sang a note if I remember

Starmites

Company (thanks to John Doyle)

The FIRST preview of Merrily We Roll Along Despite the great score

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/15/14 at 5:23pm

I put Bloody on a par with Heathers, Hated both but did love the scenic design of Bloody. Bloody looked like a bad high school talent show. What all the hoopla was about I will never know.

[justafan2]

Posted: 8/15/14 at 7:28pm

By Jeeves and Brooklyn were both pretty boring (to me)....

[Musical Master]

Posted: 8/15/14 at 7:33pm

I may not have seen them in person but I did "see" these and they were equally bad.

BROOKLYN
THE LITTLE MERMAID
FIRST DATE
BY JEEVES

[South Florida]

Posted: 8/16/14 at 7:10am

Rock of Ages

[eyehrtfood]

Posted: 8/16/14 at 7:57am

Though some people liked I couldn't stand:
Crazy for You (cheesy, schticky...)
Lion King (the fact people were in awe and I was bored/humored by its awfulness made it worse...)

But the absolute, true "worst" was the Bob Goulet Camelot tour of the mid-90s. From the (unintendedly hilarious and so lengthy "God's gift to us") Goulet bio, to the legendarily bad performances (unknowingly campy Goulet and wooden Steve Blanchard)..

I posted some video excerpts the show on YouTube, with similar comments, and Goulet's widow actually sent me a bite about disresepecting "Mr. Goulet" and then got my account shut down. Unreal.



Updated On: 8/16/14 at 07:57 AM

[ajh]

Posted: 8/16/14 at 8:07am

I normally find some positives in every show I see but the one I struggled with the most was THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL. I saw it a couple of weeks before it closed: Cuba Gooding Jr and Condola Rashad were long gone, so frankly were Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams although THEY were actually on the stage. CGJ's replacement was off and his understudy read more like Williams' son than husband. I don't known if Cicely Tyson was having an off day, or she was just plain bored but the listless, periodically indulgent, occasionally inaudible, clumsy performance I witnessed was very hard to reconcile with the glowing reviews and the Tony she had received. The rest of the audience seemed to love her but I have to say I think that was more because she's Cicely Tyson rather than anything to do with her actual performance that day. I love Vanessa Williams and she looked as gorgeous as ever, and has undeniable presence but the role was almost completely thankless. I found the whole show lacking in pace and energy, and I struggled to stay awake. The sets were nice, but overall this was a colossal bore and a major disappointment. OK rant over. I feel so much better now.

[dreaming]

Posted: 8/16/14 at 8:30am

Passing Strange definitely is one of my least favorite shows. I must put an asterisk there and say the music was good in recording-when I could hear/understand the lyrics. The problem I had with the production was the lighting design (flashing, big lights) and the sound design (so loud I couldn't hear/understand anything).

[RENT_is_Wicked2]

Posted: 8/16/14 at 11:18am

Porgy and Bess, Wonderland (Liked the pre-Broadway productions though), and the Jekyll and Hyde revival.

[Junior Babcock]

Posted: 8/16/14 at 5:29pm

Breaksast at Tiffany's 1966, or as it was called when I saw it in tryouts in Boston, "Holly Golightly."

I can't tell you what a disappointment Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain turned out to be. Not entirely their faults, of course (Bob Merril's score was instantly forgettable, and I instantly did), but, because they were both at the top of their game in 1966, there was great anticipation for this show.