A non-equity tour. Horrible, No consistent tone amongst the cast, who were varied in their talents. Direction seemed non-existent and everything was sloppy. The (supposed to be) high-energy finale sounded like "You can stah tha bee"
The 20th Anniversary RENT tour was fairly underwhelming. The worst I've seen would have to be a non-equity Beauty and the Beast tour from several years back. I'm not sure it rose above theme park level.
Sometime in the late 1990s. A non-Equity tour of The Who's TOMMY. Billed as Direct from Broadway and using all of the artwork of the original 1995 Broadway production so it was so misleading. Prices were the same as the 1st National Tours that played that season (which were virtual carbon-copies of their Broadway counterparts), but this non-Equity looked like a really bad community theater production. Looked nothing whatsoever like the Broadway production in any way - they just created their own production: sets, costumes, staging, etc.
Jersey Boys was terrible (see reasons on the Jersey Boys "third national tour" thread - essentially stripped down cast and band ruined the show for me).
Completely agree with the Beauty & The Beast as well. Saw it a little over an year ago and both my bf and I were sleeping beauties throughout Act 2 (bf was sleeping through Act 1 as well). Just really low energy cast and the remarkably literal translation from movie to stage without any deeper meaning added to Beast's character ruined it for me.
By far was the Game of Thrones themed Camelot Non-Equity tour that ran within the last three years. So so bad. The main female had the hugest jaw brato I've ever seen and you could see from the back orchestra.
I was a "season ticket holder" to my local Performing Arts Center for many years (1989 - 2003). They always promoted 'direct from Broadway' for their five or six shows, and many were not, which is why I finally cancelled my subscription. One season (I believe 1992), we were promised a 'big Broadway show' (can't recall which one), but it ended up being cancelled (allegedly the star was ill, and the show was taken off from touring), and about three days before we were told we would be given the revue "The World Goes 'Round: Music of Kander & Ebb" in it's place - directly off Broadway!
We were treated to a few talent-less people (not the stars they promoted) feigning enjoyment as they tried to entertain us. There were cheap costumes (the women dressed like they borrowed anything from Liza Minelli, while the men looked like they were given Elton John's leftovers). The show was HORRIBLE, to say the least. Most of the audience left about a third into the show (there was no intermission - otherwise this group would have come back out to an empty house.
Aside from that fiasco, I have to say the worst national tour was SUNSET BOULEVARD with PETULA CLARK. She couldn't remember some of her lines, and she sang off-key. To think Faye Dunaway was fired for that.
I've seen many a bad tour, but the recent non-equity tour of Godspell, ripped off from the Davenport revival, takes the cake.
I have gone to several of the other tours listed here knowing that the show was going to be awful. If you know that upfront, it makes the show much more enjoyable.
Call_me_jorge said: "I thought Faye dunaway was supposed to replace Glenn in the la production, but the show closed before she would begin performances "
They hired Dunaway to replace Close, then realized she had no singing talent for the score, so they fired her and closed the show - rather than find another replacement.
Yet Petula Clark was horrible in the tour which I saw, singing off-key and forgetting her lines in some scenes (to which she made asides to the audience about it). How she became a 'Norma Desmond' is beyond me.
The non-Equity tour of BIG: The Musical that went out in late 1998; after the previous Equity national tour
I don't know if what I saw was Equity or non-Equity, but it was just GARBAGE. I really enjoyed the Broadway production and took friends to see the tour. I was mortified that I ever encouraged someone to see it and infuriated that it was an entirely different show. Book and score changes for the worse (MUCH worse), all but about 4 kids removed form the cast, cheap and ugly day-glo sets. Ugh. By far, the worst tour I ever saw. The national tour of Seussical is a close second for similar reasons.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
joined:2/14/14
joined:
2/14/14
Posted: 8/29/17 at 4:19pm