Worst Broadway Show of 2017- Page 1

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 5:01pm

Take my sixth annual poll

Worst Broadway Show of 2017

Which of the 10 nominees did you most....

 

[comets]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 5:26pm

1984 by far. 

[raddersons]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 5:30pm

Prince of Broadway was deeply upsetting to me, because it really seems so hard to get something like that wrong. I think most of the other shows at least had their merits, in spectacle, set design, or god, at least something new. PoB was almost all borrowed, and looked and felt cheap.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 5:30pm

Amélie. Just so... bad.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 5:34pm

Amelie. Largely because the movie is so good, which made the musical even more disappointing.

I would like to add that in 40 years of attending theatre, Charlie may just be the worst show I have ever seen.  Second only to Wonderland.

Updated On: 12/13/17 at 05:34 PM

[Alfie6]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 5:42pm

From this list, Sam Gold's Bad Menagerie- I think Parisian Woman needs to be added that is my actual worst Broadway show of 2017. (I skipped 1984, Amelie, Charlie).

[satisfiied]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 7:55pm

Why isn't Bandstand on this list? I can't be only one who thought it was horrific.

Besides the fact that Laura Osnes and Corey Cott can't pretend to have chemistry for the life of them, the songs were just plain bad. ("Welcome Home" was decent at best.) I could go on and on about how truly terrible this show was. The dancing was the only good thing about it.

I'm very bias but I have to say I enjoyed Amélie. I know it's not well written by any means but the movie is perhaps my favorite of all time and prior to the show I loved Phillipa Soo and Adam Chanler-Berat. Literally could not have more perfectly marketed a musical towards me. But the writing and direction were bad, I can admit that.

I thought 1984 was pretty good. I may or may not have thrown up in my uber on the way home, but overally I felt it was an enjoyable evening. 

 

Charlie was terrible. No other way to describe it, just really terrible. 

[tomwsjr]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 7:59pm

Thankfully not many down right flops on Broadway this year, but Charlie.... and Bandstand were pretty bad.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 8:48pm

I love how you mentioned sam gold with glass menagerie, but you didn’t mention any of the other directors.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 8:49pm

Also, I think War Paint should’ve made that list before the play that goes wrong.

[wicked1492]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 9:14pm

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG is insufferable.

[After Eight]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 9:56pm

There were some really bad plays and musicals this year on Broadway. It makes you yearn all the more for the shows of 50 years ago.

 

Rather than catalogue the names of all the clunkers this year,  I'll just select the worst of the lot: The Children.

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 11:03pm

Charlie, the set is so barren, and the only good part is Christian Borle. Honorable Mention to Groundhog Day and Amelie, GHD was so repetative and Pippa couldn't even float how terrible amelie was.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 11:14pm

satisfiied said: "Why isn't Bandstand on this list? I can't be only one who thought it was horrific.

Besides the fact that Laura Osnes and Corey Cott can't pretend to have chemistry for the life of them, the songs were just plain bad. ("Welcome Home" was decent at best.) I could go on and on about how truly terrible this show was. The dancing was the only good thing about it.

I'm very bias but I have to say I enjoyed Amélie. I know it's not well written by any means butthe movie is perhaps my favorite of all time and prior to the show I loved Phillipa Soo and Adam Chanler-Berat. Literally could not have more perfectly marketed a musical towards me. But the writing and direction were bad, I can admit that.

I thought 1984 was pretty good. I may or may not have thrown up in my uber on the way home, but overallyI felt it was an enjoyable evening.



Charlie was terrible. No other way to describe it, just really terrible."

Just a matter of taste.  I loved Bandstand more than any show this season other than DEH and Hello Dolly (with Donna Murphy, not Bette Midler, who was probably having an off-night when I saw her pretty lethargic performance).  I thought the score was far and away the best of the season...I actually can't believe how often I play it, and I only skip 2 songs in a very sizable score.  (I like The Great Comet's score very much, but I skip at least 5 - 6 songs).

I have not seen and do not plan to see Charlie, either in NYC or on the road, based on initial lack of interest, compounded by the feedback on this board, feedback from friends who have seen it, and the critical reviews.  I certainly assume your assessment for it is right on target.

[Andy51]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 11:43pm

I would dissent from the inclusion of The Present on your list.  Not a stellar production, but it was intelligent and reasonably entertaining.  And Cate Blanchett, one of the greatest actresses of our time, was in fine form.  What makes your including the play particularly odd is that your review of it wasn't especially negative.  In fact, you say that there will be a group of theatergoers who embrace it because they "have the patience and curiosity to appreciate the production’s complex texture and thought-provoking themes of loss, regret, paralysis, desire, loneliness, fear of change. . . And then there are the rest of us, who wish it were shorter."  On your own account, you were unhappy with the play because you lacked the requisite "patience and curiosity" to appreciate its merits.  That seems like a problem with you, not the play.

Updated On: 12/13/17 at 11:43 PM

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 12/13/17 at 11:54pm

Andy

First of all thanks for reading my review

Second, it was definitely my problem that I was too impatient with this three-hour play, and didn't appreciate it more. But I didn't.

Most to the point,. I needed to pick ten nominees. There are only 30 to 40 shows opening on Broadway a year. Which show not listed that opened in 2017 would you substitute for it?

 

 

[Andy51]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 12:09am

NewYorkTheater said: "Andy

First of all thanks for reading my review

Second, it was definitely my problem that I was too impatient withthisthree-hour play, and didn't appreciate itmore. But I didn't.

Most to the point,. I needed to pick ten nominees. There are only 30 to 40 shows opening on Broadwaya year. Which show not listed that opened in 2017 would you substitute for it?


I would certainly substitute The Parisian Woman for it.  I think to make a "worst" list, a production should be bad.  While The Present had its shortcomings, it wasn't bad.

 

[LxGstv]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 12:20am

Marvin’s Room.

[denali.fire]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 12:31am

Home for the Holidays?

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 1:39am

The Parisian Woman was definitely in the running, but it just didn't quite make the cut. 

Feel free to cast a write-in vote for it. (There have been no write-in votes for it yet, but four for Home for the Holidays.)

(As I explain in the post, I didn't see Home for the Holidays, so didn't include it as a nominee.)

 

[jbird5]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 2:48am

Charlie.

Off Broadway, I really hated Streetcar. A bad year for Tennessee Williams.

[ohhiccup 2]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 3:49am

I don’t understand what was so awful about Amelie that garnered it such terrible reviews because I really enjoyed it - though maybe it was because my expectations were SO low.

[ItsJavert]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 5:47am

Prince of Broadway. What a garbage.

[Lot666]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 8:23am

dearalanaaaa said: "GHD was so repetative"

That was the point.

Updated On: 12/14/17 at 08:23 AM

[Lot666]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 8:25am

War Paint. I had high hopes based on the stars, but I actually nodded off more than once.