Worst Broadway Show of 2017- Page 2

[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.

[little_sally]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 8:53am

You left off one that was so incredibly dull and pointless: The Price.

[greenifyme2]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 8:58am

ohhiccup 2 said: "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. "

I also loved it. But maybe it had something to do with being front row center. I’m sure it lost something further back....

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 9:08am

Amelie for sure. What a pile of garbage.

[little_sally]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 9:41am

greenifyme2 said: "ohhiccup 2 said: "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. "

I also loved it. But maybe it had something to do with being front row center. I’m sure it lost something further back...."

I also liked it quite a bit (and still listen to some of the songs regularly) but it might have to do with what was going on in my life at the time.

[rjm516]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 9:46am

Can't believe people saying Bandstand, which was solid and important, when things like 1984, Parisian Woman, M Butterfly, all kinds of actual crap is out there. 

[little_sally]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 9:57am

rjm516 said: "Can't believe people saying Bandstand, which was solid and important, when things like 1984, Parisian Woman, M Butterfly, all kinds of actual crap is out there."

Agreed. I liked Bandstand much more than GHD, War Paint, and Anastasia.

[ellbellthomps]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 10:24am

GHD and Prince of Broadway

[Jarethan]

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

After Eight said: "There were some really badplays and musicals this yearon Broadway. It makes you yearn all the more for the shows of 50 years ago.



Rather than catalogue the names of alltheclunkers this year,I'll just selectthe worst of the lot: The Children."

I actually think there were a higher number of bad plus and musicals per season 50 years ago than today.  50 years ago, things cost so much less to produce (in REAL dollars) that there were many really bad productions every year.  Not so much nowadays, when there are many admittedly fewer productions, but mostly very professional even if you don't like them.  Even if you personally don't like a lot of the new musicals, you have to concede that a lot of people do.  That was not the case (apps) 50 years ago when no-one liked Come Summer and Jimmy and Dr. Jazz and Copperfield and The Yearling and Anya and Kelly and and Chu Chem and A Time For Singing and How to be a Jewish Mother (off the top of my head, but there were others) or plays like Of Love Remembered and Nathan Weinstein, Mystic Connecticut and The Great Adventure and  And Things That Go Bump in the Night and UTBU and Slapstick Tragedy and The Seven Descents of Myrtle and Avanti and Little Malcolm and the gambling play with Tom Ewell and the piece of junk that managed to have both Julie Harris and Geraldine Page (can't even remember their names) and Love in E Flat The Love Suicide at the Schofield Barracks, and all those plays that closed in a week based on universally bad reviews.  Then there were the truly mediocre, borderline junk ones IMO that ran, e.g., Walking Happy (I have not seen a musical since then that did not have a single song in the last 25 - 30 minutes), How Now Dow Jones, Skyscraper, What Makes Sammy Run (500 performances because Steve Lawrence was a big star at the time, but a complete bore).  Again, if I researched it, I would come up with many more horrible shows that just go to prove the there was a lot of crap 50ish years ago, just as there were a lot of terrific things, as you pointed out.

These are the ones I can remember off the top of my head this minute...but there were a LOT more, especially non-musicals.  Again, that is not to say there were not great productions too -- there were -- I am just pointing out that IMO you are seeing things through rose colored glasses.

[Phanma]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 6:50pm

Charlie for sure!

[tomwsjr]

Posted: 12/14/17 at 8:26pm

And the most boring musical of the year goes to Groundhog Day.

[After Eight]

Posted: 12/15/17 at 8:02am

Jarethan,  wrote: " I am just pointing out that IMO you are seeing things through rose colored glasses.

 

Sorry, but as far as the theatre goes, I don't wear glasses, and what's more, I have 20-20 vision. Yes, there were bad shows then, but none of them was as aggressively boring, infuriating, offensive, and/or obnoxious as the dross we get today. As for the hit shows, please, don't compare Hello, Dolly! To Hamilton, Fiddler on the Roof to Fun Home, How to Succeed to The Band's Visit, Carnival! to Dear Evan Hansen, The Sound of music to Come From Away..... PLEASE!

 

As for the many shows you proclaimed that were no good and that no one liked, I beg to differ. UTBU was a riot, and I loved it. Slapstick Tragedy was plenty good, and a masterpiece compared to horrors like The Children, John, or the Antipodes. Anya seems like My Fair Lady compared to Groundhog Day. The Julie Harris/ Geraldine Page play was entitled Mixed Couples, and it was very enjoyable. I remember it with great affection. I enjoyed Come Summer a zillion times more than Fun Home or The Band's Visit.  At least it had some pleasant songs. Nathan Weinstein was quirky and smart.  It had Sam Levene and quite a few laughs. I had a far better time at Avanti and Love in E Flat than at The Humans or Meteor Shower. The gambling play with Tom Ewell was Xmas in Las Vegas, and it had some interesting things to say.

Remember, too, that critical standards were more exacting in those days, because the quality of shows was so much higher. They didn't give raves to every pretentious bore and obnoxious screed that came down the pike. Of course, there weren't that many coming down the pike. Now that pike is as jammed as the Long Island Expressway at rush hour.

So yes, there were assorted flops back then. But they were no way as bad as the bad things we endure today, because today's bad shows bring bad to a new level of awfulness.

And yes, I will yearn for Come Summer and Avanti and all the rest over today's theatrical ordeals.

 

Updated On: 12/15/17 at 08:02 AM

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 12/15/17 at 9:55am

I did not "hate" anything I saw this year so I just voted on the basis of reviews I read on some of the shows and overall opinions of others. BTW - I saw some people mentioned "Bandstand" and was a bit surprised. I saw it and liked it very much but to each their own.

[Robbie2]

Posted: 12/15/17 at 5:19pm

Charlies, In Transit and Amelie!

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 12/15/17 at 5:38pm

While I didn't think Amelie was nearly as bad as some make it out to be, I do think it could've been executed much better. A musical adaptation of such a "cinematic" story doesn't really call for the "splashy Broadway" treatment. I think it would go over decently in a more intimate venue, and perhaps with a more serious tone; the movie wasn't as playfully giddy as the show...

[hamiltonstradition]

Posted: 12/15/17 at 5:42pm

Ado Annie D'Ysquith said: "While I didn't think Amelie was nearly as bad as some make it out to be, I do think it could've been executed much better. A musical adaptation of such a "cinematic" story doesn't really call for the "splashy Broadway" treatment. I think it would go over decentlyin a more intimate venue, and perhaps with a more serious tone; the movie wasn't as playfully giddy as the show..."

It enjoyed it way more in LA than in NY. Some performers (Harriett D. Foy in particular) were INTENSELY dedicated to the show and their characters, that it almost made up for the lackluster book and score

[ArtMan]

Posted: 12/15/17 at 6:03pm

I did not hate anything this year, but I was greatly disappointed with The Glass Menagerie.  It was my first time seeing the play.  You would think a classic with the great Sally Fields, would be anything but boring.  But bored I was.  I was also very uncomfortable watching the actress who played the daughter.  Especially her opening scene, going up the stairs.

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 12/16/17 at 8:46am

Last year, it was neck and neck between Disaster and Paramour. This year, one show is the indisputable "winner"-- garnering three times as many votes as the second most selected nominee.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/16/17 at 4:05pm

Reading through this thread, I realize that since HELLO, DOLLY! opened, I haven't seen much of anything else. I don't know whether that's good or bad.

Updated On: 12/19/17 at 04:05 PM

[TheatreRocks]

Posted: 12/16/17 at 7:12pm

War Paint and Time and the Conways

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 12/16/17 at 8:42pm

Surprised no-one has mentioned our absolutely least liked show of 2017: THE GREAT COMET...! Highest expectations and lowest return on our investment of any show we saw this year. We weren't bored exactly, more like horrified at the rank amateurism that was celebrated as a brave artistic choice in scene after scene.  Why anyone would have chosen to musicalize those particular pages of War and Peace was absolutely beyond us based on the result.

By contrast GROUNDHOG DAY was one of our great delights of the year, a complete surprise since we weren't particular fans of the movie, nor of Minchin's MATILDA. But GHD was jampacked with creativity and wit in the service of a story absolutely worth telling. The final 20 minutes was thrilling and moving in equal measure. Go figure.

[BroadwayNoob]

Posted: 12/16/17 at 9:44pm

I actually loved Charlie. Second favorite show I saw this year behind Groundhog Day. I voted Amile (watched the bootleg). It was so disjointed and hard to follow. Pippa and Adam are amazing, but could not do anything for that show

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 12/16/17 at 10:07pm

Not that it was great but I liked Amelie better than Anastasia. With all the talent going into Anastasia, it's a wonder that it really is terrible,

But PRINCE OF BROADWAY wins for worst for me cause I was really like WTF was that? 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 12/17/17 at 4:46pm

Any self-respecting theater-goer would try to avoid having gone to the worst shows of 2017 entirely, which is why I saw NONE of the shows listed in the OP's poll, but for the out-of-town tryout of AMELIE (which was limp and unmemorable, but certainly not the worst of the year). Thus my write-in vote for GREAT COMET, but unfortunately I have no way of knowing how many others share that view.

Could the OP share the write-in list with us all?

Updated On: 12/17/17 at 04:46 PM

[CoolDogeGuy]

Posted: 12/17/17 at 5:08pm

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I expected it to live up to my expectations, which it didn't. The score isn't all that great and I don't get why they decided to add in a 27-second overture of "Pure Imagination".