Great Scores But Weak Shows?

[HamilHansen]

I'm doing some research, as a cast album enthusiast always looking for a new score, on scores that are fantastic but the shows around them are not such. Can any of you lovelies think up some for me?

[JBroadway]

There have been dozens of threads in this exact topic over the years

[Wick3]

JBroadway said: "There have been dozens of threads in this exact topic over the years"

Agreed. 

The first musical that comes to mind is Bridges of Madison County. 

@HamilHansen, I suggest you do some research on shows that got nominated for Best Original Score but didn't get nominated for Best Musical as a start.

[Mike Barrett]

For me, Memphis. I don't even think its a weak show actually, but compared to others I can see the flaws. I still think the score is so fun though. 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Honestly, more scores are hampered by lousy books than vice versa, though there are a lot of notable ones - 70, Girls, 70, Merrily We Roll Along, and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are three big examples, but there are lots more.

[HamilHansen]

Thank you all very much for your help. I'll most certainly take your advices :) (If that even is a word)

[artscallion]

Sondheim's Passion has an astonishingly beautiful score with a terrible story.

 

[Kitsune]

I really loved the score for Bright Star - it sounded so different than usual Broadway fare. The book itself is weak, although Carmen Cusack and her co-stars made up for it.

[scampsweep]

Chess - great score!

[Jarethan]

Mack and Mabel -- Far and away Herman's best score, but the book is so bad that it doesn't matter

Chess -- I have seen three different productions, original London, original Broadway, and a scaled down version at the Signature Theatre in Shirlington, VA.  The last was faraway the most entertaining, but still led me to think that it would never fully work on stage, because it is so cold.

Oklahoma -- Seeing the new version in October.  Maybe, I will change my mind.  Up to now, I have  HATED  every version the show I have seen (not a lot).

City of Angels -- Not sure it is a great score, but I have enjoyed it many times.  I hate the show (not dislike, hate).

On a Clear Day -- Maybe not a great score, but a very entertaining one.  The show definitely falls mega-short.

Rags -- I have not actually seen the show, but have heard that the show covered too much, and suffered because of that.  Since it is one of my favorite scores ever (I didn't say best), I have to include this.

Merrily, We Roll Along -- at least in its original production.  It  was  so bad that I didn't even appreciate the score initially.  I saw it 2 years ago in Boston and the sort it just about perfect.  That production should have been presented by the Roundabout.

Gigi -- I saw two Broadway productions, with the second much better than the first.  I think the score is great, really given a terrific OCR, with at least 6-7 great songs.  I play it constantly.

Titanic -- Maybe not a great score, but I love a lot of it, particularly the first 15 minutes.  IMO the show never came up to the quality of the score, and I was very disappointed, though I did enjoy it.

Song & Dance -- At least on Broadway.  Great score, horrible execution on Broadway.

 

[carolinaguy]

Chess sprang immediately to mind.

I think Aspects of Love has some of ALW's most accomplished music, but the "story" and often the lyrics are so atrocious it would work best as an orchestral concert.

Aida has a very fun score (though Sondheim it's not), but there's an overall silliness about the show when staged.

 

 

[sethepstein12]

Bonnie and Clyde is what always comes to my mind

[meharper24601]

Ghost!

 

The show was not great at all but the cast album (specifically caissie levy's songs) is fantastic!

[SmoothLover]

Pippin. Great score and great Fosse choreography but the script is not that great.

[LuPita2]

The Bridges of Madison County has one of the best scores in recent history.  The soaring orchestrations, the gorgeous lyrics, the voices. Just incredible.

Love Bonnie and Clyde and High Fidelity as well!

[poisonivy2]

Brigadoon? The score is one of the best. The storyline is very weak tea.

[spicemonkey]

Brigadoon, gorgeous score.

Carousel might be another one

[ARTc3]

I agree with many of those listed above, but I'd like to add:

Onward Victoria
Jane Eyre
Working
Is There Life After High School?
Anyone Can Whistle
Phantom (Maury Yeston)
The Baker's Wife
Seussical The Musical
Parade
Seesaw
War Paint
Steel Pier
Weird Romance (not Broadway)
Side Show
New Brain (not Broadway)
Dear World
A Class Act
King of Hearts
Magic Show (much of score)
Stop the World – I Want to Get Off

I'm sure there are more, but that's what I can think of now.

 

[another sloe eyed vamp]

Sweet Smell of Success

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Bridges of Madison County

[EvanstonDad]

The last Broadway production of Flower Drum Song indicated that the show isn't very "revivable," but the cast recording gave me a new appreciation for the R&H score. The orchestrations were terrific, and I felt like I was hearing some of the songs -- like the normally disposable "Fan Tan Fannie" -- for the first time.

I second the person who mentioned Aspects of Love. The score is absolutely gorgeous, but ack...that book! Who's sleeping with who now and why should I still care?

And really I don't think the book to Follies is really that good. It especially sort of falls apart in the last half. But the score is one of the best ever written for the theater.

[OlBlueEyes]

Pipe Dream, a 1955 Rodgers and Hammerstein flop. Some strong songs.

"Everybody's Got a Home But Me"  (excerpt from Encores production, sung by Laura Osnes

https://youtu.be/71IpC625De0?t=200

"Sweet Thursday"  (sung by Leslie Uggams, one of Richard Rodgers most hummable tunes (a "cakewalk"

https://youtu.be/sgZpECMKyYI?t=161

Also "The Next Time It Happens"

[JudyDenmark]

Carousel for sure. Stunning score, but it's a total head scratcher to me that that weird show is considered a masterpiece of musical theatre. 

But what first came to mind was Hair. One of my favorite scores to listen to (I have like 5 different recordings in my library) but every time I see the show itself I find it really underwhelming. 

[broadwayindie]

Little Women epitomizes this

[darquegk]

For a long time this was a pretty popular opinion on Pippin, due in part to the fact that the cast recording was very good and the only document of the Broadway production was a chopped-up video that removed many of the Fosse rewrites and additions. Time has been kind to the show, and both the 2000s "licensing edition" and the newly-standardized "revival version" of the show added back much of the Fosse material that was cut from the watered-down, more strictly Hirson-based version of the show licensed in the MTI "mimeograph" days, which did the show no favors.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

^ Not that it couldn't still be improved upon with a few more Fosse-isms restored.