What is the lowlight of your theatre going experiences?- Page 3

[RippedMan]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 5:25pm

I'll add in Doctor Zhivago - I was sitting front row and  you could see the icicles jiggle as the set moved. And the weird "pamelor horse" set piece that rotated around the stage. Ugly. 

[ManOfLaMuncha]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 5:27pm

I went to see Katharine Hepburn in "A Matter of Gravity" and it was really boring me.  Ms Hepburn was in a big old fashioned wheelchair if I remember correctly, and the very young Christopher Reeve was in the cast.  But this woman toward the front of the orchestra seats kept coughing.  Katharine Hepburn finally couldn't take anymore and turned and looked at her and said "That's RUDE!".  That woman didn't cough anymore.  Hepburn scared that cough outta' her.  So I was bored, but that was hilarious.

I forgot about this one...Hedda Gabler at the Hartman Theater Company in Stamford, Ct.  I loved the actors who were in the play, but was bored to tears.  It was funny that in the middle of the play there were either police sirens or from fire engines, and the actors started screaming their lines over the racket.  I love Jane Alexander, but we left during the intermission. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/20/nyregion/connecticut-guide-hartman-s-gabler.html

Updated On: 9/16/22 at 05:27 PM

[IHeartNY2]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 5:43pm

Hamilton

[ManOfLaMuncha]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:41pm

I forgot about the play "The Chairs" in 1998.  My friend "chose" that day, and of course he had seen everything I wanted to see, so I was game.  I just didn't get it.  I actually walked up to the stage after it was over looking at the pile of chairs and asked an usher to explain it to me lol.  It had been a long day for me after going to some health thing at the Javits Center. 

[dented146]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 6:43pm

Hamilton, Really? Good Grief. 

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 7:08pm

In 2018, I saw "Cats" for the first time.  Throughout the performance, some sow woman was filming the show with her iPad.  She was almost right across from me.  As soon as intermission began, I got ahold of an usher and gave her the exact location of the idiot who was filming.  #2  Around the same year, I saw Kinky Boots at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.  After the show ended, the mezzanine crowd merged with the orchestra crowd emptying out.  The merchandise kiosk was also located by the stairs.  I was never so scared to be caught in the middle of so many theatregoers.  At least to me, it was a scary experience.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 7:35pm

National Tour. - The 2005 UK tour of Jekyll and Hyde with Paul Nicholas.  The production was cheap, the audience kept leaving throughout, Nicholas sounded AWFUL in act 1. Amazingly, in act 2 (50 percent of the audience had left by then) he sounded perfect. It became apparent that he was lip synching in act 2.

Runner up - Monkee Business, the try out for a new musical about the popular group. This died after its Manchester UK try out, and it's easy to see why. It was both boring yet batsh*t crazy. 

Honorable Mentions. Wonderland UK Tour, Aspects of Love UK Tour. Salad Days UK Tour.

West End - Rent Remixed. As a production it was bottom of the barrel embarrassing. The casio keyboard sounding orchestrations, the AWFUL acting (minus Luke Evans) and random set didn't even belong in regional theatre. However, I laughed all the way through, so it was a hoot if nothing else.

Runner up - Too Close to the Sun. A musical about Ernest Hemingway and a fictional romance with his secretary. Utterly boring, utterly cheap, awful book and music, and the night I went, part of the set collapsed.

Honorable Mentions - Beautiful and the Damned, Lord of the Rings, Romeo and Juliet the Musical 2002, Gone with the Wind.

Broadway. - Dracula the Musical. How can Dracula be so dull? This seemed to manage it. Nice sets, awful book and music. The flying got boring real quick. Also, the lighten designer seemed to have the lights set to 'super dim', much like the show. 

Runner Up. - Hot Feet. What the hell? That is all. 

Honorable Mentions - Good Vibrations, Aida 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 7:55pm

Ke3 said: "Someone in a Tree2 said: "Seeing the Fish-revised OKLAHOMA held lowlight pride of place for several years. Watched the whole show from behind the standing double-bass player. Nothing could prepare us for the dreadfulness of the "ballet" that opened Act II."

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Fish production of Oklahoma wasn't revised. Wasn't one of the big things about it that all of the "freshness" came from directorial choices? I don't believe they changed the script any."

True, the words were unchanged. But the orchestrations, the staging, the Intermission break, the context, and chiefly the INTENTION of the play were all wildly revised. Hence, "the Fish-revised OKLAHOMA" stands. 

 

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 9:42pm

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS: Left at intermission.

FAR FROM HEAVEN: For me, the only plus left from this show is the fact that I went with a friend of mine. We absolutely hated it and relished in ripping it to shreds over drinks afterwards. However, over the years, whenever an awkward lull in a conversation would happen between us, one of us would sing out the opening line to the terrible opening number: “Autumn in Connecticut…!” Not sure if that’s the song’s title, but it was definitely the opening salvo!

Updated On: 9/16/22 at 09:42 PM

[noradesmond]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 10:04pm

1. Summer Stock. CAN-CAN. Ann Miller - big hair, big Texas drawl and, yes, tap dancing.The only time I left a show at intermission.

2. Took a co-worker friend on a non-date to see National Tour of EVITA! She got drunk at dinner, passed out during Act I (thankfully) but started snoring so I had to wake her up. I went back the next night with my usual theater date so I could enjoy the show.

[Skip23]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 10:14pm

Wait!  Forgot about "The Look Of Love".  Capathia Jenkins as "Love"!!!!!?????!!!!!

 

 

 

 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 10:28pm

Patti Lupone and Debra Winger in Mamet’s The Anarchist. Just torture.

[ManOfLaMuncha]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 10:39pm

noradesmond said: "1. Summer Stock. CAN-CAN. Ann Miller - big hair, big Texas drawl and, yes, tap dancing.The only time I left a show at intermission.

2. Took a co-worker friend on a non-date to see National Tour of EVITA! She got drunk at dinner, passed out during Act I (thankfully) but started snoring so I had to wake her up. I went back the next night with my usual theater date so I could enjoy the show."

This reminded me of when my friend and I went to see Evita.  The audience was full, but the show didn't start yet and everyone was smelling "something".  People were looking under their shoes, blaming others hehe...finally Mandy Patinkin comes out on the stage and says I know most of you have noticed a very bad odor in here...we had the rug shampood today and it left this odor...so, we're going to pass out cans of Lysol. Cans were being passed back by the audience, row to row and everyone was spraying the rug in the whole theater!  Then we were good until the scene where Patti falls on the bed...and she bounced.  I started choking back a laugh because it looked so funny.  I think I still have dents in my side from my friend's elbow.

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/16/22 at 10:43pm

Sutton Ross said: "BKLYN."

Definitely!  And Good Vibrations, Hot Feet, Footloose, Ghost, Tarzan, but mostly BKLYN.

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 9/17/22 at 12:01am

I usually have something redeeming to find in every show (for example, I was hating Charlie and the Chocolate Factory until Christian Borle's tour of the chocolate factory made me laugh out loud a couple times).

But I really didn't care for A Bronx Tale (the musical, not the play). I saw it when Chazz Palmintieri joined the cast and... yikes.

[RagtimeRay]

Posted: 9/17/22 at 6:33am

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

It won the Tony for Best Musical, which is what prompted me to buy a ticket. I wasn't feeling it.

[Tom5]

Posted: 9/17/22 at 3:04pm

I thought this didn't apply to me because I'm mostly a straight play person which are less vulnerable to disasters than musicals, and on top of that I choose carefully and am not that picky anyway but then I remembered...Sitting in a great balcony seat in The American Conservatory theatre, San Francisco, an Alan Ayckbourne comedy, intermission.  Looking at the program and suddenly was aware of a rumbling in the distance, then it got louder and stronger and closer and I looked up and saw I was directly underneath the largest ever chandelier swaying dangerously.  Never saw another Ayckbourne play after that even in New York. Too many flashbacks.

[DJD4]

Posted: 9/17/22 at 3:52pm

Loving this thread!!

I have a few that come to mind.

 

-I went and saw a student matinee of After The War at American Conservatory theatre in San Francisco. The conservatory producers very good productions, and this one was no exception. Here's the thing, the play would probably be recommended for a more mature/serious audience considering its material. I was literally in a large theatre full of high school and middle schoolers who have probably never seen a play before in their lives. Every time the lights would dim for a set change the entire theatre just erupted with chatter, and every time there was a slightly suggestive joke or sexual moment the audience burst into inappropriate laughter and excessive catcalling. the play also had a lot of commentary about race issues at the time it takes place, and any time a racist comment was made it would illicit more inappropriate laughter and cheering. It was one of the most uncomfortable experiences I have ever had in a theatre, I felt so terrible for the actors (who were all giving a great performance). I am all for young people experiencing theatre, but maybe a theatre full of rowdy teenagers wasn't the target audience for this play.

- Chicago on broadway in 2009. I saw the national tour of Chicago in San Francisco a few years prior and it was absolutely wonderful. On my New York trip we grabbed day of tickets at TKTS for the matinee, expecting to love it just as much. It had to have been the most phoned in, uninspired performance I have ever seen in my life. The three leads (Bonnie Langford, Deidre Goodwin, and Tom Hewitt) were all good, but nearly every other member of the cast just looked bored and tired. It didn't help that it was September and the theatre was only about half full, so the energy in the theatre was incredibly low. I know at that point there were numerous cast members that had been with the show for years, and they all just looked over it and that greatly affected the audiences response to the show. Seems like they were just rushing to get the performance over with so they could go home.

- I saw a touring production of Midsummer Nights Dream in San Francisco directed by Tim Supple. The production originated in India and the entire cast was from India. In all honesty it was a very good production and the cast was incredibly talented. The problem was, the mainstream, theatre goers in the audience just didn't seem to get it. Midsummer isn't the most confusing play of all time, but it does have quite a lot of characters and interconnected storylines that could get a little confusing if you aren't familiar with the play. Add onto that the fact that all the costuming was very simple and similar amongst all the characters, and that the cast were all reciting Shakespeare with very thick accents, the audience was clearly a little lost. The lowlight of the evening came at the end during the curtain call. As the cast left the stage after the bows, the applause died down fairly quickly. The cast then walked back out onstage to do an "encore bow" that is usually reserved for when the audience is still applauding. Problem was, the audience had stopped applauding, so the cast just walked back out awkwardly to silence followed by a confused smattering of half hearted applause from the audience that were already halfway out of their row. Not a major lowlight, but I did feel bad for the cast.

-The Les Miserables national tour in 2018. The show itself was very good, and the cast was absolutely fabulous as well. The problem was the lighting was so dim the entire performance. Every single scene, the stage was so incredibly dark that we could hardly see any of the detail. I know that Les Mis probably shouldn't be too brightly lit, but man this was dark. I guess you could say this was the "Low-light" of my theatre experience (sorry I had to...)

[jagman1062]

Posted: 9/17/22 at 3:58pm

Tom5 said: "I thought this didn't apply to me because I'm mostly a straight play person which are less vulnerable to disasters than musicals, and on top of that I choose carefully and am not that picky anyway but then I remembered...Sitting in a great balcony seat in The American Conservatory theatre, San Francisco, an Alan Ayckbourne comedy, intermission. Looking at the program and suddenly was aware of a rumbling in the distance, then it got louder and stronger and closer and I looked up and saw I was directly underneath the largest ever chandelier swaying dangerously. Never saw another Ayckbourne play after that even in New York. Too many flashbacks."

I have seen my fair share of bad straight plays, as well as musicals. A few plays that stand out to me:

Dead Guilty in the West End starring Hayley Mills and Voices in the Dark on Broadway starring Judith Ivey. Both plays were thrillers (or were supposed to be) and they were each so tedious to sit through. I was with others at each show, so I stayed for the entire performance thinking, well if someone is going to kill the main characters, why don't I just go up on stage and do it right now? They were no Deathtrap.

I saw a show Off-Broadway down in the Village at the Actor's Playhouse around the mid-90s. I don't remember the name because it was so bad, but I did leave at intermission feeling relief that I didn't have to sit through more torture. I believe the lead actor was a porn star trying to break into legitimate theater; I don't think he was successful. Another painful experience was Ivo Van Hove's A Streetcar Named Desire at I believe, NYTW. Who knew Streetcar was so funny?

In an earlier post I mentioned Dance of the Vampires as being the worst show I ever saw, but it's tied with that Off-Broadway show I walked out on. Other dreadful musicals on Broadway: The Look of Love, Amour, High Fidelity, the 1981 and 1994 revivals of My Fair Lady, and Dracula come to mind, as a few others have mentioned.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 9/17/22 at 4:21pm

RagtimeRay said: "TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

It won the Tony for Best Musical, which is what prompted me to buy a ticket. I wasn't feeling it."

I also hated that show...have never understood how it beat Follies for Best Musical.  A truly painful experience.

[Jimmyb1969]

Posted: 9/17/22 at 4:25pm

Lennon wins hands down for my worst experience on Broadway.

The Cher show. Ouch!


The awful hypnosis play Hyprov! Yikes what a joke! 

Beanie in funny girl. When she started to sing people I knew we were in big trouble! 

The awful tour of Jekyll and Hyde. Literally the sets were falling apart.

White Christmas on Broadway - torture!

-Honeymoon in Vegas. 

- flying over sunset - I asked for my money back 

- kinky boots all three times I was forced to sit through it.


-War “Snore” Paint 

-Act two of Beetlejuice

-the last touring production of Les Miserables


A few Shakespeare in the park productions.

 


 

 

 

Updated On: 9/17/22 at 04:25 PM

[pippy1]

Posted: 9/17/22 at 4:43pm

bwayphreak234 said: "Oh now this is fun! Off the top of my head, the lowlights of my theatre going have been...

- Summer - The Donna Summer Musical

- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

- The Lightening Thief

While I try so hard to find something redeeming about every show, I will agree with you on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Christian Borle was great (as usual), as was the rest of the cast, the show was painful. And to this day, I will never understand why the set was so minimalistic. Yes, they were going for a specific vibe, but I keep thinking, if I were a set designer (which I am not), it would have been so much fun to create Willie Wonka’s world.

 

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 9/18/22 at 2:37am

There have been soooooo many

Legends - Joan Collins and Linda Evans.  Caught an early preview in Toronto before it attempted to tour.  Wow.  Wow.  It was over the top awful and so bad it was kinda good.  Really though, it was an abortion of theater

Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - saw a tour in LA at The Pantages with Diana DiGarmo and Ace Young who were from an early season of American Idol - hands down the worst thing I have ever seen on stage.  Lacking in production vale, talent and direction

Summer: The Donna Summer Musical - Literally, how.  I grew up listening to her music.  This show was abysmal - also at The Pantages in LA

Saturday Night Fever - Broadway.  That was truly awful 

It's Only A Play - stellar cast, truly next level: Nathan Lane, Stockard, Mathew Broderick, Megan Mullaly.  What a terrible unfunny play 

[paloma7]

Posted: 9/18/22 at 6:15am

A fight between two patrons broke out at Come From Away during the curtain call/"Screech Out." Raised voices, grabbing.

Someone in their party pulled them away, but when everyone began exiting through the rows, the two guys found each other again. And started actually coming to blows, with security and house manager involved.

It really soured the experience. A fight at Come From Away - of all the shows!

Edited to add: Come From Away is an amazing show, a true gem. But this particular experience was a huge low for me.

Updated On: 9/18/22 at 06:15 AM

[JustAnotherNewYorker]

Posted: 9/18/22 at 5:57pm

bholtzinger544 said: "Hands down seeing King Kong on Broadway in 2019."

I jokingly told some of the my friends that the animatronic ape called its agent and asked to be let out of its contract.

 

I have too many to name. I've only left once at intermission, and I can't for the life of me remember what show it was...apparently a coping mechanism to deal with the PTSD: post theater stress disorder.

Updated On: 9/18/22 at 05:57 PM