Worst Changes Made in an Amateur Production

[Phantom487]

What are some of the worst (and/or most ILLEGAL) changes you've seen made in amateur productions??

It bugs me to hell when theatres try and add characters you "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown."

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Boobs & Tush.

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

"It bugs me to hell when theatres try and add characters you "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown."

Oh God, their doing that at my school.

[theaterdude87]

our high school did this and that. which was odd because they litereally kept everything else in.

[StickToPriest]

WBAF, please say you're joking. That would be priceless.

[LizzieCurry]

I saw a church production of Joseph where they changed half the lyrics and made Joseph master of Potiphar's website.

I saw a college production of J & H which reset the show in New Orleans.

[Michael Bennett]

It always bothers me when I see a community production of ANNIE and they have added a chorus of about 25 orphan girls - (and why do the "added" orphans always named after Peanut characters - Marcie - Lucy - Patty - Sally?)

But the absolute worst is when they add songs from another musical just to give a superflous character something to do. I saw a production of OLIVER where - I kid you not - the chamber maid came into Oliver's room and sang "Wouldn't It Be Loverly"

[musicman117]

I saw a production of FAME at a high school once and they thought it as inappropriate to have a gay character in the show. so they changed his monologue to say that he only had one testicle. (because that's SO much more appropriate...)

no lie... I couldn't make that kind of thing up.

[viola13]

This wasn't an amateur production, but apparently in the recent European tour of Rent, Mimi dies. I know some people think she should die, like in La Boheme, but at the very least, the director shouldn't be allowed to deviate that much from the original script.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Okay, MichaelBennett, I literally laughed out loud at the visual of a maid in OLIVER! singing "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" out of nowhere. Not that it'd have made it better, but did they credit Lerner and Loewe for the one song?

"I saw a production of FAME at a high school once and they thought it as inappropriate to have a gay character in the show. so they changed his monologue to say that he only had one testicle. (because that's SO much more appropriate...) "

HAHAH--but wait when I did Fame the script for the character clearly mad ehim not gay--it's hinted and suspected hie's gay in the first scene then in the last (set 3 years later at grad) it turned out he was just shy.... Wer eyou guys doing a Fame based more on the movie (wher ehe was gay?)

I've heard of amateur productions doing Merrily we Roll Along "backwards" so it goes in chronological order--thus ruining a huge point to the show.

I did Forum twice, both times playing Miles--the first time was in a decent but less good production where the producer upped the chorus of guys a lot--instead of 3 we had 9 or so. That said it wasn't completely disastrous--it worked well enough as much as I hate such changes

[jbdc]

This thread has brought up memories I worked so hard to forget...

I swear that about ten years ago, I went with a friend to some high school production of Guys and Dolls and they had added a song (Pretty sure it was Maybe This Time from Cabaret) for one of the Hot Box Girls to sing in the background while Adelaide and Nathan have their scene downstage.
(Must be after Bushel and a Peck- I like that I'm trying to think of where it would logically fit in th show!)

Anyway--in a film, that might have been an interesting directorial choice, but in a bad production of Guys and Dolls...there are no words.

[Kringas]

I've heard of amateur productions doing Merrily we Roll Along "backwards" so it goes in chronological order--thus ruining a huge point to the show.

I've always heard of those productions but I've never actually known someone who has seen one. Do those productions just cut the transitions that move the show backwards or do they change the years mentioned in them to make them work?

It seems like a good number of regional productions of Dreamgirls end act one with the end of "And I Am Telling You" and don't do the "Love, Love You, Baby" tag with Deena the Dreams. The production I saw at the St. Louis Black Rep last year (which was a mess anyway) cut it.

[Yankeefan007]

Some school productions I've seen stick out -

GREASE, which added "How Lovely to Be A Woman" from Bye Bye Birdie (to be sung by Sandy).

GUYS AND DOLLS, which added "Girl from Ipanema" as a musical interlude for the Havana scene and "What's New At The Zoo" in place of Take Back Your Mink.

Another production of GREASE which added "Grease (is the Word)" as an encore that didn't really anybody encore-ing.

I played Max in a production of SOUND OF MUSIC many years ago that rearranged the entire script, cut songs, changed song locations, cut characters, changed the Von Trapp children to all daughters, added a daughter....and I was instructed to play the part like Ed Sullivan, complete with writing my own monologue during the concert scene.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

StickToPriest, sadly it's true. The Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center's 1993 Children's Theatre Production of A CHORUS LINE featured a variety of alterations, the chief one being "Boobs & Tush" sung by a barely blooming 12 year old Val wearing a padded bra.

[Jellylorum]

I've seen lots of poor amateur productions, but nothing where there were changes that significantly deviated from the original. Most of the time, it's just adding a few extra parts to the chorus so more people can have a chance to be in the show.

I've heard of a horrific change that someone wanted done, though. My college once put on a Sondheim show and our newspaper reviewer tore it apart and criticized the director for not spoofing it by making it unique, enjoyable, fun and campy because the show itself was too traditional, dramatic and conventional.

[jbdc]

I feel like a Chorus Line comes with the alternate lyrics "This & That," which makes Boobs & Tush all the more delightful.

[Princeton78]

Every production of Godspell i've seen has been horrific. I've seen it done like it were Hair with hippies and insence (sp?), i've seen it set on the moon (no comment), and i've seen it done with a cast of 45 randomly swaying and clapping to Prepare Ye. Do it like the original, or just do Annie like everyone else.

[morosco]

The production of A CHORUS LINE where twin brothers both played the role of Mike. The character was changed to Mike "and Ike" (no lie) and, you guessed it, they sang "WE Can Do That". (You can find a clip of that number on that website we all know and love.)

[Princeton78]

I'm also not fond of the female leading player in Pippin. This isn't Joseph.

[Jon]

I'm not fond of mothers instead of fathers in THE FANTASTICKS.

I know of a production of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN that changed Pawnee Bill to "Pawnee Jill".

[doodlenyc]

White version of Purlie...seriously.

[seaweedjstubbs]

I was in my middle school production of THE WIZ. The only song we used that was not in the movie was "So you wanted to meet the Wizard." The rest she cut and replaced I was Born on the Day before Yesterday with You Can't Win from the movie. The play wasn't bad sut that scene was horrible.

Our drama teacher showed us an earlier production of THE WIZ where they basically got the movie script, edited it, and then performed it. TERRIBLE.

There are also about ten different productions of Little Shop of Horrors on Youtube where they change the ending and sing Mean Green Mother From Outer Space with dancers dressed in green to reperesent the vines. HORRIBLE..............

[Gothampc]

A production of A Chorus Line that only had 10 dancers. Cassie, Diana, Sheila, Val and Composite Girl. Ritchie, Paul, Al, Composite Guy 1 and Composite Guy 2. If I remember correctly, Connie's material was cut altogether.

A production of Carousel where a policeman shoots Billy rather than him killing himself. (Somebody should have told R&H you can't get into Heaven by killing yourself).

A church production of Godspell where instead of "We all need help to feel fine, let's have some wine" the lyric went "We all need help to feel fine. We feel so fine."

[GreenGirl22406]

I was in a production of Bye Bye Birdie in which they wouldn't allow Hugo to get drunk even off milk, so he was depressed instead. It worked if you didn't know he was supposed to be drunk, but it was just kind of odd otherwise.