This Doesn't Sound Good

[Timmer]

The idea of this is to write a description of a musical we know to be successful that makes it sond like it would be really bad.

For example, we're going to take Romeo and Juliet, update it to New York in the 1950s, change the families to gangs, and add a musical score.

Or a musical about the life of a stripper.

Terrible ideas as described, but we know that they're both classics.

Make them sound like they'd never work.

[jordangirl]

Hasn't this been done a few times?

[Gothampc]

A story about a barber that returns for revenge and his loopy, sex-starved accomplice. There will be simulated throat-slittings in the musical and cannabilism is also represented.

[JoeKv99]

How about a musical about a guy who starts threads on a theater board over and over- "What shows have shows within a show?" "What shows have bad premises?"

[D2]

THREADSTARTER! The musical.

[StockardFan]

LOL!!!

[tazber]

Who would pay to be annoyed though?

[D2]

Have you seen the box-office receipts for WICKED, Taz?

[BrodyFosse123]

Topic already discussed heavily last month in a 2-page thread:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=968984#3589231

[Weez]

I don't remember who described 'Evita' as "country bumpkin sleeps her way to the top, dies", but it still makes me happy. :)

[JoeKv99]

I love that movie musical about the juvenile delinquent who travels to another world and kills the first person she meets. Then, accompanied by a giant feral cat and an axe-wielding cyborg she sets off to kill again.

[tazber]

You forgot the mentally handicapped fire hazard that travels with them.

[Timmer]

That was about actual bad ideas that worked. This is finding descriptions that make them SOUND LIKE bad ideas whether they were or not.

[Timmer]

That was about actual bad ideas that worked. This is finding descriptions that make them SOUND LIKE bad ideas whether they were or not.

[Timmer]

A couple of guys try to put on a really bad musical.

[Patash]

"That was about actual bad ideas that worked. This is finding descriptions that make them SOUND LIKE bad ideas whether they were or not."


Timmer, now you've lost me. Care to explain the difference between the examples listed that were bad ideas that worked and your request for things that "sound" like bad ideas that worked or didn't? Are you suggesting that the bad ideas that worked listed don't "sound" like bad ideas? Or are you saying that those examples really were bad ideas that worked and you want ones that were good ideas that only sound like bad ideas? How do you distinguish between bad ideas that worked and ideas that sounded bad that worked? You are one complex guy!

[StockardFan]

Now my head is spinning!

[Timmer]

That thread was about what were considered bad ideas that worked.

This one is simply to take shows we know worked (such as the ones I described) and essentially anti-market them (in a humorous way, perhaps.) That took what seemed like bad ideas that turned out to be pretty good ones. This is to take ones we know ere successful and describe them in the way that makes them sound bad.

For example, my previous descriptions:

We're going to take Romeo and Juliet, update it to New York in the 1950s, change the families to gangs, and add a musical score.

Or a musical about the life of a stripper.

A couple of guys try to put on a really bad musical.

And so forth.

Gothampc got it wih "A story about a barber that returns for revenge and his loopy, sex-starved accomplice. There will be simulated throat-slittings in the musical and cannabilism is also represented." (We know what show that is and it's a very successful, classic musical, but it sounds really dumb the way that Gothampc described it. That's the spirit, Gothampc!)

A bunch of people audition for a show.

A 35-year-old bachelor celebrates his birthday with his 10 closest friends.

That sort of description.

It's for fun.

[Greekmusicalfan]

Cats gather in a dirty alley, tell their stories and the most miserable one goes to heaven !

BAD idea, worse execution, yet it worked almost FOREVER !

[Mekroth]

The lynching of Leo Frank

[Timmer]

Not necessarily a bad idea, Greekmusicalfan. In fact, I'm something of an Eliot freak, so it worked for me very well. But the way you describe it makes it sound really bad.

Which is the point of this thread.

Even as much of a T.S. Eliot fan as I am, I know that not everything of his would work, however. You just gave me an idea for the "Worst Musical Ideas" thread.

[Timmer]

A musical about the Declaration of Independence.

[brochatkid]

A story about teen angst in late 1800s Germany... Let's give it a modern-day rock music score to complement the storyline about sex, rape, and suicide.

[musicalmaster703]

lol love this thread

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[YouWantitWhen????]

With regard to the premise of this thread, I have one thought... Darwin was wrong.

Carry on.