Unpopular Opinions You Hold- Page 22

[romgitsean]

Posted: 1/20/10 at 9:53am

EDIT: Double-posting. Sorry!

Updated On: 1/20/10 at 09:53 AM

[showprince2]

Posted: 1/20/10 at 8:31pm

I don't see how anyone could have liked Legally Blond. I saw it preview in SF and of course on TV but it was the worst show I've ever seen! By far the ugliest costumes, sets, choreography,etc. I've seen hundreds of shows starting with Bells are Ringing with Judy Holliday (yes I know I am ancient!) and have seen my share of flops but don't understand how even the teeny boppers here liked it. Bugs me! Sorry - I know to each his own,etc.!

[mywonderwa11]

Posted: 1/20/10 at 9:34pm

I. Hate. Patti. LuPone. More than ANYTHING in this world! I can't stand her.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/20/10 at 10:02pm

That Orfeh has already begun perimenopause.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 1/21/10 at 8:03am

Ted Neeley should keep playing Jesus however the hell long he wants. Yeah. I said it.

[myshikobit]

Posted: 1/22/10 at 5:24pm

I didn't think Billy Elliot was that great.... at all.

I think to be a true musical theatre artist, you have to study Rodgers and Hammerstein, Bob Fosse and Stephen Sondheim. Not just the hits. Everything about their work.

ALW really isn't all that bad....

Drag Queens annoy me.

[Scott Briefer]

Posted: 1/22/10 at 5:30pm

I too thought Billy Elliot... Okay. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't blown away.

[myshikobit]

Posted: 1/22/10 at 5:44pm

Yeah, I was just bored all the way until "Expressing Yourself". And I loved the "Angry Dance". The rest bored me to tears. I almost dozed off a few times. And I love "Sunday in the Park with George", which is apparently boring to some people. But "Billy".... ugh disappointing.

Oh...

I think the new crowd of Broadway composers and lyricists, with some exceptions (LaChuisa and others) are farrrrr tooooo boring or untrained to beat out Disney and "Save Broadway". All the talented ones seem to be like lasagna without tomato sauce: flavorless and barely tolerable... boring romantic comedies with nothing that's musically exciting.

Or, they have great music, but don't really know the art well enough to create masterpieces. And thus they create lyrics that don't pertain to anything that happen in the show or poor dramatic structure. It's a lot of bark, but hopefully I will get to NY and prove I have the bite to back it up

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/22/10 at 6:02pm

I think the new crowd of Broadway composers and lyricists, with some exceptions (LaChuisa and others) are farrrrr tooooo boring or untrained to beat out Disney and "Save Broadway".

Which ones? How new is "new"? I really love material I've heard from:

Ahrens and Flaherty
Michael John LaChiusa
Jason Robert Brown
Adam Guettel
Jeanine Tesori
William Finn
Shaiman and Wittman
Hollman and Kotis
Lambert and Morrison
Kitt and Yorkey

As well as some stuff (not everything) from Frank Wildhorn and Elton John.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 1/22/10 at 6:08pm

I wouldn't consider William Finn new, personally.

[James885]

Posted: 1/22/10 at 7:28pm

I don't find Frank Wildhorn to be as bad a composer as some people say. I actually enjoy his scores to Jekyll and Hyde and The Civil War.

[myshikobit]

Posted: 1/22/10 at 10:07pm

I didn't say these were going to be popular.....

Ahrens and Flaherty:
For the most part; hate, hate, hate. From Suessical to My Favorite Year... just very pretentious and watery and nauseating. I like Ragtime- it's still doesn't redeem them. D

Michael John LaChiusa:
For the most part: love, love, love (as stated). His Wild Party, Bernarda Alba, See What I Wanna See and Marie Christine are favorites of mine. The show of his I dislike the most is "First Lady Suite", but even then, it was one of his first, so he's pardoned. A-

Jason Robert Brown:
His "Last 5 Years" is perfect. It's what all the other composers are trying to copy and failing miserably at. Parade's ok. And then everything else he writes seems to be aiming to make me scowl (Songs for a New World, 13??). It's just so pretentious and pop driven and devoid of structure. But I can't help loving me some L5Y- remarkable, really. C.

Adam Guettel: I really want to like him. I just can't call him great. He's solid though. I just always want more from his shows. Let's see. Floyd Collins is really good; he knows how to structure a show. It's in his blood. The score is fitting and some songs are remarkable. It's still just not enough for me. I can't really listen to it all the way through. Nothing incredible. Myths and Hymns is hit or miss. I love half of the score, and the other half makes me want to OD on Advil. LitP is the same as Floyd. I think he's talented and I want to like it, but it's just not there. B-

Jeanine Tesori- Hit or miss. Like Millie, hate Shrek, love Caroline. She's too unreliable in terms of what she chooses to work on. And I definitely don't expect her to break ground and become innovative all of the sudden. C+

William Finn- He's not new! Love him though. Love Falsettos. I just don't think he's new.

Shaiman and Wittman- Ugh.

Hollman and Kotis- Urinetown? I approve- it's good. I love the premise. The score's... ok. Eh. Not familiar enough to judge though. I'll look into it.

Lambert and Morrison- Yeah, this is the boredom I spoke of. Drowsy. It's so forgettable. It's good. But it doesn't sustain me and it didn't sustain an audience. Don't know enough to judge.

Kitt and Yorkey- I like N2N, but I'm not bought over yet. I'll wait.

Wildhorn is the bane of my studies. I hate listening to his work. It feels like he refuses to write anything that has worth, but totally could if he wanted to.

I'm being really snarky- unusually so. Sorry :)

Updated On: 1/22/10 at 10:07 PM

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 1/22/10 at 10:23pm

-I almost ALWAYS prefer revival recordings to OBC...usually better singers. The actualy performances might not have been as great but they sound better on cd!

-Theatre people (probably including myself) annoy the crap out me. Actors (I'm one) are the same at every audition "Oh I was in this show, I have these auditions then then and then". "Theatre geeks" think they know everything about everything and name drop like it'll get them somewhere. I try to remember these traits so I don't do them, but I probably do unconciously. Sad. I hate it.

-I've tried listening to N2N but can't get into yet....maybe I need to see it first? I don't really like all these "rock/pop" musicals...I LOVE Rogers and Hammerstein, Sondheim, Guettel...those types. Not everything needs to have riffs and nasally belting.

[myshikobit]

Posted: 1/22/10 at 11:49pm

So after reading what I wrote, I realize that it sounds as though i'm attacking the composers themselves, and it shouldn't be so. They all work hard in a field that has stress levels that breed mental illness. Even if I don't like their work, I admire them and wish them luck. Even Frank Wildhorn

And to Steph's 2nd bullet, I concur and know I act stupid like that- I'm pretty sure all ambitious people do that. We just want acceptance and a chance to make good. Still, my intentions are geniune and I try to consider that before judging people

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 11:49am

myshikobit - I guess it depends on your criteria of what makes a good Broadway composer and the style of show your prefer. Still not sure what you consider "new", though. Finn isn't new, but Wildhorn has been around almost as long. I can get why some people don't care for Wildhorn if they look at his work on the whole, but I do think he has some individual songs that are truly remarkable such as Sympathy Tenderness, Storybook and When I Look at You. To me, Tesori's only miss was Shrek. Millie's score is a stylishly snug fit within the framework of the show and both Caroline and Violet are astonishing works. After Seussical, Ahrens and Flaherty started to fade for me, but Seussical's score is the strength of the show for me and includes some wonderfully memorable tunes very appropriate to the material.

To remain on topic...I have never been a fan of The Last Five Years. I've tried time and again to get into this score, but it just doesn't resonate with me. I love Parade and consider it one of the best scores of the decade.

[followyourbliss23]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 12:42pm

i'm continually losing faith in our industry's ability to save theatre from becoming obscure in mainstream culture.

i want everyone to appreciate theatre (especially musical theatre) as much as we all do.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 12:49pm

" I love Parade and consider it one of the best scores of the decade."

PARADE is from the 1990s, not this decade.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 1:14pm

Yes, I did realize that. I meant the decade in which it was written. I just didn't articulate it well.

i'm continually losing faith in our industry's ability to save theatre from becoming obscure in mainstream culture.

It's a popular opinion amongst academics that goes back decades and decades. Theatre isn't going anywhere.

[myshikobit]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 2:16pm

Wildhorn really only hits gold when the opportunity for a fitting song hits him in the face. He's so bent on making pop songs that he ignores all structural and innovative musical theatre techniques developed over the past forty years. So instead of getting songs that forward plot or show any truly intricate point of view or emotion, he inserts drippy, mediocore pop songs that fit into his lame book. Even if he was a composer in the fifties, his work would still only produce moderate hits. He's a Ziegfield. Which would have been great... a long time ago. He should break his functional fixedness and smarten up his technique- which he's done, to an extent. But he's still primarily obnoxious and he isn't making art.

I looked back over Tesori, and I do agree she's written some good stuff (especially Violet, which I got upon your recommendation) and I hope she makes something REALLY great :).

"i'm continually losing faith in our industry's ability to save theatre from becoming obscure in mainstream culture.

It's a popular opinion amongst academics that goes back decades and decades. Theatre isn't going anywhere. "

It's here to stay. But will it grow if the industry doesn't start creating more constructive, superior pieces of theatre? I think Broadway needs to shift the way people think about theatre. I think tourists should get the idea to come to Broadway and see something interesting and intelligent and unique- not Disney movies with lavish special effects

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 4:52pm

But will it grow if the industry doesn't start creating more constructive, superior pieces of theatre?

It will. It always has. It's artistic evolution that's been going on for centuries. If it hadn't, we'd be sitting around watching the same production of Oedipus Rex outside again and again.

I think Broadway needs to shift the way people think about theatre.

In some ways it will, but it's not just the responsibility of Broadway, but all theatre everywhere. Broadway is a highly visible commercial corner of the theatrical world, but not all movement in theatre springs from Broadway. And we are getting changes, but they just may not be to your liking.

I think tourists should get the idea to come to Broadway and see something interesting and intelligent and unique- not Disney movies with lavish special effects

Audiences will dictate commercial trends, some of them will be popular amongst hardcore theatre enthusiasts and academics, while others are not. But that is the nature of Broadway. The audiences with decide what they what to see and why should we tell them we simply won't produce something they want? Other shows are being produced and other shows are being successful (Light in the Piazza, Spelling Bee, Avenue Q, Next to Normal). And some of the big commercial special-effects laden stuff is not working as much any more (Little Mermaid, Tarzan, Woman in White, Nine to Five, Shrek). Caroline or Change is not a show for everyone and that is perfectly fine. In the tradition of musical theatre, it probably was never expected to be a huge hit. The audience demographic has changed drastically in the last thirty years. We have to stop using the past as a barometer for what should be expected on Broadway. Unless we shut down most international tourism in the US, we're never going to be back there again.

[Will O'Donnell]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 6:01pm

I don't care for Stephen Sondheim. I think his shows are boring.

[MeganW]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 7:32pm

I found Ted Neely's Jesus Christ Superstar to be the worst show I have ever seen. I felt like every single actor was specifically directed to act poorly. Not to mention, it's ludicrous that "Jesus" had scraggly, grey hair. 65 years old is not comparable to 30 years old.

That said, most of the audience gave it a standing ovation, so what do I know?

[onedaymore]

Posted: 1/29/10 at 4:07am

I absolutely hate Spring Awakening with a fierce passion. And the fact that the same morons are taking another piece of crap with a heart-shaped grenade symbol and putting it on Broadway makes me want to vomit.

[Liz7]

Posted: 1/29/10 at 9:24pm

I think that Idina Menzel was absolutely fantastic in Chess.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 1/29/10 at 11:24pm

Not just any heart shaped grenade, a heart shaped grenade that makes you bleed! Or is the grenade bleeding? Anyway if we judge simply on cover art, and the outrage would be more appropriate when it was a 5x platinum album in the US in 2003, then I wonder how many shows I would not have seen strictly because of that. I had no idea that Billy Joe Armstrong and Duncan Sheik were the same people either.

I hated Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

I find Norbert Leo Butz annoying and not really compelling outside of The Last Five Years. Glad he's not doing Catch Me If You Can, in fact.

I liked Young Frankenstein but I thought Sutton Foster was a complete miscast.

Avenue Q deserved the Tony over Wicked.

I felt David Hyde Pierce was robbed of a Tony nod for Spamalot. After Sara Ramirez the person I was most impressed with when I saw Spamalot for the first time.

Gerard Butler did not bother me in Phantom of The Opera. Richard Gere attempting vaudeville-styled "singing" in Chicago did. Still love Chicago to pieces.

I wish they remade Pal Joey for the big screen again.

I am still a little sad that the Cumming/Lauper Threepenny Opera did not get an OCR.