Which shows did you really want to like, but...- Page 3
Which shows did you really want to like, but...
hanabana
Leading Actor Joined: 5/12/12
#50Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 3:31pm
For me:
Mary Poppins - I thought I would love it, but it somehow fell short for me. It was still fun at times, and the performers were all great, but I found it to be a bit too childish at times, and a bit boring.
A Little Night Music (Revival) - I had high hopes for this show, especially with Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the leads, but it did not meet my expectations. I still found them to be amazing performers, but none of the music stayed in my head after I left the show, and it was the first time that I felt that a show was too long and needed to be cut.
Lion King - I loved the movie, and went in this thinking I would love it, but it was just "good." The beginning 15-20 minutes are definitely the best parts, after that there were certain highlights, but overall it did not amaze me the way I expected.
These are just my personal opinion. Don't get me wrong, all three shows are still entertaining and decent theater, but I just could not love them the way I wanted to.
broadwayfan24
Leading Actor Joined: 7/7/04
#51Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 3:37pm
Matilda: I was soo pumped to see this show. Everytime I saw a commercial for it, I was giddy. Then I saw it and was completely disappointed.
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time: Everyone was raving about it, but it just wasn't for me. I thought they had some amazing set and lighting designs though.
Doctor Zhivago: I really was hoping for this to succeed. I went into the theatre wanting to love it. Unfortunately it left me underwhelmed.
VintageSnarker
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/30/15
#52Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 3:57pm
"Doctor Zhivago: I really was hoping for this to succeed. I went into the theatre wanting to love it. Unfortunately it left me underwhelmed."
I had the exact opposite reaction. I'd heard about craziness and also that it was boring. I'm not sure if I'd lowered my expectations so much as I went in expecting that anything could happen. And I loved it. I'm seeing it again tonight and I think it'll be the only show (same production, I mean) I've ever seen more than once on stage. I had so much fun with it.
Hairspray0901
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/29/08
#53Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 4:25pm
This season I really really wanted to like Side Show & It Shoulda Been You but I left feeling "Why did I just pay for that?".
jkl011
Understudy Joined: 8/3/14
#54Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 4:38pm
For me it's Once. The only time I've ever actually fallen asleep during a show.
#55Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 6:16pm
"BIG FISH".
I loved the movie like nobody's business and I worship Norbert Leo Butz but the actual musical left me a little nonplussed. It just seemed too boilerplate for a musical about dreams/gusto.
"when I’m on stage I see the abyss and have to overcome it by telling myself it’s only a play." - Helen Mirren
elderchistery
Swing Joined: 2/13/15
#56Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 6:32pm
Though there are many shows I've seen and strongly disliked the one that I really tried to like but couldn't was The Phantom of the Opera. I just thought it was going to be a lot darker and a bit more romantic but i just found myself waiting for something spectacular to come and it just didn't. I know must people wouldn't agree with me but it just did not live up to my expectations.
rattleNwoolypenguin
Broadway Star Joined: 10/11/11
#57Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 6:39pm
I really thought I would love "In the Heights" cause I had fallen so in love with the cast recording, the livliness, the quickness of the lyrics, the awesome harmonies and the plot driven songs and while there was a lot I liked, I found it sort of all over the place and not focused and the actual storyline sort of mundane and not horribly exciting. I wanted more of Usnavi and Vanessa's story and less of Benny and Nina.
Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it but I didn't totally love it and oddly enough it plays out much better to me as an album. Maybe someday a scaled down revival might center it more..
#59Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 7:01pm
Two shows of note-- CAROLINE, OR CHANGE and A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE... . I admire them, but I just can't wrap my head around 'em in totality.
#60Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 7:18pm
dont hate me--"caroline or change".
#61Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 7:22pm
I won't hate you. There are elements of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE I really like a lot, but as a whole, I just "admire it." And I feel so guilty. I've felt that way about a lot of Jeanine Tesori's work, though I thought VIOLET worked very well as a one-act.
On the other hand, Tesori knocked my socks off with FUN HOME.
#62Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 7:46pm
Musicals:
On The Town. Have seen it many times and found the current Broadway production lacking. Embarrassed to admit but I nodded off at a Saturday matinee.
Bridges of Madison County. Grabbed a very last minute ticket, just before it closed, went in not expecting a lot and I fell hard for it! Full house, prolonged standing ovation, tears. I'll never understand why that show didn't do better--despite the townsfolk who all could have been cut.
Plays:
The Realistic Joneses. Excited to see a top notch cast. What a dreadful bore.
Airline Highway.Love Julie White, so I went really just to see her. About a dozen people left at intermission. They obviously knew something I did not. The first act had some charm, but the second act? Oy! WTF was that?!
#63Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/8/15 at 10:23pm
Book of Mormon.
I actually saw it via video, and not live. Everyone was raving about this show: How funny it is, and how it got raves, and how it got Best Musical. And I knew about the humor and the blasphemerous jokes in it, so I knew what I was getting to. And I'm sorry, but I didn't enjoy BoM at all. I only laughed one time (the audio was great) and it was fine for the first 10 minutes and it went really downhill when it got to Africa. I think it was a little too offensive and racist to Africans. (FYI I'm a Christian, but I didn't mind Hasa Diga Eebowai that much because of story reasons. Plus, that song is so damn catchy). I thought it was disturbing that the audience was laughing at some of the jokes like the raping babies one and the African stereotypes. I didn't even saw Act 2. Sorry, it wasn't for me. Just overrated.
Adams Family:
A local theatre did this last year and I was thinking about auditioning for the show. I love the soundtrack, so I thought this would be great. Again, I saw it via video and gosh, am I glad that I saw it before auditioning. I thought it was awful. I don't know if it's because I never saw the show, but man, it was really bizarre and over-the-top. And it's too bad because the show helped me get through recovering from my back surgery, back in 2012
There's another show on the top of my brain that I'm forgetting
jimmycurry01
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/05
#65Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/9/15 at 2:06am
Titanic was one of my biggest disappointments. I loved the score going in to it. I had the cast recording and listened to it frequently. Then I saw the original national tour in Chicago. The book really killed it for me. The show was a snooze fest.
I also saw the Doyle production of Sweeney Todd in Chicago. The staging was awkward, David Hess was horribly dull in the title role, and I still have no idea what the deal was with that damned white baby coffin. Most of the rest of the cast was sleepwalking through their roles. Judy Kaye was great though, and so was the guy playing Toby. This production almost made me question why I love Sweeney Todd so much in the first place.
#66Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/9/15 at 8:11am
"I think it was a little too offensive and racist to Africans. (FYI I'm a Christian, but I didn't mind Hasa Diga Eebowai that much because of story reasons. Plus, that song is so damn catchy). I thought it was disturbing that the audience was laughing at some of the jokes like the raping babies one and the African stereotypes. I didn't even saw Act 2. Sorry, it wasn't for me. Just overrated."
wow. First of all there was no racism toward Africans. The show humanized them and their specific situation like no other. "If you don't like what we say
Try living here a couple days
Watch all of your friends and family die
Hasa Diga Eebowai"
the white bread missionary is shocked back to reality by an actual murder in front of his eyes and is splattered by the blood. And the creators make it all work. Brilliant.
Audience members are not laughing about raping babies.
you are right, the show wasn't for you. But the show is not overrated.
ggersten
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#67Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/9/15 at 11:31am
Sting in The Threepenny Opera in D.C. (prior to Broadway). We were trying to choose between it and Gypsy with Tyne Daly and went with Sting. We did end up squeezing in Gypsy though as well!). But, there was nothing about that Threepenny Opera that we enjoyed.
We Will Rock You in London. Initially was not interested. Then started hearing good things about it. And its long fun seemed to indicate it should at least be fun. Then got a recommendation from someone who usually doesn't like theatre. So, against better judgment, we went. Oops.
Man of La Mancha with Raul Julia and Sheena Easton in San Francisco. I had raved about the show to my bride. I'm lucky I'm still married. The show is almost wiped from my memory.
MVintheheartland
Featured Actor Joined: 11/19/13
#68Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/9/15 at 10:01pm
I think a lot of it has to do with expectations.
Something Rotten was kind of meh for me, I was expecting another "Book of Mormon". First act much better than second act.
"A Gentleman's Guide" was great, I went in with NO expectations, because Side Show had closed, and we had traded in the tickets. I was pleasantly surprised.
"A Little Night Music" with Elaine Stritch and Bernadette Peters was also meh for me. Elaine kept forgetting her lines, her prompter probably had more lines that night than she did. Bernadette just played Bernadette.
theatreguy12
Broadway Star Joined: 4/20/15
#69Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/10/15 at 12:24am
^^^Very true.
And like you, I went into Gentleman's Guide with little or no knowledge of the show. A friend and I were planning a trip to NY last summer and it wasn't so much on our itinerary. When it won the Tony though our interest somewhat peaked. We decided to see it (even though I still wasn't thinking I'd get into it). Turns out I really liked it a lot.
When I saw Les Miserables back in the late 80s, I wasn't sure I'd dig that either. Thought I might be bored with it. Turns out, like so many, I liked it a lot.
Conversely though, another friend and I were talking about Urinetown last week at dinner and it got me thinking of shows that I had heard great things about prior to seeing them, but then found myself not so enthralled by the show. Urinetown was one of those shows that just didn't resonate. My friends and I actually left at intermission. Just not into it, even though I had heard great things about it.
At any rate, the purpose of this thread was not to focus on negativity as one poster suggested. It was simply to see which shows didn't live up to your expectations, and which exceeded them. Which is why I added that second part of the question, so as to not focus only on the negative critiques.
Not that I consider this a thread of negativity anyway. Simply more critiquing of shows. Nothing wrong with that.
After all the professional critics aren't always positive, so it only follows that a board like this isn't always going to be roses and sunshine. 
Thanks for the responses, all.
#70Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/10/15 at 6:25am
Sadly On The 20th Century, it was a fun night, Cheno was amazing, but it was nothing special.
Wicked, liked it the first time ( saw opening night in Melbourne Australia ) second time I saw it, you saw everything that was wrong with it, a really dull first act, that picks up a little in the second.
Lion King, stunning opening, everything that follows is awful
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
aj88
Featured Actor Joined: 3/18/15
#71Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/10/15 at 8:48am
Urinetown was already brought up but that was one occasion where I went into a show expecting to absolutely adore it because I love dark and quirky musicals....and then left completely underwhelmed.
I didn't hate it but what hurt it for me surprisingly enough was the score. There a couple of good songs but otherwise none of it stayed with me. I think what saved it was its Book and it did have a strong ensemble.
Thoroughly Modern Millie was a reverse by situation because I went in expecting to not like it but ended up liking it. I do think the show is flawed at times and the pacing is off at times but when it was on, it was on. Despite having some pre existing songs, there was enough original and also catchy and/or beautiful music that made me w
I wish it had won Score.
In the end, part of me thinks I need to revisit Urinetown.
Others include:
SPAMALOT: I really wanted to like it but I was never the biggest fan of The Holy Grail in the first place. The cast did fine, particularly Sara Ramirez and Christopher Seiber but as a show, I found to be extremely messy with only a couple of moments that shined.
THE LION KING: Someone else mentioned the opening moments, which those are stunning and yes the whole show is stunning to look at but beyond that, I have never been part of the Lion King fan club. Julie Taymor had a genius vision with this show and her Tonys were richly deserved but in terms of emotional resonance and material, I have some solace knowing both Book and Score went to Ragtime, which was the true winner in my eyes that year.
icantbelive
Featured Actor Joined: 5/5/06
#72Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/10/15 at 9:03am
Mamma Mia! - Was very young when I first saw it (like 8 or 10) and had never disliked a musical yet. Left the theatre wanting more from all aspects of the show, besides the music. The set and story were very disappointing especially because Mamma Mia! has such a huge fan base.
#73Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/10/15 at 9:14am
American Idiot. I still enjoy listening to the cast recording but when I saw it I just thought it was overwhelmingly stupid.
I know you.
I know you.
I know you.
#74Which shows did you really want to like, but...
Posted: 5/10/15 at 9:39am
I thought The Addams Family would have it all - was even prepared to go to Chicago to see the tryouts. Landed a ticket for B'way previews, scrambled to my seat completely excited. The first five minutes, I was ready for the time of my life - and then..... something went horribly wrong.
For the next two hours, I was appalled by the borscht-belt story, the godawful music, and the revisionism of not only making Wednesday older than Pugsley, but wasting absolutely everyone in the cast.
I wasn't that disappointed again until I saw Ghost the Musical. And I still maintain that making musicals out of movies is a pretty lazy idea.
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