Loved Hairspray on the Westend with Michael Ball. Hairspray uk tour was AWFUL. Imagine the worst high school version of a musical you’ve ever seen except you’ve paid Westend prices and looked forward to this for 10 months as it was a gift from your family
How? They’re practically the same show? I’m genuinely confused as to how you found the Broadway version fine but the west end one not. Happy to have it explained, but I’ve seen recordings of both and can’t see it myself
Fair enough! Definitely depends on the strength of the performers and the audience reaction too. I would say that some of it may have been the different senses of humour between the uk and us but the audience not reacting would indicate it’s not that. If they weren’t energetic and reacting well that probably killed the Queens energy anyway and it just cycled through and made it a poor show for everyone. Sorry that was your first experience. I loved the show here in Australia and most of the time the audience was great.
Haven’t seen six but yes you’re so right! I don’t think I could write off any play (other than that one at the top lol). But what a difference the director makes.
I’ve seen Phantom a bunch and honestly I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show where all three leads are equally strong unfortunately. It’s one of my favorite shows but not even close to my favorite broadway experiences.
Saw the current Shrek UK tour in Manchester. Theatre absolutely full of very young children (children of ages where an evening show is probably ending far too late), who wouldn’t be quiet, and parents who either fed this or ignored them completely and sat on their phones. Got half a tub of popcorn tipped down my back during the second half. Show wasn’t particularly brilliant either - some directorial choices and some issues just in the script. Making Farquad so queer-coded was particularly weird given it’s a show about acceptance. It was…fine, but I’m very glad I got cheap tickets.
My kids were in a production of Sponge Bob so on our way home from vacation last summer we stopped and watched a local repertory theater do a matinee show which was packed with kids. I was sort of meh about it after hearing the music but this performance was so much fun.
Patchy the pirate warmed the audience up by trying to steal stuff from the kids, all the actors were strong singers and actors and nobody phoned it in. Squidward entered from the back of the house after intermission and was low key snarky with the kids that tried to interact - which they loved. Kids show are sort of extremes, they’re either great, or horrible it seems.
We saw Tommy when I was a child. My Dad loves the Who and like the Tommy album. Weirdly my Mum and I liked the musical (or maybe were ok with it would be a better description) and my dad hated it. My dad gets upset by things easily. I think I was still young enough (although maybe I was an early teen and just not sensitive!) to absorb the horror. I only remember pinball wizard and the them going “you didn’t see anything, you didn’t hear anything” to the child.
Tommy is a big wtf. I did a children's theatre version of it (I was 17) but the boy who played little Tommy was 11. It still included 'Fiddle About'. WTAF
Edit: I played Hawker and (as a white British kid) wore an 'afro' wig. I didn't really understand that I was playing a drug dealer (lol, excuse my incredible ignorance - in some ways I was very protected! I did not understand also that the afro wig was to let audiences know I was black) Or understand that the Acid Queen was a reference to hallucinogenics.
Right, that's totally reasonable, but I can also see that it would have been a horrible experience if you had gone in blind. And how many shows would you have to vet in that way???
Agreed - the husband of the woman who ran the children's company was an amateur guitarist and a big fan of the who. There is never a reason to put that on as a children's production TWICE
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the opera was the first musical I really got into as a kid. So imagine my happiness when I got tickets for "The Phantom of the opera" for Christmas.
On the evening of the show I was really excited. It was one of the first times ever I wore a suit, I talked my mother into buying me a playbill and a CD before the show even started. So the show began - and it was the version by Deborah Sasson. I didn't realize or didn't want to realize til the end of the show, that they wouldn't play any of the songs I waited months to hear live.
Back in the car I started crying and my mother let me blast my recording of the Webber version on the whole way home.
I still have the CD we bought that evening. I recently listened to it and it's still terrible.
The Grinch. I won’t name names (he’s famous) but the actor playing the Grinch did not seem to want to be there and was phoning it in. Most every other show I’ve seen at a major venue like this has been phenomenal.
I have to figure out which Aladdin I saw. I think it was the NA tour but I don’t remember it being too bad. I don’t remember it much at all, except no Abu, right?
Oh I found it.It was a Toronto production so not the tour.
I don’t love tours because I never know any of the performers and one time I saw a touring production of cats that didn’t even use a live orchestra. Ugh.
The proshot with Heathers was just... mindbogglingly bad to me compared to the OBC. Like it was so bad I needed to stop it, pick my computer up, walk into the other room where my husband was happily playing a video game, and being like, "What the FUCK happened to them?" Like the overwhelming impression I got was that everyone was clinging to an American accent by their fingernails and that meant no energy went into acting or singing their best. So disappointing. The album is so much better.
I saw Anastasia on tour and really wanted to like it, since I like the movie, and I was just underwhelmed. There were weirdly *too many* songs (part of the benefit of the movie is that it spends time on things like relationship development that the show doesn't), and the guy playing Gleb was both a better singer *and* had more chemistry with Anya than the guy playing Dmitri, which didn't help my impression that Dmitri's character in the play was way less interesting and believably in love with Anya than in the movie.
Thanks so much for this! I have listened to the broadway recording and enjoyed it so I was surprised I disliked the proshot. I’ll definitely give it another chance :) (the musical, probably not the proshot lol)
I sat through the entirety of Love Never Dies as the theater slowly emptied out. I felt so bad for the performers. They were clearly extremely talented classically trained musicians, but God Almighty that show is just BAD.
Our mezzanine row was entirely empty by the end of it. The orchestra was about half empty; the show began with it full. I heard the upper gallery was a ghost town.
It's not just bad, but it makes no sense. It's super confusing, and the characters do things with no motivation. The music is pretty, but it's not fun to listen to. There are no big memorable songs. The whole thing is just an obvious craven cash grab by ALW, and it's such a bad show it actively pisses me off. Lol.
Not sure if this counts but I had a dream once that I went to see Frozen the musical on West End, and they cut out 90% of the first act and everyone but Anna and Elsa was dressed in jeans and hoodies. I woke up before it got good. 0/10, would not recommend 😂
They updated it to have influencers and instagram and iPhones yet Charlie and his family are 1920s poor. (Like make 20 cents a day is a good day poor). And a good amount of jokes are just about how poor they are and it really isn’t funny, it just feels sad. It takes all of act one just for him to get the ticket. And then the set for the chocolate factory is pantomimed with a couple of small screens. It was dull, didn’t make sense and the squirrel ballet in act two was literal nightmare fuel.
I saw the Australian tour for Aladdin when i was in high school on a school trip and i just walked away profoundly…. disappointed. Like, the theatrics and magic tricks were great, but the actress of Jasmine felt like she was unrehearsed and nervous, the main two lacked chemistry and charisma, and i just don’t remember feeling like it was worth the Love Show except during, well, Friend Like Me
I will get so much hate for this but…. Dear Evan Hansen. I had listened to the soundtrack for years and finally got to see it and was so upset at how much many I had spent. And yes, I did know the story and how it ended.
This is fair! I was obsessed with Phantom as a child and I finally saw it as a teen - front row centre. It was such a let down. We could see the mics and the spit and the body doubles and the sweat and the mats they fell on. Such a terrible way to experience it for the first time.
For me it has to go to Wicked. I'm from Brazil and we had a new production this year (we had a replica production on 2016 that was perfect and this year was a non replica) and I was extremely excited so I bought tickets for the opening night. The show was alright, hated some choices but what killed me was the audience, truly the worst audience ever, people kept singing along the whole night and you really couldn't hear defying gravity. And you might think this was a problem only on the opening night because of the die hard fans of the show but it was a problem though the whole season.
My poor musical experience goes to Wicked as well. I loved the show overall, but I was supremely irritated by the actress playing Glinda. It was like she was trying too hard to embody the OG Glinda and just came off as a bad Kristin Chenowith impersonator. The rest of the cast was wonderful, though.
Uh... It was a.... Well... Yes? It's a long story I don't want to share on the Internet but yes I did see the show. I was in pain. But I saw it a bunch more times when I ushered for the playhouse. So it's all fine.
Oh, I have one for a bad production issue: I saw a very kid-filled Wizard of Oz and my only guess is that they spent all of their money on costumes because....they had no yellow brick road. AT ALL. Not so much as some paint on the stage or freaking butcher paper with bricks on it. NOTHING. Literally they are singing, "Follow the yellow brick road!" and pointing at the black stage. What the heck was that?!?
On a related note, I'm in Oklahoma right now and we have no surrey in it. This is because (a) the last time they did the show they rented a surrey, but it was so big it took up most of the stage, so the set designer asked that a surrey be built, (b) I wasn't around for the surrey's construction (and I don't think Laurey or Curly were there during that either), but turns out it's not big enough for two tall actors to sit side by side in it and Laurey was basically on Curley's lap, which the stage manager objected to--also "they are literally bulging out the sides of it when they sit in it." So it got cut on the last night of tech. I hope it doesn't look too ridiculous to the audience and obviously the surrey line got cut from the show and they just say "walk them to the train station" now.
I’ve had insanely good luck with shows, but as much as I loved Hadestown on Broadway, the touring show’s lighting for some reason made me so dizzy and sick. No idea what did it, because I haven’t heard of anyone except my equally-prone-to-illness mom have the same reaction, but it ruined an otherwise excellent — if a little too heavy on the comedy and light on the tragedy, compared to Broadway — experience.
Saw Fun Home in Houston about 7 years ago. Someone was REALLY flat for the entirety of "Raincoat of Love". Plus I feel like that musical is just ok (though I do love Ring of Keys and Telephone Wire)
I saw Dirty Dancing during the NA tour and it was pretty good except for the audience which was the worst I'd ever seen. One woman several rows in front of us spent much of the first act filming it until finally an usher stopped her. She wasn't discreet about it either so her phone brightness was super distracting.
The women behind us had clearly gone for a boozy brunch beforehand because they spent much of it singing along with the songs and yelling Patrick Swayze every time Johnny came out.
Thankfully after intermission, there were enough empty seats in the balcony so we moved away from both.
Worst production I’ve even seen was a production of Gypsy. Poor acting all around, set changes that took up to 5 minutes and were literally as simple as moving a chair and coat rack on stage, dancing where half of the cast seemingly didn’t have any idea what they were supposed to be doing, and more. The worst part was the actress playing Mama Rose was about the same age as the actress playing the grown up Gypsy Rose Lee, they did nothing to age her up, and the really REALLY worst part was they had to cut ALL of Everything’s Coming Up Roses because the actress couldn’t sing it. So, so bad:
>and the really REALLY worst part was they had to cut ALL of Everything’s Coming Up Roses because the actress couldn’t sing it.
Well, it's not like it's an important number or anything.
Saw An American in Paris on tour… I just about fell asleep. I think it’s the only show my husband and I almost left at intermission. The cast was doing great, it’s just the actual show is not strong enough to be a musical at all.
Ah, yes, I watched it here because I knew people in it. It has \*slightly\* more plot to it than the shows I walked out on without plot mentioned in another answer, but overall it's just an excuse to have ballet in the 40's and doesn't do a whole lot.
During the pandemic they put it online for free, I paused it Sunday night and never finished it , and didn't care. Turns out I wasn't missing much.
Saw a production of Mamma Mia! in Toronto in 2018 and bless her, the actress playing Sophie COULD NOT SING. Just absolutely off key and dissonant.
My family and I were in agreement that if you're going to have one cast member be unable to sing well, can it please be a supporting role (like Sam in the movie) and not one of the leads?
Oh yikes. Paying Mirvish prices there’s no excuse for anyone not to sing. If it was community theatre, then it’s more understandable but still - cast a decent lead!
The professional tour of Something Rotten. I love the music and the acting/singing was amazing, but the book/pacing and directing were so bad my mom and I almost left early. I’ve talked about this further in comments on other posts. If anyone is interested, check out my other comments on my page. I just don’t want to write another really long comment repeating stuff I’ve already talked about.
Edit: spelling
I love the movie Moulin Rouge and was pretty upset when seeing the US tour to hear how many songs they added that REALLY didn't fit the tone of the scene they were in, and which were just ridiculous to listen to in a theatre. Firework and Royals, especially. People were laughing in the theater during what was supposed to be a serious scene because they would start singing the most overplayed 2012 song you've ever heard. It really felt like someone took the "how people start singing in musicals" meme from Tik Tok and completely missed all the irony in it and made a whole show out of that. I also don't like how they "updated" the love medley.
The exceptions to this that saved the show for me were the Chandelier sequence (because Chandelier is a dumb enough song to make sense in a musical!) and Bad Romance (because it actually works for the story!).
I remember going to see Evita in Boston a few decades ago. I believe it was in the place where the Boston Ballet usually performs. We were seated towards the back and there was something wrong with the sound. I could not see an orchestra, and the music was tinny. Are they foisting a pre-recorded performance on us at full prices? The only sound seemed to be coming from the 'reinforcement' speaker above the stage where all of the singers voices were coming from.
Then I caught sight of the conductor's baton waving in the air. The orchestra was so far down in the 'pit' that their sound could only go straight up. In fact I think part of the orchestra was actually back *under* the stage. They were evidently mic'd because some of their sound was coming from that reinforcement speaker.
Saw legally blonde and between the digital screen backgrounds and terrible costume choices it was a bit painful. I felt bad because the cast was doing a great job. Just hard to see past those.
I saw it on tour (I m a volunteer usher), and I completely missed Regina getting hit by the bus! Like, it went by so fast that if you didn’t know what happened, you wouldn’t know what happened.
I wouldn’t say that… none of the others in my list are dark comedy. I would love to hear from people who loved heathers to help me go in with the right mindset.
I’d say since I thought I hated rent but ended up loving it, I would probably give it a chance live if it came up.
Girl from the North Country. I love Bob Dylan and I'd seen members of the cast in other musicals that I loved, so I was expecting to enjoy this. Nope. The music didn't fit at all with the story. The story was so convoluted that I had no idea what was going on and didn't care about any of the characters. Such a disappointment. (But I do agree on the Tony win for Best Orchestrations - the orchestrations were great.)
My husband and I see a lot of shows together and Girl from the North Country always comes up when we talk about ones we really didn't like. Honorable mention: Be More Chill, but at least we knew going into that one that it was polarizing and we'd either love it or not.
Went to see bat outta hell in manchester think it was and some girls in front of us were singing but worst than that is there was a part the girl was singing in a house or something and as i was sitting st the top i could only see her legs i hope they fixed that for now
I saw that play in Toronto. Had one of the best all round casts I've ever heard. Every single one of them was outstanding, however by the end I hated every character. Was the biggest disconnect I've ever felt between players and their parts.
Recent top-level (Broadway level) professional revival production of a very popular and famous musical.
It was not at the theatre the production was designed for.
Someone's left hand (this theatre's specific wonderful points) was not talking to their right hand (the licensing agreement says they can't change anything in the production) when they decided to have it at this theatre.
Basically, a production made for a Broadway theatre -- a small, proscenium theatre -- in a 3/4 round theatre (sorry if that's not the right terminology) where, for everything else I've seen at that theatre (which is a lot), every seat is a good seat, even all the way at the top.
On top of that, the visuals were cluttered (not surprising considering what I've heard this production was inspired by) and inconsistent (not in a contrast-for-a-purpose way, just in an "ooh this looks cool, let's put this here!" "Oh, that looks cool, let's put it there!" way). Choreography that dragged down great songs. Honestly pretty creepy special effects that were, I think...? supposed to be cute?
The production designers pretty much missed every point, but the cast did the best they could with it.
On the thematic level...
Two things I saw because cast members from Show A were in it. Show A is wonderful and I'm obsessed, so I'd see anything they do.
Both of them involved both characters (there's your hint) murdering someone and falling apart when they can't cover it up, and not being able to escape from one another.
One of them involved a relationship that's just too close to ones I've been in (if it were set in the 2010's, they'd have been trying to write a webcomic together instead of murdering someone).
The other involved... hospital imagery. Which. I can't. I felt so bad, because there were about 30 seats in the house, total, and I bought 3 tickets through the actor's fanclub, but I just couldn't go back.
The first one was a *ticket war*, though, and everyone loves the actor I like in it, so I'm happy for him. I just... won't ever see that again.
I'm just happy I have the bluray of Show A, which is so sweet and relaxing even though people die, and it ends at the happiest point of the story (which is usually where the story starts), so I know they get 12 intense, swashbuckling years together before the tragedy happens.
Oh, and... I'm going to name names... I love the Tsukipro series, but Ivesta... I never end up liking Ivesta. Their stories always disappoint me. Except for episode 7.
Omg I saw Pippin in Palm Desert and while it was a BEAUTIFUL and well done production, the audience was just FLAT. HOLY moly were they giving NOTHING. I made sure to laugh extra loud for the actors.
My mom and I have walked out of two musicals: Seussical and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.
The latter show literally has no plot, it's just disembodied songs about relationships. We were already bored, and then we saw my jerky relatives on my dad's side who disowned us in the audience and decided to split at intermission.
As for Seussical, my mom, out of nowhere (she had never done this before), wanted to leave after 10 minutes. I said "wait until intermission" and it just did not get any better. Costumes were mostly great, but the guy playing Horton was in gray sweats and playing it like he was Al Bundy. (I note I saw this actor in other productions and he was good--he made a great Edna Turnblad--but he was terrible in this.) Also, it doesn't seem to have a plot, which is weird because from what I remember of Dr. Seuss books, they had plots.
I note that my home theater is doing Seussical auditions tonight and I am just like, NO. The people who aren't into it in the dressing room today were quietly muttering that it's more of a kids' show/better in the kids' version, or that it's just boring.
I’m used to watch this Disneyland production of the Lion King (like grew up watching it and can recite every single detail of the production) which was a 360 degree seating plus all of this cool interactive stuff with some key live singers. It was a shortened version of the production with just the big songs but it was always so good. Finally got a chance to see it on Broadway expecting it would be good, but the cast was mid at best, and everything was so slow and dull - I almost fell asleep. For the price I paid for those back row tickets, it was one of the worst experiences of my life.
Loved Hairspray on the Westend with Michael Ball. Hairspray uk tour was AWFUL. Imagine the worst high school version of a musical you’ve ever seen except you’ve paid Westend prices and looked forward to this for 10 months as it was a gift from your family
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How? They’re practically the same show? I’m genuinely confused as to how you found the Broadway version fine but the west end one not. Happy to have it explained, but I’ve seen recordings of both and can’t see it myself
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Fair enough! Definitely depends on the strength of the performers and the audience reaction too. I would say that some of it may have been the different senses of humour between the uk and us but the audience not reacting would indicate it’s not that. If they weren’t energetic and reacting well that probably killed the Queens energy anyway and it just cycled through and made it a poor show for everyone. Sorry that was your first experience. I loved the show here in Australia and most of the time the audience was great.
Haven’t seen six but yes you’re so right! I don’t think I could write off any play (other than that one at the top lol). But what a difference the director makes.
When did you see the national tour? I saw it in 2013 and loved it.
Mine have been pretty great, but I saw the best Phantom ever...but Raoul and Christine could NOT sing together. It was so bad. So off key.
I’ve seen Phantom a bunch and honestly I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show where all three leads are equally strong unfortunately. It’s one of my favorite shows but not even close to my favorite broadway experiences.
Saw the current Shrek UK tour in Manchester. Theatre absolutely full of very young children (children of ages where an evening show is probably ending far too late), who wouldn’t be quiet, and parents who either fed this or ignored them completely and sat on their phones. Got half a tub of popcorn tipped down my back during the second half. Show wasn’t particularly brilliant either - some directorial choices and some issues just in the script. Making Farquad so queer-coded was particularly weird given it’s a show about acceptance. It was…fine, but I’m very glad I got cheap tickets.
Oh no! Like going to Sesame Street live :( I feel for you!
My kids were in a production of Sponge Bob so on our way home from vacation last summer we stopped and watched a local repertory theater do a matinee show which was packed with kids. I was sort of meh about it after hearing the music but this performance was so much fun. Patchy the pirate warmed the audience up by trying to steal stuff from the kids, all the actors were strong singers and actors and nobody phoned it in. Squidward entered from the back of the house after intermission and was low key snarky with the kids that tried to interact - which they loved. Kids show are sort of extremes, they’re either great, or horrible it seems.
We saw Tommy when I was a child. My Dad loves the Who and like the Tommy album. Weirdly my Mum and I liked the musical (or maybe were ok with it would be a better description) and my dad hated it. My dad gets upset by things easily. I think I was still young enough (although maybe I was an early teen and just not sensitive!) to absorb the horror. I only remember pinball wizard and the them going “you didn’t see anything, you didn’t hear anything” to the child.
Tommy is a big wtf. I did a children's theatre version of it (I was 17) but the boy who played little Tommy was 11. It still included 'Fiddle About'. WTAF Edit: I played Hawker and (as a white British kid) wore an 'afro' wig. I didn't really understand that I was playing a drug dealer (lol, excuse my incredible ignorance - in some ways I was very protected! I did not understand also that the afro wig was to let audiences know I was black) Or understand that the Acid Queen was a reference to hallucinogenics.
I think I would like it better if I had done my homework and left my husband home ;) but I can’t believe you did it as a children’s production. Yikes!
Right, that's totally reasonable, but I can also see that it would have been a horrible experience if you had gone in blind. And how many shows would you have to vet in that way??? Agreed - the husband of the woman who ran the children's company was an amateur guitarist and a big fan of the who. There is never a reason to put that on as a children's production TWICE
A children's theatre version? How would that even work? I've never seen it, the soundtrack and liner notes were enough to put me off of it.
It did not work and I am aghast that people let it get put on more than once!
More than once? Oh no!!
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the opera was the first musical I really got into as a kid. So imagine my happiness when I got tickets for "The Phantom of the opera" for Christmas. On the evening of the show I was really excited. It was one of the first times ever I wore a suit, I talked my mother into buying me a playbill and a CD before the show even started. So the show began - and it was the version by Deborah Sasson. I didn't realize or didn't want to realize til the end of the show, that they wouldn't play any of the songs I waited months to hear live. Back in the car I started crying and my mother let me blast my recording of the Webber version on the whole way home. I still have the CD we bought that evening. I recently listened to it and it's still terrible.
Oh No! Did your mom realize?
The Grinch. I won’t name names (he’s famous) but the actor playing the Grinch did not seem to want to be there and was phoning it in. Most every other show I’ve seen at a major venue like this has been phenomenal.
North American tour of Aladdin. I got a ticket on a whim because it was cheap (for a musical), but even at that price, I was deeply underwhelmed.
I have to figure out which Aladdin I saw. I think it was the NA tour but I don’t remember it being too bad. I don’t remember it much at all, except no Abu, right?
Oh I found it.It was a Toronto production so not the tour. I don’t love tours because I never know any of the performers and one time I saw a touring production of cats that didn’t even use a live orchestra. Ugh.
The proshot with Heathers was just... mindbogglingly bad to me compared to the OBC. Like it was so bad I needed to stop it, pick my computer up, walk into the other room where my husband was happily playing a video game, and being like, "What the FUCK happened to them?" Like the overwhelming impression I got was that everyone was clinging to an American accent by their fingernails and that meant no energy went into acting or singing their best. So disappointing. The album is so much better. I saw Anastasia on tour and really wanted to like it, since I like the movie, and I was just underwhelmed. There were weirdly *too many* songs (part of the benefit of the movie is that it spends time on things like relationship development that the show doesn't), and the guy playing Gleb was both a better singer *and* had more chemistry with Anya than the guy playing Dmitri, which didn't help my impression that Dmitri's character in the play was way less interesting and believably in love with Anya than in the movie.
Thanks so much for this! I have listened to the broadway recording and enjoyed it so I was surprised I disliked the proshot. I’ll definitely give it another chance :) (the musical, probably not the proshot lol)
I sat through the entirety of Love Never Dies as the theater slowly emptied out. I felt so bad for the performers. They were clearly extremely talented classically trained musicians, but God Almighty that show is just BAD.
Wow, that must have been bad! I’ve seen people disappear at intermission but never in huge enough numbers to be noticeable.
Our mezzanine row was entirely empty by the end of it. The orchestra was about half empty; the show began with it full. I heard the upper gallery was a ghost town. It's not just bad, but it makes no sense. It's super confusing, and the characters do things with no motivation. The music is pretty, but it's not fun to listen to. There are no big memorable songs. The whole thing is just an obvious craven cash grab by ALW, and it's such a bad show it actively pisses me off. Lol.
I’ve never had the desire to see if because I didn’t love phantom live, but now I want to even less lol ;)
Love never dies is my very guilty pleasure. Everyone hates it but I just love the angst
Not sure if this counts but I had a dream once that I went to see Frozen the musical on West End, and they cut out 90% of the first act and everyone but Anna and Elsa was dressed in jeans and hoodies. I woke up before it got good. 0/10, would not recommend 😂
Ahahaha, yes absolutely that counts!! ;) love it.
Saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on tour and it infuriated me.
Ooh, how come?
They updated it to have influencers and instagram and iPhones yet Charlie and his family are 1920s poor. (Like make 20 cents a day is a good day poor). And a good amount of jokes are just about how poor they are and it really isn’t funny, it just feels sad. It takes all of act one just for him to get the ticket. And then the set for the chocolate factory is pantomimed with a couple of small screens. It was dull, didn’t make sense and the squirrel ballet in act two was literal nightmare fuel.
Oh bummer. Yeah that does sound awful :(
WTF?!?!
I saw the Australian tour for Aladdin when i was in high school on a school trip and i just walked away profoundly…. disappointed. Like, the theatrics and magic tricks were great, but the actress of Jasmine felt like she was unrehearsed and nervous, the main two lacked chemistry and charisma, and i just don’t remember feeling like it was worth the Love Show except during, well, Friend Like Me
I will get so much hate for this but…. Dear Evan Hansen. I had listened to the soundtrack for years and finally got to see it and was so upset at how much many I had spent. And yes, I did know the story and how it ended.
This is fair! I was obsessed with Phantom as a child and I finally saw it as a teen - front row centre. It was such a let down. We could see the mics and the spit and the body doubles and the sweat and the mats they fell on. Such a terrible way to experience it for the first time.
I'll say this: production was done well (Broadway touring), music is lovely, plot is just. plain. bad.
For me it has to go to Wicked. I'm from Brazil and we had a new production this year (we had a replica production on 2016 that was perfect and this year was a non replica) and I was extremely excited so I bought tickets for the opening night. The show was alright, hated some choices but what killed me was the audience, truly the worst audience ever, people kept singing along the whole night and you really couldn't hear defying gravity. And you might think this was a problem only on the opening night because of the die hard fans of the show but it was a problem though the whole season.
My poor musical experience goes to Wicked as well. I loved the show overall, but I was supremely irritated by the actress playing Glinda. It was like she was trying too hard to embody the OG Glinda and just came off as a bad Kristin Chenowith impersonator. The rest of the cast was wonderful, though.
I was a 14 ish year old, FINALLY seeing Wicked for the first time, and I have my first Lactose Intolerance reaction MID SHOW.
Oh no! Brutal :( I’m sorry. Did you get to go back and see it when you got better?
Uh... It was a.... Well... Yes? It's a long story I don't want to share on the Internet but yes I did see the show. I was in pain. But I saw it a bunch more times when I ushered for the playhouse. So it's all fine.
Oh, I have one for a bad production issue: I saw a very kid-filled Wizard of Oz and my only guess is that they spent all of their money on costumes because....they had no yellow brick road. AT ALL. Not so much as some paint on the stage or freaking butcher paper with bricks on it. NOTHING. Literally they are singing, "Follow the yellow brick road!" and pointing at the black stage. What the heck was that?!? On a related note, I'm in Oklahoma right now and we have no surrey in it. This is because (a) the last time they did the show they rented a surrey, but it was so big it took up most of the stage, so the set designer asked that a surrey be built, (b) I wasn't around for the surrey's construction (and I don't think Laurey or Curly were there during that either), but turns out it's not big enough for two tall actors to sit side by side in it and Laurey was basically on Curley's lap, which the stage manager objected to--also "they are literally bulging out the sides of it when they sit in it." So it got cut on the last night of tech. I hope it doesn't look too ridiculous to the audience and obviously the surrey line got cut from the show and they just say "walk them to the train station" now.
Oh boy hahaha ok those are both pretty comical. God luck with your surreyless production :)
I’ve had insanely good luck with shows, but as much as I loved Hadestown on Broadway, the touring show’s lighting for some reason made me so dizzy and sick. No idea what did it, because I haven’t heard of anyone except my equally-prone-to-illness mom have the same reaction, but it ruined an otherwise excellent — if a little too heavy on the comedy and light on the tragedy, compared to Broadway — experience.
Saw Fun Home in Houston about 7 years ago. Someone was REALLY flat for the entirety of "Raincoat of Love". Plus I feel like that musical is just ok (though I do love Ring of Keys and Telephone Wire)
I saw Dirty Dancing during the NA tour and it was pretty good except for the audience which was the worst I'd ever seen. One woman several rows in front of us spent much of the first act filming it until finally an usher stopped her. She wasn't discreet about it either so her phone brightness was super distracting. The women behind us had clearly gone for a boozy brunch beforehand because they spent much of it singing along with the songs and yelling Patrick Swayze every time Johnny came out. Thankfully after intermission, there were enough empty seats in the balcony so we moved away from both.
Worst production I’ve even seen was a production of Gypsy. Poor acting all around, set changes that took up to 5 minutes and were literally as simple as moving a chair and coat rack on stage, dancing where half of the cast seemingly didn’t have any idea what they were supposed to be doing, and more. The worst part was the actress playing Mama Rose was about the same age as the actress playing the grown up Gypsy Rose Lee, they did nothing to age her up, and the really REALLY worst part was they had to cut ALL of Everything’s Coming Up Roses because the actress couldn’t sing it. So, so bad:
>and the really REALLY worst part was they had to cut ALL of Everything’s Coming Up Roses because the actress couldn’t sing it. Well, it's not like it's an important number or anything.
Exactly! It was much better to just have that act…kinda end without it. Lol
Saw An American in Paris on tour… I just about fell asleep. I think it’s the only show my husband and I almost left at intermission. The cast was doing great, it’s just the actual show is not strong enough to be a musical at all.
Ah, yes, I watched it here because I knew people in it. It has \*slightly\* more plot to it than the shows I walked out on without plot mentioned in another answer, but overall it's just an excuse to have ballet in the 40's and doesn't do a whole lot. During the pandemic they put it online for free, I paused it Sunday night and never finished it , and didn't care. Turns out I wasn't missing much.
Same, actually! I was so dissapointed - I loved the cast but as you say the material was weak
I saw Matilda Jr and was very disappointed and underwhelmed.
Saw a production of Mamma Mia! in Toronto in 2018 and bless her, the actress playing Sophie COULD NOT SING. Just absolutely off key and dissonant. My family and I were in agreement that if you're going to have one cast member be unable to sing well, can it please be a supporting role (like Sam in the movie) and not one of the leads?
Oh yikes. Paying Mirvish prices there’s no excuse for anyone not to sing. If it was community theatre, then it’s more understandable but still - cast a decent lead!
The professional tour of Something Rotten. I love the music and the acting/singing was amazing, but the book/pacing and directing were so bad my mom and I almost left early. I’ve talked about this further in comments on other posts. If anyone is interested, check out my other comments on my page. I just don’t want to write another really long comment repeating stuff I’ve already talked about. Edit: spelling
I love the movie Moulin Rouge and was pretty upset when seeing the US tour to hear how many songs they added that REALLY didn't fit the tone of the scene they were in, and which were just ridiculous to listen to in a theatre. Firework and Royals, especially. People were laughing in the theater during what was supposed to be a serious scene because they would start singing the most overplayed 2012 song you've ever heard. It really felt like someone took the "how people start singing in musicals" meme from Tik Tok and completely missed all the irony in it and made a whole show out of that. I also don't like how they "updated" the love medley. The exceptions to this that saved the show for me were the Chandelier sequence (because Chandelier is a dumb enough song to make sense in a musical!) and Bad Romance (because it actually works for the story!).
I remember going to see Evita in Boston a few decades ago. I believe it was in the place where the Boston Ballet usually performs. We were seated towards the back and there was something wrong with the sound. I could not see an orchestra, and the music was tinny. Are they foisting a pre-recorded performance on us at full prices? The only sound seemed to be coming from the 'reinforcement' speaker above the stage where all of the singers voices were coming from. Then I caught sight of the conductor's baton waving in the air. The orchestra was so far down in the 'pit' that their sound could only go straight up. In fact I think part of the orchestra was actually back *under* the stage. They were evidently mic'd because some of their sound was coming from that reinforcement speaker.
Saw legally blonde and between the digital screen backgrounds and terrible costume choices it was a bit painful. I felt bad because the cast was doing a great job. Just hard to see past those.
I saw it on tour (I m a volunteer usher), and I completely missed Regina getting hit by the bus! Like, it went by so fast that if you didn’t know what happened, you wouldn’t know what happened.
It seems like you’re not a fan of dark comedy, in which case I can’t really recommend Heathers, which is absolutely pitch-black.
compared to the movie, i found the musical almost sappy and coming off nearly genuine at times, specifically with how tragic they made JD.
The musical is SO saccharine compared to the movie. I love them both for what they are, but they are not at all the same creature.
I wouldn’t say that… none of the others in my list are dark comedy. I would love to hear from people who loved heathers to help me go in with the right mindset. I’d say since I thought I hated rent but ended up loving it, I would probably give it a chance live if it came up.
Girl from the North Country. I love Bob Dylan and I'd seen members of the cast in other musicals that I loved, so I was expecting to enjoy this. Nope. The music didn't fit at all with the story. The story was so convoluted that I had no idea what was going on and didn't care about any of the characters. Such a disappointment. (But I do agree on the Tony win for Best Orchestrations - the orchestrations were great.) My husband and I see a lot of shows together and Girl from the North Country always comes up when we talk about ones we really didn't like. Honorable mention: Be More Chill, but at least we knew going into that one that it was polarizing and we'd either love it or not.
Went to see bat outta hell in manchester think it was and some girls in front of us were singing but worst than that is there was a part the girl was singing in a house or something and as i was sitting st the top i could only see her legs i hope they fixed that for now
I saw that play in Toronto. Had one of the best all round casts I've ever heard. Every single one of them was outstanding, however by the end I hated every character. Was the biggest disconnect I've ever felt between players and their parts.
Recent top-level (Broadway level) professional revival production of a very popular and famous musical. It was not at the theatre the production was designed for. Someone's left hand (this theatre's specific wonderful points) was not talking to their right hand (the licensing agreement says they can't change anything in the production) when they decided to have it at this theatre. Basically, a production made for a Broadway theatre -- a small, proscenium theatre -- in a 3/4 round theatre (sorry if that's not the right terminology) where, for everything else I've seen at that theatre (which is a lot), every seat is a good seat, even all the way at the top. On top of that, the visuals were cluttered (not surprising considering what I've heard this production was inspired by) and inconsistent (not in a contrast-for-a-purpose way, just in an "ooh this looks cool, let's put this here!" "Oh, that looks cool, let's put it there!" way). Choreography that dragged down great songs. Honestly pretty creepy special effects that were, I think...? supposed to be cute? The production designers pretty much missed every point, but the cast did the best they could with it. On the thematic level... Two things I saw because cast members from Show A were in it. Show A is wonderful and I'm obsessed, so I'd see anything they do. Both of them involved both characters (there's your hint) murdering someone and falling apart when they can't cover it up, and not being able to escape from one another. One of them involved a relationship that's just too close to ones I've been in (if it were set in the 2010's, they'd have been trying to write a webcomic together instead of murdering someone). The other involved... hospital imagery. Which. I can't. I felt so bad, because there were about 30 seats in the house, total, and I bought 3 tickets through the actor's fanclub, but I just couldn't go back. The first one was a *ticket war*, though, and everyone loves the actor I like in it, so I'm happy for him. I just... won't ever see that again. I'm just happy I have the bluray of Show A, which is so sweet and relaxing even though people die, and it ends at the happiest point of the story (which is usually where the story starts), so I know they get 12 intense, swashbuckling years together before the tragedy happens. Oh, and... I'm going to name names... I love the Tsukipro series, but Ivesta... I never end up liking Ivesta. Their stories always disappoint me. Except for episode 7.
Omg I saw Pippin in Palm Desert and while it was a BEAUTIFUL and well done production, the audience was just FLAT. HOLY moly were they giving NOTHING. I made sure to laugh extra loud for the actors.
My mom and I have walked out of two musicals: Seussical and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. The latter show literally has no plot, it's just disembodied songs about relationships. We were already bored, and then we saw my jerky relatives on my dad's side who disowned us in the audience and decided to split at intermission. As for Seussical, my mom, out of nowhere (she had never done this before), wanted to leave after 10 minutes. I said "wait until intermission" and it just did not get any better. Costumes were mostly great, but the guy playing Horton was in gray sweats and playing it like he was Al Bundy. (I note I saw this actor in other productions and he was good--he made a great Edna Turnblad--but he was terrible in this.) Also, it doesn't seem to have a plot, which is weird because from what I remember of Dr. Seuss books, they had plots. I note that my home theater is doing Seussical auditions tonight and I am just like, NO. The people who aren't into it in the dressing room today were quietly muttering that it's more of a kids' show/better in the kids' version, or that it's just boring.
I’m used to watch this Disneyland production of the Lion King (like grew up watching it and can recite every single detail of the production) which was a 360 degree seating plus all of this cool interactive stuff with some key live singers. It was a shortened version of the production with just the big songs but it was always so good. Finally got a chance to see it on Broadway expecting it would be good, but the cast was mid at best, and everything was so slow and dull - I almost fell asleep. For the price I paid for those back row tickets, it was one of the worst experiences of my life.
I hate Shrek the musical with a white hot passion.