Least Favorite Plays
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Topic: Least Favorite Plays
Posted By: pauliebonn
Subject: Least Favorite Plays
Date Posted: 7/29/05 at 12:28am
| What is your least favorite play to perfor/direct/listen to/watch? |
Replies:
Posted By: Kathy S
Date Posted: 7/29/05 at 12:43am
| The Nunsense plays ...boring costumes, not sexy, lame humor. |
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 7/29/05 at 6:41am
|
"Brigadoon" - hated going to rehearsals - BO-RING
|
Posted By: Shatcher
Date Posted: 7/29/05 at 1:47pm
|
South Pacific. Ick!!! |
Posted By: slicksister
Date Posted: 7/29/05 at 9:53pm
|
I'll second Brigadoon and anything by Shakespeare. I know, I
know, and I call myself a self respecting theatre geek but they just
bore me to death.
------------- The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing |
Posted By: dougb
Date Posted: 7/30/05 at 10:39am
|
I can't really think of a play I don't like (there are a bunch I don't
care for though) but there have been MANY productions I haven't
liked. For example, a few years ago I saw a production of Bell,
Book and Candle and couldn't stay awake. The script seemed dated,
the relationships unbelievable, and just sleep time. I saw
another production of it recently and was spellbound. I used to dislike Shakespeare - I also found it boring but after a couple of acting classes on Shakespeare, I began to like it. I have really enjoyed the last two productions of his plays that I saw. Both were well staged. Last night I saw an outdoor production of OTHELLO. It was to die for - great acting and a wonderful story. Okay, so I found the first hour a little slow but the last hour and a half was riveting. |
Posted By: Topper
Date Posted: 7/30/05 at 3:49pm
|
"Annie" is too cute to live and sets my teeth on edge.
"Godspell" might have been entertaining 30 years ago, but it's time to put that baby to rest. Likewise, I've yet to see a production of "Pippin" that can sustain my interest past the first song. ------------- "None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public." -- Keith Johnstone |
Posted By: Linda S
Date Posted: 7/31/05 at 11:13am
|
I agree with Doug. I can't think of a play I don't like. There have been some productions that I haven't cared for, but that wasn't the play's fault. I just saw a production of Little Shop that was hair raising and not in good way. There was a full chorus of women and children instead of the three back-up singers. And the children were doing cartwheels! It just made you ask why? I have never seen a production of Damn Yankees that I liked, but again I don't think that is play's fault. Linda |
Posted By: Shatcher
Date Posted: 8/01/05 at 12:25pm
|
Doudb was the OTHELLO you saw in Omaha? must disagree with you on the Bard. some of the best productions I've ever worked on have been his. However they any play can be death to watch if not done well.
|
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 8/02/05 at 7:43am
|
I guess I'm fussier - LOL - there are lots of plays I don't like.
There are also lots of plays I *do* like - but there are any number of reasons that I dislike various plays: subject matter simply doesn't interest me; I object to the statements being made politically; I don't think it's funny (if it's a comedy); I don't find it dramatic (if it's a drama); interesting characters set up in a mundane plotline; stock characters used in an interesting plotline; hackneyed music (if a musical); second act falls apart, after an engaging first act. I've watched or read a lot of plays that have those (to me) problems. I'm way more forgiving watching a play than if I'm working on a production ... I'll sit through almost anything - but, if I'm going to throw my heart and soul into a project for twelve weeks, I'd better like it! |
Posted By: emro
Date Posted: 8/02/05 at 6:42pm
|
big, the musical. I wouldn't even let my parents come and see me
in it. And Pippin. I hate Pippin. It's so-- what is
the word I'm looking for?--groovy/hippy/yucky.
------------- Cucumber sandwiches? Watercress sandwiches? The whole scene would stand or fall on his ultimate decision. -- Instant Lives & More: Oscar Wilde |
Posted By: Alycia_K
Date Posted: 8/03/05 at 7:54pm
| The student version of Grease doesn't thrill me. You can't take things out of a play that give it character and expect it to have the same punch. But I also think that it was just that production of it. Also, I was in a school production of Fiddler that was positively dreadful 85% of the time. |
Posted By: falstaff83
Date Posted: 8/14/05 at 12:26am
| People will hate me for saying this, but... A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now, don't get me wrong- I think Shakespeare is rightly considered the finest playwright ever. But that's for two reasons: 1. he's a great artist, and 2. he's a great thinker. MND- I have no prob with Shakespeare as thinker. I understand the play. I just don't think it's very exciting. The lovers are incredibly boring. There are no great speeches, no great wordplay. A lot of the humor is derived from making fun of stupid people, which I just think isn't that funny. I studied the play in school, I've seen it performed, I've even been in it. And it's just a really lame play. I probably wouldn't dislike it so much if it weren't performed soooo much. But it seems like EVERY theater group does it. What Grease is to the modern musical, MND is to Elizabethan comedy. |
Posted By: jtonner
Date Posted: 8/15/05 at 1:28pm
|
It is almost as if I wrote this post. My only difference would be to add "The Wiz". Another of those musicals (like Pippin) that is so dated, it cannot be saved. big, the musical is just bad, how such a good movie could become such a bad musical is beyond me. It is as if they removed everything in the movie was good so they could add things that were terrible. John ------------- John |
Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 8/15/05 at 6:04pm
While I've never seen Big, the Musical ... I've heard absolutely nothing good about it. One of our local theatre groups has been planning on this production for a while with no specific time slot. I just found out last night it got cancelled from this year's schedule. Sounds like it might have been a very excellen move on their part. |
Posted By: Topper
Date Posted: 8/15/05 at 7:34pm
|
Believe it or not, there are also staged musical
versions of the movies "Carrie" and "Urban Cowboy." Both of which blessedly closed after a very limited Broadway debut. I wish I'd see them only out of curiosity. ------------- "None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public." -- Keith Johnstone |
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 8/15/05 at 10:53pm
|
I saw "Carrie" the musical on opening night.
I don't know why it was such a monumental flop. It was terrific - good music - INCREDIBLE choreography - wonderful sets. I thought it was going to be a huge hit - and I think it played like a week LOL. Many many years ago I also saw the musical version of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with Mary Tyler Moore whch was also a huge failure...and I loved it. I must never be producer. I'd lose my shirt. LOL Although "Carrie" seems like strange material for a musical - most musical sound a little strange when you first hear about them. I know when I first heard they were making "Wicked" into a musical I was skeptical - and could anything be less musical sounding than the plot of "Little Shop of Horrors?" Another musical based on dubious material is "Light in the Piazza" which we saw two weeks ago. It was positively glorious - and yet, the material certainly woulnd't seem to make one sit up and get excited about writing songs for it! |
Posted By: pauliebonn
Date Posted: 8/16/05 at 3:16am
|
i must say....it seems that you people have alot on your minds. If I may speak my mind too...
I must say that I dispise "ANNIE", Do not care for "Anything Goes!", "Fiddler" bores the heck out of me (the movie was good), and I do not like HONK!
Other than that, I must disagree on a few things...
"Pippin", and "Godspell" are two of my favorites. Although they are a bit outdated, I think that where you put on the performance, makes a great deal of difference. I performed "Godspell" in a friends Church, and it was spectacular. On the other hand, we have a troupe here doing it in the fall, and they have a 30 member chorus (UGH!!!)
P |
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 8/17/05 at 11:33am
|
I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but . . . <looks around, covers head> Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I hate, hate, hate that flippin' thing. Maybe it's the score, where every song is played twice just to pad the thing out to "real" musical length. Maybe it's the irritating narrator. Maybe it's the whole idea that it was "rediscovered" (read: dug out of the trunk) after Sir Andrew got to be hot. Maybe it's the fact that I was forced to sit through the concept album in music class in junior high, and I hated music class, junior high, and concept albums. And sitting through, for that matter. Yeah, probably that's why. But I hate that thing. Irrational, I know. But I do. Sorry. Flame on. ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
Posted By: Sueshoo
Date Posted: 8/17/05 at 3:47pm
|
I almost hate to say this but....... Neil Simon plays, perhaps because they are done to death and/or groups try to update them and in my opinion that just does not work. ------------- Susan Life is not a Dress Rehearsal |
Posted By: Dustmac
Date Posted: 8/17/05 at 6:42pm
| How The West Was Fun |
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 8/17/05 at 7:42pm
|
oh, geesh. I had forgotten about that play. I was sent the script
of "How the West Was Fun" years ago, with an audition tape of the music. It was dreadful. I think you hit on the worst play ever written. LOL |
Posted By: Spectrum
Date Posted: 8/18/05 at 10:46pm
|
I'll add my vote for GREASE as a most tiresome play/musical. Ughh. Then there are all those ridiculous mello-drama throw-away (and throw up!) scripts we used to end the season with. You know, the kind of vapid production where we encouraged the audience to boo for the villain and applaud for the hero. What a waste of time. ------------- Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. |
Posted By: Kathy S
Date Posted: 8/20/05 at 11:45pm
| No, I don't think anyone has mentioned the all time worst script, but I dragged my family to a production of it last Thursday night. That is "The Queen of Bingo". Yep. We saw it done by two guys in drag (probably improved it) and although they both did an admirable job and acted their hearts out, they couldn't redeem this terrible script. |
Posted By: steppingout
Date Posted: 9/18/05 at 5:47pm
| MUST AGREE WITH about joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat...i found it soooo cheesy. I never liked Kiss Me Kate, found it boring... |
Posted By: Giabow
Date Posted: 9/25/05 at 9:25pm
|
Anything by Rogers and Hammerstein.
And, its not a bad play, but if I have to do The Miracle Worker one more time, I'm going to have to hurt someone. |
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 9/26/05 at 11:17am
|
If you DON'T like R&H and Miracle Worker, may we ask what you DO like? ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
Must . . . control . . . fist . . . of . . . death . . . .Posted By: Giabow
Date Posted: 9/26/05 at 7:29pm
|
Its not that I don't like them. I did. Once upon a time. But now I've done
them to death and I'm sick of them. I like .... anything other than Rogers and Hammerstein and The Miracle Worker. There's A LOT more out there than that. |
Posted By: jajdavid
Date Posted: 10/10/05 at 7:36pm
| Hmmm, besides most musicals and anything by Jack SharkeY, I'd have to say The Shadow Box - the most depressing play ever written! |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 10/13/05 at 6:14pm
|
The Pot of Gold (Plautus), Carousel (R&H--not because I've done it so many times, but the music is HORRIBLE! and so is the plot [if that's what you can call it]), Oklahoma! (R&H), Anything by Samuel Beckett, Six Plays in Search of an Author (Pirandello), Everyman, Just about anything from the Lillenas catalog (I'm sorry, but the plots are super weak), Sherlock Holmes (Pioneer Drama Service by Tim Kelly), Annie, and Oliver! ------------- |
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 10/13/05 at 7:37pm
|
OMG - heh heh - you think the music to Carousel is
horrible?! LOL I think it's the best music in any of the R&H plays. Although I'm not a huge fan of old musicals, I've always found the first act of Carousel to be sublime! In fact, a couple of months ago when we saw Light in the Piazza, I said that it was the most beautiful music in a musical since Carousel! LOL Different strokes, huh?! LOL |
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 10/14/05 at 11:33am
|
Ditto to Tristan . . . the way the songs flow in and out of dialog . . . how the music and the words support or comment on each other (i.e. the "weaving" music) . . . Soliloquy . . . If I Loved You . . . the counterpoint of When The Children Are Asleep . . . You'll Never Walk Alone, if you come to it with fresh ears and not just a "Oh, here comes this thing again" attitude . . . it's all . . . just . . . damn. Hell, I even like the damned clambake song ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
Doggone it, y'all are making me wish I could sing!
.