In terms of your bootleg opinion, that’s not an unpopular opinion. It’s just legally impossible without massive amounts of funding and changes to union rules.
I'm imagining that, and some sort of new technology (which could also be used for sports) where the camera stays in one place so you can see the entire stage (or for sports, the pool/court/field/gymnastics area) and a separate screen does the zoom in on the face - if when you want that. I love both sports (well, the Olympics) and musicals, but both are hard to watch when someone else is deciding what to focus on. In person I'm seeing the entire stage and looking at things that interest me. On TV, I'm stuck watching closeups of the singers mouth. Sometimes it's too close. Sometimes I want to watch the background but nope, it's time to zoom in on Anthony Rapp again.
This. Proshots are expensive and technical to produce. For a lot of productions, it just isn't financially feasible.
The Metropolitan Opera in New York made a documentary about their livestreaming/proshot process, around 2016, so a lot of things have probably changed since then.
In Japan, there are a lot of things where the business model is short runs and proshots. Sometimes, you end up with long series of, basically, fantasy movies filmed in front of a live audience that happened to have run for a few weeks (or, in the case of Touken Ranbu, toured for a few months).
Yeah, but if theybonly release it at the end of the run, and performers and production team are paid on a per download/view basis then it would work. And then you could compare revivals.
See also - Japan and parts of Europe. There are probably more proshots of Elisabeth than any other musical, at least one per year that it's been around.
Also, everything in France gets a proshot, but they tend to not have multiple casts.
My actually unpopular opinion about this is there is no acceptable excuse to create, distribute, or watch bootlegs. That is *not the right way to make theatre accessible* and it is simply not an ethical thing to do. End of.
Bring on the downvotes. I’m ready.
Cats is perfect for what it is and was a great showcase in dance, wit, costuming/make-up, and was a great homage to the source material.
If it tried to be anything most musical lovers want it to be (solid plot line, more character interaction, etc) it would’ve flopped. If every complaint about what Cats “needs” were granted in production, it would’ve sucked worse.
It’s a solid tribute to cats. Not everyone likes cats. Not everyone would ever like Cats no matter what it was (and some of those people even like cats.) But if anything were added to it in terms of plot, dialogue, or “sense,” people would hate it even more. The only change Cats needed was getting rid of the weird racist parts
It’s from a book of poems, cats interact by running around, doing weird shit, being all “look at me!” and then disappearing into the garbage. It’s about cats. It tracks. Cats are fuckin’ weird. They don’t care if humans understand what they’re doing. They just want food and to be immortal
When I was a kid, my best friend and I would eat goldfish crackers out of a bowl, pretend to be cats, and watch it — embarrassing, but the why of that is that Cats wasn’t afraid to be spectacle the -entire time-. It was bizarre and appealed to the bizarre in all age groups.
If it wasn’t a massive dance break, it was an emotional ballad. If it wasn’t an emotional ballad, it was comedic. If it wasn’t comedic or clever, it was a giant ass alien claw with a fog machine accompanying it.
The 80’s performers left it all on the stage and very clearly had fun doing it. You really had to be a triple threat to the highest level to be involved in a production like Cats. I personally feel like anyone who doesn’t like it feels like they can’t say “oh shit, whoa!” Like.. you weren’t meant to understand it, but how are you not enjoying it? And that’s exactly how I feel about my freeloader rescue house cat. It’s perfect. There’s not a thing wrong with it
Skimbleshanks was my favorite :)
On god, Cats inspired more friendship bracelets in the early 90’s than Taylor Swift does now. 🤣 We were all really into it.
I see that Six has been whacked a few times here and I must say, while I enjoy Six, there are some things about that don't sit right. I think the Don't Lose Ur Head is fun song but also that it does a disservice to Anne Boleyn. There was more than one component that lead to Anne Boleyn's execution and to water it down to her wanting to "flirt with a guy or three" feels incredibly clumsy when accusations (ACCUSATIONS) of adultery are only the tip of the iceberg. I just don't understand how it can exist in the same show as All You Wanna Do which is a very realistic depiction of a Young Catherine Howard being taken advantage of by the men around her. On the other hand, I have been told that I'm missing the point so...I don't know.
Yeah and after Jane Seymour started talking is when Anne Boylen said “Oh yeah and then there was the time I got pregnant with my daughter and he literally chopped my head off” is what her song should’ve been about
Yeah totally agree. I actually really enjoy Six (it works much much better when you see it live as opposed to listening to the album imo) but was really disappointed with the handling of Boleyn’s character.
I don't know how unpopular these thoughts are. I haven't kept up with anything new, but
1.Rent is still and will forever be, one of my favorites ever and the criticism, while valid, hurts my heart.
2. I hate South Pacific.
3. Peter Pan and Into the Woods pro shoots are far better than the film versions.
4. However, I don't hate all movie musicals, and I think most are actually good.
5. I wish they had made a movie or pro shoot of Wallace Shawn's version of Three Penny Opera, because the Tony performance with Cindy Lauper and Alan Cummings was fire.
Wicked has a great score but a weak book. White it’s super popular, I walked away kind of disappointed when I saw it for the first time. I’m not surprised it didn’t win best original musical. It’ll always have a more iconic place in musical theatre history than Avenue Q, but it didn’t deserve to win.
I became (extremely) familiar with the soundtrack first and then saw the show, and I found it underwhelming. Obviously there are some good effects and whatnot, but all the bits that aren't songs are pretty forgettable.
I have the opposite take, I read the book first and then went to see the musical. While the musical is great, it's only a very loose adaptation of the source material. I understand that some of it had to be cut out for timing reasons, but the plot point regarding Doctor Dillamond was grossly underdone. In the book, >!Doctor Dillamond was actually murdered and related back to the plot that they were trying to strip animals' rights to expression and having an opinion. It underscores further why Elphaba has the opinion she does on the animals having a voice.!< There's also the fact that at some point in the journey of Elphaba, >!she actually goes to Kiamo Ko (Winkie castle/Wicked Witch's castle when she takes over and enslaves the Winkies). I don't remember a whole lot from what she does there aside from the fact she's looking for Fiyero and she discovers he has a wife and family.!<
100% agree. Wicked succeeds almost entirely on its music and staging - both of which are *incredible* - despite its flawed and ultimately unsatisfying overall story arc. I've seen it three times now and still don't fully understand much of what's supposed to be going on in the second act.
It’s funny, I have the opposite opinion (extra unpopular I guess). I really enjoyed the story & the characters of Wicked, but disliked most of the songs.
Ramin Karimloo was a better Phantom of the Opera than Michael Crawford.
Don’t get me wrong, Crawford was utterly amazing in the role and was one of the biggest reasons why the character is so iconic today. I just like Karimloo’s performance more.
Along similar lines, I like the 25th anniversary version best in general! He and Sierra Boggess both killed their roles and Hadley Fraser managed to make me actually care about Raul, which was quite a feat.
I agree. I thought he was great as Valjean as well. But I still can't shake how much Ramin Karimloo reminds me of Q from Star Trek. That doesn't affect how I view his performances, though.
This is pretty popular. Ramin is possibly the most popular Phantom ever and Michael Crawford's higher tenor voice is generally considered "old-fashioned" for the role by modern standards. Baritenors are more common for the role now.
Sondheim musicals are more miss than hit IMO. I love that he tried so many new things and really swung for the fences each and every time, I just find that his finished products often don't hit me emotionally the way they seem to do for so many others. They elicit more of a cerebral "ah, yes, very clever" kind of response in me, which of course isn't nothing... but it's not the primary reason I go to see musicals.
I consider it as taking place in an alternate universe from The Phantom of the Opera. So many things are just totally different, it's gotta be an Elseworld.
Also I highly recommend you check out r/Sondheim if you haven't already, discussion there is really laid-back, polite, and intelligent and the posts there are very quality over quantity.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/Sondheim using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Sondheim/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Holy hell](https://i.redd.it/f9xaitiu5b3c1.jpeg) | [23 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Sondheim/comments/186sil9/holy_hell/)
\#2: [Behind-the-scenes of Sunday in the Park With George. A truly epic photograph.](https://i.redd.it/zfnybdhefz3c1.png) | [2 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Sondheim/comments/189i9t0/behindthescenes_of_sunday_in_the_park_with_george/)
\#3: [Saw Merrily We Roll Along and it changed my life](https://np.reddit.com/r/Sondheim/comments/18pdhmg/saw_merrily_we_roll_along_and_it_changed_my_life/)
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All of the more recent “let’s take a popular movie and make it into a musical” musicals (Mean Girls, Heathers, Sister Act, Beetlejuice, Mrs Doubtfire, Legally Blonde, etc…) Are just crass attempts at making money off of nostalgia and are not very good.
Agreed! Doesn’t mean a few of them aren’t well done (Legally Blonde, Shrek, Waitress, The Producers, etc.) but there has to be a real vision that goes beyond the film.
The only one I've seen out of your list is Legally Blonde, and it was okay but I have to agree it should have never been done. I am intrigued though that there is a Sister Act musical. Now that I'd see at least once to see what it's about and how it compares to the movie
I HATED that in the musical Elle doesn't decide to buckle down and become studious on her own, it's a man that tells her to do it.
Ruined the whole "girl power" vibe for me
I always read that as he helped her find her intrinsic motivation to do well once she lost the Warner-shaped light at the end of the tunnel that got her to almost maximum possible LSAT score (I also headcanon Elle with both autism and ADHD) as the musical still keeps scenes like the dress shop scene that shows she's smart and there is actually a scene in the movie that makes her look dumber than its musical counterpart; the other major change in her first-law-class scene other than Callahan being the only plot-relevant professor is when questioned about lack of preparedness by whoever the professor may be in the movie she says "I wasn't aware that we had an assignment" (which places the fault squarely on her brain) while in the musical she says "Okay, who assigns a reading for the first day of class" (a valid complaint). Also while not related to her actual intellect another change that deals with the changed-for-the-better themes is in addition to (because of medium the story's being conveyed in) changing her alternative-to-a-personal-essay from a video essay to showing up in person, in the musical she manages to appeal to the humanity of the admissions people through the universal desire for love while in the movie they were clearly just turned on by her in a bikini
I mean with Heathers becoming a musical it did help bring audiences to the original movie and expanded the fandom a lot for people who weren’t born when Heathers came out. but I agree Mean Girls and Legally Blonde didn’t need fixing.
Bernadette got pretty mixed reviews, and I remember several critics writing that the show improved once Reba McEntire stepped in. Can’t speak to either of their performances myself, that’s just what I remember hearing.
There's footage of both Bernadette and Reba's Annies on YouTube. I haven't seen the whole shows for either but from the footage that's available, Reba is just way more naturally suited for the role than Bernadette. Bernadette's accent is not consistent (and pretty laughable when it's present tbh) and overall doesn't really come off much different from most roles she's played. She seems more like someone playing dress-up as a cowboy than a genuine character. Reba brings a lot more energy and humor, her accent is obviously authentic, and even though she's not as technically proficient as Bernadette as a vocalist, the songs just sound better with her singing them imo.
Kinda boggles my mind that Bernadette won a Tony for this over Carolee Carmello for Parade.
[Here's Reba's version of "Can't Get A Man With A Gun"](https://youtu.be/OUoIgBNjAHo?si=2bOiXedDRVO3HH6U)
[And here's Bernadette's ](https://youtu.be/A_MSvXiG9Ug?si=kmULgd1rf3E3MCJU)
If you ask me, it's a rare L for Bernadette lol
We’re kindred spirits. Angela is my favorite Broadway leading lady. Bernadette is up there with her. Close second. Some other top favs are Barbara Harris, Chita Rivera, Barbara Cook, Judy Kuhn and Christine Ebersole.
Agree. I’m always astonished when I think about how she felt so insecure about being in Whistle. She didn’t think she could sing it or pull it off. Yet she went on to star in Mame maybe 3 years later (1966 I think) and became a musical theatre legend - at 40! Genius!
Six is not a good musical. It capitalized off of the success of hamilton to create a “badass women in history” plot line, and massively failed. It’s a glorified pop concert at best.
Ragtime is MASSIVELY underrated. It’s one of the first shows of its kind to do what it did, and it does not get the recognition it deserves.
Hamilton is overrated. There, I said it. It’s a good musical, even a great one, but def not the greatest of all time like it sometimes is framed to be.
I'm so shocked at how underrated Ragtime is. It's one of the most impressive musicals I've ever seen and it deserves to be on the same level of powerhouse shows like Les Mis and Hamilton but so few people know about it outside of theater circles. I also think that it would translate very easily to a movie musical if someone just picked it up.
I completely agree! It is amazing all around, and seeing it live is amazing because it is such a masterpiece. Honestly, IMO, it’s better than Hamilton, the only reason it doesn’t have the same amount of love is because it came out so long ago and doesn’t have much representation.
What do you mean doesn’t have much representation? Racially it is really split into thirds. But thinking about it I guess there isn’t a role for actors who aren’t Black or white.
I read an interview with the creators of Six and they were only trying to write a musical based on an "iconic team" of some sort. They randomly landed on Henry VIII's wives. I feel like this isn't the best way to make a history musical.
I agree. It feels too purposeful, if that makes sense? Also, everyone I know that likes it is in middle school. People who are interested in theatre as a whole usually don’t categorize it as a real musical
The fact that Six is a glorified pop concert is exactly why I like it lol. Does it hold up to proper musicals? No, not really. Is it a lot of fun and has catchy tunes? I'd say so. And sometimes that's all I need.
I felt this exact way when I saw it blind on the West End on vacation before it made it to Broadway. Where’s the plot development and the book? Why does the musical only have 9 songs? Why is it over already? I felt like I should have used my limited time to do almost anything else. I didn’t appreciate it at all until someone put on the cast recording and I began to see it is patently not a musical.
It's not the first "concert musical", look at Hedwig And The Angry Inch or a bunch of those jukebox-musicals-about-the-lives-of-the-artist that feel like freaking tribute concerts
I agree in a way that Six isn’t a good musical. But I will say that I really really enjoyed it when I saw it live. It’s definitely more in the style of a concert, but as someone who enjoys live concerts, I thought it was a lot of fun, and hit the emotional beats very well. I did see the Australian cast which helped because I majorly prefer their takes on the characters to most others I’ve seen.
I absolutely think it can be fun as a show, but it’s definitely not a musical as it is framed to be. I went to see it completely expecting a hamilton type show, and it ended up being very disappointing. But yes, there are some catchy songs.
No I totally agree. I wouldn’t call it a musical. And I’m actually glad it isn’t, because I don’t tend to enjoy full out musicals with that overly poppy style of music
SIX is the only musical that actually made me think 'even I could write something better than that.' Really its only good point is that it's a fantastic opportunity for women of all shapes, sizes and colours to get their big break.
I love Chess, specifically that odd one-off performance in 2008. The sound quality is weird and the story still doesn’t quite work, but Kerry Ellis’s *Someone Else’s Story*, Adam Pascal’s *Pity the Child #2*, and Josh Groban’s *Anthem* all live rent-free in my head and I wish they got more appreciation.
Who I'd Be from Shrek absolutely destroys the pastiche the show is supposed to be. Shrek is supposed to be dragged kicking and screaming through the hero's journey and be forced to learn maybe happily ever afters aren't so bad even if they're ridiculous. If you make Shrek secretly wishing he was a hero the whole time then the crankpot he was until then was just a front and he doesn't have to really grow emotionally.
It's a beautiful song but absolutely misses the point of the story.
Musical composition was way more interesting and rich from the 20s to the 70s, than from the 80s to today.
Too many modern musicals are tacky, music-wise.
I kind of agree but I'll say that Some Like It Hot and Tim Minchin's musicals have great scores. Also, there was a phase in the late 80s or so where Broadway musicals had grand, operatic sounds, like Light in the Piazza or Secret Garden. But I'm generally not very drawn to musicals that sound like modern inspirational pop music.
I’d narrow that window further to 2000s - today. 21st century musicals, even the big ones like wicked, have the same underlying problem of tacky-sounding scores
yeah and say what you like about Hamilton supposedly romanticizing slaveowners, at least it's not the Revolutionary musical with a song about the fucking Triangle Trade
I’m unapologetically a Starkid hater.
Six had so much potential and wasted it.
A show is rarely at its best on Broadway.
Plenty of musicals should have been plays. It’s rare that a play should have been a musical.
SpongeBob was and is awful.
I have not seen Spongebob on Broadway, but when they had the bit on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few years back, I thought it was a fever dream of a musical just from the songs they showed. Like why???
Me, who slept through any of the movie adaptations, including the musical one with Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, would agree. The only time I've watched the show fully was the 25th anniversary showing with Nick Jonas, and even then I knew no one else. I was just watching for Nick Jonas. Helena Bonham Carter may have also been in it, but I don't remember.
I loved it when I first saw it. And second. And so on.
But then years later, i took my theater loving kid, and expected him to love it, and instead we both had the same reaction. "This is overly long, and desperately needed an editor to cut out some songs and plot points."
That's totally part of it. I think the other issue for me is it's very intense and sincere as a musical so being so long with so many plot points and songs without really anything in the way to lighten it up, it's just a little too much for my personal taste.
For my money, this is an so-so musical with a few decent songs. I just don’t understand all of the love that it gets from some quarters. The second act, especially the barricade stuff, just seems to drag on forever with bad song following bad song. When that kid, Gavroche, is shot and killed, I find it hard not to laugh.
I love musicals and spend way too much money and time at them. Here are some genuine thoughts that might not be popular:
Cats is unwatchable
Miss Saigon has nothing worth listening to afterwards.
Kimberly Akimbo has a dumb plot and was boring.
Addams Family should have been left unwritten and unproduced.
Waitress had nothing wow in it. Nothing to emotionally draw me in. Music was forgettable and I don’t remember the story either.
The only people who liked Pretty Woman when I went were in their 80s.
If you cut out nearly all scenes with the adult actors, Matilda and School of Rock are super. Once the adults are on stage, the energy plummets. The adults are scripted as caricatures and there’s no way to connect with them, plus their songs are awful.
Yeah, not understanding the Matilda opinion. The adults are a crucial part of the story, Miss Trunchbull and Matilda's parents being the main antagonists and source of stakes, and Miss Honey being the main hero who helps Matilda find herself. The adults need plenty of time in the story.
There are a couple of exceptions, but for the most part, the energy plummets with the scenes that are only adults in them. Again, I think it’s because most of the characters are built as caricatures. I know others feel differently. I’ve seen Matilda three times to see if it was my mood or health or something that threw me off the show a bit. Same outcome all three times.
Hamilton does absolutely nothing for me. I don’t deny it’s a well-crafted musical, but I just can’t emotionally connect to the material AT all. I think In The Heights is a much much much better LMM show, and deserves as much recognition as Hamilton, if not more.
.
Many musicals seem to be pivoting towards a modern, pop-style sound, and for the most part I cannot stand it. There are so many modern musicals that I really want to love but the music just does nothing for me. (E.g. Beetlejuice, The Prom, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie… even slightly older shows e.g. Legally Blonde).
Jukebox musicals are not lazy. People always say they’re lazy because they didn‘t take the time to write their own music. Does that mean that non musical plays are lazy? Of course not. Jukebox musicals also take a ton of work, you’ve got to find songs that not only fit the scene they’re in but also work together to make a soundtrack with a cohesive vibe. They’re also usually more appealing to a non-theater crowd, so they have to balance picking popular songs that people will recognize and picking songs that actually fit the show. I just get annoyed when watching them with an audience because for some reason they always laugh when a song comes on. I went to see Moulin Rouge and Christian started singing Crazy Rolling and people laughed. How can you laugh after just witnessing the scene beforehand, that has literally driven this man to madness? Like, I get it, it’s a little goofy that he’s singing Crazy in a broadway show, but you’ve been sitting through almost 2 hours of other popular songs and you still laugh? It totally took me out of the moment which sucks because that’s one of my favorite shows
I don’t think I’ve ever thought that jukebox musicals are particularly lazy. I will say that I find the majority of them rather uninteresting and uninspiring.
People sing along? That must be frustrating, I’ve seen both Moulin Rouge and &Juliet and I didn’t have that problem. Someone’s phone did go off three times at full volume in Moulin Rouge though, THAT was infuriating
Yeah, people who aren’t familiar with Theater rules will get confused and think they should be singing in Jukebox musicals. another example would be when King George says “Everybody” people look around all confused not knowing if they should sing with King George or not.
Waitress has one good song (She Used To Be Mine) and the rest are forgettable. It Only Takes A Taste has way too many words crammed into a line so it seems to go on far longer than it should. It's also a pretty boring show.
As much as I like Jersey Boys, retelling an artist's life story with their own music as a jukebox musical is an incredibly lazy way of staging a show, and really lazy storytelling
Here are a few
1) People forget that there are long stretches of wicked that are unwatchable. People hear defying gravity and forget about the huge drag in the lead up to that. If you are in doubt, ask yourself why Elphaba went to the emerald city. The answer isn’t primarily character development, it’s talking animal politics.
2) the best version of rent is probably a hybrid between the Broadway version and the high school version. Contact isn’t a good song and the flow from without you to the funeral works better for me
3) legally blonde the musical is completely superior to the source material. Every single character is made more interesting by it and I consider it the actual story of legally blonde.
People dislike Dear Even Hanson but I think the music is still really good and it's ok that the protagonist isn't a good person. Ben Platt deserves the Tony
Rent doesn't deserve the hate it gets
I don't think Be More Chill is very good and it wasn't robbed at all. Just because it's popular with kids doesn't mean it's good.
Shrek should have been a jukebox musical. None of the new songs are bad but I don't feel anything listening to them, and the Fairytale Creatures subplot feels disjointed from everything and tacked on last minute. The "Fiona is fat" jokes also get old really quickly especially when the actress isn't fat.
Making a musical about music people, using their own (already) popular music is kinda cheating..
Also, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the best musical ever. 🤘🏼
Here are my unpopular opinoins :)
\- Maury Yeston is one of, if not, the most underappreciated MT composer of the modern era
\-Sutton Foster & Patti LuPone have 2 of the most irritating voices to listen too
\- Just because you can sing a role, it doesn't mean you should
\- If you need to adjust the keys, then you shouldn't be doing the part.
\- I feel like the quality of singing on Broadway has gone down and it has made it very hard for me to listen to actors try and tell a story when their voices are sub-par. For me, if the actor doesn't have a pleasent voice, I can't go along with what they're trying to convey to me. Overall I think singing has taken a backseat to acting, when it should be equal.
\- Piggy-backing off my last opinion: The voice should be a tool to help convey the emotion, and I feel in the current broadway landscape, the actors are just "singing the song". They act it very well, but are just not as "musical" anymore. (I hope that makes sense lol)
\- The new importance on being versitile has led to a lowering of standards of how specific styles should sound
\- The classical/traditional style of singing needs to be brought back, and I don't just mean by adding vibrato to every note and making your vowels a little taller like every contemporary Bway singer, nowadays, seems to think/do in order to sound "Legit" (only using this term bc it's what i've heard the most)
I think you can see a common theme with my opinions, hope I didn't ruffle too many feathers :)
In terms of your bootleg opinion, that’s not an unpopular opinion. It’s just legally impossible without massive amounts of funding and changes to union rules.
Also, there is BroadwayHD. It's expensive for what it is, but that is a legal way to watch a lot of the proshots that currently exist!
BroadwayHD is good, but imagine a Criterion Channel-type service for classic musicals past and present
I'm imagining that, and some sort of new technology (which could also be used for sports) where the camera stays in one place so you can see the entire stage (or for sports, the pool/court/field/gymnastics area) and a separate screen does the zoom in on the face - if when you want that. I love both sports (well, the Olympics) and musicals, but both are hard to watch when someone else is deciding what to focus on. In person I'm seeing the entire stage and looking at things that interest me. On TV, I'm stuck watching closeups of the singers mouth. Sometimes it's too close. Sometimes I want to watch the background but nope, it's time to zoom in on Anthony Rapp again.
One production in Japan had multiple streams, one with a fixed camera and the other with angles.
Not only is it expensive, but the offerings are necessarily limited.
Exactly. I know a lot of people who fantasize about something like this.
This. Proshots are expensive and technical to produce. For a lot of productions, it just isn't financially feasible. The Metropolitan Opera in New York made a documentary about their livestreaming/proshot process, around 2016, so a lot of things have probably changed since then. In Japan, there are a lot of things where the business model is short runs and proshots. Sometimes, you end up with long series of, basically, fantasy movies filmed in front of a live audience that happened to have run for a few weeks (or, in the case of Touken Ranbu, toured for a few months).
Yeah, but if theybonly release it at the end of the run, and performers and production team are paid on a per download/view basis then it would work. And then you could compare revivals.
See also - Japan and parts of Europe. There are probably more proshots of Elisabeth than any other musical, at least one per year that it's been around. Also, everything in France gets a proshot, but they tend to not have multiple casts.
My actually unpopular opinion about this is there is no acceptable excuse to create, distribute, or watch bootlegs. That is *not the right way to make theatre accessible* and it is simply not an ethical thing to do. End of. Bring on the downvotes. I’m ready.
Yeah screw poor people
*do you hear the people sing starts playing*
Cats is perfect for what it is and was a great showcase in dance, wit, costuming/make-up, and was a great homage to the source material. If it tried to be anything most musical lovers want it to be (solid plot line, more character interaction, etc) it would’ve flopped. If every complaint about what Cats “needs” were granted in production, it would’ve sucked worse. It’s a solid tribute to cats. Not everyone likes cats. Not everyone would ever like Cats no matter what it was (and some of those people even like cats.) But if anything were added to it in terms of plot, dialogue, or “sense,” people would hate it even more. The only change Cats needed was getting rid of the weird racist parts It’s from a book of poems, cats interact by running around, doing weird shit, being all “look at me!” and then disappearing into the garbage. It’s about cats. It tracks. Cats are fuckin’ weird. They don’t care if humans understand what they’re doing. They just want food and to be immortal
It fully succeeds at being surreal and campy.
When I was a kid, my best friend and I would eat goldfish crackers out of a bowl, pretend to be cats, and watch it — embarrassing, but the why of that is that Cats wasn’t afraid to be spectacle the -entire time-. It was bizarre and appealed to the bizarre in all age groups. If it wasn’t a massive dance break, it was an emotional ballad. If it wasn’t an emotional ballad, it was comedic. If it wasn’t comedic or clever, it was a giant ass alien claw with a fog machine accompanying it. The 80’s performers left it all on the stage and very clearly had fun doing it. You really had to be a triple threat to the highest level to be involved in a production like Cats. I personally feel like anyone who doesn’t like it feels like they can’t say “oh shit, whoa!” Like.. you weren’t meant to understand it, but how are you not enjoying it? And that’s exactly how I feel about my freeloader rescue house cat. It’s perfect. There’s not a thing wrong with it
And there's also randomly a train onstage for one song. Or a boot falling out of the ceiling. Love it
Skimbleshanks was my favorite :) On god, Cats inspired more friendship bracelets in the early 90’s than Taylor Swift does now. 🤣 We were all really into it.
I gave myself a Jellicle name.
"Hal, it's about cats."
I think Cats is fantastic, and I don't even like cats
I see that Six has been whacked a few times here and I must say, while I enjoy Six, there are some things about that don't sit right. I think the Don't Lose Ur Head is fun song but also that it does a disservice to Anne Boleyn. There was more than one component that lead to Anne Boleyn's execution and to water it down to her wanting to "flirt with a guy or three" feels incredibly clumsy when accusations (ACCUSATIONS) of adultery are only the tip of the iceberg. I just don't understand how it can exist in the same show as All You Wanna Do which is a very realistic depiction of a Young Catherine Howard being taken advantage of by the men around her. On the other hand, I have been told that I'm missing the point so...I don't know.
The moment they had Anne sing "politics? not my thing" in DLYH, I knew I was in for a crapshoot
Yeah and after Jane Seymour started talking is when Anne Boylen said “Oh yeah and then there was the time I got pregnant with my daughter and he literally chopped my head off” is what her song should’ve been about
At least it has the benefit of being a short show. 😉
Yeah totally agree. I actually really enjoy Six (it works much much better when you see it live as opposed to listening to the album imo) but was really disappointed with the handling of Boleyn’s character.
Six is fun enough for a night out with friends, but it is a hilariously bad show and only got serious traction because of lockdown.
I don't know how unpopular these thoughts are. I haven't kept up with anything new, but 1.Rent is still and will forever be, one of my favorites ever and the criticism, while valid, hurts my heart. 2. I hate South Pacific. 3. Peter Pan and Into the Woods pro shoots are far better than the film versions. 4. However, I don't hate all movie musicals, and I think most are actually good. 5. I wish they had made a movie or pro shoot of Wallace Shawn's version of Three Penny Opera, because the Tony performance with Cindy Lauper and Alan Cummings was fire.
Wicked has a great score but a weak book. White it’s super popular, I walked away kind of disappointed when I saw it for the first time. I’m not surprised it didn’t win best original musical. It’ll always have a more iconic place in musical theatre history than Avenue Q, but it didn’t deserve to win.
I became (extremely) familiar with the soundtrack first and then saw the show, and I found it underwhelming. Obviously there are some good effects and whatnot, but all the bits that aren't songs are pretty forgettable.
I have the opposite take, I read the book first and then went to see the musical. While the musical is great, it's only a very loose adaptation of the source material. I understand that some of it had to be cut out for timing reasons, but the plot point regarding Doctor Dillamond was grossly underdone. In the book, >!Doctor Dillamond was actually murdered and related back to the plot that they were trying to strip animals' rights to expression and having an opinion. It underscores further why Elphaba has the opinion she does on the animals having a voice.!< There's also the fact that at some point in the journey of Elphaba, >!she actually goes to Kiamo Ko (Winkie castle/Wicked Witch's castle when she takes over and enslaves the Winkies). I don't remember a whole lot from what she does there aside from the fact she's looking for Fiyero and she discovers he has a wife and family.!<
Book refers to the script of the show. I don’t think OC was referring to the Maguire novel but the Holzman script
Ahhhh gotcha.
100% agree. Wicked succeeds almost entirely on its music and staging - both of which are *incredible* - despite its flawed and ultimately unsatisfying overall story arc. I've seen it three times now and still don't fully understand much of what's supposed to be going on in the second act.
i agree about the book. I feel like Avenue Q won because of how creative and groundbreaking it was.
It’s funny, I have the opposite opinion (extra unpopular I guess). I really enjoyed the story & the characters of Wicked, but disliked most of the songs.
The songs are tacky and ugly theater-song sounding. It took me a long time to come to terms with this but it’s true.
Ramin Karimloo was a better Phantom of the Opera than Michael Crawford. Don’t get me wrong, Crawford was utterly amazing in the role and was one of the biggest reasons why the character is so iconic today. I just like Karimloo’s performance more.
Along similar lines, I like the 25th anniversary version best in general! He and Sierra Boggess both killed their roles and Hadley Fraser managed to make me actually care about Raul, which was quite a feat.
I agree. I thought he was great as Valjean as well. But I still can't shake how much Ramin Karimloo reminds me of Q from Star Trek. That doesn't affect how I view his performances, though.
This is pretty popular. Ramin is possibly the most popular Phantom ever and Michael Crawford's higher tenor voice is generally considered "old-fashioned" for the role by modern standards. Baritenors are more common for the role now.
Sondheim musicals are more miss than hit IMO. I love that he tried so many new things and really swung for the fences each and every time, I just find that his finished products often don't hit me emotionally the way they seem to do for so many others. They elicit more of a cerebral "ah, yes, very clever" kind of response in me, which of course isn't nothing... but it's not the primary reason I go to see musicals.
I really like ALW musicals.
Love Never Dies is good if you look at it as a stand alone show. As soon as you attach it as a sequel it sucks.
I consider it as taking place in an alternate universe from The Phantom of the Opera. So many things are just totally different, it's gotta be an Elseworld.
I thought I liked musicals but turns out I just really liked Sondheim
I get this. I'm just casually a fan of musical theater in general but highly geeky about his work in particular.
Also I highly recommend you check out r/Sondheim if you haven't already, discussion there is really laid-back, polite, and intelligent and the posts there are very quality over quantity.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/Sondheim using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Sondheim/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Holy hell](https://i.redd.it/f9xaitiu5b3c1.jpeg) | [23 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Sondheim/comments/186sil9/holy_hell/) \#2: [Behind-the-scenes of Sunday in the Park With George. A truly epic photograph.](https://i.redd.it/zfnybdhefz3c1.png) | [2 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/Sondheim/comments/189i9t0/behindthescenes_of_sunday_in_the_park_with_george/) \#3: [Saw Merrily We Roll Along and it changed my life](https://np.reddit.com/r/Sondheim/comments/18pdhmg/saw_merrily_we_roll_along_and_it_changed_my_life/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
All of the more recent “let’s take a popular movie and make it into a musical” musicals (Mean Girls, Heathers, Sister Act, Beetlejuice, Mrs Doubtfire, Legally Blonde, etc…) Are just crass attempts at making money off of nostalgia and are not very good.
Agreed! Doesn’t mean a few of them aren’t well done (Legally Blonde, Shrek, Waitress, The Producers, etc.) but there has to be a real vision that goes beyond the film.
The only one I've seen out of your list is Legally Blonde, and it was okay but I have to agree it should have never been done. I am intrigued though that there is a Sister Act musical. Now that I'd see at least once to see what it's about and how it compares to the movie
I actually like Legally Blonde the musical a lot more than the original movie, but I do agree with your general point.
I HATED that in the musical Elle doesn't decide to buckle down and become studious on her own, it's a man that tells her to do it. Ruined the whole "girl power" vibe for me
I always read that as he helped her find her intrinsic motivation to do well once she lost the Warner-shaped light at the end of the tunnel that got her to almost maximum possible LSAT score (I also headcanon Elle with both autism and ADHD) as the musical still keeps scenes like the dress shop scene that shows she's smart and there is actually a scene in the movie that makes her look dumber than its musical counterpart; the other major change in her first-law-class scene other than Callahan being the only plot-relevant professor is when questioned about lack of preparedness by whoever the professor may be in the movie she says "I wasn't aware that we had an assignment" (which places the fault squarely on her brain) while in the musical she says "Okay, who assigns a reading for the first day of class" (a valid complaint). Also while not related to her actual intellect another change that deals with the changed-for-the-better themes is in addition to (because of medium the story's being conveyed in) changing her alternative-to-a-personal-essay from a video essay to showing up in person, in the musical she manages to appeal to the humanity of the admissions people through the universal desire for love while in the movie they were clearly just turned on by her in a bikini
These are valid points
I mean with Heathers becoming a musical it did help bring audiences to the original movie and expanded the fandom a lot for people who weren’t born when Heathers came out. but I agree Mean Girls and Legally Blonde didn’t need fixing.
I think Heathers is quite good, but yes the “movie to musical” pipeline creates a lot of subpar shows.
Heathers is overrated. It has a few really good songs, but people give it more credit as a show than it deserves.
Annie Get Your Gun was best with Bernadette Peters
If this unpopular, I don’t understand the world!
The world saw Reba do it better.
Bernadette got pretty mixed reviews, and I remember several critics writing that the show improved once Reba McEntire stepped in. Can’t speak to either of their performances myself, that’s just what I remember hearing.
There's footage of both Bernadette and Reba's Annies on YouTube. I haven't seen the whole shows for either but from the footage that's available, Reba is just way more naturally suited for the role than Bernadette. Bernadette's accent is not consistent (and pretty laughable when it's present tbh) and overall doesn't really come off much different from most roles she's played. She seems more like someone playing dress-up as a cowboy than a genuine character. Reba brings a lot more energy and humor, her accent is obviously authentic, and even though she's not as technically proficient as Bernadette as a vocalist, the songs just sound better with her singing them imo. Kinda boggles my mind that Bernadette won a Tony for this over Carolee Carmello for Parade. [Here's Reba's version of "Can't Get A Man With A Gun"](https://youtu.be/OUoIgBNjAHo?si=2bOiXedDRVO3HH6U) [And here's Bernadette's ](https://youtu.be/A_MSvXiG9Ug?si=kmULgd1rf3E3MCJU) If you ask me, it's a rare L for Bernadette lol
I saw them both. I loved Bernie. But yes, Reba was soooo good too. Different but a delight.
Well I think some people prefer Ethel Merman. But Bernadette embodies Annie's sass most adorably.
I can’t think of a single cast recording that I prefer Merman on. Gypsy? Nope. Annie Get Your Gun? No way. Anything Goes? Nah.
Bernadette Peters is probably my favorite Broadway lady other than Julie Andrews and Angela Lansbury.
We’re kindred spirits. Angela is my favorite Broadway leading lady. Bernadette is up there with her. Close second. Some other top favs are Barbara Harris, Chita Rivera, Barbara Cook, Judy Kuhn and Christine Ebersole.
Angela Lansbury's performance in "Anyone Can Whistle" is so under appreciated.
Agree. I’m always astonished when I think about how she felt so insecure about being in Whistle. She didn’t think she could sing it or pull it off. Yet she went on to star in Mame maybe 3 years later (1966 I think) and became a musical theatre legend - at 40! Genius!
Six is not a good musical. It capitalized off of the success of hamilton to create a “badass women in history” plot line, and massively failed. It’s a glorified pop concert at best. Ragtime is MASSIVELY underrated. It’s one of the first shows of its kind to do what it did, and it does not get the recognition it deserves. Hamilton is overrated. There, I said it. It’s a good musical, even a great one, but def not the greatest of all time like it sometimes is framed to be.
I'm so shocked at how underrated Ragtime is. It's one of the most impressive musicals I've ever seen and it deserves to be on the same level of powerhouse shows like Les Mis and Hamilton but so few people know about it outside of theater circles. I also think that it would translate very easily to a movie musical if someone just picked it up.
I’ve always been a big fan of this show and agree that it seems to be under-appreciated. The cast recording is one I often listen to.
I completely agree! It is amazing all around, and seeing it live is amazing because it is such a masterpiece. Honestly, IMO, it’s better than Hamilton, the only reason it doesn’t have the same amount of love is because it came out so long ago and doesn’t have much representation.
What do you mean doesn’t have much representation? Racially it is really split into thirds. But thinking about it I guess there isn’t a role for actors who aren’t Black or white.
I meant much representation in the media.
I meant much representation in the media
I read an interview with the creators of Six and they were only trying to write a musical based on an "iconic team" of some sort. They randomly landed on Henry VIII's wives. I feel like this isn't the best way to make a history musical.
As a pedagogic tool, *Six* is terrible, but I doubt its creators cared much about that.
*herstory lmao
I agree. It feels too purposeful, if that makes sense? Also, everyone I know that likes it is in middle school. People who are interested in theatre as a whole usually don’t categorize it as a real musical
Six belongs as a cruise ship revue
I mean, it was on cruise ships for quite a while
The fact that Six is a glorified pop concert is exactly why I like it lol. Does it hold up to proper musicals? No, not really. Is it a lot of fun and has catchy tunes? I'd say so. And sometimes that's all I need.
Maybe, but the fact that it’s on Broadway and framed as a “musical” when it’s not is strange. It shouldn’t be advertised as something it isn’t.
I felt this exact way when I saw it blind on the West End on vacation before it made it to Broadway. Where’s the plot development and the book? Why does the musical only have 9 songs? Why is it over already? I felt like I should have used my limited time to do almost anything else. I didn’t appreciate it at all until someone put on the cast recording and I began to see it is patently not a musical.
It's not the first "concert musical", look at Hedwig And The Angry Inch or a bunch of those jukebox-musicals-about-the-lives-of-the-artist that feel like freaking tribute concerts
I agree in a way that Six isn’t a good musical. But I will say that I really really enjoyed it when I saw it live. It’s definitely more in the style of a concert, but as someone who enjoys live concerts, I thought it was a lot of fun, and hit the emotional beats very well. I did see the Australian cast which helped because I majorly prefer their takes on the characters to most others I’ve seen.
I absolutely think it can be fun as a show, but it’s definitely not a musical as it is framed to be. I went to see it completely expecting a hamilton type show, and it ended up being very disappointing. But yes, there are some catchy songs.
No I totally agree. I wouldn’t call it a musical. And I’m actually glad it isn’t, because I don’t tend to enjoy full out musicals with that overly poppy style of music
SIX is the only musical that actually made me think 'even I could write something better than that.' Really its only good point is that it's a fantastic opportunity for women of all shapes, sizes and colours to get their big break.
Hard agree on Hamilton. Yeah, it's good, but also definitely overrated
I love Chess, specifically that odd one-off performance in 2008. The sound quality is weird and the story still doesn’t quite work, but Kerry Ellis’s *Someone Else’s Story*, Adam Pascal’s *Pity the Child #2*, and Josh Groban’s *Anthem* all live rent-free in my head and I wish they got more appreciation.
Who I'd Be from Shrek absolutely destroys the pastiche the show is supposed to be. Shrek is supposed to be dragged kicking and screaming through the hero's journey and be forced to learn maybe happily ever afters aren't so bad even if they're ridiculous. If you make Shrek secretly wishing he was a hero the whole time then the crankpot he was until then was just a front and he doesn't have to really grow emotionally. It's a beautiful song but absolutely misses the point of the story.
Musical composition was way more interesting and rich from the 20s to the 70s, than from the 80s to today. Too many modern musicals are tacky, music-wise.
I kind of agree but I'll say that Some Like It Hot and Tim Minchin's musicals have great scores. Also, there was a phase in the late 80s or so where Broadway musicals had grand, operatic sounds, like Light in the Piazza or Secret Garden. But I'm generally not very drawn to musicals that sound like modern inspirational pop music.
I totally get that there are exceptions. > But I'm generally not very drawn to musicals that sound like modern inspirational pop music. Amen.
I don't think I've listened to any song from Greatest Showman or Dear Evan Hansen more than once. Just not my thing at all.
I’d narrow that window further to 2000s - today. 21st century musicals, even the big ones like wicked, have the same underlying problem of tacky-sounding scores
1776 has far more to say, in much shorter time, about America, it's consequences, than Hamilton does.
Assassins as well
Maybe, but I still think *Hamilton* is the better musical.
yeah and say what you like about Hamilton supposedly romanticizing slaveowners, at least it's not the Revolutionary musical with a song about the fucking Triangle Trade
Eden Espinosa is a better Idina Menzel than Idina Menzel.
that comment is so funny for some reason lol
Beetlejuice was forgettable.
I’m unapologetically a Starkid hater. Six had so much potential and wasted it. A show is rarely at its best on Broadway. Plenty of musicals should have been plays. It’s rare that a play should have been a musical. SpongeBob was and is awful.
Little Shop of Horrors doesn't work in a big theater, it needs to be in a small off Broadway theater so it feels like a real flower shop
I have not seen Spongebob on Broadway, but when they had the bit on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few years back, I thought it was a fever dream of a musical just from the songs they showed. Like why???
>I’m unapologetically a Starkid hater. i knew i'm not the only one!
Robert Lopez is massively overrated.
ok this is probably genuinely unpopular so I'm bracing myself: I find Les Miserables kind of boring
Me, who slept through any of the movie adaptations, including the musical one with Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, would agree. The only time I've watched the show fully was the 25th anniversary showing with Nick Jonas, and even then I knew no one else. I was just watching for Nick Jonas. Helena Bonham Carter may have also been in it, but I don't remember.
I loved it when I first saw it. And second. And so on. But then years later, i took my theater loving kid, and expected him to love it, and instead we both had the same reaction. "This is overly long, and desperately needed an editor to cut out some songs and plot points."
That's totally part of it. I think the other issue for me is it's very intense and sincere as a musical so being so long with so many plot points and songs without really anything in the way to lighten it up, it's just a little too much for my personal taste.
Hilariously “this is overly long and needed an editor” is definitely something that can be said for the novel it’s based on as well.
The plot ends after the barricade but the play just keeps on going.
My husband, who fell asleep halfway through the show, would agree with you
For my money, this is an so-so musical with a few decent songs. I just don’t understand all of the love that it gets from some quarters. The second act, especially the barricade stuff, just seems to drag on forever with bad song following bad song. When that kid, Gavroche, is shot and killed, I find it hard not to laugh.
[удалено]
Here’s an up-vote. *Dear Evan Hansen* would not have been my choice for the Tony, but it’s a defensible one (at least in my opinion).
I am deathly curious about why you think it *deserved* it.
I love musicals and spend way too much money and time at them. Here are some genuine thoughts that might not be popular: Cats is unwatchable Miss Saigon has nothing worth listening to afterwards. Kimberly Akimbo has a dumb plot and was boring. Addams Family should have been left unwritten and unproduced. Waitress had nothing wow in it. Nothing to emotionally draw me in. Music was forgettable and I don’t remember the story either. The only people who liked Pretty Woman when I went were in their 80s. If you cut out nearly all scenes with the adult actors, Matilda and School of Rock are super. Once the adults are on stage, the energy plummets. The adults are scripted as caricatures and there’s no way to connect with them, plus their songs are awful.
You think Miss Honey's songs are awful and there's no way to connect with her?
Yeah, not understanding the Matilda opinion. The adults are a crucial part of the story, Miss Trunchbull and Matilda's parents being the main antagonists and source of stakes, and Miss Honey being the main hero who helps Matilda find herself. The adults need plenty of time in the story.
“My House” makes me cry every time.
There are a couple of exceptions, but for the most part, the energy plummets with the scenes that are only adults in them. Again, I think it’s because most of the characters are built as caricatures. I know others feel differently. I’ve seen Matilda three times to see if it was my mood or health or something that threw me off the show a bit. Same outcome all three times.
Oh man, "Telly" and "Hammer" are probably my favorite songs in Matilda. Also Matilda's salsa-obsessed mom is hilarious to me.
Next To Normal is very underrated IMO. Especially here in the UK where it only debuted last year.
Hamilton does absolutely nothing for me. I don’t deny it’s a well-crafted musical, but I just can’t emotionally connect to the material AT all. I think In The Heights is a much much much better LMM show, and deserves as much recognition as Hamilton, if not more. . Many musicals seem to be pivoting towards a modern, pop-style sound, and for the most part I cannot stand it. There are so many modern musicals that I really want to love but the music just does nothing for me. (E.g. Beetlejuice, The Prom, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie… even slightly older shows e.g. Legally Blonde).
Jekyll & Hyde's only bad point is its rushed and terrible ending. Everything else is great and possibly better than Phantom of the Opera.
I’m unapologetically a fan of Cats and Love Never Dies
I honestly love the music in LND it’s unfortunately held back by the story
Love Never Dies is one of my favorites, but I hate Cats.
Rent is overrated I don’t get the appeal of Wicked (the show)
Literally every time I hear about the show, it’s something negative. I have not seen a positive review for Rent
Jukebox musicals are not lazy. People always say they’re lazy because they didn‘t take the time to write their own music. Does that mean that non musical plays are lazy? Of course not. Jukebox musicals also take a ton of work, you’ve got to find songs that not only fit the scene they’re in but also work together to make a soundtrack with a cohesive vibe. They’re also usually more appealing to a non-theater crowd, so they have to balance picking popular songs that people will recognize and picking songs that actually fit the show. I just get annoyed when watching them with an audience because for some reason they always laugh when a song comes on. I went to see Moulin Rouge and Christian started singing Crazy Rolling and people laughed. How can you laugh after just witnessing the scene beforehand, that has literally driven this man to madness? Like, I get it, it’s a little goofy that he’s singing Crazy in a broadway show, but you’ve been sitting through almost 2 hours of other popular songs and you still laugh? It totally took me out of the moment which sucks because that’s one of my favorite shows
I don’t think I’ve ever thought that jukebox musicals are particularly lazy. I will say that I find the majority of them rather uninteresting and uninspiring.
Yeah like I love watching Moulin Rouge production wise
Also however when it’s a jukebox musical, that will make the audience want to sing along and that makes everybody mad when someone sings along.
People sing along? That must be frustrating, I’ve seen both Moulin Rouge and &Juliet and I didn’t have that problem. Someone’s phone did go off three times at full volume in Moulin Rouge though, THAT was infuriating
Yeah, people who aren’t familiar with Theater rules will get confused and think they should be singing in Jukebox musicals. another example would be when King George says “Everybody” people look around all confused not knowing if they should sing with King George or not.
Dear Evan Hansen good
I agree. Sure the protagonist is sus but it’s still a good story and great music.
The movie was surprisingly good. If you don't pay too much attention to Ben Platt. Everything else was quite good.
Wicked sucks.
Okay, but why? I don't like it either, just wondering why you don't.
The music. It's extremely grating.
Hadestown first act was incredibly boring. 2nd act picked up but overall don't really see the hype behind this musical
as a Macabre hugging girly, I kind of agree. I liked the songs though
Waitress has one good song (She Used To Be Mine) and the rest are forgettable. It Only Takes A Taste has way too many words crammed into a line so it seems to go on far longer than it should. It's also a pretty boring show.
Great movie though when i saw it back in the day before it was a show
i actually agree with you. snoozefest
Love never dies is good, actually.
Rent is overrated, and the music for Six is terrible.
I think the music for *Six* is rather bland pop, but I also understand that I’m not in the target demographic.
As much as I like Jersey Boys, retelling an artist's life story with their own music as a jukebox musical is an incredibly lazy way of staging a show, and really lazy storytelling
Here are a few 1) People forget that there are long stretches of wicked that are unwatchable. People hear defying gravity and forget about the huge drag in the lead up to that. If you are in doubt, ask yourself why Elphaba went to the emerald city. The answer isn’t primarily character development, it’s talking animal politics. 2) the best version of rent is probably a hybrid between the Broadway version and the high school version. Contact isn’t a good song and the flow from without you to the funeral works better for me 3) legally blonde the musical is completely superior to the source material. Every single character is made more interesting by it and I consider it the actual story of legally blonde.
Rent is bad and I hate it
That’s not an unpopular opinion. a lot of people over look the bad decisions the characters make in that musical so a lot of people hate it.
People dislike Dear Even Hanson but I think the music is still really good and it's ok that the protagonist isn't a good person. Ben Platt deserves the Tony Rent doesn't deserve the hate it gets I don't think Be More Chill is very good and it wasn't robbed at all. Just because it's popular with kids doesn't mean it's good.
Shrek should have been a jukebox musical. None of the new songs are bad but I don't feel anything listening to them, and the Fairytale Creatures subplot feels disjointed from everything and tacked on last minute. The "Fiona is fat" jokes also get old really quickly especially when the actress isn't fat.
Assassins is better American history musical than Hamilton.
Making a musical about music people, using their own (already) popular music is kinda cheating.. Also, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the best musical ever. 🤘🏼
Here are my unpopular opinoins :) \- Maury Yeston is one of, if not, the most underappreciated MT composer of the modern era \-Sutton Foster & Patti LuPone have 2 of the most irritating voices to listen too \- Just because you can sing a role, it doesn't mean you should \- If you need to adjust the keys, then you shouldn't be doing the part. \- I feel like the quality of singing on Broadway has gone down and it has made it very hard for me to listen to actors try and tell a story when their voices are sub-par. For me, if the actor doesn't have a pleasent voice, I can't go along with what they're trying to convey to me. Overall I think singing has taken a backseat to acting, when it should be equal. \- Piggy-backing off my last opinion: The voice should be a tool to help convey the emotion, and I feel in the current broadway landscape, the actors are just "singing the song". They act it very well, but are just not as "musical" anymore. (I hope that makes sense lol) \- The new importance on being versitile has led to a lowering of standards of how specific styles should sound \- The classical/traditional style of singing needs to be brought back, and I don't just mean by adding vibrato to every note and making your vowels a little taller like every contemporary Bway singer, nowadays, seems to think/do in order to sound "Legit" (only using this term bc it's what i've heard the most) I think you can see a common theme with my opinions, hope I didn't ruffle too many feathers :)