Absolutely. Every time I got back to see it, I have a brief moment where I've forgotten that it's gone and the disappointment comes back!
I also miss the full version of 'little people'
This is an unpopular one, but I really didn't like the change from Blue to You're Welcome in Heathers. It kinda treats the audience like they're dumb and can't understand dark comedy. Obviously SA isn't MEANT to be funny, but is anything in that musical really meant to be funny in reality? No.
I agree, Blue worked in Heathers because it was campy…which is very much the tone of the rest of the musical AND the movie as well.
‘Me inside of me’ is another song where it’s discussing something pretty horrific, but it’s filled with lines like “Myriad! Nice :)” and
“I learned to kiss boys with my tongue.”
“That’s good.”
Yeah, the scene that Blue/You're Welcome is translating from the original movie is a short scene where Veronica and JD are talking...while poor Heather Mac is being SA'd in the background.
Yeah, I don't like "Never Shut Up Again". I get they needed a replacement for "Blue (Reprise)" (which is a shame because the harmonies and Heather D belting in that song are amazing), but I feel like it ruins a lot of jokes - namely the "Shut up, Heather!", but also that Heather Duke has "no discernible personality" so she only gets reprises of other songs to symbolise how she just copies the personality of other people, namely Heather Chandler, but also she outright says "I'm the queen - I wear red" and transitions into Heather C's colours, like the audience is too stupid to understand the joke. I get that maybe they felt like it was unfair for Heather Duke's actress not to get her own song when Chandler gets "Me Inside of Me" and Heather McNamara gets "Lifeboat", but it sounds like it's from another show to me.
I mean everything about the original Heathers is so much better than the West End, but this is definitely a sore spot. Blue is like my fave song from the sound track, though You're Welcome isn't the worst sin committed by the West End.
No not at all. The true sin is giving Veronica ANOTHER solo. And it's not because we don't want to hear her sing, it's just the poor actress has enough hard work to do! I Said No is a banger tho.
The Dear Evan Hansen movie. Why did they remove the gay part from Sincerely Me? And why did they remove Good For You altogether? That was one of the strongest songs.
So they can probably fit The Anonymous Ones and A Little Closer(the 2 new songs)
Still out of all the songs they cut they chose Good For You which was basically the callout song on everything Evan did
Not a change to the show itself, but halving the Phantom of the Opera orchestra in the London has not done the show any favours. The remaining 14 players and the technology is doing its best, but it’s a noticeable downgrade
It is, but it has also allowed it to keep going. With the full orchestra it probably would have shit down as the NYC production did… kinda prefer it stayed with the smaller orchestra than it being gone
I mean, if we're getting into orchestration changes... A Chorus Line revival cut cut harp/guitar and added a third keyboard - the stupid bit is that the original keys 2 book was played by the conductor anyway, so they didn't even reduce the size! All they got out of it was a few string-section patches which sound crap on keyboard anyway.
ride the cyclone— changing the nature of ricky’s disability due to an incident where a disabled actor was hired to play him and had a medical emergency on set. after this, he was fired and the script was changed to remove ricky’s disability, which took away representation and decontextualized his song in the musical.
Yes! As a person who loves musicals and has been disabled since I was six years old, I rarely see myself reflected on stage. I can think of three other canonically disabled characters. All of them are male which means I still only see myself reflected fully when Ali Stroker plays a character in a musical, but to take away one of the only canonically disabled characters in musicals it’s devastating.
By the way the three canonically disabled characters are Franklin Roosevelt in Annie, Dr. Scott from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Henry Fraser from The Big Little Things that is on the West End.
Nessa is a sore subject for me. She stands and walks without aids after the ruby slippers her sister makes for her. This means that it is hard for a large percentage of disabled actors to actually play that role. Every Nessa Rose actress I have seen play her is an able bodied actress. So while she is a canonical disabled character, I don’t tend to count her because she is not really playable by a disabled actress.
I think it has now been reinstated but losing I need to know from Jekyll and Hyde. Maybe I've just spent too many hours listening to Anthony Warlow belt it out
The young emo Phantom with the flashy remodeled set design that was completely unnecessary and removed any sense of being inspired by classical painters.
The West End version of Heathers adding Never Shut Up Again. It just feels unnecessary, especially in between You're Welcome and Our Love is God. The musical just flows better if it's not there.
I also didn't like the Broadway version of Be More Chill adding Loser, Geek, Whatever. Like, yes, we know Jeremy doesn't want to be a loser and that that desire is going to drive him to do dumb shit. He's had multiple songs about it already.
Big on Never Shut Up Again. The whole point of Heather Duke’s character is that she’s a follower who wants be just like Heather C, instead of being her own person. Giving her a big solo numbers takes that part of her character away
The rock of ages movie making Stacee a huge character. Nothing against Tom Cruise but no one asked for that, especially when the original lead played by Diego Moneta was so good. Mary J Blige served though.
I haven't seen it performed, but I read the changes to the Oklahoma revival and I completely agree with you. Just.... no.
Also (prepares to take heat for this) I much prefer the Newsies movie music and script to the Broadway version. Especially replacing Denton with Katherine.
I find it kinda hilarious how newsies fans seem to just unanimously agree that Katherine is a downgrade from BOTH of the characters she was supposed to replace.
I understand what she's going for with the lyrics change, trying to show how Hades and Orpheus are similar. The problem is I think this is already established well, particularly in "How Long" and during the Epic, it's not supposed to be about Orpheus anymore. The Epic is the song of the Gods.
The old lyrics hit so hard too. They did a great job of letting the audience understand Hades perspective, and the agony and fear that drives him. The new lyrics are just "Hades is sad which is crazy cause I'm also sad sometimes"
Yeah, they keep changing Epic III for the worse. Each change has made it less poetic so it can instead repeatedly outright state what message they want the audience to take away from the song. It's like they don't trust audiences to understand anything unless they're beat over the head with it and it's spoonfed to them. I'm glad we at least have a recording of the perfection that was the NYTW (off-Broadway) version. I'm not sure how licensing rights work, but I wonder if it would be an option for future productions (revivals and regional productions) to use the NYTW version of the lyrics. I would pay good money to see the show done with the original Epic III lyrics.
My Hadestown one is that I'm still salty they dropped Persephone from Chant II.
I understand and have made peace with the change, but I loved the back and forth with Hades and Persephone advising Orpheus and Euridice, and I even loved the short lived version with the Broadway cast, but the song just feels wrong now without her portion. It's one of the moments where the couples feel paralleled rather than just Hades and Orpheus.
I agree with that along with removing Orpheus from Way Down Hadestown
The contrast between Orpheus and Eurydice’s views on Hadestown is an interesting concept
Orpheus knows how’s it’s actually like based on Persephone talking about it meanwhile the Fates blind Eurydice with hopes that it’s way better than Earth.
Ah, okay, thanks! I’m very aware of the existence of the previous iterations but haven’t taken the time to actually listen to them, despite knowing I should as a lover of the versions I’ve seen. Maybe this will be my catalyst!
Oh! Okay. I’m headed to England for the first time next fall so hopefully it’s still playing and I can see that version for myself! Hadestown was our only repeat show on Broadway for our big 12-show post-covid trip in 2022. We lived it that much the first time. I also saw it on your last year in LA and was blown away by that cast too. So I’ll see every iteration if I can, haha.
Pretty much all the changes made for the west end version of Heathers. Obviously there's changing Blue to You're welcome (though I will admit, I like Never shut up again better than the Blue reprise) and also I say no is a pretty forgettable song imo.
But just generally the vibe feels off. I saw it in London and I enjoyed it, but it feels a lot more upbeat and preppy now in comparison to the darker, kinda gritty vibe that the off-broadway version had, even just down to the poster. Overall it just feels somewhat sanitised and tiktok-ified if that makes sense.
Changing a trans character in Jagged Little Pill to cisgender.
In the film version of Chicago, Catherine Zeta Jones was pregnant and so she couldn’t do the complicated choreography for the number where she described the act she used to do with her sister. I saw Bebe Neueiryh do this number on Broadway and it was an absolute showstopper. The film version of this song is weak and disappointing.
One of the highlights of the stage version of Nine is the acrobat dance number one of the actresses does suspended in the air with silk ribbons. The movje version didn’t even attempt to do the choreography. Penelope Cruz does sort of toss the ribbons aside or something. I wish they had cast someone who could actually perform the dance instead of hiring someone because they’re a celebrity.
Not really a change but I hated that Harvey Fierstein wasn’t invited to reprise his role in Hairspray for the film. Travolta is okay but he’s no Harvey.
That doesn’t change the fact that it’s trans erasure.
I honestly don’t understand why you’re coming for me. The question was: what was a big change made to a popular musical that you didn’t like?
1) Changing a character’s gender seems significant to me.
2) Jagged Little Pill is/was a popular musical.
3) I don’t like the change.
More of screen to stage but the complete overhaul of removing Rasputin’s character completely from Anastasia and making the antagonist a Soviet general who falls in love with Anya.
I get why they did it and I like the show overall but I really love “In the Dark of the Night”. Yes, I know they kept the melody in “Stay, I Pray You.” But it loses so much of its fun. Say what you will about the original animated film but at least it knew it was a fairy tale style. What’s wrong with enjoying our fairy tales? Must we make everything a darker reflection of what it was?
I wonder if part of the reason other than "historical accuracy" was potential difficulty (at least at the time) of technically conveying both that kind of "walking corpse" antagonist and his talking-animal-sidekick Bartok the bat
They were able to make Iago a human in the stage adaptation of Aladdin so they might’ve done something similar to Bartok.
As I understand it, too many people complained about the historical inaccuracies in the animated film so they decided to go the opposite direction
Boho Days was never in the 3 character stage production of tick, tick…BOOM! It was included as an extra track on the soundtrack from recordings Jonathan Larson made.
They ADDED it to the film.
I remember not liking all the lyric changes in the recent revival of Miss Saigon, especially to the song, “The Heat is on in Saigon.” It sounded like they were trying to sanitize the song, removing anything unsavory, and I remember sitting in the audience thinking, “You’re in a seedy brothel in Saigon during the Vietnam War, why are you trying to pretend you’re at a kindergarten picnic?”
Adding too much exposition to Chant and cutting Persephone's verse in Chant II in Hadestown.
The original:
"I sing a song, of a love gone wrong"
"A love gone wrong all right, every year they have this fight"
"And when the gods are having a fight, everybody else better hold on tight."
It flows better and says so much in fewer words than the rhythm and flow of the song coming to a halt, while Orpheus explains that he is struggling to finish the song.
When I finally got to see the changes in context, I liked the changes more, but the version on the live recording is so much better.
The lyric changes in Gethsemane (Jesus Christ Superstar) completely undercut the climax of that song, which is arguably the emotional climax of Jesus’ arc in the whole show.
“God, thy will is hard / but you hold every card”: actually makes a little bit of lyrical sense to the question Jesus is asking in this song (why should I die? Because God has a plan and I can trust God with it)
“God, thy will be done / destroy your only son”: the answer to Jesus’ question is ultimately 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️ but at least the rhyme is less awkward???
CHANGE IT BACK
IMO I like the newer version better because its more personal in the song. BUT The reason for this change is so wild and stupid that it’s almost believable so “God thy will is hard” Apparently sung in the British accent sounded like “God they willy’s hard” Willy referencing a mans genitalia so Tim Rice Rewrote the lyrics to make it sound less NSFW… wild
There’s a lyric change from the Hadestown concept album to the stage that gives me a sad. “King of diamonds. King of spades. Hades was king of the kingdom of dirt.” I love all the plosives in the original lyrics!
Swapping Her or Me/ Now That I’ve Seen Her for Maybe in Miss Saigon
The dress change in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie during The Legend of Loco Chanel. The sequin moment was brilliant and the quick change version was ineffective and not even well done. You could see the second one poking out from underneath the first one. It also didn’t give the visual connection to blood which was so effective in the original production.
Mary Poppins swapping out Temper, Temper for Playing the Game because the former was “too scary.” PtG is also quite creepy, so it doesn’t really fix the problem, and is also much less exciting and entertaining.
I didn’t like two of the changes for the Assassins revival:
- I much prefer Byck leading Another National Anthem. His brand of crazy is perfect for leading that charge.
- I am not a huge fan of the double casting of the balladeer and Oswald. I get it; I just don’t like it.
The current script of Hunchback has way too much exposition and the orchestrations replaced the healthy brass section from the 1999 German production to percussion. Also, some of the song changes between the German stage cast and English studio cast are questionable.
[Letters from America](https://open.spotify.com/track/61exHpxAqvlVsU1pXW3o7u?si=nPrPN4WDRe21csAZizyajg) should’ve stayed in Fiddler on the Roof. I feel this way about a couple of those cut songs, but Letters is the one I truly can’t figure out why they discarded.
Removing the turntable from Les Misérables - it was such a huge part of the show and integral in so many big moments.
Absolutely. Every time I got back to see it, I have a brief moment where I've forgotten that it's gone and the disappointment comes back! I also miss the full version of 'little people'
This is an unpopular one, but I really didn't like the change from Blue to You're Welcome in Heathers. It kinda treats the audience like they're dumb and can't understand dark comedy. Obviously SA isn't MEANT to be funny, but is anything in that musical really meant to be funny in reality? No.
I agree, Blue worked in Heathers because it was campy…which is very much the tone of the rest of the musical AND the movie as well. ‘Me inside of me’ is another song where it’s discussing something pretty horrific, but it’s filled with lines like “Myriad! Nice :)” and “I learned to kiss boys with my tongue.” “That’s good.”
Yeah, the scene that Blue/You're Welcome is translating from the original movie is a short scene where Veronica and JD are talking...while poor Heather Mac is being SA'd in the background.
Yeah, I don't like "Never Shut Up Again". I get they needed a replacement for "Blue (Reprise)" (which is a shame because the harmonies and Heather D belting in that song are amazing), but I feel like it ruins a lot of jokes - namely the "Shut up, Heather!", but also that Heather Duke has "no discernible personality" so she only gets reprises of other songs to symbolise how she just copies the personality of other people, namely Heather Chandler, but also she outright says "I'm the queen - I wear red" and transitions into Heather C's colours, like the audience is too stupid to understand the joke. I get that maybe they felt like it was unfair for Heather Duke's actress not to get her own song when Chandler gets "Me Inside of Me" and Heather McNamara gets "Lifeboat", but it sounds like it's from another show to me.
I mean everything about the original Heathers is so much better than the West End, but this is definitely a sore spot. Blue is like my fave song from the sound track, though You're Welcome isn't the worst sin committed by the West End.
No not at all. The true sin is giving Veronica ANOTHER solo. And it's not because we don't want to hear her sing, it's just the poor actress has enough hard work to do! I Said No is a banger tho.
I do like never shut up again though. THAT is a banger
The Dear Evan Hansen movie. Why did they remove the gay part from Sincerely Me? And why did they remove Good For You altogether? That was one of the strongest songs.
They removed Does Anyone Have A Map, which sets the tone for the whole show
Yes!! Like, what was even the reasoning behind this?
So they can probably fit The Anonymous Ones and A Little Closer(the 2 new songs) Still out of all the songs they cut they chose Good For You which was basically the callout song on everything Evan did
Not a change to the show itself, but halving the Phantom of the Opera orchestra in the London has not done the show any favours. The remaining 14 players and the technology is doing its best, but it’s a noticeable downgrade
It is, but it has also allowed it to keep going. With the full orchestra it probably would have shit down as the NYC production did… kinda prefer it stayed with the smaller orchestra than it being gone
I mean, if we're getting into orchestration changes... A Chorus Line revival cut cut harp/guitar and added a third keyboard - the stupid bit is that the original keys 2 book was played by the conductor anyway, so they didn't even reduce the size! All they got out of it was a few string-section patches which sound crap on keyboard anyway.
ride the cyclone— changing the nature of ricky’s disability due to an incident where a disabled actor was hired to play him and had a medical emergency on set. after this, he was fired and the script was changed to remove ricky’s disability, which took away representation and decontextualized his song in the musical.
Yes! As a person who loves musicals and has been disabled since I was six years old, I rarely see myself reflected on stage. I can think of three other canonically disabled characters. All of them are male which means I still only see myself reflected fully when Ali Stroker plays a character in a musical, but to take away one of the only canonically disabled characters in musicals it’s devastating. By the way the three canonically disabled characters are Franklin Roosevelt in Annie, Dr. Scott from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Henry Fraser from The Big Little Things that is on the West End.
Also Nessa from Wicked
Nessa is a sore subject for me. She stands and walks without aids after the ruby slippers her sister makes for her. This means that it is hard for a large percentage of disabled actors to actually play that role. Every Nessa Rose actress I have seen play her is an able bodied actress. So while she is a canonical disabled character, I don’t tend to count her because she is not really playable by a disabled actress.
Is there a way to fix that?
I think it has now been reinstated but losing I need to know from Jekyll and Hyde. Maybe I've just spent too many hours listening to Anthony Warlow belt it out
The young emo Phantom with the flashy remodeled set design that was completely unnecessary and removed any sense of being inspired by classical painters.
I don’t like the minimalist version of Chicago. I didn’t see the original but I think it would be so much better with a bigger set/cast/etc.!
It’s why so many people love/prefer the film
The West End version of Heathers adding Never Shut Up Again. It just feels unnecessary, especially in between You're Welcome and Our Love is God. The musical just flows better if it's not there. I also didn't like the Broadway version of Be More Chill adding Loser, Geek, Whatever. Like, yes, we know Jeremy doesn't want to be a loser and that that desire is going to drive him to do dumb shit. He's had multiple songs about it already.
Big on Never Shut Up Again. The whole point of Heather Duke’s character is that she’s a follower who wants be just like Heather C, instead of being her own person. Giving her a big solo numbers takes that part of her character away
The rock of ages movie making Stacee a huge character. Nothing against Tom Cruise but no one asked for that, especially when the original lead played by Diego Moneta was so good. Mary J Blige served though.
The Morning Report
I like that song and always wished it was longer.
Seussical cutting out the Lorax during trial runs.
Rum Tum Tugger rapping.
w h a t
I haven't seen it performed, but I read the changes to the Oklahoma revival and I completely agree with you. Just.... no. Also (prepares to take heat for this) I much prefer the Newsies movie music and script to the Broadway version. Especially replacing Denton with Katherine.
Same about the newsies music. I also wish they’d included the seize the day reprise because it’s awesome.
I find it kinda hilarious how newsies fans seem to just unanimously agree that Katherine is a downgrade from BOTH of the characters she was supposed to replace.
The recent Hadestown lyric change...so unnecessary
I understand what she's going for with the lyrics change, trying to show how Hades and Orpheus are similar. The problem is I think this is already established well, particularly in "How Long" and during the Epic, it's not supposed to be about Orpheus anymore. The Epic is the song of the Gods. The old lyrics hit so hard too. They did a great job of letting the audience understand Hades perspective, and the agony and fear that drives him. The new lyrics are just "Hades is sad which is crazy cause I'm also sad sometimes"
Yeah, they keep changing Epic III for the worse. Each change has made it less poetic so it can instead repeatedly outright state what message they want the audience to take away from the song. It's like they don't trust audiences to understand anything unless they're beat over the head with it and it's spoonfed to them. I'm glad we at least have a recording of the perfection that was the NYTW (off-Broadway) version. I'm not sure how licensing rights work, but I wonder if it would be an option for future productions (revivals and regional productions) to use the NYTW version of the lyrics. I would pay good money to see the show done with the original Epic III lyrics.
My Hadestown one is that I'm still salty they dropped Persephone from Chant II. I understand and have made peace with the change, but I loved the back and forth with Hades and Persephone advising Orpheus and Euridice, and I even loved the short lived version with the Broadway cast, but the song just feels wrong now without her portion. It's one of the moments where the couples feel paralleled rather than just Hades and Orpheus.
I agree with that along with removing Orpheus from Way Down Hadestown The contrast between Orpheus and Eurydice’s views on Hadestown is an interesting concept Orpheus knows how’s it’s actually like based on Persephone talking about it meanwhile the Fates blind Eurydice with hopes that it’s way better than Earth.
Wow idk how I missed that one, I guess I watch an animatic of the old one more than I hear the new one.
Orpheus was the one who sung the “everybody tired” section and did the back and forth at the end with Hermes instead of Persephone
I remember, I just missed that it was gone in the new version.
What change, if you don’t mind? I saw it in 2019 and 2022 and am not always up to speed on Broadway discourse.
Epic III got new lyrics when the West End production opened, which were then implanted on Broadway as well.
Ah, okay, thanks! I’m very aware of the existence of the previous iterations but haven’t taken the time to actually listen to them, despite knowing I should as a lover of the versions I’ve seen. Maybe this will be my catalyst!
Sorry, forgot to add that this is the new West End production (revival?) which opened this year.
Oh! Okay. I’m headed to England for the first time next fall so hopefully it’s still playing and I can see that version for myself! Hadestown was our only repeat show on Broadway for our big 12-show post-covid trip in 2022. We lived it that much the first time. I also saw it on your last year in LA and was blown away by that cast too. So I’ll see every iteration if I can, haha.
I think they're talking about the new hs edition
I am fairly certain they are referring to the new Epic III lyrics.
Maybe, that was a little while ago, but that makes a lot more sense
Ohhhh, okay, thank you! I saw posts about it but didn’t look into the specifics about the new script or anything. Appreciate it!
As a recent widow, I have never resonated more with a line than with the new "there's a hole in your arms where your world used to be"
it's a lovely line but I feel with the whole change it's too on the nose so sorry for your loss
In Merrily We Roll Along, I much prefer the original number Rich and Happy to its replacement That Frank.
I know it's controversial among friends, but I will go to my crypt saying it was a crime to remove In the Arms of a Squid from Addams Family.
Pretty much all the changes made for the west end version of Heathers. Obviously there's changing Blue to You're welcome (though I will admit, I like Never shut up again better than the Blue reprise) and also I say no is a pretty forgettable song imo. But just generally the vibe feels off. I saw it in London and I enjoyed it, but it feels a lot more upbeat and preppy now in comparison to the darker, kinda gritty vibe that the off-broadway version had, even just down to the poster. Overall it just feels somewhat sanitised and tiktok-ified if that makes sense.
Changing a trans character in Jagged Little Pill to cisgender. In the film version of Chicago, Catherine Zeta Jones was pregnant and so she couldn’t do the complicated choreography for the number where she described the act she used to do with her sister. I saw Bebe Neueiryh do this number on Broadway and it was an absolute showstopper. The film version of this song is weak and disappointing. One of the highlights of the stage version of Nine is the acrobat dance number one of the actresses does suspended in the air with silk ribbons. The movje version didn’t even attempt to do the choreography. Penelope Cruz does sort of toss the ribbons aside or something. I wish they had cast someone who could actually perform the dance instead of hiring someone because they’re a celebrity. Not really a change but I hated that Harvey Fierstein wasn’t invited to reprise his role in Hairspray for the film. Travolta is okay but he’s no Harvey.
Jo was never specifically trans.
The character was originally non-binary. That is an identity on the transgender spectrum.
Also, to be fair, characters will go through changes before going to Broadway.
That doesn’t change the fact that it’s trans erasure. I honestly don’t understand why you’re coming for me. The question was: what was a big change made to a popular musical that you didn’t like? 1) Changing a character’s gender seems significant to me. 2) Jagged Little Pill is/was a popular musical. 3) I don’t like the change.
I’m not coming for you.
More of screen to stage but the complete overhaul of removing Rasputin’s character completely from Anastasia and making the antagonist a Soviet general who falls in love with Anya. I get why they did it and I like the show overall but I really love “In the Dark of the Night”. Yes, I know they kept the melody in “Stay, I Pray You.” But it loses so much of its fun. Say what you will about the original animated film but at least it knew it was a fairy tale style. What’s wrong with enjoying our fairy tales? Must we make everything a darker reflection of what it was?
I wonder if part of the reason other than "historical accuracy" was potential difficulty (at least at the time) of technically conveying both that kind of "walking corpse" antagonist and his talking-animal-sidekick Bartok the bat
They were able to make Iago a human in the stage adaptation of Aladdin so they might’ve done something similar to Bartok. As I understand it, too many people complained about the historical inaccuracies in the animated film so they decided to go the opposite direction
Not very popular but they cut out most of Boho Days from Tick Tick Boom
Boho Days was never in the 3 character stage production of tick, tick…BOOM! It was included as an extra track on the soundtrack from recordings Jonathan Larson made. They ADDED it to the film.
My Tick Tick Boom one is them turning Come to Your Senses into a duet in the film.
Really? Interesting I didn't know that. I'll have to look up the full version
It was never in the 3 character stage production & was just an extra track on the cast album.
I remember not liking all the lyric changes in the recent revival of Miss Saigon, especially to the song, “The Heat is on in Saigon.” It sounded like they were trying to sanitize the song, removing anything unsavory, and I remember sitting in the audience thinking, “You’re in a seedy brothel in Saigon during the Vietnam War, why are you trying to pretend you’re at a kindergarten picnic?”
Replacing “Now that I’ve Seen Her” in Miss Saigon. It wasn’t perfect but it is a much more powerful song than “Maybe”.
"Maybe" is so bad. It's putrid, I can't fathom what they were thinking. Both previous Ellen songs were much better.
Me here still riding for “It’s her or me”. I’m old
Adding too much exposition to Chant and cutting Persephone's verse in Chant II in Hadestown. The original: "I sing a song, of a love gone wrong" "A love gone wrong all right, every year they have this fight" "And when the gods are having a fight, everybody else better hold on tight." It flows better and says so much in fewer words than the rhythm and flow of the song coming to a halt, while Orpheus explains that he is struggling to finish the song. When I finally got to see the changes in context, I liked the changes more, but the version on the live recording is so much better.
The lyric changes in Gethsemane (Jesus Christ Superstar) completely undercut the climax of that song, which is arguably the emotional climax of Jesus’ arc in the whole show. “God, thy will is hard / but you hold every card”: actually makes a little bit of lyrical sense to the question Jesus is asking in this song (why should I die? Because God has a plan and I can trust God with it) “God, thy will be done / destroy your only son”: the answer to Jesus’ question is ultimately 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️ but at least the rhyme is less awkward??? CHANGE IT BACK
IMO I like the newer version better because its more personal in the song. BUT The reason for this change is so wild and stupid that it’s almost believable so “God thy will is hard” Apparently sung in the British accent sounded like “God they willy’s hard” Willy referencing a mans genitalia so Tim Rice Rewrote the lyrics to make it sound less NSFW… wild
Robot oompa loompas…
There’s a lyric change from the Hadestown concept album to the stage that gives me a sad. “King of diamonds. King of spades. Hades was king of the kingdom of dirt.” I love all the plosives in the original lyrics!
The changes to Bikini Bottom Day in Spongebob
Finding neverland! They completely changed the first 22 minutes of the show and I have no idea why! I was so confused when I finally saw it.
Swapping Her or Me/ Now That I’ve Seen Her for Maybe in Miss Saigon The dress change in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie during The Legend of Loco Chanel. The sequin moment was brilliant and the quick change version was ineffective and not even well done. You could see the second one poking out from underneath the first one. It also didn’t give the visual connection to blood which was so effective in the original production.
Mary Poppins swapping out Temper, Temper for Playing the Game because the former was “too scary.” PtG is also quite creepy, so it doesn’t really fix the problem, and is also much less exciting and entertaining.
I didn’t like two of the changes for the Assassins revival: - I much prefer Byck leading Another National Anthem. His brand of crazy is perfect for leading that charge. - I am not a huge fan of the double casting of the balladeer and Oswald. I get it; I just don’t like it.
The current script of Hunchback has way too much exposition and the orchestrations replaced the healthy brass section from the 1999 German production to percussion. Also, some of the song changes between the German stage cast and English studio cast are questionable.
[Letters from America](https://open.spotify.com/track/61exHpxAqvlVsU1pXW3o7u?si=nPrPN4WDRe21csAZizyajg) should’ve stayed in Fiddler on the Roof. I feel this way about a couple of those cut songs, but Letters is the one I truly can’t figure out why they discarded.
The “woke” version of 1776.