Overrated musicals?

Question

This is completely random, but I'm curious as to what Broadway musicals does everyone think are just completely overrated? My friend and I were having this discussion last night and she says "RENT" (which I think is crazy--I'm an enormous RENThead), but I say "Spring Awakening," which is good, but I just don't get all the hype. So what does everyone else think?

Answer 1

This is going to sound really crass, but I can't help it -- "Rent" got noticed only because its creator died right before it opened. That generated a lot of interest, because it WAS a pathos-heavy event. I have to admit, I bought into all the hype -- about two months after it's Broadway opening, when everyone was screeching about it being the best thing since sliced bread and indoor plumbing, I got offered a ticket. I had not heard the recording, so didn't know anything about it other than it was based on "La Boheme." Well, I was completely underwhelmed. Look, it has energy, but energy itself is not impressive. Just stepping onstage and bellowing is NOT art. I found the music profoundly tedious, the characters vapid and unappealing, and the sets depressing. Perhaps part of it is because I neither admire nor envy all that is hip and cool and trendy. On the plus side, a few -- a FEW -- of the rhyming lines in that "La Vie Boheme" number were clever, but the rest were trying to be a Sondheim wet-dream [e.g. as complex as chemical engineering]. And I'm sorry, but all that whining about "poor little ole me" was highly annoying -- I was dirt-poor in my 20s, but I didn't just stand around singing crappy three-chord songs to proclaim my unhappiness. Christ, I wanted to shout out, "show a little moxie and fix your life if it's so damn bad!" And surely I wasn't the only one who thought, "well, if you're poor and don't have skills to get a better paying job and you can't afford to live in New York, then get the hell out." So in case you haven't figured it out yet, I consider "Rent" to be overrated. Oh, and my jaw literally dropped when it won the Pulitzer Prize for theatre. "Ragtime" should have won a Pulitzer simply for being the first really effective musicalization of a novel, but instead the whiney "Rent" turkey was honored. This is surely a sign of the Apocalypse.

"Cats" is another one. I saw the original L.A. production back in the early 80s, and the only reason I stayed to the end was because my friend had driven us up from San Diego and HE wanted to stay. Harrumph. The interesting thing is that I liked almost every element by itself -- the melodies [Lloyd Webber really is a superb melodist], the sublime text by T.S. Eliot, the sets, the lighting, and the costumes/make-up. But put them all together and it's one crappy evening of theatre. Please note that the one element I didn't mention above was the choreography -- I liked the 14 moves the first time, but when they started getting recycled over and over and over and over and OVER again, it wore thin very quickly. The crouches, the head turns, the jetes, and the pawing the air -- oh, puh-leeze.

"Annie Get Your Gun." So much cornpone I just want to stab my eyes with one of Sitting Bull's feathers. No, there's nothing wrong with a happy show -- but does the happiness have to be so psychotically overbearing? By the 20th verse of "Doin' What Comes Natcherly" I'm usually trying to open a vein. And guess what -- a good friend is doing the lead this summer at a podunk theatre, so I have to go see it. Hoo-RAY!

"Camelot" and "Brigadoon." They continue getting produced, and people keep sitting through all nine hours of each. Why?

"Miss Saigon." I went and saw this because I had adored their "Les Miserables." To say I was sorry is an understatement. Laughably bad lyrics -- check out the parody in one of the "Forbidden Broadway" recordings. I think I know what happened -- the authors had spent years and years and years shaping and crafting "Les Miserables" through various incarnations before the Royal Shakespeare production caused a sensation. After its London and American smash success, the authors naturally decided to write something new. Whereas the first show was the product of years of work, they hammered out "Miss Saigon" in a few months. Bad mistake. It's just terrible. And that helicopter is as big a dud as Phantom's chandelier "hurtling" to the stage and a mind-blowing 2 mph. Yawn.

"Wicked." An intriguing and highly original novel by Gregory Maguire got turned into THIS? Oy. That the song "Defying Gravity" is hailed as the greatest thing since the Magna Carta is just more proof that people equate bellowing with greatness. "Ooh, it's really loud, so it MUST be fabulous." [You know, like how Mariah Scarey is considered talented, when 'frightening' is clearly a more appropriate adjective.] Hammerstein once told Sondheim, "Only musicalize a novel if the music will ADD something and help tell the story better." This show fails to do that -- the characters in the novel are serious and deep, not charming and interested in flying around on wires.

"The Lion King." The acrobatics and physical designs are ingenious, but the show itself is hideous, as was its film predecessor [it was worse than "Mulan" -- need I say more?] All that spectacle is wasted when the little things like the plot and characters and score and dialogue are so ho-hum. And the only thing worse than Elton John writing theatre music is -- dear God in heaven! -- Phil Collins writing theatre music. Is Disney completely insane? Well, you get one guess as to whether I'll be going to see "Tarzan" -- even a loincloth-clad stud-muffin ain't worth $120.

There are numerous others, but I'll stop here. I have a great passion for the art form -- I work in it, after all -- but I nonetheless am not afraid of disparaging mediocrity when I see it.

Answer 2

Wicked. I vote Wicked as the #1 Most Overrated Show -- ever. As much as a love it, it's just...well, overrated!
Rent wasn't very overrated until the movie came out. It's not as overrated as Wicked though.
I actually like Spring Awakening (Though I'm not like certain people, who go all teenybopper on it.)
Ah, what else? I think that's about it. Yes, I were to give an award for most overrated, Wicked would get 10 of them.

Answer 3

Rent is completely overrated - your friend is right. I'm not debating it's entertainment appeal, but when you break down the show, the music is poorly written (mostly on two chords) and the characters are two-dimensional. The only believable couple is Angel and Tom Collins. It is a kitchen-sink approach to issues (let's throw everything in!), and so all the issues suffer from under-development. Also, truthfully, all of the characters except Benny are arrested cases of development. They are avoiding behaving like adults and the show tries to convince us that avoiding personal responsibility is a good thing.

I haven't seen Spring Awakening live, but the songs I've heard and clips I've seen lead me to think that it is overrated as well. Ugh

And while I am in a minority of probably 1 here, I think Sweeney Todd is overrated. It's a dark, ugly show with dark, ugly music, and I think people who perform it are just so thrilled to have learned the score that they convince themselves it's brilliant. I think it's god-awful.

On the other hand, there are shows that are underrated, either because people didn't see them or they have been so overdone that people don't look at them with open eyes. This list for me includes Carousel, Oklahoma, and everything Cy Coleman wrote except The Life.

Answer 4

Rent is the most overrated musical I've ever seen. Very few people realize it's based on an opera "La Bohem". It's not that challenging a show vocally or production wise. I just don't think it's all it's built up to be.

Answer 5

When Kiss of the Spider Woman was out and Maria Conchita Alonso was playing the lead.... that was bad. I wish we were able to go again and compare when Vanessa Williams was doing the show to see if it was any better or if it didn't make a difference. I wanted to leave at intermission and everyone else seemed to love it!

And Rent is AWESOME!

Answer 6

Let me preface my answer by saying that I have seen all of these shows in person, some with the Original Broadway Cast.

Phantom of the Opera: Ugh. Overblown, oversimplified for mass appeal, overrated.

Spring Awakening: To quote Peter Griffin: "It insists upon itself."

Wicked: Saw the OBC. It's fun, fluffy, and a spectacle, but definitely lacked overall story. Corporate sponsor does not equal substance. What cracks me up is those people who only read the novel because of the musical and hate it (or, more often, don't finish it).

And those are just my top 3!

Answer 7

I vote for Les Mis and Phantom of the Opera. Both are overblown. over produced, and overdone!

Answer 8

ugh Spring Awakening. it makes me puke in my mouth a little.
i got the soundtrack so excited cuz i heard it was great.
and while maybe the show is really good, the songs in my opinion are not. blech.

Wicked has all this hype but i truly do believe that it is a SPECTACULAR musical. saw it twice. love it.

Avenue Q should not have won best musical.

Answer 9

Anything by Andrew Lloyd Weber.