What is the worst production you have ever seen on Broadway? What is the worst show?- Page 5

[SkidRow82]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 10:24am

Worst Show: American Psycho 

Most Misguided: Harmony

Most Over-Rated: Addams Family (which admittedly, wasn’t that highly rated in the first place)…

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 12:23pm

The OG production of Merrily was...a fiasco.

Disappointed more people didn't see Into The Light.  I mean, I didn't, either but still, I want to hear more about it.  And Marlowe, Got 2 Go Disco, Dude, Via Galactica...spill it, olds!

Updated On: 5/20/24 at 12:23 PM

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:18pm

Seth Rudetsy's Disaster was awful

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:27pm

"The Wedding Singer" was pretty bad.  

[Det95]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:34pm

Shows I hated: Patriots, Doubtfire (tour), The Bodyguard (tour), Lightning Thief (tour). Granted Doubtfire was on tour so it may have been better in NY, but I saw nothing there worth seeing.

[ijest22]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:39pm

After reviewing all the responses in this thread, I have to reiterate that I think Lestat deserves at least an honorable mention, but one response did remind me of Prymate, which actually was the worst thing that I have ever seen on Broadway. Special shout out to Dracula, the musical and BKLYN. 

[Rudy2]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:54pm

broadfan327 said: "[title of show], Guttenberg the Musical, Scandalous, Come From Away top my list."

Come From Away is my number 2, after Dracula the Musical.

I’m always refreshed when I find others who loathed CFA. I felt so emotionally manipulated with no payoff - weak book and mediocre music surrounding a truly beautiful story.

 

[Rudy2]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:59pm

kidmanboy said: "Absolutely has to be Memphis. Utterly baffling.


A few dishonorable mentions: Pirate Queen, Pretty Woman, The Last Ship, Frank Wildhorn’s Dracula. And, yes, Great Gatsby."

 

Yes, that Dracula is the single worst thing I’ve ever seen on a professional theater stage.

My mom got me tickets thinking it was a revival of the Langella play, which she enjoyed in her youth.

Strong performances. Godawful music and lyrics. A total lack of suspense. 

 

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 4:03pm

Girl From The North Country. I can't remember the last time I left a show at intermission, but it happened with that one 

[carolinaguy]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 4:21pm

On Broadway, the worst thing I ever saw was The Scarlet Pimpernel. I saw the first cast, with Terrence Mann and Christine Andreas. There was just nothing to it; the story was not well told and the songs were generic, though at least "Madame Guillotine" tried. I also remember thinking that I liked Linda Eder's recording of "Only Love" much more than the version in the show.

The worst thing I ever saw that purported to be professional theater was the tour of The Bodyguard. The "storytelling" was laughable, poor Judson Mills was given absolutely nothing to do, the design was lazy and pathetic (all those panels!), and Deborah Cox's voice sounded very tired. (No wonder, with all those songs and almost no break.)

[Rudy2]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 2:43am

BentleyB said: "I had forgotten about “Bullets Over Broadway” wow that was an abortion and in the 70s seeing a show with Bernard Hughes in the lead called, “Da”. I could only understand about every 12th word because of the thick Irish brogue. I think I slept thru Act 2."

How funny - my mom still fondly remembers “Da.”

[Rudy2]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 2:47am

Dreamboy3 said: "With apologies to Christopher Durang, Sex and Longing was really really tortuous.

I guess I had blocked out some truly awful shows that others have posted about. And I’ve excluded off broadway given the OP — otherwise In Transit and Women on the Verge would surely have been on my list. And a very obscure play from the 80s called Waltz of the Stork.


The Philanthropist truly was awful. The Play that Goes wrong I hated within two minutes. The Rose Tattoo with Marisa Tomei. And from this season, Uncle Vanya."

Re: Uncle Vanya and having not seen the production…was it to do with Steve Carrell? 
 

I think he’s a very funny man, but a character actor? It seems like too many people with casting power - in film, and now theater - think he can play character roles. From what I’ve seen, that’s not the case at all.

[Rudy2]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 2:51am

scripps said: "BentleyB said: "“But “Burn This” I couldn’t run out of the Hudson fast enough along with several other audience members at intermission. I fell asleep at least 3 times in act 1."

I saw Burn This the summer day there wasa blackout that closed most shows but not this one! Oh, lucky me! I refuse to watch Adam Driver in anything since this travesty. I stayed for Act 2 because I have had a crush on David Furr since I spotted him in the ensemble of Cymbeline at LCT but it was an absolutely hellish experience.

"

I remember seeing Driver in “Man and Boy” with Langella, which I mostly enjoyed. 
 

I loathed his accent and one-note performance and thought to myself, “This guy is tall and gangly with a quirky look that can pull off different casting types…he’ll be overrated and working endlessly before I know it.”

🙄 

[Rudy2]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 2:56am

KarenValentine'sheadband said: "On Your Feet - Just a sad sad show. My hope was high for it but it fell hard.



The last revival of Oklahoma. WOW! What a pretentious borefest."


The portrayal of Emilio alone - I blame the director and the Estefans themselves, not the actor - was so reductive, unfunny, incongruous and, above all, untruthful. I still can’t get it out of my head.

It was a fun celebration of Gloria’s music and resilience, but little more. More a concert than theater.

[Rudy2]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 3:00am

Kad said: "The first answer that comes to mind was the revival of The Gin Game with James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson. A dull, twee play, poorly staged and designed, and featuring a Jones who was barely a shadow of his formidable self- who could barely stand and was reciting lines. I left at intermission.

But I have to say,having to sit through fringe festival shows, entire off-Broadway seasons,and bottom-tier semi-professional regionaltheater for work drastically altered what “bad theater” meant to me. I’ve certainly seen Broadway productions I haven’t liked, but even the worst Broadway show is at least competent. I’ve seen productions that have legitimately given me an existential crisis because of how totally inept they were."

You’re so on point re: Gin Game. 
 

I was honored to be in the room with these two greats, but it felt like the director was too intimidated to sculpt their performances and just let them do whatever.

 

I saw a production of it done in community theater with fine actors I know personally; they created more tension and genuine humor than Tyson and Jones.

 

I never would have expected that. It should have been a master class.

 

[Rudy2]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 3:07am

n2nbaby said: "The two things I’ve hated the most on Broadway have been Jagged Little Pill and The Great Gatsby. Absolutely baffling that either made it. Abysmal."

I agree about JLP. I’m a longtime, diehard Alanis Morissette fan, but the show was atrocious. It was like being assaulted with every politically correct trope imaginable; in a sense, it gave the 2010s the ending the decade deserved.

I call it the flavor-blasted Cheetos of musicals. Completely inorganic and needless.

[Rudy2]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 3:10am

uncageg said: "Jordan Catalano said: "BKLYN"



I saw BKLYN twice when it premiered at the New Denver Civic Theaterin Denver before it went to Broadway. Loved it. But I remember thinking, when the Broadway run was announced, that it just would not work in a bigger theater. I think it was meant to run off-Broadway. I never saw it on Broadway but it was "semi" interactive when I saw it in Denver, from what I remember. And I really wish they had done a studio recording instead of a Live recording. I really enjoyed the score. JMO



The one show I just could not sit through, and left at Intermission, was "Soul Doctor".

"

I adored BKLYN and found it to be misunderstood. You’re completely right, of course - it was really made for off-Broadway.

[Rudy2]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 3:15am

DramaTeach said: "Hated If/Then. Trying to be high art, and so tedious."

I love Idina dearly and always will, but she didn’t have the character acting chops to delineate Liz and Beth.

What a great premise, but the ingredients didn’t come together. I was left rather cold. 

[citylightsny]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 5:55am

1975. The Ambassador Theater.  I am 10 years old and a friend and I pick "We Interrupt This Program" at TKTS.

A group of black militants with machine guns invade the stage during a drawing room comedy and take the audience hostage for an excruciating 90 minutes of (even by mid-70's standards) racist tropes and bad acting. 

It closed a day later after only a week of performances.  A show that made "Moose Murders" seem like Noel Coward.

And yet I remember it better than many great productions.

Updated On: 5/21/24 at 05:55 AM

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 8:00am

Rudy2 said: "Dreamboy3 said: "With apologies to Christopher Durang, Sex and Longing was really really tortuous.

I guess I had blocked out some truly awful shows that others have posted about. And I’ve excluded off broadway given the OP — otherwise In Transit and Women on the Verge would surely have been on my list. And a very obscure play from the 80s called Waltz of the Stork.


The Philanthropist truly was awful. The Play that Goes wrong I hated within two minutes. The Rose Tattoo with Marisa Tomei. And from this season, Uncle Vanya."

Re: Uncle Vanya and having not seen the production…was it to do with Steve Carrell?


I think he’s a very funny man, but a character actor? It seems like too many people with casting power - in film, and now theater - think he can play character roles. From what I’ve seen, that’s not the case at all."

Regarding Uncle Vanya:  yes, he was terrible  But it made my list because everything was terrible  The adaption robbed the play of any sense of time or place so I couldn’t understand how any of the characters felt trapped in their circumstances  Each actor was acting in a different play.  There were a few performances that were individually okay (and Molina was decent) although I  have no idea what the Tony committee saw in William Jackson Harper  I am a big fan of his from the Good Place and he was amazing in Primary Trust. 

[carolinaguy]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 9:08am

The discussion of The Gin Game made me remember Deuce, with Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes. When that was announced, I remember thinking, "I'd pay to see those two read the phone book." That would have been vastly preferable to what ended up on the stage at the Music Box. It all seemed like an excuse for La Lansbury to use the c-word. It was a truly terrible play; occasionally the lights on the two legends would go dark and we would see tennis commentators in a booth commenting on action that no one cared about so our leading ladies could get a brief rest.

The show was so poorly sold that my friend and I were the ONLY PEOPLE IN THE MEZZANINE. They offered us seats downstairs, but why wouldn't we treat it like a private performance?

[BentleyB]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 9:34am

I guess I am very happy that I didn’t see that revival of “The Gin Game.”   I was fortunate to see Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in 1977 and it is truly one of the favorite plays I have ever seen performed by two amazing talents.It is amazing how casting affects a production.

[minicko88]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 9:46am

I saw both Jekyll and Hyde and Lysistrata Jones before they hit Broadway (both in Dallas). While the giant monstrosity of cheap set pieces and most of the acting was atrocious, I did quite enjoy listening to Teal Wicks and Deborah Cox sing In His Eyes and Deborah Cox belt A New Life. As for Lysistrata Jones (Give It Up at the time), I quite enjoyed it, but this version had Andrew Rannels. I think the version that hit Broadway was not nearly as enjoyable as the version in Dallas. 

Wonderland was also much stronger in Houston than on Broadway. What a train wreck when it came to Broadway. I had hope when it left Houston. 

As for Tarzan, the first 10 minutes of that show was one of the most amazing theatrical experiences I have ever seen. Then the show just dropped dead! 

But the absolute worst show I have ever seen on Broadway was White Christmas. IT was atrocious. I have never fell asleep in a show, but I was really close. 2nd place goes to Fun Home. I just didn't get all the praise. Other than Ring of Keys... That was a great number. Even Michael Cerveris couldn't save it. 

 

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 1:33pm

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but aside from the opening number, it fell very flat for me. Confusing, slow, and I saw it three times. 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 5/21/24 at 1:41pm

Some of these responses are just completely insane.