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Post by Someone in a tree on Dec 22, 2018 8:38:05 GMT
Our chance to shame the lows of 2018.
Joint 5 th place: I found RSC’s Rome Season and Hampstead’s Uncle Vanya to be really boring.
4. The Silk Road: Mark Morris @ Sadlers Wells. After 5 minutes I had heard all the score had to offer. Plus with the band centre stage it left no space for the dancers.
3. Traviata. ENO. Concepts that’s did not work and poor musical standards.
2. Chess. ENO. Michael Ball was very good but the book is a total mess and the staging was sloppy.
1. Barnum. MCF. Never have I longed so much for the fire alarm to sound mid performance ...
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Post by david on Dec 22, 2018 8:52:13 GMT
The few that spring to mind
The Prisoner - I just couldn’t see the point of it or what it was trying to achieve. Only positive was seeing Donald Sumpter perform.
Julie - the blended budgie scene was the highlight of this shambles.
I’m not running - I wish I did at the interval. Just absolutely nothing positive to say about this production.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2018 9:05:44 GMT
Only two real stinkers spring to mind, surprisingly both from Bush Theatre.
Misty - self congratulating nonsense
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything - Incredibly pedestrian. Distract the audience by handing out glowsticks. Rather than try an make a point dramatically, just have your narrator scream and stamp his foot in a rage at the end "make the most of your life". Thanks for wasting 2 hours of mine. F off.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2018 9:11:17 GMT
A Very Very Very Dark Matter was so horrendous that it has made even the really tedious other plays I've seen this year seem like worthwhile endeavours. It worked so hard to position itself as "I'm going to be offensive as hell and weaklings aren't going to be able to handle that" that it forgot to be coherent, enjoyable, or even very well put together. I think the only thing it had going for it was the set and I am definitely now very suspicious of people who apparently actually liked it.
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Post by poster J on Dec 22, 2018 9:24:49 GMT
Hadestown - a complete mess of a production musically, lyrically and acting-wise. I hated it so much I left at the interval.
I didn't enjoy Anthony & Cleopatra either, but that may have been more due to a migraine than anything else, though I did find it interminably slow and I doubt I would have thought differently on that front even if I had been well.
My Fair Lady on Broadway - lavish production but half of the principals had absolutely dreadful English accents, which rather ruined the whole thing.
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1,846 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Dec 22, 2018 10:05:52 GMT
Ballots
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Dec 22, 2018 10:38:18 GMT
The whole Brexit farrago, the seeming collapse of liberal democracy in the face of fear stoked by populists and a political system which rewards ideology over pragmatism.
On a personal level, spending more time on repairing my inexorably aging frame than at any time previously.
Theatre is, as always, a welcome respite and the idea that people are striving to educate and entertain us means that I can’t be too negative, especially as what I don’t respond to is likely going to be someone else’s favourite. A few few that just weren’t for me, then. Underground Railroad Game (Sophomoric), Le Maladie de Mort (Katie Mitchell not given enough to work with) and Beginning (didn’t identify with the characters in the way which I was probably expected to).
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Post by Jan on Dec 22, 2018 12:29:31 GMT
A bad year for Shakespeare, the following all terrible:
Macbeth (NT)
Twelfth Night (Wilton’s)
Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC)
The RSC’s abysmal Romans season only omitted because I saw the two worse ones of the four (Julius Caesar and Coriolanus) in 2017.
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Post by sf on Dec 22, 2018 13:41:31 GMT
Chess. Undercast (with the exception of Michael Ball), and whoever came up with this version of the script did the material no favours. Musically thrilling, theatrically inert.
A Very Very Very Dark Matter. However many awards the writer has, it's never a good idea to stage someone's unrevised first draft.
Pinocchio. A very odd mixture of things that really worked and things that REALLY didn't.
A special mention for the woman working in the deli at the Nottingham Playhouse who apparently believes it's OK to bring her two (very cute) puppies to work in a hamster cage and leave them on the floor in the corner by the fridge. It isn't, and if you think it IS you aren't fit to take on the responsibility of keeping a pet.
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Post by learfan on Dec 22, 2018 13:43:07 GMT
I thought it a decent year for Shakespeare. 12 Night Merry Wives and Macbeth at SUA were good and Antony&Cleopatra at the NT was superb. I found Lehman Trilogy hugely overpraised. The NT Macbeth continued Norris'dire run. I would be v surprised if he carries on after 2020.
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Post by David J on Dec 22, 2018 14:00:40 GMT
I thankfully avoided a lot of stinkers this year. I'd say the top 5 are actually bad, but the rest are worth mentioning for how average they were. Which means I will forget about them in a few weeks and wonder why I even saw these anyway (which in a way makes them the worst, whilst the top 5 are memorably bad)
1. Sweet Charity (Watermill Theatre) - I can't fault the efforts of the cast but I hated this musical. I didn't come out of any other show thinking how it wasted my time. A meandering first act until the musical finds a plot in the second half only to take a complete 180-degree turn out of nowhere at the end.
2. The President and an Officer in Pinter 1 (Harold Pinter Theatre) - To take a Harold Pinter piece that has never been performed before and turn it into a Trump bashing sketch. No. Just No.
3. Julie (NT) - A boring and pointless update to the play that doesn't make sense in this day and age.
4. Teddy (Watermill Theatre) - A lazy nostalgia trip through 1950s London with rhymed dialogue and rock music
5. Allelujah (Bridge Theatre) - Meandering and unfunny. Worst Alan Bennett I've seen so far.
6. Macbeth (RSC) - No clear vision from Polly Findlay except to throw some horror references and ideas together. Together with a unremarkable performance from Christopher Eccleston in the title role
7. The Duchess of Malfi – Over the top in the gore department and Maria Aberg’s mis-mash of ideas and staging created a production that was difficult to follow.
8. Macbeth (NT) – I didn’t think this was as awful as others have said. Rufus Norris’ post-apocalyptic vision was consistent, in comparison to Polly Findlay’s production, and it had its moments with good performance from the leads. It just didn’t make sense and looked cringy at times (cardboard armour and so on). And Rufus Norris’ directing made for some flat scenes
9. The Human Voice (Gate Theatre) – a potentially emotional piece let down by the gimmick of listening to the woman’s phone call via headphones whilst watching her through windows
10. Don Carlos (UK Tour) – This wasn’t necessarily bad. The acting was top notch, especially Darrell D’Silvia. However this was all dragged down by the set, or non-existent set, and directorial decisions. I felt the three hours pass by
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2018 15:01:26 GMT
The things I didn't enjoy and regretted spending money on were:
- Julie (didn't care)
- Kiss Me Kate (far too long, awful plot)
- Macbeth (thankfully the cinema version only, I thought this was abysmal)
The things that I found a bit forgettable and unispiring were:
- The Cherry Orchard @ Royal Exchange (dull)
- Midsummer Night's Dream @ Sheffield Crucible (was ok, but nothing to stick in my mind)
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Post by alece10 on Dec 22, 2018 16:50:44 GMT
To be honest I don't have any. I only go to see things I know I will like or have been recommend to me. It's been a good year really and enjoyed everything I have seen.
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Post by theatremad on Dec 22, 2018 18:39:18 GMT
I'm going to ruffle a few feathers as some of these are outright winners for some:
Hadestown: single set, boring retell of great story, didn't interest me at all
Inheritance: left after first interval of first part. The 'sex scene' was in my humble opinion painful to watch and badly acted. And the rest was too stylised
Hallelujah: left at interval, bored me rigid but great acting
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Post by dani on Dec 22, 2018 19:02:18 GMT
My worst shows of the year are:
5. Macbeth at the National
4. Chess at the Coliseum
3. Julie at the National
2. Tartuffe at the Haymarket
1 (the worst). A Very Very Very Dark Matter
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Post by lou105 on Dec 22, 2018 20:31:22 GMT
Allelujah at the Bridge for me. I just didn't find it funny and was surrounded by people guffawing- one of the few times I've asked my companion if we should leave at the interval, though we didn't. I was planning to book A vvv dark matter but decided I didn't want to risk one of my relatively few slots, having read multiple opinions.
Also Jim Cartwright's Road at a pop up venue at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. I just couldn't get into it, not helped by having arrived 45 minutes before it started and being the only person waiting for about twenty minutes.
In general the increased tendency to charge £75 for almost all of the stalls,even for 90 minute shows. Those of us who have to plan travel etc can't always risk last minute discounts.
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Post by duncan on Dec 23, 2018 7:56:20 GMT
5 - Strangers on a Train - a shame Scotrail didn't cancel this one.
4 - Girl from the North Country - utterly turgid soap masquerading as art.
3 - Kiss Me Kate - please just leave me Kate.
2 - The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other - pretentious nonsense.
1 - Love from a Stranger - Agatha Christie slops performed by fifth rate actors, one of the worst things I've seen in years.
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Post by ali973 on Dec 23, 2018 8:13:46 GMT
If we can only pick 5!
A VERY VERY DARK MATTER (London)
Y'all are right. It's awful. Offensive and not clever.
THE CHER SHOW (Chicago)
Missed opportunity. I feel like I should have been a consultant during its workshop.
CAROUSEL (Broadway)
Jack O'Brian's answer to reviving a show with domestic violence is to scrap it out and to choreograph the living sh*t out of the show.
BAT OUT OF HELL (London)
Not my scene.
TOOTSIE (Chicago)
David Yazbek, you write good music, but please don't use it to tell the story of an as*hole who forges a successful career for himself by creating a caricature of a woman, lying to everyone around him, and then getting a magical redemption in a form of song.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2018 8:21:55 GMT
The worst for me was Twelfth Night at the Edinburgh Lyceum. It went on forever and I couldn’t make out the words of the actors most of the time.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2018 10:27:01 GMT
Me and My Girl - Chichester
Sunset Blvd UK tour- woefully miscast leading lady
and...Hamilton..to an extent. Don't get me wrong, I did really enjoy it, but not to the extent the crazy hype around it suggests
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2018 12:17:11 GMT
Plays I left at the interval...
Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Park Theatre)
Hadestown
Plays I wish I left at the interval...
Don Quixote
Plays I wish had an interval so I could have left
Memorial (Barbican)
But overall, more good than bad this year.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Dec 23, 2018 12:52:38 GMT
This was the year I decided to skip more theatre and be more discerning, rather than hare off to see everything straight away. Buh bye Very Very Dark Matter, Antony and Cleopatra, Malady of Death, and more that I'm forgetting.
Amazed not to see Knights of the Rose on this thread.
Julie was a significant lowlight. I didn't enjoy Hadestown (boring), My Mum's a Tw*t (compelling but not really a play, and shouldn't have gone on at the Court), and basically everything in the Olivier or the Lyttleton.
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Post by greeny11 on Dec 23, 2018 17:13:18 GMT
Chicago - Thought the book and score were both dull - All That Jazz and When You're Good To Mama (though Ruthie Henshall was rather flat throughout the song) being the only song I liked. Cuba Gooding Jr was poor and Ruthie Henshall and Josefina Gabrielle both flat whenever they sang.
Young Frankenstein - all a bit forgettable and I didn't find it at all funny.
King and I - that ballet was so incredibly boring (and long) I nearly fell asleep.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2018 17:15:52 GMT
The King and I.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Dec 23, 2018 17:22:17 GMT
Chicago - Thought the book and score were both dull - All That Jazz and When You're Good To Mama (though Ruthie Henshall was rather flat throughout the song) being the only song I liked. Cuba Gooding Jr was poor and Ruthie Henshall and Josefina Gabrielle both flat whenever they sang. Young Frankenstein - all a bit forgettable and I didn't find it at all funny. King and I - that ballet was so incredibly boring (and long) I nearly fell asleep. I adore Chicago but it really suffers from having terrible casting I walked out of Young Frankenstein Also Snap on the King on I ballet section! |
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Post by viserys on Dec 23, 2018 17:23:22 GMT
I can't single out a particular show as a disappointment (though I've yet to see Hadestown this upcoming week before the year is over...). The only show I found myself bored with was Tartuffe at the Haymarket, but I still file it away under a positive experience because I got to see Audrey Fleurot live on stage.
My negatives are more of a general kind:
- the astonishing speed with which prices have risen/are rising in the West End,
- the fact that a rather great Broadway season full of creative new work such as Hamilton, Evan Hansen and Comet was followed by an incredibly uninspired season consisting mostly of jukebox musicals and a theme park monkey,
- the fact that Stage Entertainment got their mitts on Bat out of Hell in Germany and turned it into exactly the blazing dumpster fire I had feared,
- and for me personally that Bat didn't run longer than it did in London.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2018 17:40:32 GMT
Heathers has been the only disappointment for me this year. Mainly because of the weak cast.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 23, 2018 17:53:29 GMT
A Very Very Very Dark Matter is one of the worst things I have ever seen in my life - jaw-droppingly bad, and I was so looking forward to it. After Three Billboards, I though his writing was getting deeper. Pity at the Royal Court was quite painful and there was a point where I just wanted to scream at them to stop, but at least you felt they made an effort. Allelujah was like a bad 80s sitcom. I really didn't like John: the young couple were annoying without being interesting and their 'story arc' predictable from the off. The Divide wasn't a good play and its gender politics were antique, but was worth seeing for the fantastic central performance by Erin Doherty. Foxfinder was potentially interesting but miscast so the sexual dynamic didn't work, and then fizzled out.
Some of the best plays I've seen recently have been from young / new writers, for example the Bruntwood plays. They have almost all been on in small spaces and deserved a wider audience. Older, established and (yes) generally male playwrights seem to be able to turn up with a "will this do?" and get big budgets, fanfares and the main stage. More quality control next year please.
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 23, 2018 18:56:27 GMT
Firstly before listing any shows, the 2018 negative for me by a long chalk is the sudden death of Alex Beckett who passed away at 35 whist performing in Ways of the World at the Donmar Warehouse.
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Post by Snciole on Dec 23, 2018 19:08:00 GMT
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