StageZine's Top 10 Best & Worst of Broadway & Off-Broadway of 2011
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By Scott Harrah, StageZine Editor & Publisher
& David Nounou, StageZine Co-Publisher & Managing Editor
To compile our 10 Best and Worst Broadway and Off-Broadway Shows of 2011, we had to go individually through each of the shows we saw and make a fair and honest assessment of what each show’s merits and demerits were. We were amazed to discover that almost all of our “10 Best” came in the first half of the year and the worst were evenly divided.
Believe us, we could have easily posted the “15 Worst,” and the majority of them would have been from the second half of 2011. This made us wonder how lazy and uninspired the powers-that-be and the creative teams must have been that they could offer such vacuous and hollow shows at such exorbitant prices. With The Book of Mormon (one of the best, most successful Broadway musicals in the past decade) raising its price scale almost every week due to the supply and demand, it felt justified. Naturally, all the other shows had to increase their prices as well, even if there was no demand for them.
The musicals naturally took the heaviest toll, especially during the fall 2011 season. With the exception of Follies (excellent revival) and Lysistrata Jones, which struggled to find an audience during previews but ultimately won over the critics and hopefully will now find a paying audience, many of the musicals in 2011 were disasters of epic proportions, not necessarily in their cost to mount but with what they had to offer. The excuse for Bonnie & Clyde is that it is an original musical, and the nature of an original always carries the onus of “hit or miss,” but what a colossal bore of a miss. The inexcusable ones are On a Clear Day and Godspell; they are revivals, and the reason for bringing them is they are entities that have proven themselves before, and are brought back for another viewing by new generations. What is absolutely criminal is when the creative teams that bring in these revivals have their egos decide to re-conceive them and take charming shows and turn them into inane messes.
We do not expect all readers to agree with our picks for the Top 10 Best and Worst Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. We understand that the public’s taste in theater is quite diverse and subjective. Critics are considered arbiters of taste by some, and "snobs" by others. Some critics might be more informed about theater and theatrical history than the average person, and many reviewers consider themselves experts. However, at StageZine.com, we strive to write reviews the average theatergoer can appreciate by giving an easy-to-understand assessment of what we feel you, dear readers, will enjoy because going to the theater is expensive, and we feel the public has a right to know if a show is good, bad, or mediocre. However, we know that what we enjoy or dislike is not theatrical gospel. Everyone is entitled to his/her own taste in theater.
Please e-mail us at editor@stagezine.com or tweet us on Twitter @StageZineEditor or send us a Facebook posting at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stagezinecom/358028379269?ref=ts to let us know if you agree or disagree with our selections. We look forward to your feedback.
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TOP 10 BEST OF BROADWAY & OFF-BROADWAY 2011
1. The Normal Heart: A brilliant revival of Larry Kramer's drama about the early days of AIDS, with magnificent acting. Decades later, it is a powerful chronicle of history that had many audiences in tears. Ellen Barkin’s angry monologue is something no one who saw the show will ever forget because it was one of finest stage performances in a decade, and her Tony win was richly deserved.
2. The Book Of Mormon: The glory of irreverence, in a show that became one of Broadway's biggest hit musicals in years. Who else but the guys from "South Park" could get away with an hysterical spoof of the Mormon religion that actually celebrates it?
3. Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays: It is truly a shame this wonderful show never found an audience. A lovely piece of theater, written by some of America’s finest playwrights, and it was so true to life, funny and touching, with heartfelt acting that is ultimately a loss for the audiences who failed to see it.
4. War Horse: For its visual heroics and pageantry, this World War I drama was unforgettable.
5. Good People: A beautiful play, set in working-class Boston, with real characters and the signs of the times. Frances McDormand more than deserved the Tony win for her performance.
6. Silence! The Musical! : A must-see for the sheer audacity to pull off such hilarity. An hilarious spoof of the classic thriller starring Jodie Foster. This gleeful send-up is one of the most hysterical musicals we have seen in ages.
7. Other Desert Cities: A wonderful drama/thriller about a loving but troubled GOP family in California by Jon Robin Baitz. It rings with veracity and realism for families, rich or poor, Republican or Democrat.
8. Anything Goes: A magnificent Cole Porter revival, with an incredible score.
9. Follies: Finally, a glorious revival of an outstanding musical, and one of Sondheim's greatest.
10. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: Just for the joy and pleasure it bestows to an audience, this Broadway stage adaptation of the Down Under film about lip-sync-loving drag queens driving across the Outback is a bloody good show, thanks to amazing costumes by Oscar and Tony winner Lizzie Gardiner, classic disco songs that are irresistible, a universal message of tolerance, and Tony Sheldon's Tony-nominated performance.
Honorable mentions: Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway: The song-and-dance bloke from Oz brought sexiness and talent back in his sold-out, one-man blockbuster hit.
Also worth noting is Lysistrata Jones, a delightful, hilarious musical variation of the Greek classic comedy Lysistrata, set in a college, involving cheerleaders and their doomed basketball team. "Lyssie" is pure, bouncy fun, with a clever score that appeals to all ages.
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| HISTORICAL 'HEART' : (left to right) Lee Pace, Ellen Barkin, Wayne Alan Wilcox, Patrick Breen, Jim Parsons, Joe Mantello, John Benjamin Hickey, Luke Macfarlane, Richard Topol and Mark Harelik in Larry Kramer’s 'The Normal Heart'. Photo: Joan Marcus |
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| ALL-STAR 'GAY MARRIAGE PLAYS': (left to right) Harriet Harris, Beth Leavel, Mark Consuelos, Craig Bierko, Polly Draper, & Richard Thomas in 'Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays.' Photo: Joan Marcus |
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| THEY'RE STILL HERE: The ensemble of the spectacular revival of Sondheim's 'Follies.' Photo: Joan Marcus |
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TOP 10 WORST OF BROADWAY & OFF-BROADWAY 2011
1. Spider-Man: Turn Off the
Dark: So much money spent, so much hype, too many accidents, endless previews and script doctoring, and so
little in return. The "musical" is still a travesty. Ironically, with the shortage of original musicals this
year, it might end up in a slot for Best Musical come Tony time out of default.
2.
Godspell : One of the worst re-imagined revivals ever. A hyperactive
Passion play, told with hip-hop songs, references to modern-day
celebrities, and other 21st century twists that make no sense.
3. The
Three Sisters: The Sisters Grim would have been a more appropriate title for this dreadful "modern" translation and inane production of a beloved Chekhov classic (with an all-star cast). It primarily
suffered from abysmal, pretentious direction by Austin Pendleton.
4. On A Clear Day
You Can See Forever: A misguided reinterpretation of a mediocre musical.
Even Harry Connick, Jr.'s mellifluous vocals could not save Clear Day from being such a murky mess.
5. Relatively
Speaking : What is worse than to sit through a comedy that is not funny,
especially when it is three one acts written by such luminaries as
Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen?
6. Bonnie & Clyde : A really
bad musical, courtesy of Frank Wildhorn. It is also boring and a killer
to sit through. Since when was a movie about morally bankrupt criminals
worthy of a musical?
The show closes December 30, 2011, but should have never come to Broadway at all.
7. Marie and Bruce : Babbling twaddle, courtesy
of Wallace Shawn. Even Oscar winner Marisa Tomei could not save this
pointless Off-Broadway revival from collapsing through its countless narrative holes.
8. Baby It's You! : A disastrous "jukebox
musical" that was no more about the Shirelles than the moon is made of
cream cheese. Baby, it was dreck!
9. Wonderland : A mind-numbing, colorful train wreck,
purporting to tell the story of Alice in Wonderland as a hip, urban
fairy tale, courtesy of Frank Wildhorn. Wow, this is a first; no one has
made our list of 10 Worst twice in the same year.
10. The People in the
Picture : A musical about the Holocaust? Oy vey. The show’s only saving
grace was Donna Murphy’s poignant, Tony-nominated performance, but the "musical comedy" itself was contrived and had little to say about one of
the most tragic periods in history for Jewish people.
Dishonorable mention: Arcadia, a three-hour snooze fest revival
of Tom Stoppard's classic.
Published December 21, 2011
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| SPIDEY'S TANGLED MUSICAL WEB: Reeve Carney as Spider-Man in what StageZine calls one of the worst Broadway musicals ever. Photo: Jacob Cohl |
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| THE SISTERS GRIM: (left to right) Maggie Gyllenhaal, Juliet Rylance, Jessica Hecht in the atrocious revival of Chekhov's 'Three Sisters.' Photo: Joan Marcus |
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| BABY, IT WAS A BOMB!: Crystal Starr, Christina Sajous, Tony nominee Beth Leavel, Erica Ash, & Kyra Da Costa in jukebox show masquerading as a musical about The Shirelles, 'Baby It's You!' Photo: Ari Mintz |
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