Saturday, December 05, 2009

SOB's Least Favorite Shows Of The Noughties: #5 - Gone With The WInd

SOB's Least Favorite Shows Of The Noughties: #5 - Gone With The Wind (2008, New London Theatre, London, United Kingdom)

Introduction: Hard as it is to comprehend that we're already 119 months into this "new" millennium, we are fast approaching the end of its first decade. While we have yet to agree on what exactly we should call the '00s, I'll take a cue from the fine folks at The Times of London and the BBC and henceforth refer to them at the Noughties.

With that small introduction, I'm not only pleased to present my list of my top 25 favorite plays and musicals of the Noughties, but also a simultaneous countdown of my five least favorite shows out of the hundreds and hundreds of shows I've seen over the last ten years.

A flop of truly epic proportions, the musical's creative team was still chiseling away at its lumbering length a month after it opened in hopes of averting complete disaster. Instead, its massive capitalization was Gone With The Wind.

Although purely unintentional, this ranks as one of the decade's funniest laugh-out loud musicals. While writer/sociologist Margaret Martin and director Trevor Nunn failed to deliver a compelling musical that could stand on its own, they did mount a show that was so bad, it left us nearly laughing in the aisles. Their efforts added nothing to the art of live theatre except endless exposition and a legend that gives those of us who saw it the best bragging rights this side of Carrie, which helps to keep it from being named #1 on this list.

Did we really need a narrator telling us that Miss Scarlett was about to look at herself in the mirror when we could see that for ourselves, or worse, having her step over dying soldiers rolling around on the stage who suddenly popped up to tell us they were all dying? Funny, yet sad at the same time.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post. I paid my own way for each performance.

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