After the amount I LOVED Xanadu on broadway I have been trying to think of other musicals/shows that would seem like an awful idea but actually turned out to be very good.

Sweeny Tood is a bizarre on to think about musicalising- but that obviously did quite well. lol.

Any more?

And- what about ideas that should have been great but flopped- gone with the wind is one f the most successful books and movies of all time and I think if it was done right it could have been amazing. allas- great Idea- awful show.

Les Mis? Jesus Christ Superstar...... soooooooo many. Lets have some fun.

Carrie- awful idea- awful show. well, i actually quite like it. Lol!!!

Young Frankenstein - [could have been a] Great Idea - Awful Show.

Can't say I thought Wicked would take off, I hated the book, so I would have put that in the Awful Idea - Great Musical category. (Of course it bears maybe 0.02% resemblance to the book.)

i liked the book of wicked..... didn't like the show. But like you said there is only about 1% of the book in the show!

This is a great idea for a new thread!

Thinking about all the shows that I have seen, I would say that one that stands out is Chicago.....

If you think about the story - woman shoots husband/other woman kills husband AND sister but they become very famous musical stars! - it is a strange one to transfer into a musical but it so works, I have seen it countless times and never tire of the music/songs and story.

Chess.
(Now I know some would argue that this was an awful show!), but this really shouldn't have worked. Chess is not exactly the most visually exciting game. However, the sharp script and great songs turned it around.

hahaha.... i never thought of chicago like that- but you're right! Bizzarre....!

Carousel. It has the daftest plot, but what a fantastic musical it is.

Cats. Who would have thought that a musical made up of a collection of poems, with absolutely no plot whatsoever, would become one of the most successful shows of all time?

Annie. A comic strip cartoon about an orphan girl and her dog seems an unlikely subject, yet it is a great show.

Oliver. A depressing subject, if ever there was one, but what a lively show Lionel Bart made of it.

I agree that Cats isa strange idea yet a brilliant show.

'Marguerite' should have been amazing.

'Floyd Collins' has no right to be as breath-taking as it is.

Correction, Marguerite WAS amazing.

Several of the Rodgers and Hammerstein shows look like dreadful ideas until they get on stage. Oklahoma! was a bog-standard love triangle set among a bunch of wurzels who want to join The Union. Then there's Cinderella, in which a none-too-bright girl who believes in fairies gets hitched to the prince of a kingdom so small that no two people have the same shoe size. Or The Sound of Music: Nuns, Nazis, and spoilt children.

On the other hand Pipe Dream could have been another Pal Joey, except Hammerstein was no Hart. It was a deserved flop.


Dickensian times make a good source for theatre. I wouldn't have thought a musical about the formation of the first union for women would have made a decent musical, but The Match Girls is one of my favourites.

Im so glad my post has taken off....

It really is wierd what works. I, personally, loved "the color purple" but the book is something you would never think about turning into a musical.... but the obviously someone did! And it was great.

The most obscure in my opinion could be Jerry Springer the Opera...... What an awful idea in concept- then it turns out to be amazing!!

I think the reson most of these on paper dont work is becasue the sound like bad subject matter.... but it s "when the emotional level gets so high" all you can do is sing! The Color Purple is such a powerful subject...hennce why they sing.

Fun fun fun... lets keep it going!

THANK YOU!!! Yes Marguerite WAS amazing, people didn't give it a fair chance!! Such a shame.

I'm glad this thread has taken off too, it's a fantastic idea and I think it could do the future of theatre a bit of good. It makes us think about the content of shows rather than the titles and ideas.