I saw The Frogs about two decades ago, and there's that flatulent punchline in the opening number as well as a waltz with words by Shakespeare.
The show I saw last night had not a whit of wit, and no poetry to its lyrics. Thames was rhymed with requiems.
But I don't think Jose could guess the two Broadway shows I found more offensive. One was a so-called "new" Broadway musical that had a score made up of old standards. I'd never seen a show like that before, and the mere idea of it horrified me. Since that unhappy night, we've had dozens of so-called "new" musicals made up of old scores (Mamma Mia, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Urban Cowboy) and while I still find this horrifying, nothing has topped my antipathy for the first example I saw. I remember the set had a big, working clock, and I kept staring at it, wondering if some technician was actually slowing down its movement.
The other nadir was a Eurotrash hit that ran for many years and offended me to the core. A lot of people liked it, and they sometimes try to convince me that I misinterpreted what I was seeing. I saw suicide being glorified as a noble sacrifice a parent can make for a child. Two of my best friends lost their mothers to suicide when they were young, and so they show gets stuck in my craw. Ew, I've disgusted myself with my own metaphor.
