Gil Hates Everything

You’d think this would be promising; it’s a straightforward love story, backed by a popular movie, and the occasionally problematic but essentially very talented Jason Robert Brown supplies music and lyrics. Unfortunately, and let me not beat about the bush on this one, it’s shit, and it’s his fault.

There are 20 songs and the first 16 bored me to tears; anyone could have written this guff. It wakes up with “One Second And A Million Miles” and two of the remaining three songs are alright, but why would you stay awake through the first act-and-a-half for that? Apparently there was nothing else good that year as the music and orchestrations (although tellingly not the lyrics) won the Tonys; I understand that for PR purposes you have to award an annual award to something, but awards are relative and I really don’t think this material should win anything in any absolute sense.

It’s by far the worst work JRB has done, lacking in energy, originality, and style. It’s like a simultaneously overblown and underwhelming “Summer Of ’42” (a minor show which even GHM fans probably won’t recall I quite liked) and beyond the aforementioned “One Second…” (the first song where there are actual lyrics as opposed to just words blathering all over the place like a leak at the sewage farm) there’s nothing here I can imagine people wanting to sing. Kelli O’Hara’s grim Italian accent doesn’t help the listening experience. Man, that was a waste of 77 minutes. Run away.

Gil Hates Musicals awards “The Bridges Of Madison County” two out of ten pieces of bamboo.

(originally posted September 26, 2014)