Wonderland Baby, It’s You Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark Scandalous Patti LuPone and Debra Winer in David Mamet’s The Anarchist, 2012 The Performers Jekyll and Hyde Breakfast At Tiffany’s Bronx Bombers Bullets Over Broadway Amazing Grace China Doll Disaster Paramour Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Escape to Margaritaville Amelie Gettin the Band Back Together Beetlejuice Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow as Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton in Lucas Hnath’s 2019 Broadway play “Hillary and Clinton”

Welcome to my annual Worst Broadway Show Poll. Pick the show you thought was the worst to open on Broadway between 2010 and 2019.



Most of the 20 nominees were the two highest scorers in each of the previous annual polls, from 2012 (when I started these polls) to 2018. The selections from 2011 and 2019 are my personal choices. This is my Bottom 20 Broadway Shows of the Decade (with help from the polltakers), as a counterbalance to my Top 10 New York Theater of the Decade.

Note: 2011 and 2012 were exceptionally good years for exceptionally bad shows, while 2010 was not. (I liked both Enron and Elling in 2010, one of which closed after 16 regular performances, the other after nine.) So rather than nominating any shows from 2010, I include three from both 2011 and 2012. Also, I adamantly disagreed with the polltakers’ top choice for 2014, so I went with the second and third highest scorers that year.

If you disagree with my choices and those of your fellow polltakers over the years, you can express this by

1. Not voting for a show on the list that you liked;

2. Adding your choice for worst in the “Other” slot if it’s not one of the 20 below. Remember: Only Broadway shows that opened between January 2010 and December 2019 are eligible (If enough people add a particular show to “Other,” even from 2010, I’ll add it to the ballot.)

3. Making a comment in the comments section beneath the poll.

Judge the quality of the show as you see it, not how it did at the box office.

Below the poll are links to reviews of the shows in question.

Update: As of Monday morning, more than ten percent of the votes have been for “Other,” with more than 40 shows written in that are not listed in the poll, including some that other theatergoers especially cherish.. (You can’t please everybody.) There are more of these write-in votes for “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” than any other eligible show, so I’m adding it to the poll.

Reviews:

Baby, It’s You

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark

Wonderland: The Mad Hatter as the Wicked Witch

Scandalous: Kathie Lee Gifford’s Broadway term paper

The Anarchist: Real-life riveting story turned into Mamet mush

The Performers: Gag-worthy gags about porno on Broadway

Jekyll and Hyde: Good vs. Bad on Broadway

Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Capote without Audrey Hepburn or Moon River

Bronx Bombers: The Yankees Foul

Bullets Over Broadway: Woody Allen’s Contempt for the Theater

Amazing Grace

China Doll

Disaster The Musical

Paramour

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Death by Chocolate

Amelie

Escape to Margaritaville

Gettin’ The Band Back Together

Beetlejuice

Hillary and Clinton

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