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Thursday, November 01, 2018
Stage Fright: The 20 Scariest Characters of Broadway Past!
www.broadwayworld.com: Halloween has arrived! On this spookiest of days, we are shining a spotlight on the twenty creepiest characters of musical theatre past. From chilling to thrilling, outright maniacal to downright diabolical
6 comments:
Elizabeth P
said...
I agree with the majority of this list, but on a personal level there were some here that are definitely more scary to me and not just villainous. I think it's important, at least in my book, to distinguish that scary and being a villain aren't necessarily the same, however these two are most definitely both. The Child Catcher is by far one of the creepiest characters on the stage (and in the original movie), both physically and in spirit. If you look up any video from these theater stages, his main song 'Kiddie Widdie Winkles' is one of THE most frightening things I have ever seen. The guy has like one piece of hair, carries around something that looks like a scythe, and prances around in all black on a stage covered with smoke. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a timeless show, often meant for children, but there's a whole subplot where one of the villains catches children, and can smell them????? I was terrified as a young child, and I'm terrified of this stage rendition now. The second character that genuinely frightens me is Edward Hyde. I feel like the story is familiar, but watching each actor who plays Jekyll/Hyde transform in the most grueling manner has always been incredibly disturbing. The switch from a 'normal' human, into a raspy, oily, murderous thing that is always completely unexpected always creates a tiny jumpscare for me whenever I watch it.
I do not know if I will ever understand how some people enjoy being scared. I am so not someone who will go through a haunted house, and just really do not want to seek out ways to be scared. This list was rather amusing to me, because some of these characters are designed to be scary, while others are the comedic relief, and some are just the villain. Gaston , a character in Beauty and the Beast is not a character that is meant to be scary, he is the villain in a way that someone needs to oppose the Beast. However, Sweeney Todd is meant to be creepy and unsettling, so it makes sense that his character is one of the scariest to have been on Broadway. I think this article is an interesting idea on what characters are scary, but I don't think the author actually did the idea justice, it seems that the author just came up with a list well known shows and chose the antagonist.
Oh broadwayworld.com. What the hell are you doing. A lot of these characters are not characters I would describe as "scary," but rather as "deeply unsettling." Sweeney Todd murders like probably twenty people over the course of the show, but also Mrs Lovett comes up with the idea to PUT THE DEAD BODIES INTO PIES AND FEED THEM TO PEOPLE. JD from Heathers murders multiple people in cold blood, and tries to bomb an entire school, while tricking his girlfriend into being an accomplice. Mrs Meers is very deeply involved in human trafficking. Miss Trunchbull both emotionally and physically abuses children. These are not just "scary" characters, these characters are fucked. up. I think Scar and Ursula are the characters on this list that are the most fitting, since they are very cartoonish, even in their stage versions. Also, why the hell is Macavity on this list? He is probably the least scary villain in any musical ever. He just skulks around and knocks over trash cans.
Yes broadway has produced some wonderfully devilish characters, but they are all scary in their own ways. I do not find the Phantom particularly scary as much as I say I find the Trunchbull, Mrs. Meers, or Sweeney scary in a very real way. The Child Catcher will always be the creepiest to me. They only put the scary quotes in the article, but it is the way some of them move on stage is what sets them over the top. That is why the Child Catcher is so scary, he not only has very strange lines, but he walks with the gleeful skipping leaps as if he were following the yellow brick road, that is what is so scary. The Trunchbull also has the very particular physicality that adds to her villainous ways, being very top heavy, but still managing to float when she walks. Some on this list, like the Disney villains, excluding Frollo, are more funny than they are scary. There is something so over the top about them they are hard to find truly scary, but Frollo will always be the most realistic most terrifying Disney Villain because he truly believes he is good and holy.
Hmmm okay I have some thoughts about this list. First of all I find it very strange that a lot of these characters are Disney villains, because the reality is they can only be so scary if they're targeted towards children. Other characters like Papa Ge and Audrey II are so unrealistic that personally I don't find them that scary. I do wish that they had dug deeper than commercially successful musicals for this list, as I think that villains in plays usually are scarier than the ones from musicals. In my opinion the scariest character on this list is Bill Sykes. Although Oliver is a pretty campy musical in general Nancy's death at the hands of Bill is brutal and tragic, which is a pretty big shift in tone from the rest of the show. He is scary because he is a real person with no magical qualities, and is someone who you could actually run into. I think plays have a lot more characters like this, so maybe they could do a separate list about plays.
I do not think this is really a list of Broadway's "scariest" characters. I think it'd be better to define them as some of the creepiest villains of Broadway. None of them are really as scary as they are, insane, perverted, or just weird. I think JD from Heathers may be one of the creepier ones, but that's probably just because his character seems a bit too real to people my age, growing up in a generation where Heathers does not seem to be too much of an exaggeration. I never thought Phantom, Scar, Ursula, or some of the other characters on here were that "scary" they are just simply the villains. Audrey II is literally just a giant plant puppet which I don't find that terrifying. I think, in my case at least, the less relatable the show is to my actual reality, the less scary it is, because I am more able to realize that what I'm watching is fiction. Villians like Trunchbull, for example, are "scarier" to me because they're more realistic.
6 comments:
I agree with the majority of this list, but on a personal level there were some here that are definitely more scary to me and not just villainous. I think it's important, at least in my book, to distinguish that scary and being a villain aren't necessarily the same, however these two are most definitely both. The Child Catcher is by far one of the creepiest characters on the stage (and in the original movie), both physically and in spirit. If you look up any video from these theater stages, his main song 'Kiddie Widdie Winkles' is one of THE most frightening things I have ever seen. The guy has like one piece of hair, carries around something that looks like a scythe, and prances around in all black on a stage covered with smoke. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a timeless show, often meant for children, but there's a whole subplot where one of the villains catches children, and can smell them????? I was terrified as a young child, and I'm terrified of this stage rendition now. The second character that genuinely frightens me is Edward Hyde. I feel like the story is familiar, but watching each actor who plays Jekyll/Hyde transform in the most grueling manner has always been incredibly disturbing. The switch from a 'normal' human, into a raspy, oily, murderous thing that is always completely unexpected always creates a tiny jumpscare for me whenever I watch it.
I do not know if I will ever understand how some people enjoy being scared. I am so not someone who will go through a haunted house, and just really do not want to seek out ways to be scared. This list was rather amusing to me, because some of these characters are designed to be scary, while others are the comedic relief, and some are just the villain. Gaston , a character in Beauty and the Beast is not a character that is meant to be scary, he is the villain in a way that someone needs to oppose the Beast. However, Sweeney Todd is meant to be creepy and unsettling, so it makes sense that his character is one of the scariest to have been on Broadway. I think this article is an interesting idea on what characters are scary, but I don't think the author actually did the idea justice, it seems that the author just came up with a list well known shows and chose the antagonist.
Oh broadwayworld.com. What the hell are you doing. A lot of these characters are not characters I would describe as "scary," but rather as "deeply unsettling." Sweeney Todd murders like probably twenty people over the course of the show, but also Mrs Lovett comes up with the idea to PUT THE DEAD BODIES INTO PIES AND FEED THEM TO PEOPLE. JD from Heathers murders multiple people in cold blood, and tries to bomb an entire school, while tricking his girlfriend into being an accomplice. Mrs Meers is very deeply involved in human trafficking. Miss Trunchbull both emotionally and physically abuses children. These are not just "scary" characters, these characters are fucked. up. I think Scar and Ursula are the characters on this list that are the most fitting, since they are very cartoonish, even in their stage versions. Also, why the hell is Macavity on this list? He is probably the least scary villain in any musical ever. He just skulks around and knocks over trash cans.
Yes broadway has produced some wonderfully devilish characters, but they are all scary in their own ways. I do not find the Phantom particularly scary as much as I say I find the Trunchbull, Mrs. Meers, or Sweeney scary in a very real way. The Child Catcher will always be the creepiest to me. They only put the scary quotes in the article, but it is the way some of them move on stage is what sets them over the top. That is why the Child Catcher is so scary, he not only has very strange lines, but he walks with the gleeful skipping leaps as if he were following the yellow brick road, that is what is so scary. The Trunchbull also has the very particular physicality that adds to her villainous ways, being very top heavy, but still managing to float when she walks. Some on this list, like the Disney villains, excluding Frollo, are more funny than they are scary. There is something so over the top about them they are hard to find truly scary, but Frollo will always be the most realistic most terrifying Disney Villain because he truly believes he is good and holy.
Hmmm okay I have some thoughts about this list. First of all I find it very strange that a lot of these characters are Disney villains, because the reality is they can only be so scary if they're targeted towards children. Other characters like Papa Ge and Audrey II are so unrealistic that personally I don't find them that scary. I do wish that they had dug deeper than commercially successful musicals for this list, as I think that villains in plays usually are scarier than the ones from musicals. In my opinion the scariest character on this list is Bill Sykes. Although Oliver is a pretty campy musical in general Nancy's death at the hands of Bill is brutal and tragic, which is a pretty big shift in tone from the rest of the show. He is scary because he is a real person with no magical qualities, and is someone who you could actually run into. I think plays have a lot more characters like this, so maybe they could do a separate list about plays.
I do not think this is really a list of Broadway's "scariest" characters. I think it'd be better to define them as some of the creepiest villains of Broadway. None of them are really as scary as they are, insane, perverted, or just weird. I think JD from Heathers may be one of the creepier ones, but that's probably just because his character seems a bit too real to people my age, growing up in a generation where Heathers does not seem to be too much of an exaggeration. I never thought Phantom, Scar, Ursula, or some of the other characters on here were that "scary" they are just simply the villains. Audrey II is literally just a giant plant puppet which I don't find that terrifying. I think, in my case at least, the less relatable the show is to my actual reality, the less scary it is, because I am more able to realize that what I'm watching is fiction. Villians like Trunchbull, for example, are "scarier" to me because they're more realistic.
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