The kind of talent displayed here can be found in almost every neighborhood in America. Some of it is, in fact, sub par, as the dance numbers could be performed by anyone in a dance program at any local university better than what you have here.
Most tragic is that the glory of the 1936 "Great Ziegfeld" in its scenes of unique musical numbers and the attendant birthday cake number make this new "Ziegfeld" a throwaway by comparison. Its almost indecent for this to carry the name of "Ziegfeld" after MGM's careful crafting of the fabled showman's Broadway smashes, which are nowhere apparent here. Everything suffers mightily in comparison. The people we consider stars were truly embarrassed by this movie or they are just performing whatever is in front of them for the money or to fulfill a contract. The general public is not going to consider this dud as anything but what it is: a glaring mistake that, unfortunately, brands all old movies as being this cheap and unwatchable. Try to get anyone under 70 to watch this. It's about as bad as you can get.