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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Is there something wrong with me? I hate musicals.

212 replies

Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 20:21

AIBU? I'm 62 and all my friends seem to have developed a passion for musicals. I have been to quite a few with friends to be sociable and to see if I could get to like them but, with each musical, my dislike of them just grows. I find them contrived, and the music average and the whole experience very boring. I sit there hoping it's over soon. I go to be sociable but it's not an event where you chat or do an activity together. We simply sit, glued to a chair. Some musicals are better than others but overall I'd always rather be anywhere else, even home. Is there anyone else out there who gets my dislike? Am I destined to be a social pariah? My friends seem puzzled and a bit offended by my attitude.

OP posts:
thenightsky · 12/05/2025 12:47

I think my problems started when I was taken to the pictures to see Sound of Music and Oklahoma when I was very young and was bored to tears.

My parents took me to see Sound of Music 3 times! And they played the record endlessly at home. I blame them for my hatred of musicals now. I got bought a ticket to Book of Mormon as a gift... 'you'll love this one, its impossible not to' they said. Yeah, it was bearable and I didn't fall asleep, although it was touch and go at one point.

BurntBroccoli · 12/05/2025 12:08

Lougle · 11/05/2025 22:12

Musicals are so varied. I love Phantom of the Opera. Can't sit through Les Mis, love Blood Brothers, didn't mind West Side Story...it's finding what you like.

Blood Brothers was good, my son even like that!

TheGoddessFrigg · 12/05/2025 11:42

My people! I have a real hate of musicals, and my best friend absolutely loves them. She once was playing 'Six' in her car and I had to ask her to turn it off, it was so bad.
One of my other friends is obsessed with the Greatest Showman. I feel like it's some sort of virus and I am immune😉

CrystalSingerFan · 12/05/2025 11:30

Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 23:43

Much prefer Renee in Bridget Jones!

Oooh, interesting. I agree she's brilliant in Bridget, but I really liked her in Chicago. Way better than Zeta-Jones, IMO.

Dangermoo · 12/05/2025 10:41

Cannot stand modern day musicals, such as Mama Mia and the Greatest Showman. When I was younger, watching a character talking or walking, then suddenly breaking into song was sweet. Now, I find it annoying.

RaraRachael · 12/05/2025 10:38

I only like Joseph and Oliver probably because I was in productions of them at school.

I think my problems started when I was taken to the pictures to see Sound of Music and Oklahoma when I was very young and was bored to tears. My dad had the right idea- he fell asleep!

Roxietrees · 12/05/2025 10:36

Can’t bear them. My heart sinks when I’m watching what I think might actually be a mildly entertaining Disney film with my kids and they break into song 🤦‍♀️

FrozzyBrain · 12/05/2025 10:33

I hate musicals but I liked Book of Mormon. Enjoyed Grease too.

Globules · 12/05/2025 10:28

I LOVE musicals.

I love my friends who don't love them.

The solution is that we don't go to musicals together, but do things we both enjoy.

elusiveemz · 12/05/2025 09:44

I'm not a massive fan either. I don't hate them, like if someone was paying, id tag qlong, but they definitely wouldn't be something I'd be prepared to pay for

Ittakeslonger · 12/05/2025 08:43

YourOnMute · 12/05/2025 02:43

I dislike them too.. unfortunately my children love them (how this happened I am still unsure) and they are still young enough that I have to accompany them to watch them. And watch them perform.
I also really dislike concerts.

You are a great mum x

OP posts:
Teajenny7 · 12/05/2025 08:34

I like some musicals but prefer to see a drama or ballet. I go to be sociable. I liked Les Mis. I actually liked frozen!
Feel asleep during Wicked, twice!

I think most of them could be at least 20 minutes shorter.
I now take ear plugs.

PolarCrane · 12/05/2025 08:33

I'm 42 and seen loads of the big musicals. Fall asleep or find them too loud.

On that note i don't watch musical entertainment either: Strictly, Britain's got Talent etc, either. I tune out if friends talk about these. Thankfully my husband's the same.

I think it's pretty normal different people enjoy different things no?

Funnywonder · 12/05/2025 08:26

I like:
Grease
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

That is it. I hate them. Some of songs are wonderful, but most are just fillers where words should be😅 SIL was in a choral group for a few years and they staged musicals - proper big professional things at the Grand Opera House in Belfast - and I managed to go to a grand total of one out of six. DP loves them, as does DS1. DS2 and I both cringe from the inside out.

ImaginedCorners · 12/05/2025 08:23

deusexmacintosh · 11/05/2025 22:06

Try Stephen Sondheim's stuff. David Bowie didn't call him the Shakespeare of musicals for nothing.

He wrote beautiful, intellegient, challenging musicals for grown ups.

You might be familiar with Sweeney Todd - there was a Tim Burton adaptation of it with Johnny Depp - or Disney's adaptation of Into The Woods with Meryl Streep, Depp and other Hollywood celebrities... but both of them are truncated to fit the short running time of a film, and that kills most of the clever rhymes/pacing.

Pacific Overtures is my favourite - a musical about 18th century Japanese economics 🤣 (it's about the Americanisation of imperial Japan).

There's a fantastic song written in haiku where a brothel madam attempts to teach new sex workers about sex positions, a song where the Emperor's advisor sings about trying to assassinate his boss through 3 minutes of insane internal rhyme schemes, and a haunting string peice in which a samauri husband and wife bid farewell to one other before he is executed - both parts are sung by male actors, as they would be in a traditional japanese Kabuki theatre performance.

The big setpeice, a song called Someone In A Tree, follows an elderly man reminiscing about the time when he was a little boy who climbed a tree outside a government building and overheard a treaty being drawn up between European, American and Japanese officials. It deals with the foibles of human memory and how our perception of events can be distorted by time.

you could also check out Sunday In The Park With George - a musical based on the life of French painter Georges Seurat, which deals with the obsessive, addictive nature of being an artist and features a copy of a Seurat painting that literally 'comes to life'. There's a recent filmed production with Jake Gyllenhall, plus the original Broadway production with Bernadette Peters.

A lot of his shows are hard work, but rewarding if you enjoy witty rhymes. A Little Night Music, Company and Follies are great too - Follies was produced by the National Theatre in 2017 and they screened it in cinemas, if you can get hold of a copy of that, it's a fantastic show about middle age and the regrets that come along with aging (not recommended if you're feeling depressed)

Hope that helps!

I love Sondheim, but even then, not all Sondheim (not crazy about Bounce, or Assassins, and Sweeney Todd is patchy for me), but I still wouldn’t keep attending shows in a genre I don’t like because my friends want to.

Tiredalwaystired · 12/05/2025 08:23

Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 23:02

Probably not but I have learnt that when you post something there's always at least one person who likes to be disparaging.

Glad you aren’t disappointed.

Fizbosshoes · 12/05/2025 08:23

DD and I love musicals, we saw Mamma Mia last year and at the end we were laughing saying can you imagine Dad/DH here and how much he'd hate it.

Although tbf as a family we watched a film recently that we weren't expecting to be a musical, and it didn't work for any of us. We all thought they should have cut out the songs and made it 20 minutes shorter! 🤣

Ginmonkeyagain · 12/05/2025 08:15

Oh god I LOATHE musical theatre. It's just all so fucking cringe.

WaltzingWaters · 12/05/2025 08:14

Yes, YAB MASSIVELY U. Musicals are fabulous!
Ha, no I absolutely love them and was brought up with a love of them because my parents also loved them and took me to see them/played soundtracks at home. But I can very much see how they wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

ComeAsYouAreAsAFriend · 12/05/2025 08:12

I love some musicals mainly the classics such as Les Mis, My fair lady, West Side Story, Calamity Jane etc. I am not a big fan of the new ones like Hamilton which I didn't like at all, or the musicals arranged around an artist such as Queen Mamma Mia etc

JuliaLivilla · 12/05/2025 08:07

SALaw · 12/05/2025 07:52

@JuliaLivillaloads of musicals have satirical and amusing songs. SIX is a good example.

Maybe the songs are satirical and amusing, but there are sooo many of them. You mention "Six" and I thought that may be vaguely interesting. Watched a couple of songs on the Internet - and yes, I know I am not getting the 'full experience', but that was more than enough for me. It felt like a surfeit of lampreys.

I think that's why the songs in "Crazy ex-girlfriend" amused rather than annoyed me. Only two songs max per episode, lots of taking in between and completely reflected her emotions. I mean how can you not love a song called "Sexy getting ready song" while the spirit of her boyfriend appears, wincing as she sings about waxing.

Clearinguptheclutter · 12/05/2025 07:56

I adore musicals but they’re not my dh’s thing at all. I don’t think not liking musicals is unusual. Seems to be a bit marmite

however you would be unreasonable if you didn’t appreciate the enormous creative effort that goes into putting them on (not suggesting for a second that you don’t)

Objectrelations · 12/05/2025 07:54

They are excruciating. YANBU.

SALaw · 12/05/2025 07:52

@JuliaLivillaloads of musicals have satirical and amusing songs. SIX is a good example.

SALaw · 12/05/2025 07:51

YoungSoak · 12/05/2025 02:21

I hate musicals too. The way the cast burst into song out of nowhere seems forced a lot of the time. I really enjoyed Hamilton thought and I think it’s because the entire thing is sung/ rapped from start to finish. Either commit to the singing or fuck off basically

Loads of musicals are sung all the way through so if that’s your beef with them you might find you like more than just Hamilton.