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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:
Fordian · 11/05/2025 22:46

Tiredalwaystired · 11/05/2025 21:53

I’d have thought by 62 you’d have worked out that we dont all like the same things. 🤷‍♀️

I’ve discovered I’m okay with Gilbert and Sullivan operetta; but I watch Sound of Music and Fiddler on the Roof every Christmas; but I watch it alone, now. They are good, of their time, naff, contrived and cringe.

rockingbird · 11/05/2025 22:41

Yep! Frigging hate them! The minute someone starts singing in a theatre show I’m done 😆

Toooldforthisbollocks · 11/05/2025 22:39

I don’t like them either but strangely enjoyed the tv series Crazy Ex-girlfriend where the cast regularly burst into song.

Horticula · 11/05/2025 22:35

I'm 61 and have always hated musicals since childhood. I've never known why they were even invented, if you've got something to say, say it either in a play or write an album of songs, don't mix up the two. The worst ones are where the musical is simply a vehicle for a band's songs eg mamma Mia or we will rock you. The plots are thin as paper and you might as well watch a tribute band sing the songs.

Any subject seems to be up for being made into a musical, I saw a promo write up recently about a musical about the Titanic disaster which was supposed to be full of laughter and fun, WTF??

Some years ago I actually had to lose a friend over her love of musicals. I'd made this friend a few years previously and we did various things together, but I had no idea she loved musicals until she invited me to go to We Will Rock You. I didn't really want to go but she persuaded me, bad move. It was utterly appalling. No plot to speak of and then they'd burst out singing a Queen song. The audience was mostly middle aged and they were all clapping, singing and standing up in the aisles while mediocre singers belted out hits.
I felt my whole body cringing practically inside out as I stayed in my seat while my friend was standing up singing and clapping, I just wanted to leave. At the end she said it had been fantastic. I knew there and then I just couldn't continue to be her friend because I really didn't know her at all.

JuliaLivilla · 11/05/2025 22:34

I honestly don't think I could sit through a musical anymore. I did like Chicago and A Chorus Line (thinking about it, I was young when I saw those), but things like Les Mis just left me thinking when is this going to finish? Another encore and I will start screaming. And, yes, I know I must be the only person in the world who thought that.

But I do love live theatre, the more overwrought and scenery chewing the better. I could probably watch a production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" every six months.

I remember reading an interview with Anthony La Paglia who was in Arthur Miller's "View from a Bridge" on Broadway. I had just seen an excellent production of it in Sydney and all the way through it I kept on thinking this is going to end very badly, which of course it did. There was a "Greek chorus" providing the view from the bridge. Anyway, Anthony La Paglia and Alison Jenney's characters were having a very emotional argument. When A. LaP came off stage he found blood pouring down his face. Jenney had accidentally whacked him on the nose with her teeth and both were so swept up in the moment, neither noticed it. I remember thinking lucky things, I am so envious, to be so swept up in the moment, that's really being alive. What an experience.

CrystalSingerFan · 11/05/2025 22:32

Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 22:22

Ooh not sure narrators might be different from dialogues. I tend to overthink and it can be exhausting and about negative things. I like having a break. The right type of entertainment is great for that. I think having an internal dialogue/ narrator/ monologue all the time is probably fine as long as it doesn't make you feel too down or anxious ?

Thanks for replying! I maybe tend to underthink? My internal monologue is a huge comfort to me - it certainly doesn't make me feel down or anxious.

Although who the hell are these people who don't have inner voice(s)? Blank behind the eyes? Inventing alternative political parties for today's UK, or maybe transwarp equations?

PS My favourite musical is Les Mis. (Seen it twice. Own the CD. )

BobbyBiscuits · 11/05/2025 22:30

I don't really enjoy musicals, especially not Andrew Lloyd Webber type stuff. I like a couple of operas and I do like some of the songs from Oklahoma and guys and dolls as my mum always sang them to me as a kid!
But just don't go if you don't like it.

minipie · 11/05/2025 22:28

IamtheDevilsAvocado · 11/05/2025 22:21

I'm interested which plays you've seen that have been boring?

Waiting for Godot

I mean I knew it was a play where nothing happened but… literally… nothing happened

I’m clearly not metaphysically minded enough

IzzyHandsIsMySpiritAnimal · 11/05/2025 22:27

I'm a few years younger than you, OP, and I am not a fan of musicals either. My teen and their friends (all under 18) seem to love them.
I just don't get the appeal. I don't like the style of singing particularly either.

Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 22:22

CrystalSingerFan · 11/05/2025 22:15

Well this is fascinating!

There are musical/opera viewers with internal dialogues (OP) and internal narrators (@Ponderingwindow). Are these the same as internal monologues? (I reckon I have that.) And being stuck with them is bad?

Ooh not sure narrators might be different from dialogues. I tend to overthink and it can be exhausting and about negative things. I like having a break. The right type of entertainment is great for that. I think having an internal dialogue/ narrator/ monologue all the time is probably fine as long as it doesn't make you feel too down or anxious ?

OP posts:
IamtheDevilsAvocado · 11/05/2025 22:21

Littledidsheknow · 11/05/2025 20:28

Not a massive fan, though I’ve enjoyed a few!

I get bored rigid seeing plays at the theatre. The people don’t act naturally because they have to practically shout to be heard at the back, and the stories are always boring.

I'm interested which plays you've seen that have been boring?

RaraRachael · 11/05/2025 22:18

I hate them too. It's so naff people suddenly bursting into song. I often go to London for a few days and everyone asks me which musicals I'm going to see. When I say "None", they look at me as if I've got 3 heads.

Wednesdaysotherchild · 11/05/2025 22:16

I feel exactly the same as you, OP. YANBU!

ohwhatadustyanswer · 11/05/2025 22:16

“Is there something wrong with me? I hate m….”
Thought you were going to say men - to which the answer is no, you’d be completely justified.
But musicals also 100pc not wrong. Although I love The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins.

CrystalSingerFan · 11/05/2025 22:15

Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 22:02

That's an interesting. I have an internal dialogue and I find musicals don't distract me. Good story lines when I can enter into another reality do ( like a good film) but during a musical I'm sat stuck with my internal dialogue without the ability to distract myself .

Well this is fascinating!

There are musical/opera viewers with internal dialogues (OP) and internal narrators (@Ponderingwindow). Are these the same as internal monologues? (I reckon I have that.) And being stuck with them is bad?

MrsBennetsPoorNerves · 11/05/2025 22:14

No, nothing wrong with you. I love musicals but I can totally see why some people hate them. That kind of cheesiness isn't for everyone.

Agapornis · 11/05/2025 22:13

Is anyone else getting ads for the Tina Turner musical? 😂

YANBA but I know quite a few musical fans and they always Very Insulted when they ask and you say that style of theatre/music is not for you - well, then bloody don't ask the question!

I like Greek tragedies, especially Medea. But I don't have children...not did I ever have children 😬😅 (sorry)

Is there something wrong with me? I hate musicals.
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.

Peachy2005 · 11/05/2025 22:08

Another one who can’t abide musicals here…including films that are musicals.

The UK Eurovision entry this year sounds like one of those pointless forgettable songs from a recent musical and I predict a well-deserved Nul points!

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!

mumisfull · 11/05/2025 22:04

Mymanyellow · 11/05/2025 21:56

I like seven brides for seven brothers, but the story line is a bit dodgy. Anything with Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire. Proper old school ones.

My sort of musicals too! I showed my preschool class Gene Kelly doing Singin in the Rain and they loved it! The next day I put on Donald O’Connor doing Make ‘em Laugh and they were in hysterics. All I hear now is ‘can we see the silly man?’!

Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 22:03

Mymanyellow · 11/05/2025 21:56

I like seven brides for seven brothers, but the story line is a bit dodgy. Anything with Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire. Proper old school ones.

Definitely better ones

OP posts:
Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 22:02

Ponderingwindow · 11/05/2025 21:53

I love them, but lots of people hate them.

I have noticed anecdotally that people who love them tend to have internal narrators. Showtimes give us an easy way to silence the running dialogue in our brains when we need a break.

That's an interesting. I have an internal dialogue and I find musicals don't distract me. Good story lines when I can enter into another reality do ( like a good film) but during a musical I'm sat stuck with my internal dialogue without the ability to distract myself .

OP posts:
thing47 · 11/05/2025 22:02

I like musicals, but I have plenty of friends who don't so I don't invite them to come with me on those occasions. It's fine, they're still my friends 😀

Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 21:58

jay55 · 11/05/2025 21:04

I generally think of myself as someone who loves musicals but the last three or four I’ve been to have been utter tripe.
Ive been re-evaluating whether I like them at all.
I do, and I’ll continue to go but, there is so much shit being produced at the moment.

I do think they are progressively getting worse

OP posts: