What's the worst musical you have ever been to?

[Sonolanona]

I love musicals, and DS2 who has autism is obsessed so we go to as many as we can. We've seen Cats (not the film!) 7 times, JCSS 7 times, Blood Brothers, Les Mis, Evita, Chicago , Cabaret..and many others. (JCSS is my personal favourite)

Today we went to We Will Rock You.
OMG.
It was cringingly awful. Even if you love Queen, it was still so bad. Worst 'plot' and dialogue ever, the choreography was...interesting and it was played for cheap laughs and smutty out dated jokes, headed by Ben Elton who cannot..and should not..sing.
Never again!!!

Billy Elliot - left at interval. Awful.

Not a big musicals fan now but was when I was younger. Saw Annie at the age of 10 and was spellbound.

I think it's been unfairly maligned on this thread tbh

I like Wicked, saw it for the third time last week. It didn't have quite the same impact on me this time (the two leads were good but some of the other actors a bit weaker than in previous casts IMO) but I still enjoyed it overall. I like the way it explains the backstory to the Wizard of Oz, it has some great songs and I like that it has two strong female leads. The theatre was packed.

Me too! Treat for husband's birthday... We were both disappointed. Aside from the great opening number with all the masks and puppets, it was basically a shite pantomime. Awful. I cannot understand how anybody thinks it's good?

Seen a lot of those mentioned here, Jesus Christ is the only one I didn't like, although seeing six soon so will reserve judgement based on the comments.

Also saw Billy Elliot on Broadway in New York - the usher clocked we were British so said 'you'll have to let me know how we do with the accents.' I made sure to avoid him on the way out because I couldn't have said anything polite 😳 It was still a good show though!

@mcmooberry - I loved it first time around - and we have tickets to go and see it in December 2023. I can't wait!!

It is probably helpful to know before you go ( if you don't already) that Wicked is set as a prequel to The Wizard of OZ and goes through the life of Elphaba who is a nice girl until the disapproval of society turns her into the 'Wicked Witch of the West'. If you don't know the story of the Wizard of Oz, you might want to look up a quick synopsis as there is a cross over between the two towards the end of Wicked and that might confuse some, if they don't know the WOZ story

To be honest reading the comments on this thread just hi-lights that everyone is different. I have seen people saying they hated various musicals which I have enjoyed. I think also the production and the cast can make or mar any individual production of any musical

I’ve never had any desire to see Wicked. I was put off when I tried reading another book the author had written and it was total rubbish. I know it’s musical theatre and not a novel but I can’t manage to bring myself to pay good money to see it.
The only musical I’ve ever wanted to leave early from was the one I mentioned earlier, Fiddler on the Roof.
I’ve seen We will Rock You at the Dominion. I enjoyed it but accepted it for what it is; a juke box musical.
I agree with the poster who said a lot depends on the cast and the production.

Chess sound track is stunning. I quite liked the whole show. Seen it a few times.

I have been involved with musical theatre both amateur and professional and can honestly say I have never heard this at all. Quite the opposite actually.

I liked it too, some of the songs are a bit week, but the storyline was good.

I didn't like Hamilton, we had the worst seats in the theatre, could only see 3/4 of the stage if I leaned over the barrier in front of me and I hate heights. They weren't cheap either and there was no mention of a restricted view on booking. It improved immeasurably though when the manager managed to find some other seats.

I also Though Mama Mia was awful. And Book of Mormon, even in daft religions, God shouldn't be ridiculed and people starving to death don't belong in musicals, even satirically.

It's not really surprising that people like some musicals that others don't. Everyone has different tastes but also different wants/need from things. You can like lighthearted musicals like WWRY but still be able to like the heavier musicals or those that are considered the better ones.

My all time favourite is JCSS, I adore it. Miss Saigon next however both really depend on a good cast and also quality of the sound at the theatre. One of the theatres near me has all the big touring productions but the sound quality there can be awful and if you can't hear every word of musicals like that it ruins it. I know every word so I can follow them but friends have struggled to understand what is going on. If anyone gets chance to watch the Miss Saigon 25th anniversary performance on TV its amazing. It is so so emotional and I full on sobbed. I tend not to like filmed musicals as they don't capture the bigger numbers but the good thing about this is that you can see their faces so clearly.

I love Les Mis and Phantom. I grew up with ballet and saw Cats around age 9 with a phenomenal cast in, I loved it. So beautiful. I can totally understand it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea.

I have seen Ghost a couple of times, really loved it but cried most of the way through. If that isn't what you want on a night out definitely don't go.

The only musical I can truly say I didn't like was Titanic. Fortunately there was a technical issue towards the end of the 1st half and we all got sent home. It was dreadful.

I was a bit underwhelmed. But I accidentally booked seats in the Gods and felt a bit disconnected so perhaps why?

Omg I want to see LOTR The Musical

I work in a theatre so see all kinds of shows but do love a musical
beautiful the carol king musical is fantastic and the take that musical was called the banned but now called greatest day is really good, great story and music

I love a musical, but agree we saw We will rock you not long after we saw Bat out of hell and it just was nowhere near as good! I hadn’t expected to like Bat out of hell as much but the voices and songs were great! We will Rock you was like a similar storyline but like a watered down version and we both like Queen so not sure what went wrong with it.
Loved Wicked just a good story of friendship and explains the intro to the Wizard of Oz. I also loved Waitress the songs were great and I wasn’t expecting much but just thought it was a feel good story.
My fav of all time is Les Mis, what songs and performances for me miles better than Hamilton ( although that’s my daughters fav so she would totally disagree)

We saw We Will Rock You recently in London. Agree that it was quite weak in storyline but as a jukebox musical we quite enjoyed it.

I really didn’t enjoy Miss Saigon. I can’t put my finger on why, just that I was left unmoved by it although the bit with the helicopter was very good.

The absolute worse I have seen was Heathcliffe which had Cliff Richard in and was based on Wuthering Heights. DH’s sister wanted to see it as she was a huge Cliff fan. Oh my dear God it was dire. Dreadful acting and music. It was embarrassingly awful. You could have put any one of the West End leading men in it (think Michael Ball) and they couldn’t have redeemed it. If it had been just me and DH we wouldn’t even have made it to the interval, it was that bad.

Loved Book of Mormon! It’s not for the easily offended but it’s v funny! I remember the very good looking Mormons coming round the neighbourhood houses when I was growing up and my mum invited them in to show us all film of Salt Lake City , but it really resonated, as one of the two young men spoke to my my mum in the kitchen about being so very homesick and finding the locals friendly but he found it too cold but not to tell the other one as he would be annoyed with him!

Not a musical but just saw the touring version of the mousetrap, it really wasn’t great and it hasn’t aged well and the people in front of us left half way we were very tempted to join them.

I don't like musicals, but I was given free tickets to see Cats years ago and everyone i know gushed about it so i went. I hated it, the costumes, the songs, the silly plot, awful.

I think I’ve lower standards than most, I don’t think I’ve seen a live musical I’ve disliked. Mamma Mia the film is awful, and I thought Hamilton was meh when I watched it on tv. But it’s good we don’t all like the same thing, it’s hard enough to get tickets for things as it is.

I’m seeing Shrek the musical soon which has been slated on here, but it was only £13 a ticket so we’ll give it a try 😁

Not just us then

@FlamingoQueen

I was bored watching Cats for the first time (just wanted Mr Mistofolees to be sung) but watched it a second time when I was a bit older and loved it.

Heard this a lot from friends and family. They enjoyed the second viewing not the first.

It is a bit of an odd concept if you think about it!

Slightly off topic - but as we are all theatre nerds here(!) I wondered if anyone had any nailed on tips, websites or places to get cheap tickets these days?

Todaytix can be expensive but often has good price flash sales. Use seat plan and theatre monkey to identify good value seats for the price.

Central tickets / AJ Tix if you can do short notice.

Honestly I go to touring productions they are just as good and usually cheaper go for mid price tickets. going to the West End is a rare treat for us I don't live anywhere near London so going to see the tours is just as good imo.