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Original poster

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

647 replies

Sonolanona · 03/08/2023 21:52

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!!!

OP posts:
isitme111 · 05/08/2023 22:33

Cats - I didn't have a clue what was going on.

I was so disappointed with The Lion King. Everyone raved about it and it had superb reviews but as mentioned up thread it was more like puppetry.
I have seen many many others which I loved especially Wicked. The singing was amazing.

HappySonHappyMum · 05/08/2023 23:02

@SupportingMH @Mrsjayy Thanks both!

goodtoesnaughtytoes · 06/08/2023 02:24

Hated We Will Rock You. Cats was so boring I fell asleep.

Faves are Moulin Rouge (Stunning), Chicago (seen it 5 times over the years), Fat Friends the Musical- amazing, saw it twice. Also love Joseph- Joe McElderry was superb.

Interested in this thread?

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Theatre
Tiredalwaystired · 06/08/2023 08:33

One of the best I’ve ever seen was Xanadu the musical - on roller skates!

The campest two hours of joy EVER! Hope it comes back.

OnedayIwillfeelfree · 06/08/2023 09:24

CantFindTheBeat · 04/08/2023 11:26

The Book of Mormon is one I would never recommend, although I thought the cast and music was superb.

I'd expected it to be 'offensive' in that it would poke fun at religion and be satirical.

I didn't expect it to be racist - portraying African village life and villagers as illiterate, uneducated, massive, erect black penises strapped on, and have running 'jokes' about their belief that fucking babies cured AIDs.

Totally agree with you. Then one of the songs has a chorus that goes ‘I want to Fuck you God in the arse, mouth and Cunt’ that is sung repeatedly. I swear and use all those words from time to time, but don’t want to pay to see schoolboy behaviour.

lemonsaretheonlyfruit · 06/08/2023 09:38

3 that have been mentioned here.. & Juliette - I wanted to leave at the interval but I had my DCs with me. Wicked and the absolute snooze fest that was Dear Evan Hansen. There had been so much hype and advertising about it I was really looking forward to it. It was rubbish!

rookiemere · 06/08/2023 09:42

Not a musical but the comments about The Book of Mormon remind me of the Vagina monologues which we left at the interval.
Meant to be shocking and thought provoking but continued repetition of vagina and cunt just got tiresome after a few minutes.

boysmuminherts · 06/08/2023 20:07

@lemonsaretheonlyfruit
Not seen &Juliet but my theatre loving friends rave about it and went numerous times and my family love DEH. Shows we all have different tastes 😄

Fridaytomorrow · 06/08/2023 20:24

Flibbyjibby · 05/08/2023 11:02

Starlight Express was the worst I have ever been to.

Went to a performance of “Lord of the Rings: A Musical Journey” this week 😂. The music and actors were amazing (all of the actors were also musicians and played sometimes whilst also acting! At one point an orc danced across the stage playing a trombone 😂). The writing was pretty dire in the second half though as they had to fit 2 books in to an hour and a half 🫣

Unlike earlier posters I loved the London version of the musical of Lord of the Rings, and went to see it several times in the year or so it was on.. One day I saw the matinee, and went to Wicked in the evening, and much preferred LOTR.

I’m involved a lot in local amateur productions of musicals, and probably I loved the spectacle of LOTR as much as anything: the fabulous (and dangerous) moving stage, Gollum climbing vertically down the forestage, the Cirque du Soleil acrobats, the massive spider…
Video here.

Is there anything like that at The Watermill or does it just rely on the music? It seems to be similarly long.

Lord of the Rings Musical

Press Reels of the beautiful Lord of the Rings musical featuring Laura Michelle Kelly, Rosalie Craig, James Loye, and Peter Howe

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RaHRFlPCtsU

Figgygal · 06/08/2023 22:42

I bloody loved shrek it's one of my faves

I also really liked ghost for those needing a random recommendation

denpark · 07/08/2023 02:55

Davros · 05/08/2023 10:05

As mentioned above, hilarious and possibly a bit offensive
musicalsontour.co.uk/the-tony-blair-rock-opera/

I just remembered that I saw The Rocky Horror Show in it's original format in the King's Road. 1976 or 1977. I don't remember anything much about the show but me and my best friend were punks and didn't want to leave London to go on a college trip so we stayed behind and "hosted" the visiting students. At least, that was the idea...

Wow! I'm so envious! That must have been amazing!

denpark · 07/08/2023 02:58

CantFindTheBeat · 05/08/2023 12:25

@Glockamorra

I expected that.

I didn't expect it to be racist and portray hideous racial stereotypes in the extreme - did you?

It's depicting racial stereotyping as that's what Mormons do. They racial stereotype people and send their missionaries out to 'save' and convert them. It's shining a light on how disgusting the Mormons are and how racist THEY are.

denpark · 07/08/2023 03:02

Wicked is brilliant. I loved it.
Book of Mormon is amazing (and ridicules the concept of religion and God, which I enjoyed immensely!)

Mama Mia is awful

Noodles1234 · 07/08/2023 17:11

Wicked, boring and dull, only good thing was we had Lee Mead who was absolutely fabulous and such a talent. Worth going for him alone!

other singers were good too, it wasn’t the actors it was the story.

mcmooberry · 07/08/2023 22:08

dahliadazed · 05/08/2023 13:25

@mcmooberry Wicked has been running for years and has many super fans who watch it over and over, it may be mentioned many times in this thread but it’s very popular!

Thank you, that's very true, it would surely have closed if it was that bad!

Riverlee · 08/08/2023 07:37

@Noodles1234 Lee Mead is excellent. Saw him in a local concert, and had forgotten what a superb voice he had. I would definitely go and see him again.

Tidsleytiddy · 08/08/2023 12:33

Saw Lee Mead in Joseph just after he’d won the BBC search for a Joseph programme. Loved it.

LunaNorth · 08/08/2023 18:44

Leeee Meeeead!

peachgreen · 08/08/2023 18:56

LunaNorth · 08/08/2023 18:44

Leeee Meeeead!

Ahh, memories. What a weird show that was, having them all stand around and sing sadly at the departing contestant. And Seamus singing “I have been promised a show of my own”, so awkward.

ChristmasCwtch · 08/08/2023 19:49

Cats and Starlight Express were dreadful. We left both musicals during the interval.

Underwhelmed with The Lion King.

I adore Les Mis and Phantom though and enjoyed Wicked.

8misskitty8 · 08/08/2023 22:13

peachgreen · 08/08/2023 18:56

Ahh, memories. What a weird show that was, having them all stand around and sing sadly at the departing contestant. And Seamus singing “I have been promised a show of my own”, so awkward.

Show quote history

And then Joseph Craig who went on to be an ‘adult’ film star !

Amniceandgenuine · 10/08/2023 00:45

Just home from Les Mis …absolutely fantastic,music incredible!

XelaM · 10/08/2023 00:54

Amniceandgenuine · 10/08/2023 00:45

Just home from Les Mis …absolutely fantastic,music incredible!

Thank you!!! I honestly cannot believe people on this thread claim Les Mis is not good. It's one of the best musicals of all time without a doubt

allsogreen · 10/08/2023 06:59

I Love musicals!
The worst one we have seen was Shrek. Tooik the kids a good few years ago and was v dissappointed.
Love lots of the others metioned on here though. I actually like Wicked, but had read the book first which I think helped, I loved Les Mis and Miss Saigon. Also loved Billy Elliot and Waitress is one of my all time faves. Hamilton was amazing, fantastic production and saw Newsies a few weeks ago which I enjoyed much more than I was expecting (was a bday present for my dd who was quite into it) Also seen Everybodys Talking About Jamie several times, whenever it tours in Sheffield!

ZebraDanios · 10/08/2023 09:44

XelaM · 10/08/2023 00:54

Thank you!!! I honestly cannot believe people on this thread claim Les Mis is not good. It's one of the best musicals of all time without a doubt

Show quote history

I can see how you could not enjoy Les Mis. It’s looong, it’s heavy, and it’s pretty dour (the clue is in the title). What I don’t see is how you can fail to be impressed by it. Sure it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I don’t see how anyone could watch it and think “well that was a load of rubbish”.