Has anyone been to the theatre and felt it was overrated?

[flowersintheatticus]

I know going to the theatre is a regular thing for mumsnet, but geographically this isn't possible so going is a really big thing and will require a lot of money, not just for the tickets but for travel there and back. My teens haven't been and I feel I want to give them the experience. I checked out our nearest place and there is a short clip of each of the performances. One of them is a childhood favourite book/tv adaption and thought that would be a good one to go for. However the clip was very underwhelming. I'm sure the acting/set/effects are great but it didn't do anything for me. I'm not sure if it's because the characters look nothing like the tv ones or that the animal character was just a head, but I felt no inclination to watch and I think if I'd gone in person I'd be disappointed.

Yes, Hamilton was awful. It didn't resonate for me at all, probably because it isn't my history. However great the production might be, I don't understand why it is so popular in the UK. 🤷‍♀️
Wasn't helped by Call-Me-Dave Cameron sitting just across the aisle which meant I had his security bods standing just behind me all evening.

This is the show I was most disappointed by! I'm no prude but it was so rude and so offensive. I'm not sure why it hasn't been banned, it would have been if it had been about any other religion but Mormons

It depends, I think going to the theatre and being a distance from the stage would be very different to going to a theatre-in-the-round, which is usually great.
I much prefer the theatre to the cinema though, I think the talent and skill of the performers is usually fantastic even if the storyline isn't quite up-to-scratch.

Really enjoyed back to the future . Special effects were so good

That's not true around here - we have a Shakespeare company come around the small towns and villages (they will play in the garden of a country house in the summer) and they are really good.
Also we have two Amdram groups, one of which again is really good.

Bit like saying are holidays overrated, watching films overrated ?🤷‍♀️ Question is not well phrased

I saw the LWW show and it was amazing, highly recommend it! There's s culture vulture board here on MN, I'm pretty sure there were reviews of it? Guardian also had a review.

I've been to a few theates around the country and truly feel like nothing compares to the west end. The shows there are just a different level.

I love the theatre and go regularly to places like the National Theatre, The Bush, The Royal Court, The Bridge, The Almeida as well as the West End. I often book things before they are reviewed, we occasionally get a dud but it's quite rare.

Where do you live (not exactly obv!) Might be able to find you a Rep theatre which may have more interesting stuff on.

Yes, superb. That would be a good choice for teens.

Went to a West End show a few weeks ago. It was a Saturday night and a bit of a treat for us. The tickets cost £160 each for very standard seats. Even though the show was good and we enjoyed it, I did not think it was £160 good. I was also reminded of what an absolute shithole the West End is! Shabby, grubby, piles of rubbish bags everywhere, heaving with tourists and drunk people and just felt grim. By the time we'd had a bite to eat (just a really light bite) and paid for our train tickets, the evening out cost us just under £200 each and it really, really wasn't worth it.

I have had fabulous times at shorter shows at local theatre where things have been more immersive or experimental. And I loved The Play That Went Wrong - the cheap seats were fab and I think if you aren’t used to the theatre a comedy is a good place to start.

Im horrified honestly at how expensive London theatre is (by the time you’ve traveled etc). I have spent so much I feel obliged to enjoy it, but often I’m just thinking “this was overpriced and I don’t like this musical, whose idea was this?”

I can also recommend trying something with novelty and/or comedy - open air theatre is great (summer at Regents Park or the Globe) or even an opera - I remember seeing marriage of Figaro with subtitles above the stage! And Carmen in English. Both brilliant. I didn’t expect too much so I was very pleasantly surprised.

I love the theatre but it can be hit or miss. That show seems a little young probably.
always check out reviews and base your expectations on that.
I think it’s god that you are taking them. It’s important.
My exDH as a kid never went to the theatre/museums/art galleries… as an adult he thought places like that weren’t for him and it made him very closed. It meant also that he didn’t want to bother taking his kids, luckily I did. It seemed so inversely snobbish of him.

Like everyone says, it's completely based on the performance. I usually read reviews in the national newspapers and go to things that are both well reviewed and fit in with my tastes. Rarely had a bad evening at a 5 star rated production.

Generally, you can't guarantee you've going to love or hate a performace in advance. I would go if they would enjoy the experience of a day/evening out and the venue is an interesting one they wouldn't otherwise get to see. If it turns out not to be great, that's ok; it can still kick-start interesting conversations.

FWIW, I have been to different theatres and enjoyed the plays, and I've been to one theatre which everyone raves about, but mum and I lasted 10min on the hard wooden benches and decided no play was worth 2 hours of that level of discomfort and left to have dinner instead.

It's impossible to say that. It's like asking, 'Is food overrated?' or 'is music overrated?'; there's such variety.

In terms of kids//family productions, I'd say something like Matilda (a delight and a triumph) or War Horse, which is spine-tingling, is a better bet. I also know a lot of people who loved The Cursed Child, although I haven't seen it.

I saw The Motive and the Cue, massively popular and critically acclaimed, starry cast and creatives etc, and found it VERY underwhelming.
By contrast, Guys and Dolls was both a joy and a spectacularly clever and skilled production.

I do find I have to 'get my eye in', as it were, with theatre, perhaps because I much more commonly watch TV and films; there's usually a few minutes at the start where I'm thinking, 'They're all just shouting and spitting' and being very aware that the set is a set. I think it can take longer for suspension of disbelief to kick in. Once it does, though, I think theatre is a fantastic experience, probably precisely BECAUSE it shows its workings more than TV and film and so you have to use your imagination more.

I don’t enjoy the theatre, I find it uncomfortable to watch people pretending to be someone else live on stage. I don’t know why. However, I know lots of people who love it so can’t say it’s overrated, it’s just not for me.

I think the theatre is definitely worth going to. The venue can make a difference to a production though. I found I prefer seeing Shakespeare in smaller theaters such as St. George's Tufnell Park to productions at The Barbican or The Globe. I think because being able to sit closer to the actors I was better able to see their faces and get the nuances of their expressions. I started taking my DC to see Shakespeare plays from when they were 13 or so, when they started studying Shakespeare at school. We lived in the US and used to go to the Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta which is a miniature version of The Globe.

I found musicals and opera I prefer seeing in the larger theaters. They are a bit more 'in your face' and the production is a large part of the experience. I remember seeing The Magic Flute at Slough Arts Center and the first scene with the hero fighting what looked like a large cotton reel snake instead of a dragon kind of killed the atmosphere for me.

Not at all. I go most weeks.

same, I was underwhelmed by jesus christ superstar. But maybe that's because I've now realised I'm an atheist.

I checked out our nearest place and there is a short clip of each of the performances ... However the clip was very underwhelming
I'm no great theatre expert but you have to remember that live and recorded are very different. It's like music - have you never seen a concert on TV where the crowd are bouncing-off-the-ceiling excited but you are sitting there, unmoved, noticing all the bum notes? Sometimes, you just have to be there ...

Watching a clip online is nothing like the atmosphere of a theatre, plus you're in the mindset of a quick fix piece of content and scrolling to the next thing or visiting the next website, rather than all the build up of a full story.

Having said that, I've seen terrible things at the theatre and great ones. A lot of amateur and small theatre is still great, so if there's anything more local to you I'd go to that instead assuming there's something you want to see on, instead of the West End which is massively overpriced.

We saw The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe a couple of years ago in Salford and loved it.

I saw Hamnet last year and it was meh.

I adore both books.

We go to the theatre a lot and it really depends upon the production.

I’m in the same boat, family of 5 and to see a big production in the west end around Christmas is going to be upwards of £700 🤯. So it will be really painful if it feels not worth it. Not sure what to do as have been to the theatre a few times and not particularly enjoyed it (shrek the musical was awful, Evan Hansen, woman in black, to a certain extend Matilda although think the kids would like it…).

i thought Book of Mormon was absolutely brilliant and would be for maybe 14 year olds and up. I would go and see it again but my kids are too young and wouldn’t get it. Very very funny and brilliant music. That might be a good fit for you.

also saw Oliver in the west end when I was about 12 and was blown away by that. Joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat was another that I loved around the same age. Didn’t really get Cats as a kid, or Starlight Express, not sure these are still running though or what they’d be like as an adult.

hairspray looks good.

I would perhaps go for a musical over a play, although The Producers was really good.

if you go to the west end, the tickets may be more expensive but you can wander round London afterwards which will be atmospheric and make the whole trip not just about the theatre, in case you don’t enjoy it.

Hamilton is the only thing I’ve walked out of at the interval.