Stage Musicals That You Found Unexpectedly Disappointing

[MarmaladeSandwich7]

For me it was The Bodyguard & I was really surprised as I love the soundtrack & Whitney.. It was ok but I thought it would blow me away & it didn’t. Maybe some things just work.better on the big screen.

Saw Matilda on Broadway years ago and was very disappointed by it. Not helped by the bizarre wandering accents of several of the cast, either Brits trying and failing at American accents or the other way around.

Oh god yes and Cats. Awful.

Dear Evan Hansen only has one good song.

Cats! Utter shite.

Hamilton
Six
Most things by Sondheim, with the exception of Into The Woods - I don’t know what it is about his writing, I just find most of the shows quite tedious
Aspects of Love (actually love the music, but it needs a complete rewrite)

I actually liked Wicked when it first opened. Don’t know if it’s changed at all.

Tina, generally bleh performances (except the grandma) and songs awkwardly slotted in.

I’ve seen many of these and loved them - grease, moulin rouge, lion king, frozen, Chicago, mamma Mia, Joseph, warhorse, Jesus Christ superstar. Maybe many of you just don’t like musicals?

not seen wicked [didn’t like the film] or Hamilton.

planning to see mj next.

edited to add loved Tina and six too

All of them.

I bloody hate musicals 😄

Didn't enjoy Hadestown at all, despite the rave reviews. The Lion King has a great opening, but then felt a bit lacklustre. Also I found The Light Princess irritatingly twee after a short while and left at the interval.

I got bored watching Hamilton on Disney Plus, but was gripped throughout the whole of the stage version and it's pretty long.

Alan Turing: A Musical Biography was embarrassingly bad.

Saw Greatest Day musical on a cruise. I’m a big fan of musical theatre but that was the worst thing I’ve ever seen.

Wicked is rubbish

and Hadestown. Everyone raved about it but it was on the whole a bit….boring….

I didn’t hate it, but it was just OK. Didn’t match the hype for me.

Les Mis is the GOAT

What’s not OK about under 10s being there? My 8 yr old loved it.

I thought it was ok. It’s just a concert really isn’t it

As per a lot of other people on this thread I thought Cats was really awful & boring, no story line, crappy costumes & not many good songs. I couldn’t understand how this could be one of the longest running musicals of all time!! I decided something must have gone over my head with it & I wasn’t cultured or sophisticated enough to understand its appeal, glad I’m not the only one.

Hamilton

Les Miserable. Fell asleep almost immediately. So boring and just, well, miserable.

I love Moulin Rouge, really surprised to see it mentioned here.

I did not like Cats, it’s the only musical I’ve been to where I wanted to leave and I’ve seen a lot of musicals!

🤯 it’s my favourite musical, yes it’s sad in parts but also life affirming and the songs are just amazing.

Id go every week to watch it if I could.

Wicked was dire! I’d really wanted to see it and my husband bought the tickets to take me on my birthday a few years ago. It was very hard to show any level of enthusiasm after the show! I think I went for “It wasn’t at all how I’d imagined” and left it there.

Cats is great. There’s no story no - but banging songs and singing cats!

it’s coming back in 2026

Absolutely love Chicago! See it several times.

Six. Utter balderdash.

Chicago.....painful.

We will Rock You. Went to London to see it because DD's friend was in the cast., so felt obliged to stay til the end.
Met him afterwards and he said it was probably better to be in it than watching it😂 It was DIRE,
DS2 has autism and musicals are one of his strong interests so we go to lots, but I never go to ones that are on the back of a film, as they always seem lame.

However I will go and watch Jesus Christ Superstar every time it comes round, ditto Fiddler on the Roof. !