Musical AIBU

[HelloPossums]

Random thread, but wrote this out of curiosity.

Am I alone in sometimes finding musicals a bit cringey?

I'm not really dismissing the art form. There are some musicals I can handle - especially the ones that tend to be more like opera (like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, for example, which is sung the whole way through).

It's just the 50s and 60s Hollywood musicals that I can find horribly twee and cringey as fuck. When I'm feeling tolerant, I'd almost describe them as guilty pleasures, but usually I just find them really embarrassing (Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, Oliver etc.)

I think there's just something about singing kids and force jollity that I just really can't stand

Christmas TV schedules are my worst nightmare

Another lover of musicals. But unlike a pp I am a concerts and musicals and ballets fan. I don't really do opera though - I think that's where the divide is.

I prefer musicals with drama to them rather than cheesy jazz hands types. So favourites over recent years have been Les Mis, Miss Saigon, In the Heights, Rent, Showboat, Working.
Not so keen on ALW but will go if there's a decent cast.
Also been to NY and Broadway - saw a show a night for five nights!
Haven't liked any of the recent film adaptations as the singing is not strong enough but older ones like Sound of Music and My Fair Lady (despite Rex Harrison) are great.
Looking forward to Follies and Hamilton.

Fair points everyone. Thanks. Any tips on how I can get interested into musicals? And not cringe at them?

*interested in

Be super selective about what you see. Work out which ones you cringe at the most then seek out the opposite!

I hate musicals and tbh thought moulin rouge was one of the worst. Yanbu

Or else see avenue Q- that'll cure you 😂

OP try not watching cheesy 50s ones you don’t like? All the films in the 50s seem cheesy now, so I’m not sure why you expect the musical styles to be different. Go for all the dramatic, serious, non-jazz-hands ones recommended already.
peach I saw Waitress on Broadway last year. It’s fab! I’ve got tickets for a Hamilton in December and I can’t wait.

I always used to say that I hated musicals, except for The Sound of Music. Over the years and have added other exceptions and there are now quite a few of them, though I still wouldn’t say that I was a fan overall.

One of the problems I have with live shows is that almost invariably they are too loud ( have the same issue at the cinema). Also, I hate the audience cheering and clapping in the middle of songs. When someone is singing I actually want to hear them sing! ‘Wicked’ was particularly bad for that, if I remember rightly.

Finally, I think musicals tend to be very expensive. I was trying to get tickets for 4 of us to go to The Phantom of the Opera next month, but decided I just couldn’t justify the cost. I used to take the children to the ballet every Christmas. That was much cheaper!

What to do about the Christmas schedule though?? Find it so hard to sit through (not envy!!)

Ah i love ballet ❤️ ❤️

I love child friendly ballets and also opera, but I there are many operas not high-brow at all. La boheme, L'eliser D'amore....Nothing high-brow about them. A bit like watching soap operas really.

I love musicals, and opera, and concerts, and have enjoyed the few ballets I've seen so I'm not buying the either/or.

Opera's not highbrow, some of it is feckin moronic, am thinking Marriage of Figaro (a man being unable to recognise his own wife as she's swapped clothes with her maid) however, Mozart can make even the shittest libretto bearable.

For those who hate the cheese, try Cabaret. Based on Chris Isherwood's Goodbye(Farewell?) To Berlin, it's simply brilliant. With the exception of Tomorrow Belongs to Me (which is utterly chilling) the songs are performed with gusto in the seedy KitKat club and reflect the story beautifully. Joel Gray as the MC is macabre and oddly fascinating. One of my favourite films ever ever ever.

This made me smile....www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/play-ruined-after-cast-repeatedly-breaks-into-song-for-no-reason-20171104138445

YABVU!!!'

It's A Musical, a musical. And nothing's as amazing as a musical.

But I don't hate Shakespeare for those who get the reference.

Dd is in the process of auditioning for upper schools/colleges & dh teaches MT students so we are a musical loving family. Ds performs in amateur ones.

And I still get palpitations when I think of how much my Hamilton tickets cost.

Opera is often seen as posh due to the cost, but I usually pay around £35-40 for amphi seats in the ROH and have seen both operas and ballets for£11 sitting in the upper slips

I LOVE musicals. Not all, but most I've seen.

The Book of Mormon, Les Mis, Gypsy, Wicked, Matilda, Billy Elliot. Most recent was Legally Blonde! (Never laughed so much in my life at the Theatre at Book of M and Legally Blonde)

Now the ambition is to see Hamilton.

My DH says he doesn't 'get' musicals but I dragged him to Billy Elliot with the dcs and he loved it, but still claims he has no time for musicals. Musicals are so varied and different, there's one for every mood.