Is it just me - Musicals?

[Kazzyhoward]

Am I the only one who just doesn't "get" musicals? I like to go to the theatre for plays, I like to go to pop/music concerts. But I'd rather eat my own vomit than go to watch a musical. I have a few friends/family that love them and always pestering me to go, but I absolutely hate them.

I just don't "get" it when actors who suddenly burst into song or leap into dance every few minutes. The last I went to, that probably finished me off, was Cats - yes, I don't deny the fantastic scenery, costumes, etc., but it was really repetitive, no obvious story, just loads of people dressed up pretending to be cats. Once I'd seen the costumes/scenery, I was bored rigid.

It's the singing in the talky bits isn't it, I hate those with the notable exception of Mathilda. I don't mind ones where they act and then burst into a song and dance routine.

I would though sit through an ALW prod every day if it meant I never have to watch Mamma Mia. God knows what it's like on stage but the film, even with its no holds barred budget is screamingly bad. I made it to the 20 minute mark.

Mamma Mia the film was absolute crap! I can't believe they are doing a second one.

Mission that'd better be a big fat fib.

Mamma Mia the film was absolute crap! I can't believe they are doing a second one

Not that I'm a fan or anything, but it took more than 600 million dollars at the box office, so doing a second one should hardly surprise you.

Yes the one thing that's worse than musicals is films of musicals. Bleugh.

YANBU - West End musicals are for tourists and coach parties from the provinces.
Les Mis, Cats, 42nd st, whatever, just a load of money making wank.
I did go to Chess once but only because we got free tickets; certainly wouldn't pay.

My DP feels the same. He hates the idea of people bursting into song at random intervals. However, I dragged him along to see The Book of Mormon and he found it hilarious and changed his opinion slightly! Don't think I'll ever get him to see anything like Phantom or Les Mis though!

TSSDNCOP Sadly not

Not that I'm a fan or anything, but it took more than 600 million dollars at the box office, so doing a second one should hardly surprise you.

If I'd known it had made that much it wouldn't have surprised me. But I didn't.

I am SO with you. I am exactly the same although, there are a few I will let through. It’s the generalised Lloyd-Webber film/life of somebody famous turned to caterwauling on stage with horrific American stage accents I cannot abide.

I like a cheeky one like Rocky Horror or Little Shop of Horrors. There needs to be some irony and/or dark humour for me.

I very much liked the new film adaptation of Les Misérables because it was dark and gritty and exactly how the book meant it. It also sits more with an Opera than a Musical in my eyes. Plus, Anne Hathaway’s I Dreamed a Dream was probably the beat version I’ve heard.

I’d probably spontaneously combust or turn into the girl from The Exorcist if I had to sit throughout the Phantom of the Opera...

I love musicals but in my experience, off West End musicals are better. The best I've seen we're in smaller theatres - The Menier and The Southwark Playhouse in particular.

ALW has had his day but there's no doubt he changed the art form for the better - I personally don't like Jesus Christ Superstar but without it I genuinely think musicals might have died a death. And I have a soft spot for Evita which I think is underrated. Cats is utterly shite though, haha.

For me, Sondheim is the master - Merrily We Roll Along and Company are my absolute favourites. I also love Adam Guettel, very much in the same vein. And Lin Manuel Miranda is a genius - both Hamilton and In The Heights are marvellous.

Les Mis is a spectacle but wasn't my cup of tea. I though Miss Saigon was laughably bad but I know loads of people who love it. I enjoyed Matilda as a soundtrack a lot more than I did when I saw it as a show - the music is lyrically so clever but it's hard to hear that in person. The big West End shows tend to be a bit hit and miss for me - I enjoyed The Lion King, Charlie was just okay, hate almost all the jukebox musicals etc etc. The National puts on some great stuff - London Road was astonishing.

I think unless you've seen a broad spectrum of what's on offer YABU to dismiss musicals. Most people who do have only seen West End stuff. However, I have a pal who works in theatre and has seen everything - she also hates musicals so it is possible to just not like the genre at all!

I remember going to see Starlight Express and sitting perplexed not having a clue what was going on. It went on and on and I was getting more bored and irritable as the show went on. I've also seen Cats and felt the same, no perceivable plot whatsoever. Never again.

Miss Saigon is a funny one. The sound track is pretty decent. The story on paper ought to cut it. However, when I saw it on the west end it just didn't come together as a great show. Maybe it's because the leads are written to be dull as ditchwater and the rest can't make up for that.

I'm too young to have seen the original, but all anyone talks about is Jonathan Pryce as the engineer, so perhaps that one performance carried the whole thing?

Hell I break into song in real life at odd times.

I grew up listening obsessively to opera so don't have a problem with musicals from the pov of people bursting into song. After all, the whole concept of theatre is pretty stylised and almost any film you watch has a sound track. I believe, though I could be wrong here, that RL detectives don't bring an orchestra with them when tracing the suspect down a dark cellar. Once I've suspended my imagination that much, I don't mind a bit of extra suspending.

Did get bored with Cats though; it's the absence of plot and the seeming interminability of it. Give me Tosca any day!

Plenty of musicals I do like though.

Hate them.

AlexanderHamilton that clip was hilarious! I presume it was a one-off for that specific performance.
And I’ve really enjoyed the thread, though I love musicals - OP YANBU if you hate them, but YABU to lump them all together - I agree with other posters that musicals come in many and varied types - I’m not keen on on the jukebox musicals, and am fond of the classic ones (no-one mentioned My Fair Lady!).
And I couldn’t care less if people hate them, in fact the more uninterested people who stay away from any type of performance the better as far as I’m concerned - less shuffling, coughing, sweet paper rustling, whispering etc. to spoil the performance for the rest of us.

A good story definitely helps - Miss Saigon is basically Madame Butterfly, West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet, etc. Cats is a collection of poems set to music. I like a good MGM musical too - the studio put a lot of money into them and the choreography, etc still stands up today.

If you took it at face value MM was a great fun, I love Abba. (ducks flames).

Mrs Fezziwig - it's from a show called Something Rotten - set in Shakespearean times about two failed playwrights. A soothsayer is looking into the future to tell them what will be popular. It closed on Broadway sadly & hasn't come here.

Yanbu, I hate musicals too.

I saw the original Miss Saigon at Drury Lane but Jonathan Price had just left the cast to go to Broadway. It was fantastic but quite different to the recent one which I've also seen. In the original one the Engineer was a lovable rogue who did actually care for his girls. Jon Jon Briones's engineer was a nasty piece of work & the whole thing was darker & a lot smaller scale than the cavernous Drury Lane.

There are literally hundreds of different musicals. To make a sweeping statement saying ‘I don’t like musicals’ is surely like saying, ‘I don’t like films’ or ‘I don’t like books’?

I agree @AlexanderHamilton - Jon Jon Briones' (especially his American Dream) was the only good part of Miss Saigon for me - I thought he was tremendous.

The love of Sondheim on here warns my cockles. I'm a massive Sondheimite and love Into The Woods, Company, Sweeney Todd and Sunday In The Park With George best. I also love Gypsy and WSS where he just wrote the lyrics. I love a clever lyric. Obviously I love others too, but I'm really not an ALW fan (apart from Evita).

I do amdram and I've been in severe of them, amongst others. If I could live my life as a musical I so would, I spend enough time bursting into song already as it is.

That saud, I don't think anyone IBU here. We all like what we like.

YANBU. There are my least favourite (and probably the lowest) for of theatre based entertainment.