To not understand what kind of person hates musicals

[CrotchBurn]

Love them. Love all musicals. I just don't understand how you can have people who like stories, and who like music, and they have this hatred of musicals.

There's also so many different types of musicals from Cabaret to Blood Brothers to Cats to Sound of Music, how could you dislike them ALL?

Is it about the singing preventing you from engaging with the story? Because it feels artificial? But surely all films and plays feel artificial? I just think there's no better way of getting huge amounts of info across quickly than in musicals. This scene from Les Mis for example, in one song you understand the conflict, both characters' motives and back stories.

Also isnt there a bit of snobbery here - theres no difference between opera and musicals except musicals are more fun.

I really dislike musical theatre and I’m really not sure why. I love theatre and adore opera so 🤷🏻‍♀️ I found Les Miserables a really miserable experience. But each to their own.

I saw Phantom back when it began with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman.

Went to see it with Dd a couple of years ago and kept comparing it with the original cast and it didn’t come out well.

I am sure the cast were excellent but all I could hear was Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman and then the difference in the voices to the current cast and I really didn’t enjoy it.

I always fast forward through the songs when I watch movie musicals. The songs rarely add anything to the story and it's just so fake and unrealistic and usually not the kind of music I enjoy.

Michael Crawford is a comic genius but he has no voice at all IMO. I don't understand how he ended up in musicals. At least opera is safe from his weedy, breathy-voiced ilk, even if that's not what it used to be either. Bah humbug! :)

I detest them.

I love music and theatre so theoretically should like stage musicals as well. Can't stomach them. West Side Story is bloody godawful - I'd rather watch the original Shakespeare - also agree completely with a PP's assessment of Cats (and that's coming from someone who ordinarily loves T S Eliot). I found it dire.

I also have a real soft spot for the mozzarellafest that is The Sound of Music - couldn't tell you why - Calamity Jane and anything else Doris Day has ever done. Also love ballet, opera, theatre, gigs and rock festivals and am in my element at them all. The Proms for some reason make me want to tear my own hair out. Don't like them at all.

As ever, boils down to personal taste. Nothing to do with class or background. My very posh aunty was at the footie every Saturday: my old grandad was staunch working-class, a joiner all his life and went around whistling Vivaldi.

Like what you like: tickets are available to everyone.

I love musicals, and all theatre. However I can also see why musicals could be the most irritating thing ever for someone that hates them! The expense, the pretentiousness, the luviness. Literally making "a song and dance" about every non event. A fifty person choral backing every time anything mildly of note happens. And if you're not ignited with fire and passion for every second of it (including being squished into a hard uncomfortable wooden chair that seems designed for a small child, not having time to go to the toilet in the interval because the queues are too long, and not getting an interval drink because you didn't know pre-booking was required - for a fucking drink) you're a philistine that can't use a knife and fork and grunts instead of speaks.

Said as someone that loves theatre and has been known to weep when the "actors take their places" bell rings.

It's musical theatre though- all wide smiles and jazz hands, everything overplayed, exaggerated, caricatured

Unlike a lot of acting which at its best can rely on subtlety, strives for authenticity

Musicals don't strive for that- quite the opposite

Some do though - it depends very much on the style and plot of the Musical. Oliver!, Annie, Fame, Hairspray style - yes, absolutely agree with you. But Blood Brothers, Dear Evan Hansen, Jekyll and Hyde, Spring Awakening style have lots of very authentic acting in them (imo anyway).

Musicals have a huge variation within the genre.

Some of the reactions to your thread are unbelievable, OP. It was clear that you love musicals so much that you lightheartedly wanted to understand why others didn’t. Perfectly innocuous, and not offensive at all. Sorry that you have got a bit of a pasting from some posters.

Another Cats hater here. Don’t really like Wicked either. I do love the Greatest Showman, Annie and the Sound of Music though. And surprisingly the Book of Mormon too.

Happy New Year for tomorrow!

I hate them. Unfortunately I've been dragged to a fair few as SIL was in a musical theatre group for five or six years.

I like 'Grease' and 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.' My dad loved 'Singing in the Rain' so I have a soft spot for it. That's it though. No other musicals. And I don't like opera either.

Just don't sing a whole feckin' song at me when you could tell me in a few words. Get on with the story!

I have 2 DS's. The eldest is 12 and loves musicals. The youngest(8) rolls his eyes and occasionally sticks his fingers in his ears with a request to let him know when they've stopped singing at each other.

I have enjoyed a very few musicals but would always choose a straight play or a film first. In my experience the musical interludes, far from "getting huge amounts of info across quickly" slow everything down unbearably. Operas are different because they are all about the music and the spectacle and they have very little meaningful plot or action, and I use a totally different mindset for them.

But a musical is just a play that's been spoilt.

I hate them. They make me cringe. Same with Opera, that just just sounds like really annoying utter gibberish to me and don’t get me started on Pantomime < not envy.

Although saying that I enjoyed Into The Woods and Frozen . Those are the only ones though. I tried to watch the new Cats the other day and I just found it bloody ridiculous . All those adults dressed as cats singing and swishing their tails. Gave me the creeps.

DH and DC are the same.

I find them boring in general. I like songs from musicals and arias from operas, but not the whole performance.
The best I've ever seen (on TV) is West Side Story. I do enjoy that one.

Oh liked The Greatest Showman as well but I could only watch stuff like that once.

I can't stand them.
They all sing the same, all that jumping around and hand waving.
Too much, man.

I hate them all!

The only musical I would watch is the one based on this thread, what a ride. Other than that, not my thing.

I dont know why I dont like them really. The random bursting in to songs drives me mad, I'm watching a vey sad scene, I do not need the performer singing, same with the oh just claw my eyes out with embarrassment scene when they are all upbeat and happy as shit. I dont know why but I feel my face getting hot and uncomfortable.

My nan and sibling always watch them though and the singing and laughter it brings to people prove musicals have there place, just as far away from my ears please.

I loved six, Hamilton, waitress and Matilda - smart, fast paced, quirky musicals. Lion King is amazing for the visuals and music.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, les mis, west side story etc not my thing - dull and contrived.

I just find the songs can be a bit hammy and appear as 'set pieces' squeezing a lot of plot development/ relationship between the characters into an artificially short space of time so the pacing often feels out, rather than allowing the story to unfold and the characters to develop.

That said, musicals can be done really well IMO. I was very impressed by Everybody is Talking about Jamie. I suppose the relatively simple plot- an coming of age- with beautifully drawn characters plus catchy songs made it work nicely. There was space for the song and dance numbers to illustrate the story, rather than tell important bits of it quickly if that makes sense.

I'm an indie kid who likes a strong hook so a lot of the songs are a bit saccharine and weak for me (even if the singing is terrific).

I found the Bob Dylan jukebox musical awful, shoehorning an over complex storyline and too many characters in to try and make a sequence of songs make sense. Plus his songs didn't really suit the cast's strong, note-perfect voices in my view.

All in all though, I see why people love them when done well. The production, singing, music and dancing and atmosphere are great escapism and storytelling.

I hate musicals and I’m a music teacher 😂 the word cringe comes to mind. I think they’re good fun for children

I like plays, I like opera but on the whole I don't like musicals. They feel too cheesy, sentimental and almost always too cheerful with predictably happy endings. Not dark or miserable enough for me, thanks. The only ones I've liked in recent memory have been Hamilton cos it's innovative (& am a huge fan of the West Wing so had to watch it) and The Book of Mormon because it's hilariously dark. I think I'm too cynical for musicals. Saw The Sound of Music for the first time about 15 years ago, and with the annoyingness of the Von Trapp family, I ended up empathising with the Nazis.

I enjoy opera and some musicals. There are more low-quality musicals in circulation than low-quality operas. It's usually the best works which stand the test of time, and musicals haven't had as long to get filtered. I especially like musicals which use an orchestra like in the film versions, but in live performances it's often cut down to a backing track, an electronic keyboard and just one or two acoustic instruments if you're lucky. Reduced forces are used for opera to a lesser extent but you always know the professional opera houses will have a full orchestra. It's an impressive sound yet not a single microphone, amp or speaker is used for the singers or orchestra.

I'm meh about musicals.
I find the music quite samey and the story lines are often the same as classical operas, yawn.
special turd points if a musical is based on a film, which is then again made a film in turn (the producers).

I liked the book of mormon though.

You honestly can't understand that not everyone likes the same things? Musicals are shite, from the stupid facial expressions to the painful lyrics, utter shite.

I don’t hate ALL musicals, but the reason I don’t like some that have lame or poorly written storylines, or the music is really bad. Saying I love or hate all musicals is like saying I love or hate all books. They’re obviously not all the same, so to lump them all together is a bit silly.