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.

Love how alan Menken is influenced by everything from Yiddish folk (“Mushnik and Son”) to Mozart (“Closed for Renovation”). A really spectacular score. Then he goes off and writes “The Little Mermaid”. Guy’s a genius.

Totally agree. What a sad story (by the by).

Six is another fantastic musical.

Hate musicals the over enunciated singing and big face acting
I can tolerate Jesus Christ Superstar and sweet charity (Anne Marie Macduff:

Used to hate them. Now I've seen some live I'm ok with them.... not all mind you. Has to have a story. Hamilton though is on another level and I absolutely and utterly adore that. I have seen it a few times and could many more. Watched it on Disney plus with subtitles also and it made the world of difference realising how clever the lyrics are.

Funny girl is my all time favourite absolutely love it! Barbra Streisands voice is so beautiful...so fortunate that I got to see her live at Hyde Park last year!

I do mostly just enjoy live performances of musicals though. I went to see phantom of the opera on Broadway and it was amazing but I would never really think to watch it at home. I also didn't enjoy watching cats...found it quite strange.

I don't hate all of them - I have a soft spot for ones I used to watch as a child like The Sound of Music, Annie, My Fair Lady, Oliver and Mary Poppins. But Lloyd Webber - urgh! So cheesy! DS loves The Greatest Showman but that's not my bag either. Cats and Starlight Express are basically my worst nightmare. Moulin Rouge came out when I was about 17 and my friends were obsessed with it but I didn't get it at all. I am pretty musical but in general they're just not my thing. I also don't like Strictly. Or anything with a studio audience that claps along. It makes me so embarrassed!

I absolutely detest musicals. They make my toes curl and my whole body cringes. The way the actors burst into song every 5 minutes is so tedious, and the lyrics are often cheesy and contrived. I've seen quite a few and just don't like them. Grease is about the only one I can tolerate! Incidentally, I am pretty musical . I sing in a vocal harmony group and also play the piano. I love music concerts and straight plays, but the combination of the two is wholly unnecessary!

I don’t know what kind of person hates musicals.
But I’m one of them.

The trouble is, so many of them are really shit.

I quite like the Disney ones, and older ones like High Society. But stuff like Rent, Cats, Dear Evan Hansen, Mamma Mia - they are just so badly written! Even if the songs are good, the story is about really unlikeable people doing things that makes no sense, just to move the plot along.

I found Rent actually offensive, with the way it trivialises HIV and homelessness. I found Dear Evan Hansen unpleasantly flippant about SEN and suicide. Cats and Mamma Mia were just stupid.

...theres no difference between opera and musicals except musicals are more fun.

I like both, but that's just silly. It's like saying there's no difference between a Schubert lied and a song by the Spice Girls.

I hate.them
I remember watching 'Into the woods'and feeling sick with irritation towards the end

...theres no difference between opera and musicals except musicals are more fun.

I’m sure in 1870 there were plenty of shit musicals produced, but we don’t bother staging those ones. We only perform the decent ones.

Any current musicals still being revived in 2200 will probably be quite decent. “We Will Rock You” will not be one of them

I can't stand musicals. I love music, but I really hate people singing in place of speaking, especially when it's all so over annunciated and cheesy. I hate the dancing and the grinning too.

I can't stand most musicals. There's a couple I quite like, but most of them I detest. I remember watching Mamma Mia when it first came out. I seemed to be the only one who hated it. It's almost as though they tried to shoehorn as many song and dance routines in as possible which consequently got in the way of the storyline. I did enjoy the second film though.

I remember seeing West Side Story in school and just thinking, like a PP said, how unrealistic it was that gang members were dancing around. Just tell the story!

My grandmother likes all the old musicals from the 30s and 40s. I find those so boring too.

Me. They're so cringey and lame. The only people enjoying them are the actors.

SHUDDER

Because people just don’t burst into song like that. They just don’t.

I really don’t like any musicals. I find it hard to suspend disbelief when people use burst into song. It’s just ridiculous and I want to start laughing.

I don’t like Disney either, but even there I have one film I like (the Aristocats). But musicals, no.

Well maybe Oh What a Lovely War! Where absurdity is pet of the point. But then people did sing in the trenches to alleviate the horror so it’s more in context.

Hi OP I bloody love musicals. I've seen many and not disliked any. The live and beautiful singing is uplifting, emotional and makes me feel happy.
Obviously not for everyone I guess I'm just in touch with my sensitive side.
Les Mis my all time favourite.

Sitting through "Carousel" remains one of the worst experiences of my life. Musicals are dire.

Sensible people.
I love music, it is pure emotion
Plays, films, books etc tell stories through human dialogue (or monologue, which I find wierd too aside from stand up comedians)
They may be artificial but they fire up your imagination as a story unfolds.
People singing a conversation makes zero sense

How do people decide they hate a whole category of entertainment without seeing more than a couple. They’re very varied. Some I’ve seen and enjoyed less than others. I do get they’re not everyone’s cup of tea but I do think it’s quite narrow minded to do a big les Dawson boob hoist and declare them all shit!

I like the songs from greatest showman for example, but the delivery was so strange

I ve been to enough to know I dont like the whole genre... fell asleep at wicked lion king les mis cats phantom...cringed at all the film ones, la la land, grease etc

So pleased to read that loads of people feel like I do about musicals. Always thought I just be a soulless monster to not enjoy the heartfelt caterwauling which features in most of them. The only ones I seem able to tolerate are Grease, Oliver and lion king. I just can't cope with weirdly out of place singing especially if it's a serious or sad story.

I don't love musicals, I've been to see a few and managed to sit through but I have always enjoyed a play far more. Two foreign language plays I've seen have been two of my top nights out in recent times (both pre COVID obviously). I find musicals a bit try hard and childish.
I hate live music too, in every way: a gig where you get covered in 1000 pints and can't see the stage or get deafened by the band performing in your local.
No thanks!

For people who don’t like musicals because people don’t just start singing like that in real life, do you watch films that don’t deal with real life eg Star Wars type films, animation. Do you only read books that are about real life events?

And music in general do you like that? Why do people sing etc, only for entertainment, so not ‘real’