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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand what kind of person hates musicals

474 replies

CrotchBurn · 31/12/2020 07:10

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.

OP posts:
Bluegrass · 31/12/2020 09:43

I’m not keen on most musicals, I find the songs pull me out of any suspension of disbelief. I have a similar problem with live theatre.

Having said that, this thread has attracted the oddest collection of angry posters and (surely?) trolls that I’ve come across this morning, so that was interesting and unexpected!

Mummadeeze · 31/12/2020 09:45

I only like the ones I watched as a child really - Bugsy Malone, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, Grease, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Have struggled to get through modern ones like Moulin Rouge and Greatest Showman, both of which I turned off half way through. At the theatre the only ones I like are the theatre versions of the ones I liked as a child. Am now wondering whether my brain was more receptive to musicals as a child and I could suspend my belief so much more or whether musicals were just better then!

Womencanlift · 31/12/2020 09:45

Wow what a thread. Quite obvious it was lighthearted from the start and could have been a fun discussion. Let’s go back to that, for both those who do and don’t like a form of entertainment

Anyway OP I LOVE musicals. Going to the theatre is the one thing I have missed most during lockdown. I had a list of shows I wanted to see during 2020 and only got to see 3 of them before March.

I tried to watch Hamilton on Disney + and thought it was awful. Unsure if so would like it if I actually saw it live

Hopefully I will be back watching shows soon

Womencanlift · 31/12/2020 09:46
  • Unsure if I would like it
LakieLady · 31/12/2020 09:48

at the end the cast commanded everyone to get up and dance and show what a super time they were having

There's something about that "enforced joviality" that really puts my hackles up! Nothing is more likely to piss me off than that "You WILL have a good time" schtick.

Bluegrass · 31/12/2020 09:49

Oddly enough I watched Hamilton on Disney+ expecting to hate it and switch off, but I actually enjoyed it. The songs and performances were really impressive to me. That and LaLa Land are the only two musicals I’ve watched for absolutely years so perhaps my dislike of them is mellowing with age.

AliasGrape · 31/12/2020 09:49

DH doesn’t like them. I tell him it’s because he has no joy in his soul and is probably in some way linked to his disinclination to get a real Christmas tree each year. He rolls his eyes at me which I probably deserve Grin

He enjoys Strictly (though wouldn’t admit to it outside the house) so he can’t be all bad.

Johan23 · 31/12/2020 09:51

I really don’t like musicals.

ghoulbag · 31/12/2020 09:51

@Brumplescruff

Clearly I meant abusive.

Why do you feel the need to stick the knife in?

Oh, right. I took your ‘absurd’ typo at face value, I had somehow gathered you preferred that.

You assume I’ve never been in an abusive relationship because I objected to someone completely overreacting to a woman initiating a lighthearted discussion about something inconsequential, the OP responding in a friendly manner with a smily face then being told “I’m not sure what’s funny” and manipulated to look as if she’s done something dreadful? Well, you know what they say about assuming.

Rosebuddydo · 31/12/2020 09:51

I hate them but dint know why? I live music but musicals I find boring for some reason?

Oneearringlost · 31/12/2020 09:52

I'm with you 110%. A very visceral feeling of revolt.

Nevertoomanyroasties · 31/12/2020 09:53

I love them, DM hates them so never got to see any as a child and have tried to make up for that since. I think she finds them corny and Americanised.

Hamilton is my new favourite, the writing is so clever.

LakieLady · 31/12/2020 09:54

Some years ago I went to see 'Evita', the film with Madonna. It was so rushed and superficial

I saw that, with a new-ish friend.

When we came out, I asked her what she thought of it. She summed her opinion up in two words: "irredeemable shite".

We've been firm friends ever since. Grin

Oneearringlost · 31/12/2020 09:54

bumplscruff
Sorry, quote fail

Lookslikerainted · 31/12/2020 09:56

I love music and I love theatre and I love some musicals (love the jersey boys) but some there is too much singing. The phantom of the opera was too much. I’d prefer a gig or a play. Musicals are too much. I also did drama at uni and the musical theatre students all had to be the biggest in the room, loudest, funniest and they just used to annoy me.

PollyPorcupine · 31/12/2020 09:57

I love them and have very fond memories of watching the R&H ones with my wonderful Nan on a Sunday afternoon. I also love them on stage and often find myself with tears in my eyes for the particularly rousing songs - I think musicals are magic!

But I voted YABU because I completely understand why other people don't like them. My ex found them cringy and embarrassing and couldn't comprehend why people were unnaturally bursting into song left right and centre - he was visibly squirming on the only occasion we went to one (he'd never seen a musical before so didn't know he'd hate it, before I get accused of being an emotional abuser).

YourNutsMeLord · 31/12/2020 09:57

What a weird turn this thread has taken. Anyway, apart from a couple of musicals (mainly ones I grew up knowing the words to) I can't stand at least 75% new musicals I see.

They are just too noisy! And the tune is too hard to find. And I cannot make out the words being sung so don't know what's going on anyway. You can keep them, OP Grin

Norwayreally · 31/12/2020 09:58

Most of them annoy me. If you suddenly burst into song and dance mid sentence irl constantly everyone would think you were absolutely barmy.

Sarahandduck18 · 31/12/2020 09:59

There are people who just don’t like to be happy.

cushioncovers · 31/12/2020 10:00

I dislike musicals. Actually I hate them. I find the constant bursting into song irritating and the often lack of dialogue and interesting storyline boring. I've been to several as I've been given tickets. The worst was Wicked fuck me that was boring GrinBut I'm not very tolerant of listening to any music I don't like. I don't even listen to the radio.

williowrosenburg · 31/12/2020 10:00

I love musicals. Not seen them all but the ones I have seen, I've watched many times.
DH doesn't like them at all, but did manage to get him to see the les mis film when it came out.... he has never forgiven me.
I was hoping DD(4) would like them too but alas no.... she has no interest in the ones I have put on.

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 31/12/2020 10:02

When I was child my parents would talk us to London. We’d travel by coach and stay at the YWCA. We’d go to the TKTS booth on Leicester Square each day and get tickets for whatever show was available. It wasn’t always musicals, there were plays as well. But I remember that as one of the happiest weeks of my childhood and we say some excellent shows. I remember Blood Brothers, Starlight Express, The Woman in Black. Some were good, some were bad but it was an amazing experience as a child.

YourNutsMeLord · 31/12/2020 10:04

@cushioncovers

I dislike musicals. Actually I hate them. I find the constant bursting into song irritating and the often lack of dialogue and interesting storyline boring. I've been to several as I've been given tickets. The worst was Wicked fuck me that was boring GrinBut I'm not very tolerant of listening to any music I don't like. I don't even listen to the radio.
I was once press ganged into going to Lords of the Rings, the musical. That was the worst and it lasted for bloody hours! Honestly, by the end, it was all I could do to stop myself storming the stage and throwing the effing ring into the fire myself, just so we could all go home.

I have never let the press-ganging party forget what they put me through Grin

ghoulbag · 31/12/2020 10:05

I love musicals, but I know lots of people who don’t like them but still love Blood Brothers. It’s just such a fantastic, well-told story.

SenorFrog · 31/12/2020 10:06

I don't like musicals, I've tried them and have been to a couple of Broadway shows, they're just not for me. I like being happy but musicals don't make me happy so I avoid them. My parents love them, so it's not that.

I also hate strictly, much to my mother's amazement.