Is there something wrong with me? I hate musicals.

[Ittakeslonger]

AIBU? I'm 62 and all my friends seem to have developed a passion for musicals. I have been to quite a few with friends to be sociable and to see if I could get to like them but, with each musical, my dislike of them just grows. I find them contrived, and the music average and the whole experience very boring. I sit there hoping it's over soon. I go to be sociable but it's not an event where you chat or do an activity together. We simply sit, glued to a chair. Some musicals are better than others but overall I'd always rather be anywhere else, even home. Is there anyone else out there who gets my dislike? Am I destined to be a social pariah? My friends seem puzzled and a bit offended by my attitude.

Actually I normally like musicals but that’s one I really don’t!

I generally think of myself as someone who loves musicals but the last three or four I’ve been to have been utter tripe.
Ive been re-evaluating whether I like them at all.
I do, and I’ll continue to go but, there is so much shit being produced at the moment.

Wow 😱

Which ones?

The only ones I haven’t minded are Book of Mormon (hilarious) and Les Mis (just too good)

Everything else, I agree entirely! I find them cringey and tiresome.

We went at Christmas to Lion King and I have got tickets to go again on Thursday…a Big Birthday Treat for my sister.Cannot imagine how anyone wouldn’t be impressed with Lion King …absolutely magical .

I've always much preffered plays to musicals, I'd go to a musical for a family or friends night out, and enjoy the whole occasion without especially loving the musical. I enjoy opera as well, but plays have always been my first live.

However to my surprise, in the last few years probably since theatres reopened after lockdown, musicals have really grown on me, I've seen Oliver, Hamilton and the film version of Six, and really enjoyed all of them.

I'm a few years older than you, OP, so.it may come to you yet!

There's nothing wrong with you. If someone tells me they're into musical theatre, I have to stop myself from running away right there and then!

I’m pleased you said that! I find Elaine Paige on a Sunday excruciatingly annoying and I can’t turn the radio off quick enough! That fake laugh! Why it has to be peak Sunday afternoon I don’t know.

I only like a few older ones. Wicked didn’t interest me at all.

I’m 64 and have always loathed musicals. They make me irrationally irritable for some reason. It’s nice to come across others who feel the same as so many friends either like or love them . There is nothing wrong with us or with them. You just like what you happen to like .

I’m the same. I’m not hugely into musicals, but the older ones have much better songs and music.

Far too many seem to be far too contrived, in a "hey, let's do the show right now folks!" way.
The last one I went to was the Book of Mormon as I was told how wonderful it was. It may have been but the OTT cringeworthy behaviour of the audience, whooping and cheering and drowning out the actors, shouting out the lines and even joining in with the songs utterly ruined it for me.

It seems loads of fans go to see it multiple times.... Baffling.

I feel that modern musicals seem to favour a particular timbre of voice that is like nails on a chalkboard for me.

I do like some of the Golden Era musicals - and I'm quite fond of opera - but just want to rip out my hearing aid and replace it with maximum attenuation ear filters for every start quiet - open up - swelling bridge - modulate and BELT IT OUT - go back to a whispery, full of vocal fry, end.

In short, if it's going to end up in a book of 23 musical songs for female solo performance, it's likely to irritate the hell out of me. And the equivalent for male singers is going to be bland as fuck and too high for the warmest, richest male voices, too.

Me too OP. I only like 3- Cabaret (where the songs are actually done in the club, so it's not weird), West Side Story (for the score and because I used to watch it with my gran) and I do actually like Hamilton- something about it all being sung with almost no spoken dialogue means it exists in a parallel universe (also got to love a legislative process done in rap). I have a feeling I might like Six as well.

I also loathe pantomime and have since I was small. Apparently I didn't laugh once.

We went to see Wicked at the cinema and thought it was bloody awful. The songs are 'really not very good' (DD, 11).

Anything Andrew Lloyd Webber can get in the bin. The increasing tendency to turn everything into a musical is annoying. It's a good story! You don't need to add songs!

Everyone likes different things - though I would recommend seeing one or two from different genres just to make sure you haven't just seen a bad one!

Mrs Doubtfire was fun, but the songs were very boring

Oh, I love this! I have been a huge fan of Les Mis since childhood, I've seen it live umpteen times and pretty much know it by heart - but still if I happen to come across a stage performance while flicking through the TV channels, I still get the "This is the best thing I've ever seen" feeling.

I thought I didn't like musicals, it was straight theatre only for me but then I discovered Hamilton and Six the Musical so I'm now much more open to musicals. I did see the Lion King about 20 years ago but I think that while the music is fantastic, the staging is a huge part of it's success.

eww yanbu, I hate musicals too!

I read somewhere that the marketing people didn't market the latest mean girls film as a musical because people wouldn't watch it 😄

Actually, I tell a lie, there is one that i thought was truly superb; the Rocky Horror show in the late 70s at the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs with the original cast -- Tim Curry, Julie Covington, Richard O'Brian, Little Nell et al.
A shining beacon in a sea of dross.

Which ones have you seen op?

"How do you feel about opera? For me it’s the best of the lot."

What @Calliopespa said! ( Possibly adding in operetta...)

Good point on opera!

I like the opera, love theatre, hate musicals. As a PP observed, it’s the context of the songs. In a musical, it’s just weird. An opera is at least song throughout. No jarring shift.

I adore them. My husband hates them.
Little Shop of Horrors has always been my favourite.