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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Is there something wrong with me? I hate musicals.

212 replies

Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 20:21

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.

OP posts:
SALaw · 12/05/2025 01:31

I love musicals but I don’t expect everyone else to. Not everyone loves sport, but some love it with a passion, not everyone loves concerts but others do. Why would anyone assume that because they like something, everyone does? Surely empirical evidence around them (family, colleagues etc) shows that this isn’t the case?

SALaw · 12/05/2025 01:34

MoistVonL · 11/05/2025 22:57

The real question is how do you feel about Singin’ In The Rain, @Ittakeslonger ?

If you love that movie I think you are fine.

If you like that but not many currently staged musicals, YANBU because it’s just a matter of taste.

If you dislike that movie you have a withered black heart and I’m not sure what could save you.

Why is the film called “Singing in the Rain” though? I feel that song jars in the whole storyline and then the name the film after it?!

NeverEndingSnorey · 12/05/2025 01:37

i hate them too. I cannot stand the singing in most of them. Some are, as you say, better than others.
Majority though are absolutely shite

Mummadeze · 12/05/2025 01:40

I used to hate them as a young adult. Just found them weird and boring. Now I love them, I don’t know what has changed but I go as often as I can. I think I stopped being so cynical and suspended my belief. Or maybe they have improved in the last 30 years!

HoppingPavlova · 12/05/2025 01:57

You are not alone. Can’t stand them, they set my teeth on edge. However, I love the theatre, go often, just not musicals.

I think my strong dislike started as a child when I had to watch shit like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers etc on tv where they broke into (bad) song every 5 minutes. While liking his music otherwise, I even hated the Elvis movies as they were basically a very thin plot padded out with generic so so songs. There there was no choice in family viewing back in the day 😞.

NeverEndingSnorey · 12/05/2025 01:58

HoppingPavlova · 12/05/2025 01:57

You are not alone. Can’t stand them, they set my teeth on edge. However, I love the theatre, go often, just not musicals.

I think my strong dislike started as a child when I had to watch shit like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers etc on tv where they broke into (bad) song every 5 minutes. While liking his music otherwise, I even hated the Elvis movies as they were basically a very thin plot padded out with generic so so songs. There there was no choice in family viewing back in the day 😞.

My dislike also started with seven brides for seven brothers. Stupid plot, horrible singing.

YoungSoak · 12/05/2025 02:21

I hate musicals too. The way the cast burst into song out of nowhere seems forced a lot of the time. I really enjoyed Hamilton thought and I think it’s because the entire thing is sung/ rapped from start to finish. Either commit to the singing or fuck off basically

YourOnMute · 12/05/2025 02:43

I dislike them too.. unfortunately my children love them (how this happened I am still unsure) and they are still young enough that I have to accompany them to watch them. And watch them perform.
I also really dislike concerts.

SummerDaysOnTheWay · 12/05/2025 03:04

Hate them too 👍

JuliaLivilla · 12/05/2025 03:57

Toooldforthisbollocks · 11/05/2025 22:39

I don’t like them either but strangely enjoyed the tv series Crazy Ex-girlfriend where the cast regularly burst into song.

But Crazy Ex-girlfriend songs were satirical and very amusing, and fitted in with Rachel's (I think she was Rachel) character of being so extreme and compulsive and impulsive. Weren't we were seeing her fevered imagination at work? Plus they never allowed them to take over, they always complemented the whole storyline.

channelislander · 12/05/2025 04:06

I love a musical! I love most musicals, with the exception of some real rotters.

But there's nothing wrong with not liking them, or even hating them! My best friend can't stand 99% of musicals, I don't think he's missing out on anything because of it. Luckily for me I have other friends who are more than happy for a trip to the theatre, but I completely understand they're not everyone's jam and I wouldn't ever think something was wrong with someone for not enjoying a particular form of entertainment.

alwaysamused · 12/05/2025 04:11

Find more friends who do other things maybe?

SALaw · 12/05/2025 07:51

YoungSoak · 12/05/2025 02:21

I hate musicals too. The way the cast burst into song out of nowhere seems forced a lot of the time. I really enjoyed Hamilton thought and I think it’s because the entire thing is sung/ rapped from start to finish. Either commit to the singing or fuck off basically

Loads of musicals are sung all the way through so if that’s your beef with them you might find you like more than just Hamilton.

SALaw · 12/05/2025 07:52

@JuliaLivillaloads of musicals have satirical and amusing songs. SIX is a good example.

Objectrelations · 12/05/2025 07:54

They are excruciating. YANBU.

Clearinguptheclutter · 12/05/2025 07:56

I adore musicals but they’re not my dh’s thing at all. I don’t think not liking musicals is unusual. Seems to be a bit marmite

however you would be unreasonable if you didn’t appreciate the enormous creative effort that goes into putting them on (not suggesting for a second that you don’t)

JuliaLivilla · 12/05/2025 08:07

SALaw · 12/05/2025 07:52

@JuliaLivillaloads of musicals have satirical and amusing songs. SIX is a good example.

Maybe the songs are satirical and amusing, but there are sooo many of them. You mention "Six" and I thought that may be vaguely interesting. Watched a couple of songs on the Internet - and yes, I know I am not getting the 'full experience', but that was more than enough for me. It felt like a surfeit of lampreys.

I think that's why the songs in "Crazy ex-girlfriend" amused rather than annoyed me. Only two songs max per episode, lots of taking in between and completely reflected her emotions. I mean how can you not love a song called "Sexy getting ready song" while the spirit of her boyfriend appears, wincing as she sings about waxing.

ComeAsYouAreAsAFriend · 12/05/2025 08:12

I love some musicals mainly the classics such as Les Mis, My fair lady, West Side Story, Calamity Jane etc. I am not a big fan of the new ones like Hamilton which I didn't like at all, or the musicals arranged around an artist such as Queen Mamma Mia etc

WaltzingWaters · 12/05/2025 08:14

Yes, YAB MASSIVELY U. Musicals are fabulous!
Ha, no I absolutely love them and was brought up with a love of them because my parents also loved them and took me to see them/played soundtracks at home. But I can very much see how they wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

Ginmonkeyagain · 12/05/2025 08:15

Oh god I LOATHE musical theatre. It's just all so fucking cringe.

Fizbosshoes · 12/05/2025 08:23

DD and I love musicals, we saw Mamma Mia last year and at the end we were laughing saying can you imagine Dad/DH here and how much he'd hate it.

Although tbf as a family we watched a film recently that we weren't expecting to be a musical, and it didn't work for any of us. We all thought they should have cut out the songs and made it 20 minutes shorter! 🤣

Tiredalwaystired · 12/05/2025 08:23

Ittakeslonger · 11/05/2025 23:02

Probably not but I have learnt that when you post something there's always at least one person who likes to be disparaging.

Show quote history

Glad you aren’t disappointed.

ImaginedCorners · 12/05/2025 08:23

deusexmacintosh · 11/05/2025 22:06

Try Stephen Sondheim's stuff. David Bowie didn't call him the Shakespeare of musicals for nothing.

He wrote beautiful, intellegient, challenging musicals for grown ups.

You might be familiar with Sweeney Todd - there was a Tim Burton adaptation of it with Johnny Depp - or Disney's adaptation of Into The Woods with Meryl Streep, Depp and other Hollywood celebrities... but both of them are truncated to fit the short running time of a film, and that kills most of the clever rhymes/pacing.

Pacific Overtures is my favourite - a musical about 18th century Japanese economics 🤣 (it's about the Americanisation of imperial Japan).

There's a fantastic song written in haiku where a brothel madam attempts to teach new sex workers about sex positions, a song where the Emperor's advisor sings about trying to assassinate his boss through 3 minutes of insane internal rhyme schemes, and a haunting string peice in which a samauri husband and wife bid farewell to one other before he is executed - both parts are sung by male actors, as they would be in a traditional japanese Kabuki theatre performance.

The big setpeice, a song called Someone In A Tree, follows an elderly man reminiscing about the time when he was a little boy who climbed a tree outside a government building and overheard a treaty being drawn up between European, American and Japanese officials. It deals with the foibles of human memory and how our perception of events can be distorted by time.

you could also check out Sunday In The Park With George - a musical based on the life of French painter Georges Seurat, which deals with the obsessive, addictive nature of being an artist and features a copy of a Seurat painting that literally 'comes to life'. There's a recent filmed production with Jake Gyllenhall, plus the original Broadway production with Bernadette Peters.

A lot of his shows are hard work, but rewarding if you enjoy witty rhymes. A Little Night Music, Company and Follies are great too - Follies was produced by the National Theatre in 2017 and they screened it in cinemas, if you can get hold of a copy of that, it's a fantastic show about middle age and the regrets that come along with aging (not recommended if you're feeling depressed)

Hope that helps!

I love Sondheim, but even then, not all Sondheim (not crazy about Bounce, or Assassins, and Sweeney Todd is patchy for me), but I still wouldn’t keep attending shows in a genre I don’t like because my friends want to.

Funnywonder · 12/05/2025 08:26

I like:
Grease
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

That is it. I hate them. Some of songs are wonderful, but most are just fillers where words should be😅 SIL was in a choral group for a few years and they staged musicals - proper big professional things at the Grand Opera House in Belfast - and I managed to go to a grand total of one out of six. DP loves them, as does DS1. DS2 and I both cringe from the inside out.

PolarCrane · 12/05/2025 08:33

I'm 42 and seen loads of the big musicals. Fall asleep or find them too loud.

On that note i don't watch musical entertainment either: Strictly, Britain's got Talent etc, either. I tune out if friends talk about these. Thankfully my husband's the same.

I think it's pretty normal different people enjoy different things no?