Yes...you heard that right. While I'm a huge musical theater fan, there are some musicals that just don't do it for me. This topic came up when I was talking to a friend about musicals and how there are certain ones that people either like or hate. I also thought about how Darwin Shrugged doesn't like Little Shop of Horrors and that we can still be friends. My husband doesn't like Joseph... or Rent (gasp!) much, but somehow we're going on 13 years of marriage. (And he was even in some of the below musicals in high school, so we're even.) So keep that in mind if you don't agree with me about anything on this list. I have some close friends who like some of these musicals and we can respect the other's choices.
Just for some balance, see a post I did a while back about musicals I love. (This was also prior to Hamilton.)
Without any further ado...
Cabaret: I saw it on stage when I was in high school, but it didn’t really do much for me. Then I saw the movie a few years later and found it really annoying and somewhat nauseating. Oddly enough, I love Chicago and that is also by Kander and Ebb.
The Phantom of the Opera: I saw it when I was 21 and was really hoping to like it after all the build-up. I was disappointed though. I even tried the movie and it had the same effect. I only like a few songs because most of them were overdone between chorus and voice lessons in high school.
The Sound of Music: I liked the movie as a kid, but mostly for the music. Now I don’t think I could sit through it at all.
Carousel: Another movie I watched all the time as a kid. Then I saw it again in college and the glass shattered. It’s about domestic abuse! Plus, the songs are pretty cheesy.
Camelot: I saw it at an outdoor theater when I was a pre-teen. It just bored me a lot. The songs aren’t even memorable for me.
The Music Man: I also saw this at the same outdoor theater when I was a pre-teen. It didn’t do anything for me either and I didn’t like the music much.
Cats: Weirdly, I get flack for not liking this one. I like some of the T.S. Eliot poems about cats and even performed one for speech tournaments in high school. However, Cats lacks the emotional quality I look for in musicals and really is just a bunch of people dressed as cats running around on stage. And yes, I gave it another chance as an adult. My husband felt the same way about it, so it’s not just me. One of the people we saw it with got mad when we said we didn’t like it. And then they told us they didn’t like the movie of Chicago, which was WAY better than this musical.
I'll be doing posts about other things I don't like from pop culture, so stay tuned...
What musicals are on your "least favorites" list?
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4 comments:
I'm pretty sure I fell asleep during Phantom. LOL. And I didn't like Little Shop of Horrors when my brother was in it because he played the evil dentist and he's not an evil person!
Well, you know how I feel about Phantom. ;) I wasn't a big fan of Fiddler. Not sure why, it just wasn't one of my faves.
Great topic! I have to say I love a lot of the shows on your list (and I think Cabaret is meant to be unsettling/creepy) but dislike quite a few not listed here. Which just goes to show how many musicals there are out there, for all sorts of tastes! I strongly dislike '50s musicals, especially South Pacific and The King and I (I KNOW! nobody shoot me please!) I also recall a good friend making me watch the movie Meet Me in St. Louis and I wanted to gouge my eyes (and ears) out. And yet I love The Sound of Music--go figure. One thing I have noticed since getting satellite radio and listening to plenty of the Broadway channel--there's a lot of crap out there, musicals-wise. I mean just BAD tunes/lyrics. I can't think of any shows right now (of course), but it's surprised me how many have been produced with really poor-quality music.
I couldn't get into Camelot or The Music Man.
But I love Phantom and The Sound of Music so much.
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