Stage Musicals

[Griff]

God, I fucking hate stage musicals, and they're even worse when they have crowds of stage-school kids singing too.

Even worse when they have the same stage-school kids singing in American accents like Whistle Down the Wind.

 

[psycherelic]

Hard to say really, the only musical I've seen on the stage was the producers and that was fuckin ace and very hilarious but I suspect i'd hate most others.

 

[electrogirl]

no waaaaay. there are loads of brilliant musicals. admittedly you have to suspend alot of disbelief, but what about cabaret? west side story? my fair lady? thoroughly modernmillie?

you can't dismiss a whole genre.

especially when it's a genre i bloody adore.

 

[Belushi]

I love old musicals - Rogers and Hammerstein that kind of thing, sometimes go with my Mum

Cant abide shite like Lloyd Webber.

 

[moomoo]

I love them - what is there not to like?

Have you ever seen Les Miserables?

Who could not like Joseph, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Beauty and the Beast etc.

I must admit that Fame was crap though

 

[Griff]

I love them - what is there not to like?

People breaking into exaggerated song.

Some friends got us tickets (we did protest at the time, that we didn't want to come) for Whistle Down the Wind a few months back. It was horrible and we were bored shitless within minutes.

Thank God for the interval and some wine.

 

[electrogirl]

People breaking into exaggerated song.

Some friends got us tickets (we did protest at the time, that we didn't want to come) for Whistle Down the Wind a few months back. It was horrible and we were bored shitless within minutes.

Thank God for the interval and some wine.

well i don't like whistle down the wind, but you wouldn't dismiss the whole horror genre if you didn't like 'iknow what you did last summer'.

i keepy away from lloyd webber, stick to sondheim, fosse etc.

 

[Griff]

Nah, sorry you can't convince me.

 

[electrogirl]

Nah, sorry you can't convince me.

pah. open your mind, there is a whole world of musical joy out there waiting for you!

 

[Griff]

musical joy

 

[sheek]

I love it went to see wicked last year one of the best things i ever did see, also been to see mama mia which is fucking dreadful, swings and roundabouts innit

 

[May Kasahara]

Who could not like Joseph, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Beauty and the Beast etc.

Mostly I love a good musical, but Shitty Shitty Bang Bang makes me want to bound up on stage and grate off the cast's collective voiceboxes. Preferably with one of those really small parmesan graters. I fucking hate the film - all that jolly winky rosy-cheeked turdery, awful songs and completely unscary villain - and being forced to sit through the stage version was like some vision of hell.

 

[Griff]

and being forced to sit through the stage version was like some vision of hell.

Dear oh dear.

 

[Santino]

Sweeney Todd

Carousel

Cabaret


Hating musicals is one of those annoying memes people pick up, like being scared of clowns, that they think makes them cool and interesting.

 

[Griff]

Hating musicals is one of those annoying memes people pick up, like being scared of clowns, that they think makes them cool and interesting.

I know people who are cool and interesting who adore musicals. I'm not that cool or interesting and loathe them.

 

[tarannau]

Musicals are a blight on the West End landscape. Any industry which can be dominated by the likes of Andrew Cunting Lloyd Webber really can't be a respectable one can it?

It's generally like a bad play mixed with bad songs, moronised for the widest popular, attention-deficient audience. The golden, camp, era of musicals is over and now we're stuck with a cheesy facisimile of what could have once been innocent fun I suppose. I don't want to suspend my disbelief - the gorgonzola'd jawed numpty singing 'I'm in the Jets' is clearly not in a tough street gang for example. I've read better dialogue on the back of a cereal packet, heard better and more singers on the no37 bus.

A quick purge of the touristastic and old-lady toting audience - a poisoned batch of Werther's originals or explosives mounted in the back of Franklin Mint tat may do it - could help rapidly diminish the market for such crap. The could then perhaps use the freed-up theatre space for some decent new writing, rather than have the same old pap on rotation throughout the years.

Musicals on the main are shitter than a particularly shit thing from Andrew Lloyd Webber's personal shitty shit collection. Down with them...

 

[Griff]

Sanity at last.

 

[Santino]

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. I bet you all sing 'A Few of My Favourite Things' in the shower every morning.

 

[tarannau]

You see, that's just more conclusive truth that musicals are crap - the use of musical numbers in the background of hip hop tunes (eg Big Brovaz, Jay Z and Oliver) inevitably leads to the worst kind of twee musical nonsense.

That should be the nail in the coffin of this stage musical wankery.

 

[zoooo]

I LOVE musicals!
But only certain ones.

I would rather die than sit through the Sound of Music, but I could happily go and watch Chicago every day for the rest of my frickin life.

 

[oneflewover]

Chicago is superb, saw it a few weeks ago in York. Joseph is another firm favourite. The singing, the dancing, the music it's so uplifting.

 

[spanglechick]

i love some musicals, and utterly loathe others. on balance i hate the majority, but the ones i love are so fab, i instinctively feel i belong in the "love musicals" camp.

ftr

love:
guys and dolls
chicago
caberet
west side story
high society
pal joey

hate:
anything "sung through" - ie: where you don't have a play with periodic songs, but rather interminable songs with hardly any dialogue in between.

also / especially:
lloyd webber
we will rock you (and similar)
sondheim (except his input to west side story)

 

[tuesday's child]

it seems to be the acceptable default position to hate Lloyd Webber. On a personal level he seems smug and awful, but as musicals go (and I'm not a HUGE fan) I thought the Phantom of the Opera was fantastic when I saw it years ago (with Michael Crawford/Sarah Brightman) and I liked the film that came out a couple of years ago too.

Oh well, hey ho etc.

 

[electrogirl]

i'm upset that lloyd webber has made everyone hate musicals, damn you lloyd webber!

to be fair, most of his musicals are on crappy watered down tours now, there is so much outside of his work, seems to be a cop out to mention him.

this year i have seen guys and dolls, spamalot, the producers, which were all marvellous.

 

[ICB]

Musicals are for people who are too deficient to appreciate opera

Quite like some of Sondheim's work but I'd rather listen to it in the car than anywhere else.

 

[electrogirl]

Musicals are for people who are too deficient to appreciate opera

the winky smiley doesn't take away the fact that alot of people actually think that, or that it's absolute elitist bollocks.

 

[Reno]

I haven't seen many stage musicals, but that's more down to the fact that I can't afford West End prices, rather than me being sniffy about them. As with most things, many will be bad and a few will be great. In the end I care whether something makes for great theatre and has good songs. I really enjoyed Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Producers, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Jerry Springer - The Opera, while Rent was three hours of torture as far as I'm concerned. Otherwise there are a lot of older musicals which I enjoy. Cole Porter, Kurt Weill and Gerhwin musicals always have great tunes with brilliant lyrics. I like a bit of Rogers and Hammerstein or Leonard Bernstein because the tunes are just so great, but never have seen one of those on stage.

 

[tarannau]

the winky smiley doesn't take away the fact that alot of people actually think that, or that it's absolute elitist bollocks.

FWIW. I don't like Opera much either - a heavily subsidised waste of taxpayer's money. I know I should feel the emotion, but I had the misfortune of having a couple of classic Italian operas translated for me. The technical vocal skills are indeed impressive, even if they leave me largely cold, but they may as well have been warbling the words 'the cat sat on the mat' in five octaves for all the depth the words contained.

That said, at least operas don't seem to predominantly employ ex-soap stars, faded middle of the road singers and drama school kids who've failed to make it big in their lead roles I guess. Just goes to show what a lack of talent you can get away with I suppose.

Musicals are shit. Nothing to do with elitism - they're the last refuge for the untalented and failing. Keith Chegwin could be playing the lead in Oliver and still people would turn up. If it can work for Martine McCutcheon and Neil Morrissey's ex it can work for any 2-bit knobber

Andrew Lloyd Webber should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. How many poor children have had to endure performing the witless moronity of his twee musicals at school...

 

[Crispy]

Go and see Sunday in the Park with George to see what the musical is capable of. Saw it when it was at the chocolate factory and it's fantastic.

 

[electrogirl]

FWIW. I don't like Opera much either - a heavily subsidised waste of taxpayer's money. I know I should feel the emotion, but I had the misfortune of having a couple of classic Italian operas translated for me. The technical vocal skills are indeed impressive, even if they leave me largely cold, but they may as well have been warbling the words 'the cat sat on the mat' in five octaves for all the depth the words contained.

That said, at least operas don't seem to predominantly employ ex-soap stars, faded middle of the road singers and drama school kids who've failed to make it big in their lead roles I guess. Just goes to show what a lack of talent you can get away with I suppose.

Musicals are shit. Nothing to do with elitism - they're the last refuge for the untalented and failing. Keith Chegwin could be playing the lead in Oliver and still people would turn up. If it can work for Martine McCutcheon and Neil Morrissey's ex it can work for any 2-bit knobber

Andrew Lloyd Webber should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. How many poor children have had to endure performing the witless moronity of his twee musicals at school...

what a load of wank. all musicals are shit are they? generalisation much? Which musicals predominately employ ex-soap stars exactly? Yep, chicago seems to have a different celebrity as Roxy every week, but as far as i know they've all filled the part excellently. It's become a bit of a gimmick to be honest. You mention Martine McCutcheon, but does being in Eastenders automatically mean you are crap at anything else?

Look at the musicals on the West End now. Cabaret, Wicked, Lion King, The Producers, Mary Poppins, Billy Elliot, Les Miserables...the list goes on..do any of these emply ex soap stars?

You sound like a snob.