Do you like musicals?

[bachrach]

Personally I can't stand them. Why would a group of people spontaneously breakout into song and dance? To me it makes no sense and completely destroys the authenticity of the story. Musicals make me cringe... Opinions?

[senanserat]

I hate them to be honest. I have never watched any but Grease and that was because it was our performance for the english festival in 6th grade.

[Bob]

Depends which one.

[oxy60]

Well there are a lot of people who would disagree with you. The musical theater is a success, all the way from grand opera to the silly shows.

I personally like the musical theater, just not all the shows. You need to be selective.

[bachrach]

I had to perform The Mikado in 8th grade with my class. Maybe that is the reason for my despise of them. Music was interesting but still think it interfered with the story. Opera I have a little more tolerance for.

[hfmadopter]

NO !

[sirpazhan]

tim burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a musical..I did enjoy it, and I don't remember everyone bursting into song and dance every 2 mins. the dialogue is occasionally lyrically sung, but it doesn't interfere with the storytelling.

 

[iansinclair]

It depends on the "musical".  There are musicals which are song and dance interspersed with speech.  Then there are musicals which are all, or virtually all, sung, and may be through composed.  For my taste, the musicals which are speech/song and dance can be very very good and very entertaining, and I can thoroughly enjoy them.  They can also be very dull or, perhaps worse, implausible.  I won't name specific ones, to avoid getting into a shouting match -- but I would note that, in my humble opinion, the teams of Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Lowe very rarely produced something poor.

The through composed "musicals" are a different matter altogether; some of them -- from a musical composition standpoint -- are virtually indistinguishable from verismo grand opera, on the one hand, or sprechstimme opera on the other.  As a result, I tend to react to them as I do to grand opera, enjoying them thoroughly if the music, libretto, performance, and staging are good, and not liking them much otherwise -- but that is as true of works accepted as grand opera as it is of a musical.

There is often a tendency amongst some serious musicians to react to something which sells in the modern market, such as to give one example from each group, My Fair Lady or Les Mis, as somehow beneath the notice of a "proper" musician.  First, this neglects the simple fact that such accepted standards as La Boheme were the Les Mis of their day.  Second, it -- in my opinion -- reflects a rather snobbish  attitude on the part of the serious musician.

[outin]

I really can't stand them either...

[the_fervid_pig]

Depends on the musical, I think I like the odd song from them, rather than sitting through the whole musical itself, Rocky Horror being the exception. There may be others I can't think of atm. But there have been some wonderful songs come from musicals. To those composers already mentioned above I'd like to add Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht, and Harry Warren and Al Dubin, both fine collaborators of the genre.

[iancollett6]

Personally I can't stand them. Why would a group of people spontaneously breakout into song and dance? To me it makes no sense and completely destroys the authenticity of the story. Musicals make me cringe... Opinions?

I agree, cant take them seriously. It's ridiculous to think that people would sing like that, there should be a total ban on them.

[oxy60]

I had to perform The Mikado in 8th grade with my class. Maybe that is the reason for my despise of them. Music was interesting but still think it interfered with the story. Opera I have a little more tolerance for.

How will you ever erase the memory of that? I don't know why schools always choose the worst musicals for class projects.

[quantum]

Yes, I like musical theater.  But then again, just as with any other genre of music, I do prefer some shows over others. 

Why would a group of people spontaneously breakout into song and dance?

Probably for similar reasons that a second rate composer would write a random song about some dude measuring a room to fit a bed.  Why would anyone break into song about that?