Does anyone besides my roommate like them? She’s watching one now and it’s driving me mad. IMHO all musicals should be banned!
“South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut” was a musical, and it rocked my face.
I’m a musical theatre devotee, and not to be rude, but that’s like me saying “I hate rap music so all rap music should be banned”. (Actually, I don’t mind it, but I’m trying to make a point here 
)
Some musicals are incredibly intelligent and thought-provoking. Some are merely clever and entertaining. Some, like Mamma Mia and that ilk, are just fluff for mass entertainment, same as everything else. And some are, well, just bad :s. There are things people just don’t like as a genre because it just doesn’t do anything for them - I don’t really “get” football or ballet or heavy metal myself for instance, but some people get incredibly passionate about them and I can understand that.
BTW, I thought South Park was bloody excellent too
Ok, sorry daasgirl. I was just venting. When my roommate watches musicals in our living room, there’s nowhere I can go to escape. Last night I had to listen to 4 hours of Les Miserables. One of my favorite books of all time, but the musical :help:
Er, that’s generally regarded as one of the really good ones. Honest. I can tell you’re probably never going to like them, and opera is likely Right Out 
Let me see - must have been the Tenth Anniversary Concert, and if it wasn’t, I want to know what the hell it was… 
You should retaliate by playing some hip-hop - loudly. The two really don’t go well together 
My wife can’t believe that I have never been to see a musical in London (I’m a brit). I always assumed they were just aimed at the tourists 
Watch Rent, Hair Spray & Stump (which isn’t a musical), it will def. change your mind about musicals, espeically Rent, the best amoung all.
All that shrill screaming in a foreign language, that’s why operas suck.
As for the Broadway musical genre, well let’s put it this way. If you are not a gay man or a woman who deep in her heart wishes she were a gay man, it ain’t meant for you. You must have a very, very high tolerance for “camp”.
In my home town they have one big musical every year on the town hall square. One summer I was working as a secretary just a hundred meters away from the place they were rehearsing - geez, it was killing me - just imagine, for weeks it was Evita in the morning, Evita during the lunch, Evita in the afternoon… 
:raspberry:
Some operas are in English. And I must say, although I don’t care for most opera personally, that’s about as superficial as saying ‘big sweaty men running around chasing a ball - that’s why football sucks’. Opera is the human voice taken to its greatest potential. Some people appreciate it more than others.
It’s true that one must have a high tolerance for camp, in a theatrical sense, but the rest of your statement is either stupidity or trolling.
A higher proportion of gay men are probably attracted to musicals (some hate them), and a smaller proportion of women - straight and gay, and a smaller still proportion of straight men. Straight women probably make up the majority of theatre-goers, just because there are many more of them, and I do not think most of them “deep in their hearts”, or otherwise, wish they were gay men - I certainly don’t. And I suppose the straight men and lesbians all secretly want to be gay men too 
Toronto has a great theatre culture - every time I go home with V, I always make sure to take her to a musical. The first one we saw together was The Lion King, and we were both just floored by the amazing sets, choreography, costumes and music. I don’t think that watching it on TV would have the same effect, however.
Is anyone here a fan of Gilbert & Sullivan musicals? I love 'em - I was the Pirate King in a high school production of the Pirates of Penzance.
I second that on the Lion King. I never saw it 
But heard nothing but raves about it . I did watch a doc about how it’s put together and it just floored me…As for Les Mis, that was my 1st musical and my favorite…Sorry you couldn’t enjoy it Erhu…
I like show tunes but I can’t stand watching the shows.
I absolutely love opera and musicals. In high school, I got to play in the orchestra for Hello Dolly! and also watched Brigadoon, Guys and Dolls, and Bye Bye Birdie. My high school probably spent about the same on their musical arts budget as it did on the football one because both brought in large numbers of people and lots of recognition. Never really cared for the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice stuff, and believe the whole remaking Disney films into musicals is a lame-ass attempt to capitalize on the movies more.
My favorite musicals are Hair, South Pacific, Fiddler on a Roof, and Victor/Victoria (wish I had seen it when I was staying in London). As for opera, my favorite by far is Aida which was the first one I saw live in my hometown’s opera house when I was 12 years old, working as an usher. I have seen quite a few others put on live both in the US and in France. My home in the US is only a five-minute walk to the opera house.
I also did musical pieces when I joined the all-women’s choir in university. My favorite piece was doing Poulenc’s Gloria which is a 25-minute piece combining orchestra with a large chorus. The performance we put on took all four choirs from the school, numbering over well over 400 performers between the singers and the orchestra.
I agree that you should see Rent before you write off all musicals. Just because your roommate listens to the marginally bad ones (ducking all the Webber-worshippers here) doesn’t mean they are all that over-the-top maudlin.
Rocky Horror picture show is a musical.
Er, as I said before, Les Miserables is generally regarded as one of the better musicals ever written (many people would class it as one of the best, actually)… and it’s not Lloyd-Webber - I think Boublil and Schonberg would be horrified by the thought Have you actually seen it? You really can’t pass any kind of valid judgement until you have. If you like opera, I’d wager you’d love it. You might even try the original French concept album 
Webber/Rice were brilliant (Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita). It was only after he broke up with Rice that the musicals became - ahem - less than scintillating, although still irritatingly catchy (Cats, Starlight Express, Phantom).
Rent is good, but it sounds a little dated now.
Why are musicals so terrible?
For the same reason all synthetic main stream music is terrible, unless you like it of course.
I like Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd quite a lot. It’s the best non-opera musical around, imo. I loved Sondheim’s mad barber.
I’m all about time. Nowadays I’ve decided my spare time is going to be filled with reading literature, especially poetry, art, music, etc. Fine Art Is Me.
Life’s too short, imo. Too much I want to know, I love stumbling on what I consider to be some Big Truth about life in literature, and there’s too little time to take it all in. I’m sure it’s not the best way to take in an art form - opera - designed to be seen as much as heard, but there you go.
So I’m kind of a glutton right now.
I’m spending most Saturday and Sunday mornings listening to my cable company’s Opera channel. That way I can glance up once in a while and read the title of what’s playing while I get lost - often - in its Google thread. I’m also reading through Yeats and Burns right now. I just passed through an Emily Dickinson phase of sorts. I guess her poetry, while it stands alone as great art just fine, thankyouverymuch, was helped considerably in my estimation when I considered the isolation, discipline, and selflessness involved in its production. Kind of a lot like today’s modern American work experience. Intellectual athleticism of a very different sort is highly prized by some, then as now.
Favorites so far: Any Mozart, La Boheme, Aida. Verdi consistently makes me look up, grabs my attention. I actually sat through about six hours of Wagner’s The Ring Cycle one Sunday morning, although I wasn’t much impressed. However, I do remember thinking it could do with another good listening since there were some stunning bits now and then.
Oh yeah, amazingly enough my penis has stayed put. All that opera, despite the cat-scratch sopranas, and still all this tensile strength.
[quote=“rice_t”]Why are musicals so terrible?
For the same reason all synthetic main stream music is terrible, unless you like it of course.[/quote]
I agree.
I’ve seen Chorus Line, Pajama Game, Paint My Wagon, and many others. I too, hate musical theatre. Except Brecht. I love Brecht.
I would love to direct a production of Clockwork Orange. That would be fun.