The Let it Go vs Defying Gravity thread prompted this.
I often hear people say they either hate musicals, or they love them. I never know how to answer the question "do you like musicals?" myself. I do! I love a lot of them! But when people ask the question, they are very often thinking of the popular musicals of the last 40 years-- most of which I really dislike!
The big ones-- Phantom of the Opera. Rent, Les Mis, I cannot stand, or at very least don't "get" them. OTOH, I actually have gone to a fair number of shows and loved a lot of them. Hamilton is amazing (and maybe that ought to be exempt from this discussion because it's such and outlier) and I've see Fun Home three separate times, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch a number of times. The musicals I love I really, really, really love. Hedwig has a couple of my favorite songs of all time. Fun Home made me cry like crazy (and I don't usually do that with anything). And I've even seen a few musicals in the "just okay" category that were really fun experiences (Waitress, Beautiful (a jukebox musical of all things)). I generally like-but-not-love all the family animated musicals as well, although they're generally transient in my consciousness. I love quite a few classic-era musicals as well.
So musical theater fans-- you find yourself in the mainstream, or on the fringe, or in the middle? What do you like? I tend to think of them like any other form, like movies, where I might well like or dislike things apart from the general consensus. When I hear people discussing musicals, it seems there's more general agreement. Maybe I'm wrong about that.
What do you love or hate?
I often hear people say they either hate musicals, or they love them. I never know how to answer the question "do you like musicals?" myself. I do! I love a lot of them! But when people ask the question, they are very often thinking of the popular musicals of the last 40 years-- most of which I really dislike!
The big ones-- Phantom of the Opera. Rent, Les Mis, I cannot stand, or at very least don't "get" them. OTOH, I actually have gone to a fair number of shows and loved a lot of them. Hamilton is amazing (and maybe that ought to be exempt from this discussion because it's such and outlier) and I've see Fun Home three separate times, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch a number of times. The musicals I love I really, really, really love. Hedwig has a couple of my favorite songs of all time. Fun Home made me cry like crazy (and I don't usually do that with anything). And I've even seen a few musicals in the "just okay" category that were really fun experiences (Waitress, Beautiful (a jukebox musical of all things)). I generally like-but-not-love all the family animated musicals as well, although they're generally transient in my consciousness. I love quite a few classic-era musicals as well.
So musical theater fans-- you find yourself in the mainstream, or on the fringe, or in the middle? What do you like? I tend to think of them like any other form, like movies, where I might well like or dislike things apart from the general consensus. When I hear people discussing musicals, it seems there's more general agreement. Maybe I'm wrong about that.
What do you love or hate?
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