Yes. It’s true. I hate musicals.
I’m sure there are other people like me in the world but I haven’t encountered many people who don’t like musicals.
I think my dislike of this form of entertainment started when I was young. I recall not especially enjoying The Wizard of Oz. I also recall getting restless during musical numbers in animated features. This ploy used to keep children engaged in the feature film did not work for me… in fact it was quite the opposite. When the musical number started that was the time for me to go pee, to get more snacks, or to watch other people in the theatre.
I find it really challenging to watch something where people break out into song, mid-sentence! It’s not realistic. It’s not enjoyable. It’s annoying!
Who hates musicals? Jennifer does... and it's created some issues for her! Click To Tweet
I HATE MUSICALS AND IT’S CREATED SOME ISSUES
My strong aversion to musicals has created some issues for me:
1- My husband absolutely loves The Fiddler on the Roof. I refuse to see it.
2- The fact that I haven’t seen Hairspray, Grease, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music has made me feel like a social pariah.
3- My husband and I were watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD; when we got to the musical episode I could not bear it. I turned it off just a couple minutes into the opening sequence.
When it came time to watch the next episode we were lost! The musical episode of Buffy apparently had a lot of important plot points. Was this enough for me to go back and watch the episode? No.
4- I would love to see Mamma Mia. I grew up listening to ABBA and I have fond memories of dancing to their records in my grandma’s living room.
I doubt I will ever watch Mamma Mia… because it’s a musical. Sad, I know, but I’m sure I couldn’t get through the whole show.
5- I really want to go to New York but everyone seems to insist that you HAVE to see a Broadway show when you go to New York. Really? Does that have to be a prerequisite? If so, count me out!
Well, that’s my confession for the day. If you love musicals, please don’t hate me… I just don’t enjoy it! But if you also hate musicals, please comment here… we could bond over the fact that we dislike the same thing!
SHARE WITH OTHERS
I don’t like musicals for the same reason! I get restless and bored during the musical parts. Same thing with action movies. I actually get bored during the “action” parts because there’s no dialogue and I feel the plot isn’t moving along. I guess I’m just not very good at watching movies! My attention span isn’t good enough.
I absolutely hate musicals… and it’s not because I’m straight, I just hate the idiotic interruption in the middle of a dramatic scene, I tried watching several and the only way I can get through them is by fastforwarding the stupid singing parts… it’s like nails on the chalkboard to me… literally it makes me cringe just as much… but I don’t mind opera… but then that is all singing, so maybe that’s it.. act or sing… I’m trying to get through the Prom right now because it was supposed to be so great… same with LA La land… I shut that one off.. this one I just fast forward the singing and can tolerate it
This totally made me laugh, my husband is the SAME way! There’s something corny and strange about them I like, some of them anyways :)
I admit… I love musicals. But it’s okay, we can still be friends!
I absolutely hate musicals!!
Agree!
@ Claire – Yay! Someone like me! I will get distracted in action movies too. It has to be an intense and original action sequence to keep my attention (not just another lame car chase).
I am the exact same way. My boyfriend loves war movies and series, such as “Band of Brothers”, but when there’s a long battle sequence, I can hardly bear for it to last more than ten seconds. Just so repetitive! I just want to go to the bathroom and have him tell me who died when I get back.
@ Irish Italian Blessings – That’s too funny… your household is the opposite of mine!
@ Megan – Thanks for being so forgiving ;)
Musicals are my favourite form of entertainment. The kids and I can watch and sing along to RENT, Grease and Les Mis…. My Fair Lady? Chicago? Fiddler? Disney Princess Movies? Mary Poppins? They can all be found in our home and we each have our favourite scenes…
And it drives my husband absolutely batty! Until he’d met us, he had no clue anyone could spend an entire day watching and ENJOYING musicals.
But he married me and I married him. I figure if we can have peace at home, then I can probably keep reading your blog. ;)
I am so glad to see this. I absolutely hate musicals. The prevalence of them on tv are making me sick. Go away musicals!
Musicals! I wouldn’t go to one
But if they make grown up kids happy?
Where’s the harm?
Your not alone, I was in two musicals. I am a singer songwriter/artist but this form of entertainment drives me BONKERS!!! Lmao I just can’t appreciate them. I was forced to go to my last and left midway HAHAHAHAHA ;) , you won’t find glee,smash,wicked or rent in my house :P
I’m on board here. They are ridiculously obnoixous. No normal person randomly breaks out into song, and other people on the street smile and join in, in perfect sync, and dance. It’s stupid and annoying. It had very little to do with the plot most of the time. For me it’s torture. Sorry if this offends lovers of musicals, but I just can’t stand them. It’s like commercials. Completely disruptive to the rest of the story/movie.
For some reason I like 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, even though it’s really a TERRIBLE story. Kidnap girls and eventually they’ll love and marry you!! How cute! Bleh.
But that aside, I hate musicals too. They make me feel embarrassed for the people singing. I start laughing when people start singing in them. It just doesn’t work for me. It’s one thing to have someone sing a song once like at the end of 10 things I hate about You. But to have a whole dialouge in it? No thank you. Just talk like regular people! WHY do they have to sing? I really don’t get it at all.
Am so glad I found this post. I Thoroughly HATE musicals.. Every woman I know
Loves them and I was beginning to think I was a lesbian( bit late now .. Married with 2 kids)
I can’t remember when the turning point was because I loved them as a child and have been in a few
During my teens… Now they are like a knife going through me
Well, I have long hated them. Saw one on stage in 2019, experiment (Come From Away), at age 72. No, thanks. My mother dragged me to The Student Prince, twice I think. I have fond memories of something of it, just because she liked it so much (or Mario Lanza) and she died young. No, no other, ever, do I want to see. Either they are stupid, or I am. Up to you. Glad to see others do hate them too. My People!
Thank you for this. I hate, hate, hate, HATE musicals—and I’ve never been able to just come out and say it! I remember getting very uncomfortable and antsy as a kid the moment a Disney character burst into song, and to this day I cannot suffer ten seconds of a musical number in a show or movie. It just gives me the BIGGEST sense of secondhand embarrassment. I haaaaaate it. So. Much. Totally cringeworthy. I cannot understand for the life of me why or how anyone could take a musical seriously or enjoy one. Oddly enough, though, I’ve always found the idea of a flash mob in real life very appealing. I like to watch choreographed dances, and listen to music, of course, but throw songs into a story line and I am out of there! Glad we have these fine commenters to commiserate with!
I just want to say THANK YOU!!! I thought I was weird because I can not stand musicals either. The only musical I will watch is my 9-year-old singing on stage. Other than that, I get this really weird feeling, seeing people who don’t know each other start singing with one another, twirling and jumping off of fire hydrants, and then going back to their normal routines. I know I am sounding like a typical “Guy” here and I guess it would be nice to be able to stop time and start singing a song, like say if my boss was about to fire me, or if my wife wanted me to clean…but life isn’t like that! Hmmm…maybe I’m on to something here!!!
I haven’t really been exposed to that many musicals, but I think it’s the Broadway-esque type musicals that drive me nuts the most. Or maybe musicals that are demented like Rocky Horror, etc…
I do like Grease, Dream Girls and even Moulin Rouge as a whole. Granted, Moulin Rouge had some really ridiculous stuff in it that I could do without, but the love story in and of itself was really beautiful and pure and there was some outstanding music and performances in it.
I guess the thing about musicals in general is that the acting and really just everything about it seems so ridiculously insincere and put on. Or simply put, just extremely bad acting.
I had the misfortune of going to see Les Miserables with a friend this past weekend and it was so traumatically bad for me that it took me the rest of the night to get over it. It was literally unbearable; totally over the top and insane. How someone could like that I will never know.
Musicals in general are so illogical and unnatural. Not to mention just plain bizarre.
Oh sweet Jesus, how I abhor musicals! I completely agree with the secondhand embarrassment, and the intense desire to be somewhere else when anyone suddenly bursts into song. My wife and son are both musical lovers, and our television is far too often defiled with Les Mis, Pirates of Pennzance, Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music, and other such atrocities.
Dear God, please make me deaf before I have to hear another third-rate actor with a voice that would frighten polar bears sing his/her way through inane lyrics and humiliating dance moves!
I’m a few years late to this party, but I’m right there with you. You’re right – soooo much secondhand embarrassment.
I am IN THE IMPERIAL THEATRE in manhattan RIGHT NOW, writing this, watching Les Miserables. Not a single, damn spoken line in the whole production.
I don’t get it, and frankly never will.
I [really] HATE musicals also. I don’t know why my WIFE watches these things. They are annoying, they make me cringe, and they just remind me of how children shows use songs to keep them engaged. Glad I found somebody else who feels the same way.
[edited by admin – for family-friendly blog]
Musicals are really a dreadful musical form. Watching them live is even worse. The music and all the singing – just turns me off. All that solo singing – yuck. Choruses are just as bad. And I don’t secretly love them. I cannot stand them. It’s all that schmaltzy sentiment “If it wasn’t for you, . . .” “I can’t live without you . . .” etc. ad nauseum. Plays I love – everything from Shakespeare on. I love oratorio – choirs singing great music by the masters. Musicals – they’re embarassing.
Glad I found this. Count me in the minority of “haters.” ?
Broadway musicals are overrated to the max (personal opinion). However, I am not undermining the obvious talent of the participants. I went. I saw. It was not for me.
I don’t like them either. I feel social pressure from other women to like them, but I don’t.
I liked them fine when I was a kid. That’s the kind of entertainment they typically are in my perception: loud, colorful, energetic–something a kid would like.
Plus, if they’re saying something important at all they should just say the words. I can’t usually understand them when they sing. Maybe it’s my ADHD.
But everything else I agree with also. Boring, tedious.
I extend my hate of musicals to any movie or play where a good portion of it consists of someone singing (like a movie about a signer or band). Usually because the scenes are just focused on the singers faces and devoid of otherwise entertaining content, and as a result they are extremely dull. Kill me now.
I despise most musicals. I have vaguely fond memories of “Grease” because I saw the movie when I was ten and had no qualms about people breaking into song at that age. As an adult I find it intolerable. It’s melodramatic and corny. Also anything involving jazz hands, top hats or spangled outfits needs to be die in violent explosion. Thank you.
Musicals have got to be the most annoying thing on the planet! Two hours of watching someone parade around a stage singing in ridiculously outlandish costumes and makeup is just too much to handle. And this is coming from a makeup artist, who also loves Halloween! So it must just be the breaking out into irrelevant song that bothers me so badly. That, and the insanely over dramatic acting. The over-acting in a Broadway play puts Sharknado to shame. Just wait, I bet that will end up being a Broadway show too! Thankfully my longtime boyfriend feels the same way, so only a couple times in my adult life have I been subjected seeing a musical. Unfortunately my mother and grandmother loved them, so I slept through many as a child. I can almost handle movie musicals like Wizard of Oz, or My Fair Lady, where most of the movie is dialogue. During the singing parts, I usually just fall asleep. But when it’s a musical play, I’m left wanting to run screaming from the building. Glad to see my bf and I are not alone in this hatred!
LOL – I love it when others share my hatred for musicals. Musical haters UNITE!
Thanks so much for sharing your opinions on musicals – your comment made my day.
you do realise that not all musicals are like theatre musical are a medium not a genre
so what your saying is I hate a deeply diverse medium with a rich history and therefore refuse to watch an absolutely claim movie. I’m not saying you have to LIKE musicals but to say you hate them is like saying you hate paintings
I have never liked a musical – so yes, I do hate them. I’ve hated a painting (or two, or three) but would never say I hate paintings.
I suppose our policies on hate are different I choose not to use that word for entire groups of things, a bit too final for my liking, for example, I HATE the Notebook with a passion but and genuinely don’t like 99.99999% of romance moves but I would not go as far as to say I hate them
i don’t want to sound critical sorry if i did
this person explains it better
https://clairestbearestreviews.com/2014/01/25/5-reasons-why-it-doesnt-make-sense-to-say-you-hate-musicals/
You feel strongly about this and so do I.
I read the article you shared – the author obviously feels passionately about musicals, she’s entitled to her opinion. I have nothing against people who like musicals and wouldn’t insult people who like musicals – yet she has no problem doing so. It’s unfortunate. We can like and dislike different things. I’m not ignorant. I have tried, tried, tried to watch (and like) musicals yet when every single one of them frustrates me and turns me off, I think I have a right to say I hate them and I don’t want to watch them. I love Bjork and watched her musical Dancer in the Dark. Great storyline but I HATED the musical element to it – the fact that it was a musical completely turned me off.
Preschool teachers and parents often say, “hate is a strong word” but I think after decades of trying to like musicals, I have a right to say I hate it.
Oh god yeah I don’t usually mind the story, but when they suddenly break into some stupid song makes it so annoying to me.. I can’t remember Dancer in the Dark annoying me… but I saw that when I was going through a Bjork fan phase… and I liked her music, but every other one I’ve scene has really annoyed me, I’d never see one in person because you can’t fast forward through the annoying song bits…. my view is make it music performance or make it acting…. I can kind of watch the movies but have to forward through most of the show
Fellow musical hater! You’re not alone!
I went to one of the top-rated schools for musical theater in the country. SO MANY BROADWAY NERDS, it was ubearable! I had to sit through South Pacific one year…unwatchable. I’m like you. I want to visit New York so badly, but I don’t get why I would want to waste my time seeing a show!
High fives! lol
It’s a relief when I find others who share the same sentiments about musicals. I feel like the odd one out when I share that I don’t like musicals.
Thanks for sharing!
Absolutely hate musicals. Period. All of them. It is obnoxious as hell to be watching people act and then break into song and dance with exaggerated movements and expressions. Jazz hands crap is the worst. That is when you want to slit your own throat or punch the person behind you. If I wanted to see people sing or dance, I would go to a concert or ballet (which I love). Musicals are unnatural, forced displays of vomit inducing obnoxiosness.
Wow. I actually googled to see if I was the only woman in the world that doesn’t like musicals. I just backed out of a girls nite to see Beauty and the Beast and was picturing trying to act normal during the movie when they break into song when all I really want to do is bolt! I feel embarrassed for the actors and find the style of story telling very annoying. My friends don’t get it at all but I’m glad I’ve reached a point in life where I can say “let’s have dinner and catch up bc I don’t think I can sit through a musical” instead of going so no ones feelings might get hurt (just my sanity!!!!) Thanks for sharing your thoughts on musicals!
I’m so delighted you found this article Cathy… and that you could relate! Thank you for much for sharing your perspective on musicals.
Finally! Other women who aren’t into musicals! I was forced to go to them when I was little and I couldn’t stand any of them. I thought I was the only one!
I hate musicals so much that I have always had a hard time believing anyone truly likes them. I think it’s like wearing shoulder pads or having teased bangs. You just do it because everyone else is doing it and don’t notice how garish it is in the moment. I even hated Charlie Brown specials as a kid. And when they’d try to force us to watch the Sound of Music, I’d bolt. I’ve never actually seen it. I hear two seconds of Julie Andrews excruciating voice and I hit the road.
It’s so nice to find others who agree with my intense dislike for musicals! Thanks for sharing Georgia!
OMG I loathe musicals. When I was in elementary school many years ago my music teacher LOVED musicals and forced the whole class to participate in them each year. She just could not fathom how anyone could dislike them but I cannot even tell you how thankful I was when my parents finally stopped making me participate despite the friction it caused with the teacher. To this day I absolutely hate musicals, I’m not even sure “hate” is a strong enough word, I cannot stand them, they make me extremely uncomfortable and irritated. There are a few exceptions, parodies like South Park and Avenue Q are funny but I think the only reason I don’t mind them is that they poke fun at the traditional musicals.
Yes! Musicals are horrible… so glad you can identify. Thanks for sharing!
“A Christmas Story Live” brought me here.There is a special level of Hell just for those who take essentially perfect source material and decide that its just not f@#$ed up enough. I truly cant fathom the mindset that thinks if only “songs” and fabulous dance numbers were interjected, the story would FINALLY be right… And God Himself couldn’t make me comprehend how this “genre” relates to a former Treasury Secretary most famous for being killed in a duel..
A friend asked me to listen to Hamilton. I told them I don’t like musicals. They said to try it anyways. I remarked that even as a wee child, I would leave the room or fast-forward through the musical parts of shows and cartoons. They just drove me crazy and I don’t know why; it was a weird fluff in the movie or show. So I listened to three honest minutes of Hamilton until the agitation birthed and grew throughout my body. I think I know why, because if Hamilton was a rap song, it’d be awful. It is such bad rap music. The story is compromised and the music is compromised so that they can coexist together. Just give me a good rap song and you can keep your Hamilton. Hamilton is so bad! It’s like people who don’t know anything about rap music decided to make a rap. It’s so bad… And so is every musical I’ve ever heard. It’s as if liking or disliking musicals isn’t up to me. My brain instantly rejects… even as a wee child.
Oh my goodness Chris – thanks for sharing that. Yes, part of the horror of musicals is the horrible music/singing that accompanies them!
I was so glad to see this commentary. I thought I was the only person who hates Broadway musicals. My wife buys season tickets and we go with another couple. But in the theater, I sit in the handicapped area (if space is available) for two reasons: 1) more leg room, and 2) I can walk out to the lobby anytime, unnoticed, and roam around the halls, killing time until the awful show that I often cannot understand is over.
Oh John, your comment had me laughing. In all honesty, I would decline all tickets and tell my spouse to take a friend! Thanks for sharing!
I just googled this subject to see if others hated musicals too, or if it was just me. I love art, music and classical movies but could never understand musicals. The only thing I could ever stomach was Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, I love their dancing. Anything else makes me cringe…like someone else put it, it’s downright embarrassing and so annoying, I will never waste a second of my life going to see a musical.
I hate musicals!!! Why anyone would want to sit and watch a show where the randomly break out in song drive me bonkers. It is so annoying that they people are singing a conversation, no, no, no, please no.
I love it when I find fellow musical “haters”. LOL
Thanks for sharing Holly!
There is an astonishing scene in A Hard Day’s Night (a Beatles movie) where John Lennon starts singing to Ringo Starr? (The song If I Fell?)
The first verse of that;
If I fell in love with you
Would you promise to be true?
And help me understand?
Cos I’ve been in love before
And I found that love was more
Than just holding hands
Yes, a movie director/script writer really had the idea of John Lennon singing that to Ringo Starr – and they agreed to do it.
John Lennon later said he hated musicals – and that was probably the reason!
It sounds like you don’t have much experience with musicals. Not many people enjoy musical sequences in animated movies, and the Buffy the Vampire slayer musical episode was a cringe-fest. However, not listening to Fiddler on the Roof, which is definitely a great musical, and hating it despite that is ridiculous. If you don’t see broadway musicals in New York, how do you know you’re not going to like them? You can’t hate something you haven’t seen. Listen/research a couple stage musicals that are well known and great, like Fiddler, and then see if you still hate musicals as much.
No.
I’ve never watched a rodeo contest, or a WWE wrestling match before either, but I don’t need to in order to know I wouldn’t like it.
“Oh but this one is the big league professional championship, these guys are famous!”
Don’t care. Not interested!!
Is it necessary to see every single horror movie ever made in order to say you don’t like horror movies? Most people, having seen one or two, would recognize whether or not they like them enough to see more. Only an inconsiderate jerk would suggest they have no right to say they don’t like them until they see all the famous ones.
And that’s a fair comparison. Musicals give some of us very real feelings of deep discomfort. Why would we watch more? It isn’t even about a certain type of musical if the very act of them breaking into song makes you cringe. And Fiddler on the Roof is a classic example of a cringy musical. It’s so freaking camp! My Fair Lady is another. A good story gutted for terrible songs.
And I have seen a lot of musicals. My dad loved them. Most suck hard. But suggesting that someone doesn’t love musicals because they haven’t seen that many is logic worthy of Spongebob Squarepants. It’s also pretty condescending.
I’m with you, I 100% canNOT take musicals! I find them annoying and distracting from the plot. I am definitely in the minority among my family members (at least the females). I guess I’m just too jaded or something! LOL
I just came here from watching The Muppets Take Manhattan. All of those songs were so cringe-worthy and awful. I was wondering why I liked the Muppet Babies when I was 6-8 but not the Muppets and it’s because ALL the Muppet movies were bloody musicals. There was always one stupid song in each Muppet Babies episode but it lasted less than 2 minutes and everyone sang together like a “band” rather than some cringey introspective solos. I would always get antsy and annoyed as a kid when the characters on a show would break into some boring/ embarrassing
song. I want to scream at the TV “Get on with the story!”. I didn’t mind the Wizard of Oz because it was 90% story and 10% songs that didn’t last very long or segue into another song (that’s the Devil’s work). I noticed Popeye starring the late Robin Williams was on Netflix last year and thought it would be a fun watch but turned it off the moment the whole town started singing. I rented Sweeney Todd because I like Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter but the singing made everything so icky. And why do the songs always suck? They’re so contrived and cheesy. If you want to torture and easily get information from me, tie me to a chair and make me watch Les Miserables or literally any musical.
We can be best friends. Love this! I hate them too.
Finally, I’m not alone! Musicals are LAME! I find them incredibly cringy. I feel embarrassed for the people doing them. Whenever one of my favorite TV shows has a musical episode I almost always skip it. It seems like musical people exist on almost every cast and force at least one musical episode to happen. It drives me crazy!
Ma’am, you’re not alone. I’d like for Andrew Lloyd Weber to eat a bag of $#!+.
And I think I’d rather get beaten up by angry in-sync moms than sit through one minute of Mama Mia.
Feeling comfort in knowing I’m not alone in this. PriorI’ve finally realized admitted it to my husband
Late to the party, but feeling relieved. Prior to reading this thread, I couldn’t name what disturbed me so much about musicals! I’m grateful to have a real explanation when friends and family ask why I’m not down for a show.
For the same reasons you don’t like musical theater, I too find it annoying, especially when the actors break into song at the oddest moments . Seriously, who walks down the street and suddenly starts dancing and singing about the rain, or how they’re in love, or whatever. People just don’t do that and it seems stupid when they do in musical theater. Actually, the accomplished dancer/choreographer/director Bob Fosse felt the same way. He thought it was silly when seemingly out of the blue, and actor began dancing down the street or wherever; he thought it ruined the entire flow of the play. Yes, there was dancing and singing in the movies he directed (like Cabaret, for instance), but the inclusion of each song and dance made sense. The actors didn’t just break into song at the drop of a hat. All in all, though, I can do without musical theater overall. I actually used to kind of like it when I was much younger but as I’ve aged, I just find it silly and annoying to watch.
I was a musical theatre performer for thirty years, and I hated watching them.
I didn’t do them because I liked them, I didn’t do them because I loved the applause and accolades.
I did them because at an early age I was discovered by my third grade teacher. He noticed I could sing and put me in the school musical. I had a lot of fun but I soon realised I did not enjoy watching them. I was encouraged by my parents to continue in this gennre of entertainment and was constantly told how talented I was. So the real reason I did them was because it seemed to be the only thing I excelled at.
However, if you dislike musicals, I can guarantee you would hate the people who actually want to be in them. Some of the most depraved, nasty, cruel, desperate, vile, incestuous, evil beings that dare to call themselves human.
These people are the reason I finally retired from the scene.
They would murder their own children to get the part they want. And I have found this in every aspect of entertainment that I have been involved in.
If you want your children to grow up to be decent human beings, DO NOT let them do anything that has to do with the entertainment industry.
I absolutely loathe musicals. Mainly because they don’t sound especially musical. The songs feel cobbled together as if they are being written on the spot. I find musicals nauseating. I feel sick when I hear ‘music’ from them. Plus the ridiculous overacting within them. Dreadful. So bad that I would willingly rather listen to Jazz, the really hardcore John Coltrane stuff, as an example over listening to them.
Yay — another person who hates musicals like me! LOL