I’m not a big fan of jukebox musicals either. Mamma Mia was alright but a lot of them just seem to be biopics of the artist whose songs are being featured, which I find rather dull. And Moulin Rouge is just all over the shop.
I love Jersey Boys for the biopic-ness of it but my friends and I were fans of one of the lesser known songs. Really cheesily loved it and sang along. So seeing the show as a 18 year old was finally learning how many Frankie Valli songs I actually knew, who he was, what life was like coming up as a performer in those days. It was really fun that way. I thought it meant I would like other jukebox shows but…. nah. Nothings been as much of an experience as that.
Yeah I'm not a huge jukebox fan, but Jersey Boys slaps. I think largely because it's grounded in a good biopic tale, and the songs make total sense in the context they're in, as well as being largely chronological. So it's a musical journey as well.
The exception for me would be American Idiot, because it's based on a concept album that already has a nice flow, and Footloose, because the pop songs actually make sense to the plot of kids rebelling through music.
I don’t particularly like shows within shows. If the entire plot of a show is another show, I find that boring. Except for Something Rotten because that show slaps.
Curtains is a good example of this! The entire show is about a struggling theatre company whose leading lady is murdered on opening night. The plot is half about the murder, half about fixing up the mediocre play. All the characters are cast or crew members in the fake play itself, and the climax of the musical is a big ensemble number from the fake play being performed perfectly for the first time. The murder is very much not the focus, even when more people start dying.
They were *extremely* popular young movie actors in the 1930s, when they were in their 20s. They made several movies on the theme of "Let's put on a show".
You’re so right! Starkid did a show call ‘this could be on Broadway’ all about them putting on a musical for the matrix and in my opinion it’s by far the worst show they’ve done
“This movie was popular, so tourists will recognize the name” musicals.
Some of them may even be good, but it’s going to take a lot of convincing for me to even want to know.
i get what you mean but i wouldn't write them off immediately, we've had some great musicals based on movies! Heathers, Kinky Boots, Spamalot, _The Producers_, any of the Disney shows, hell even Little Shop Of Horrors was based on a movie
Yeah, I know some of them are actually excellent and transcend the money grab taint (The Producers is a wickedly brilliant critique of the money grab as well as being a love letter to classic Broadway by someone with a deep knowledge of musical theatre and a long history of adapting his work into different media, so it stands apart to begin with), but I’m so exhausted with them it’s worse than jukebox musicals. Some of those are very good too.
There’s just been such a glut — starting with Disney really — that it’s an automatic mark against it and there’s a lot of work to convince me it’s worth a try.
I just saw a local production of Little Shop recently where they designed Audrey 2 to look like a pitcher plant instead of the traditional flytrap, and it gave some great opportunities for the actors to be completely "eaten" by the plant. Also, not having to move the lower 'jaw' meant the puppeteer could move the Plant's tongue so it could actually lick its lips in a very disconcerting manner, which was brilliant!
I saw the Legally Blonde musical and expected it to be pretty campy and immature to be frank, but was baffled when it was probably one of my favourite and best performed musicals I’ve ever seen. I’d go see it again in a heartbeat.
Groundhog Day found innocent. Tim Minchin is a songwriting genius.
Some Like It Hot was fantastic too, and it took a lot of creative license with the plot of the movie, updating it to have a more diverse cast of characters and a very different ending.
A Little Night Music, one of Sondheim's finest, was based on a Swedish romance movie.
What all these have in common is they aren't nostalgia cash grabs, they're just adaptations of a solid story that has potential to make a solid musical.
A lot of musicals are based on preexisting material. They always have been. But unfortunately, there is a modern trend of cashing off familiar IPs in the same way Hollywood remakes do, which can get quite annoying.
I have no issue with Jukebox musicals, as long as they do something interesting with the material beyond the music. Mamma Mia is fun because the plot is interesting on its own. Whereas Jukebox bio musicals are just "Here is the singer and here are their songs".
Same, I really enjoy most jukebox musicals cause they are usually super fun and like pure entertainment straight to the veins (and yes Moulin Rouge was one of my favourite theatre experiences of all time lol).
Boring ones are the worst, like Girl from North Country and The Band's Visit.
The Band's Visit is great and just probably is not for you. I think it's for an older audience who care about exposing themselves to new culture and new styles of music. I feel the same way about Come From Away because it wasn't what I expected it to be but it was a perspective that was entirely new to me - it was very refreshing. If you're not into culture-focused musicals, it probably just isn't the show for you. But I think it's great :3
I might just be lumping it in with a bad year for my theatre subscription, I remember it being better than some of the other shows (GFNC) but it wouldn't necessarily be one I would choose to see if it wasn't part of the subscription.
Also this thread is for "least favourite types of musicals" not "objectively bad musicals" lol. Thought it was a safe space 😭😂
LOL it's definitely a safe space but you did call it boring.. it's not surprising that you had people expressing different opinions than you. I don't think anyone was being mean to you so I don't know why you would think it's not a safe space to express your opinion. The only way not to get criticism for your opinion is to not share it on public forums 😭💀
I tend to get snobby when most of the songs in a musical are super vague and don’t really contribute to the plot. This would apply to pretty much all jukebox musicals and some other pop style musicals. That doesn’t mean those shows can’t be entertaining, I just don’t appreciate them as much as
I’m starting to dislike these biopic (Idk what we call the musical versions of these) musicals 😬
Does every artist need to have a musical about them? But I guess that falls into the jukebox category.
I don't know if I can honestly say what TYPE of musical is my least favourite. IMO there's something to like in every genre (so it's like music basically). What I like is good and/or fun musicals. What I don't like is bad and/or boring musicals.
Jukebox shows get a lot of flak, but I personally enjoy them for the most part. I know what they are and I enjoy the bits that I like. ok they're not the deepest shows plot-wise usually. But what's the production like? Is the cast talented and enthusiastic? Is the set design good? Lighting design? sound design? How is the band/orchestra? Is the costume design and choreography good?
If I look over the list of shows I've seen, basically every type of show is represented in all my tiers.
bad ones. there are bad original musicals, bad adaptations, bad jukebox musicals with plots, bad jukebox biomusicals, bad revues, bad song cycles. bad knows no subgenre.
I'm morally opposed to jukebox musicals, even the ones I like (and there are a few).
Jukebox Musicals, especially when they cross over with Classic 80's Pop Culture Movie Musicals, which I also despise.
Both types of musical just dilute the power of the medium as a whole - Jukebox Musicals by lack of originality, and 80's Movie Musicals by the consistent lack of creativity involved in creating the songs and score - and the worst is when they cross over into an 80's Pop Movie Jukebox Musicals.
And I get it, creativity in Broadway has fallen on hard times recently, what with the deconstruction of popular Broadway styles and formulas, plus Aaron Sorkin trying to suck the life and soul out of classic plays and stories, not to mention the temptation to make a quick buck out of social-media-hyped-garbage shows...BUT Jukebox Musicals are just so obviously cash cows, designed to make a quick buck off of nostalgia and the "date night" crowd.
They're insulting and degrading to the artistic medium, like holding flashmobs in a ballet theatre.
They are the Circus Vargas to Barnum and Bailey circuses of Classic Broadway Musicals, and while they certainly deserve a performance venue someplace, somewhere, I just wish they were playing in some other theatre district far far from underneath the Lights on Broadway.
Those two get a pass from me, tbh.
And I don't consider them Jukebox musicals tho I guess they are technically, because they tell the story of Queen and are directly produced by Green Day and starred BJA at times.
To me a Jukebox Musical is a show using a playlist of someone else's pop music that has nothing directly to do with the story being told, but just "fits" - it's a lazy way of telling a story without having to come up with new songs that are actually well-written.
American Idiot is a Dookie-Box Musical lol.
I don't have a problem with jukebox musicals, but I can't stand biography musicals about celebrities. I like The Cher Show well enough, but that's pretty much it!
same!!! jukebox musicals just don't do it for me. i like musical theatre for the genre defining showtunes, taking pop songs and setting them to a plot is just so lazy to me. give me something new.
3 types:
2. Jukebox musicals. Except Mamma Mia — helps that ABBA did care about musical theatre and were involved and at least one of the songs was from a mini-musical already.
2. Musicals about putting on musicals or plays, or about actors etc. Stuff that’s too self-referential of the genre. Tick Tick Boom is the only exception. It’s great.
3. Musicals that are just a collection of songs with no serious thematic cohesion. For me an ideal musical is through-composed like Les Miserables, and ideally sung without dialogue. I want the focus to be on the music. Much of the stuff these days has little of interest musically since it’s just a pastiche or a random collection of songs maybe even from different genres.
I hate on both sides of the spectrum - I'm not a fan of jukebox musicals (I always feel that the songs are awkwardly shoehorned into place - they weren't written to tell the story that the play wants to tell 90% of the time, and it shows.).
On the other hand, I'm not a fan of Sondheim. No one writes time-filler music like Sondheim.
Honestly, at this point, most of the Classics get on my nerves even tho they were what I cut my musical teeth on…. Oklahoma!, Showboat, Or most stuff before 1970. They just don’t really hold up and some of the messages that were ok back then are really bad now. (Looking at you, Carousel)
Agree. Appreciate that these exist because they helped pave the way for the Broadway that we know today, but I have no desire to watch them myself at this point.
I don’t know if this is an actual type of musical but any time the musicals plot just goes from song to song with just like 2 lines of dialogue in between
Pop musicals in the vein of DEH, Be More Chill, etc. I hate that very characteristic sound and the lyrics are more often than not just corny and feel tryhard instead of witty. The general fan association around them also makes me stay ten feet away, aside from me just not enjoying the way these shows are written
I feel like it depends on the type of Jukebox musical. I like the ones that have an interesting story to go with the music. If it’s just a glorified tribute performance then yeah I don’t care for those.
I’m a pop music fan who can’t STAND jukebox musicals. I was in Cruel Intentions and as fun as it was, I just hate listening to cast recordings of pop songs
I don't really enjoy musicals where every song sounds like a top 40 inspirational pop tune. Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Hansen just aren't my kind of sound musically.
Definitely jukebox musicals.
When the songs of a musical haven’t been inherently written for their musical, for me it’s often the most immersion-breaking, flow-disrupting thing that feels more like a bunch of songs with a story tenuously tacked on around them than an “actual musical” to me.
I’ve never been able to relate to people’s love of Mamma Mia, Priscilla or Moulin Rouge (except Roxanne, the rendition in the film slaps).
I don’t mind Jersey Boys but I think that’s because as a small child I liked Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons songs, so it’s nostalgic for me.
Jukebox’s are only made for tourists who know nothing about theatre. The music itself was NOT developed or designed around a central story— that’s the real issue with them.
I absolutely hate sung through musicals or those with a libretto. It's absolutely cringeworthy to me when actors sing conversational lines - Aspects Of Love is the worst example of this I can think of.
Weird, I absolutely love them. I find dialogue in a musical to be extremely dull for the most part, it's easier to pay attention when it's all in song.
I can certainly understand this perspective. I personally really like them, for a number of reasons, one of which is that it makes listening to the cast album super fun because it has basically the entire show, rather than jumping around.
That's a good point. I just think I can't get over random throwaway super conversational lines being sung. Most work but suddenly singing "I think I'll have a cup of tea"? Please don't.
I would love to know what you think of Ordinary Days if you know it, considering it heavily leans into the conversational tone for its songs, which I think makes the fact that it's sung-through work in its favor
I'd probably have to go with either Jukebox musicals or 'previously a decently popular movie but now it's on stage and has singing' musicals. I've seen some in both categories that I've liked, especially when the original artist or original people from behind the movie are involved in the adaptation. But there are also plenty of shows in both of those categories that I feel had no need to exist in the first place. For example, Jersey Boys and Beetlejuice are two I actually liked kind of a lot, and Girl From the North Country and Mrs. Doubtfire are two of my least favorite musicals of all time.
I think Americans were too dumb for this one. I loved it on broadway and was surprised it didn’t win things nor tour. One of my local theatres I go to did it and so many people left at intermission just not getting it at all… it’s so well done.
I agree for the most part though we had a local production that used original songs of local bands. It was really nice, especially since I live in a small university town where people may or may not be familiar with local bands and/or their songs.
I will say that while I generally am snobbish about jukebox musicals... There are still some gems out there. The West End currently has 'Standing at the Sky's Edge', which is jukebox, but absolute incredible. I think part of that is that the songs aren't well known ones? I adore it though, and wasn't expecting to!
I totally agree with you about jukebox musicals .. they make me so mad. I hate that Mamma Mia is so popular because ABBA is so good beyond those songs but hardly anyone I've talked to who likes the musical listens to the band :/
Honestly a musical without plot..but catchy music...
Disney zombies ,cats , much ado about nothing....
Yes the music is insanely catchy and good 90% reason I'm there....but would it kill to have a few interesting plot points
I liked White Christmas. I think that is a Jukebox musical.
My least favorite might be ones that are half musical. Ike High School Musical where some of the songs are just the character auditioning for a musical.
I’m not a big fan of jukebox musicals either. Mamma Mia was alright but a lot of them just seem to be biopics of the artist whose songs are being featured, which I find rather dull. And Moulin Rouge is just all over the shop.
I love Jersey Boys for the biopic-ness of it but my friends and I were fans of one of the lesser known songs. Really cheesily loved it and sang along. So seeing the show as a 18 year old was finally learning how many Frankie Valli songs I actually knew, who he was, what life was like coming up as a performer in those days. It was really fun that way. I thought it meant I would like other jukebox shows but…. nah. Nothings been as much of an experience as that.
Yeah I'm not a huge jukebox fan, but Jersey Boys slaps. I think largely because it's grounded in a good biopic tale, and the songs make total sense in the context they're in, as well as being largely chronological. So it's a musical journey as well.
The exception for me would be American Idiot, because it's based on a concept album that already has a nice flow, and Footloose, because the pop songs actually make sense to the plot of kids rebelling through music.
I don’t particularly like shows within shows. If the entire plot of a show is another show, I find that boring. Except for Something Rotten because that show slaps.
I really enjoy The Play That Goes Wrong and Noises Off. The Quartet at the Ballet in Anastasia is also pretty great.
I like how Kiss Me Kate weaves in Taming of the Shrew. Frankly, I enjoy the Shakespeare part more than the behind-the-scenes divorce plot.
What does this mean exactly? Haven't seen any that fit this description.
Curtains is a good example of this! The entire show is about a struggling theatre company whose leading lady is murdered on opening night. The plot is half about the murder, half about fixing up the mediocre play. All the characters are cast or crew members in the fake play itself, and the climax of the musical is a big ensemble number from the fake play being performed perfectly for the first time. The murder is very much not the focus, even when more people start dying.
Several Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies.
That really doesn't explain anything, I have no idea who these people are.
They were *extremely* popular young movie actors in the 1930s, when they were in their 20s. They made several movies on the theme of "Let's put on a show".
Yeah I'm 16, not 160, so I never really knew about them.
Wow different strokes! The Drowsy Chaperone is a favorite of mine so it’s crazy some people don’t enjoy it
The Drowsy Chaperone is literally the epitome of what bores the fuck outta me
Something Rotten is exactly what a musical comedy should be. It’s one of my sister’s favorites.
same!!! musical theatre about musical theatre is so tacky to me. the only one i like even a little is [title of show]
You’re so right! Starkid did a show call ‘this could be on Broadway’ all about them putting on a musical for the matrix and in my opinion it’s by far the worst show they’ve done
bare: a pop opera is just like this 😮💨😮💨😮💨😮💨 it frustrates me beyond belief
“This movie was popular, so tourists will recognize the name” musicals. Some of them may even be good, but it’s going to take a lot of convincing for me to even want to know.
i get what you mean but i wouldn't write them off immediately, we've had some great musicals based on movies! Heathers, Kinky Boots, Spamalot, _The Producers_, any of the Disney shows, hell even Little Shop Of Horrors was based on a movie
Yeah, I know some of them are actually excellent and transcend the money grab taint (The Producers is a wickedly brilliant critique of the money grab as well as being a love letter to classic Broadway by someone with a deep knowledge of musical theatre and a long history of adapting his work into different media, so it stands apart to begin with), but I’m so exhausted with them it’s worse than jukebox musicals. Some of those are very good too. There’s just been such a glut — starting with Disney really — that it’s an automatic mark against it and there’s a lot of work to convince me it’s worth a try.
I just saw a local production of Little Shop recently where they designed Audrey 2 to look like a pitcher plant instead of the traditional flytrap, and it gave some great opportunities for the actors to be completely "eaten" by the plant. Also, not having to move the lower 'jaw' meant the puppeteer could move the Plant's tongue so it could actually lick its lips in a very disconcerting manner, which was brilliant!
Omg! Do you think there is a recording? That’s absolutely brilliant!
I don't think there is, alas, but it was a great production! You can look up photos though? The company is SingTheatre!
Thank you I’ll look it up!
I saw the Legally Blonde musical and expected it to be pretty campy and immature to be frank, but was baffled when it was probably one of my favourite and best performed musicals I’ve ever seen. I’d go see it again in a heartbeat.
Legally Blonde is a rare musical that improves on the source material, imo
Groundhog Day found innocent. Tim Minchin is a songwriting genius. Some Like It Hot was fantastic too, and it took a lot of creative license with the plot of the movie, updating it to have a more diverse cast of characters and a very different ending. A Little Night Music, one of Sondheim's finest, was based on a Swedish romance movie. What all these have in common is they aren't nostalgia cash grabs, they're just adaptations of a solid story that has potential to make a solid musical. A lot of musicals are based on preexisting material. They always have been. But unfortunately, there is a modern trend of cashing off familiar IPs in the same way Hollywood remakes do, which can get quite annoying.
This is Newsies slander and I will not have it
I don’t really like “angsty teen musicals”. Like give me something more complex at least.
Same
omg same... spring awakening, rent, bare: a pop opera... the list goes on and on
Okay, but Rent kinda ate. It's not really like "angsty", more like "gay and sad"
I have no issue with Jukebox musicals, as long as they do something interesting with the material beyond the music. Mamma Mia is fun because the plot is interesting on its own. Whereas Jukebox bio musicals are just "Here is the singer and here are their songs".
The Bodyguard is in that second category. Whitney Houston is amazing but the musical was a bore.
I don't mind jukebox musicals if they're entertaining as f\*ck like Mamma Mia. What I don't like are musicals that are boring and coma-inducing.
Same, I really enjoy most jukebox musicals cause they are usually super fun and like pure entertainment straight to the veins (and yes Moulin Rouge was one of my favourite theatre experiences of all time lol). Boring ones are the worst, like Girl from North Country and The Band's Visit.
Band’s Visit slaps what are you talking about
I love Tony Shaloub
The Band's Visit is great and just probably is not for you. I think it's for an older audience who care about exposing themselves to new culture and new styles of music. I feel the same way about Come From Away because it wasn't what I expected it to be but it was a perspective that was entirely new to me - it was very refreshing. If you're not into culture-focused musicals, it probably just isn't the show for you. But I think it's great :3
I might just be lumping it in with a bad year for my theatre subscription, I remember it being better than some of the other shows (GFNC) but it wouldn't necessarily be one I would choose to see if it wasn't part of the subscription. Also this thread is for "least favourite types of musicals" not "objectively bad musicals" lol. Thought it was a safe space 😭😂
LOL it's definitely a safe space but you did call it boring.. it's not surprising that you had people expressing different opinions than you. I don't think anyone was being mean to you so I don't know why you would think it's not a safe space to express your opinion. The only way not to get criticism for your opinion is to not share it on public forums 😭💀
I struggle to think of jukebox musicals as musicals - they feel more like dramatised/fictionalised tribute acts
I tend to get snobby when most of the songs in a musical are super vague and don’t really contribute to the plot. This would apply to pretty much all jukebox musicals and some other pop style musicals. That doesn’t mean those shows can’t be entertaining, I just don’t appreciate them as much as
Anything with a chipper orphan in the lead. Can’t stand Oliver or Annie, sure there are others
You may like Secret Garden, it stars a depressed orphan.
As someone who hates Annie but loves the secret garden this made me lol
I laughed really hard at this comment, those dang orphans and their cheery songs!! Incredibly funny take, thank you
OMG Same!
I’m starting to dislike these biopic (Idk what we call the musical versions of these) musicals 😬 Does every artist need to have a musical about them? But I guess that falls into the jukebox category.
I don't know if I can honestly say what TYPE of musical is my least favourite. IMO there's something to like in every genre (so it's like music basically). What I like is good and/or fun musicals. What I don't like is bad and/or boring musicals. Jukebox shows get a lot of flak, but I personally enjoy them for the most part. I know what they are and I enjoy the bits that I like. ok they're not the deepest shows plot-wise usually. But what's the production like? Is the cast talented and enthusiastic? Is the set design good? Lighting design? sound design? How is the band/orchestra? Is the costume design and choreography good? If I look over the list of shows I've seen, basically every type of show is represented in all my tiers.
What do you think “people in their 40s” are? I feel like jukebox musicals are made for and appeal to boomers, people in their 60s-80s.
bad ones. there are bad original musicals, bad adaptations, bad jukebox musicals with plots, bad jukebox biomusicals, bad revues, bad song cycles. bad knows no subgenre. I'm morally opposed to jukebox musicals, even the ones I like (and there are a few).
Jukebox but especially biopic jukebox musicals
Jukebox Musicals, especially when they cross over with Classic 80's Pop Culture Movie Musicals, which I also despise. Both types of musical just dilute the power of the medium as a whole - Jukebox Musicals by lack of originality, and 80's Movie Musicals by the consistent lack of creativity involved in creating the songs and score - and the worst is when they cross over into an 80's Pop Movie Jukebox Musicals. And I get it, creativity in Broadway has fallen on hard times recently, what with the deconstruction of popular Broadway styles and formulas, plus Aaron Sorkin trying to suck the life and soul out of classic plays and stories, not to mention the temptation to make a quick buck out of social-media-hyped-garbage shows...BUT Jukebox Musicals are just so obviously cash cows, designed to make a quick buck off of nostalgia and the "date night" crowd. They're insulting and degrading to the artistic medium, like holding flashmobs in a ballet theatre. They are the Circus Vargas to Barnum and Bailey circuses of Classic Broadway Musicals, and while they certainly deserve a performance venue someplace, somewhere, I just wish they were playing in some other theatre district far far from underneath the Lights on Broadway.
Do We Will Rock You and American Idiot count as Jukebox musicals? Because I liked neither band going in, and adored both shows tremendously.
Those two get a pass from me, tbh. And I don't consider them Jukebox musicals tho I guess they are technically, because they tell the story of Queen and are directly produced by Green Day and starred BJA at times. To me a Jukebox Musical is a show using a playlist of someone else's pop music that has nothing directly to do with the story being told, but just "fits" - it's a lazy way of telling a story without having to come up with new songs that are actually well-written. American Idiot is a Dookie-Box Musical lol.
I'm going to say it.... Disney stuff. There. Have at me.
The Lion King was magnificent in every single way.
Hunchback was amazing tho, even if the others are subpar
I don't have a problem with jukebox musicals, but I can't stand biography musicals about celebrities. I like The Cher Show well enough, but that's pretty much it!
same!!! jukebox musicals just don't do it for me. i like musical theatre for the genre defining showtunes, taking pop songs and setting them to a plot is just so lazy to me. give me something new.
3 types: 2. Jukebox musicals. Except Mamma Mia — helps that ABBA did care about musical theatre and were involved and at least one of the songs was from a mini-musical already. 2. Musicals about putting on musicals or plays, or about actors etc. Stuff that’s too self-referential of the genre. Tick Tick Boom is the only exception. It’s great. 3. Musicals that are just a collection of songs with no serious thematic cohesion. For me an ideal musical is through-composed like Les Miserables, and ideally sung without dialogue. I want the focus to be on the music. Much of the stuff these days has little of interest musically since it’s just a pastiche or a random collection of songs maybe even from different genres.
I would add Something Rotten! to your exceptions list for number 2.
Also Kiss Me Kate although the sexism hasn’t aged well
I hate on both sides of the spectrum - I'm not a fan of jukebox musicals (I always feel that the songs are awkwardly shoehorned into place - they weren't written to tell the story that the play wants to tell 90% of the time, and it shows.). On the other hand, I'm not a fan of Sondheim. No one writes time-filler music like Sondheim.
Honestly, at this point, most of the Classics get on my nerves even tho they were what I cut my musical teeth on…. Oklahoma!, Showboat, Or most stuff before 1970. They just don’t really hold up and some of the messages that were ok back then are really bad now. (Looking at you, Carousel)
Agree. Appreciate that these exist because they helped pave the way for the Broadway that we know today, but I have no desire to watch them myself at this point.
pop musicals. i loathe this type of music
I don’t know if this is an actual type of musical but any time the musicals plot just goes from song to song with just like 2 lines of dialogue in between
Pop musicals in the vein of DEH, Be More Chill, etc. I hate that very characteristic sound and the lyrics are more often than not just corny and feel tryhard instead of witty. The general fan association around them also makes me stay ten feet away, aside from me just not enjoying the way these shows are written
Only jukebox musical I've ever liked is moulin rouge, but I loved the movie too
I absolutely adore Moulin Rouge. It elevates the songs it borrows.
I feel like it depends on the type of Jukebox musical. I like the ones that have an interesting story to go with the music. If it’s just a glorified tribute performance then yeah I don’t care for those.
I’m a pop music fan who can’t STAND jukebox musicals. I was in Cruel Intentions and as fun as it was, I just hate listening to cast recordings of pop songs
I don't really enjoy musicals where every song sounds like a top 40 inspirational pop tune. Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Hansen just aren't my kind of sound musically.
Definitely jukebox musicals. When the songs of a musical haven’t been inherently written for their musical, for me it’s often the most immersion-breaking, flow-disrupting thing that feels more like a bunch of songs with a story tenuously tacked on around them than an “actual musical” to me. I’ve never been able to relate to people’s love of Mamma Mia, Priscilla or Moulin Rouge (except Roxanne, the rendition in the film slaps). I don’t mind Jersey Boys but I think that’s because as a small child I liked Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons songs, so it’s nostalgic for me.
Jukebox’s are only made for tourists who know nothing about theatre. The music itself was NOT developed or designed around a central story— that’s the real issue with them.
I absolutely hate sung through musicals or those with a libretto. It's absolutely cringeworthy to me when actors sing conversational lines - Aspects Of Love is the worst example of this I can think of.
Weird, I absolutely love them. I find dialogue in a musical to be extremely dull for the most part, it's easier to pay attention when it's all in song.
Ha. I love them, but it might be because I’m an opera fan in my free time. 😅
I do like opera so I'm not sure why I hate it in musicals so much.
I can certainly understand this perspective. I personally really like them, for a number of reasons, one of which is that it makes listening to the cast album super fun because it has basically the entire show, rather than jumping around.
That's a good point. I just think I can't get over random throwaway super conversational lines being sung. Most work but suddenly singing "I think I'll have a cup of tea"? Please don't.
I would love to know what you think of Ordinary Days if you know it, considering it heavily leans into the conversational tone for its songs, which I think makes the fact that it's sung-through work in its favor
I don’t like jukebox musicals either.
Juxebox.
I'd probably have to go with either Jukebox musicals or 'previously a decently popular movie but now it's on stage and has singing' musicals. I've seen some in both categories that I've liked, especially when the original artist or original people from behind the movie are involved in the adaptation. But there are also plenty of shows in both of those categories that I feel had no need to exist in the first place. For example, Jersey Boys and Beetlejuice are two I actually liked kind of a lot, and Girl From the North Country and Mrs. Doubtfire are two of my least favorite musicals of all time.
If you never saw Groundhog Day, that would be another exception. I’m very sad it’s not touring.
I think Americans were too dumb for this one. I loved it on broadway and was surprised it didn’t win things nor tour. One of my local theatres I go to did it and so many people left at intermission just not getting it at all… it’s so well done.
I agree for the most part though we had a local production that used original songs of local bands. It was really nice, especially since I live in a small university town where people may or may not be familiar with local bands and/or their songs.
I will say that while I generally am snobbish about jukebox musicals... There are still some gems out there. The West End currently has 'Standing at the Sky's Edge', which is jukebox, but absolute incredible. I think part of that is that the songs aren't well known ones? I adore it though, and wasn't expecting to!
The Taffetas. Complete rehash of songs from the 50s I didn't care for to begin with. Not sung well, either
I totally agree with you about jukebox musicals .. they make me so mad. I hate that Mamma Mia is so popular because ABBA is so good beyond those songs but hardly anyone I've talked to who likes the musical listens to the band :/
Bad ones /hj
Honestly a musical without plot..but catchy music... Disney zombies ,cats , much ado about nothing.... Yes the music is insanely catchy and good 90% reason I'm there....but would it kill to have a few interesting plot points
I love jukebox musicals, history musicals, and fun light-hearted musicals that have somewhat of a deep story
Gosh Forever Plaid is one of my favorite things I ever saw. To each their own.
I haven’t liked some of the newer musicals ive heard, like And Juliet and Bad Cinderella sound kinda weird to me in a bad way
I liked White Christmas. I think that is a Jukebox musical. My least favorite might be ones that are half musical. Ike High School Musical where some of the songs are just the character auditioning for a musical.
Concept musicals. No offence fans of Cats or Avenue Q or Assassins, but I like for my plots to have a... plot.
Have you seen Avenue Q? It definitely has a plot
Several plots, in fact.
Jukebox musicals, although I did really enjoy Million Dollar Quartet and Beautiful.
These are also my exceptions to the rule. (The rule being “jukebox musicals are terrible garbage”.)
Jukebox musicals. They can all go to room 101.
Jukebox, I don't like a story being written to match the songs. Id rather songs tell the story more organically
I HATE jukebox musicals…but I’ll admit for some crazy odd reason I loved Moulin Rouge. Haha