Modern Musicals.

Trainspotting … a Musical… ? Yikes… the first few scenes of vomit and drugs were enough for me in the film …the thought of it being a musical! I’d run a mile!

Musicals are so variable in quality, and often the motivation behind them, now, is ‘This will do for the coach parties’. I live in Devon, meaning that we seldom see good, straight plays, and of the musicals, some are the scaled down touring version (with the exception of Theatre Royal, Plymouth) or a hastily slapped together script pulling together a few well known songs. Saw a truly awful one called ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ linking Dusty Springfield songs - which made me feel truly sorry for the cast, who tried to rescue it but didn’t quite pull it off. Often, I feel insulted that production companies think this is ‘good enough’.

I love a musical although they re not all to my taste, last one I went to see was just on Friday in London’s West End, Kinky Boots with Johannes Radebe playing Lola, absolutely fantastic production and he was amazing and has such incredible stage presence, I came away feeling warm inside and was buzzing, would highly recommend it

Just started on BBC1, 7.45pm - 9.20pm Big Night of Musicals 2026 😀

Watching it. The children in the cast of Annie are fantastic.

Enjoying it very much and yes, the Annie children were fabulous!

I was at Back to the Future at the Adelphi last weekend and although it’s not exactly my type of music the design was stunning.
I just don’t think they write songs like they used to though- that said there were some pretty indifferent musicals in the past - but songs like One Enchanted Evening, The Street Where You Live, Oklahoma! and You’ll Never Walk Alone have become classics in their own right haven’t they?
Volume is another thing, with head mics it should be possible to vary pitch and volume but everything seems to be belted out full blast, often screechy and bouncing off the back of the theatre.

I agree, I far prefer the old musicals to the new ones, there's too much screaming and screeching, sometimes I can't even hear the lyrics.

That said, I really enjoyed tonight's show, it was very entertaining 😀.

hollysteers

Can’t stand most modern musicals or the whiny singing that goes on nowadays, it’s horrible.
Yes to Rogers & Hammerstein, Bernstein and similar, but if I want something that’s not going to make my ears bleed, my preference is Puccini.

It’s a pity Noel Coward and Ivor Novello are out of fashion and that’s how old fashioned I am, even though I like pop music!

I. could have written that myself! I’ve been performing in Gilbert and Sullivan operas since I was 13, and enjoyed a couple of more modern ones like Evita, but can’t see the appeal of the modern musical.

There’s no light and shade these days. Everything is belted out at full volume and sentiment is completely lost.

I doubt we’ll ever hear beautiful torch songs like, On The Steeet Where You Live, again.

I saw Kinky Boots off Broadway, New York. It was fantastic!,
Saw The Book of Mormon recently in Manchester, and it was enjoyable but I cannot remember any of the tunes.
Loved Mamma Mia and Les Miserables in London, many years ago. Wonderful!
Loved Miss Saigon in Manchester and so many others ( nearly everything ) at The Lowry but my favourite is The Follies!

Volume is another thing, with head mics it should be possible to vary pitch and volume but everything seems to be belted out full blast, often screechy and bouncing off the back of the theatre.

I do agree that in some productions the volume is ridiculous. Much as I enjoyed Chicago as a musical, there were times my ears hurt from the excessive volume. No wonder so many musicians suffer deafness in later life. My grandson, a professional drummer, wears earplugs to protect his hearing!

Here in Weston-super-Mare we are so fortunate that, IMO, we have the very best Amateur Drama and Operatic Society, whose twice years shows are definitely as good as any West End performances.

These are held at our Playhouse theatre, which is literally five minutes from the front door or my flats and the seat costs are a quarter of the prices of those in Bristol or London.

So, over the past couple of years they have performed 'Chess' which I had never seen previously, Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls,etc. and we have tickets for 42nd Street very soon

For me Les Mes, is the greatest musical of all time. First time I saw it in London, at the end I just wanted to stay in my seat and wait for it to start all over again. West Side Story comes next.

TheSunRisesInTheEast

Just started on BBC1, 7.45pm - 9.20pm Big Night of Musicals 2026 😀

I was surprised that huge arena was packed, how encouraging to see folk still wanting to see Musicals.
It's on Radio 2 today as well.

Yes, it seems that musicals will always have a big following from young children to older folk. Local dance and theatre schools are very popular and amateur dramatics groups and school performances are well attended.

I love live entertainment, it has the ability to take you away from reality into a kind of fantasy land for a while, very welcome at the moment with what is happening in the world.

I was brought up on all the old favourites- I now have all my mother’s LPs. But I love some of the modern ones ie Jersey Boys, Billy Elliot and Miss Saigon, but the standout for me is Hamilton - I’ve seen it twice in London. And LaLa Land - love that film.

BrandyGran

Joseph and his technicoloured Dream Coat- Jason Donavan . The best ever!!!

Best musical ever, I also took my children to see it when Jason Donovan played Joseph. I've just recently seen it at Hull New Theatre performed by an amature group and it was so good!

Has anyone seen Waitress? Contemplating booking for September…

I went to see Miss Saigon last Saturday. It is so emotional that I found myself welling up before it even started. It was my fifth time of seeing it, although other times were many years ago, and it was just as good. If you think five times is a lot, someone told me that a man in the audience had seen it 98 times! Apparently he follows it around the world!

Well the older classic musicals are great but I'm open to try something new.Recently I took the DGC to see Matilda and booked with them in mind ,not for me , but was blown away by how good it was.And we've just been to see Operation Mincemeat and my goodness a cast of 5 on stage all the time, a simple but so clever set .It was brilliant. DH would see Les Mis over and over and nothing else but agreed he was very glad I persuaded him to try something different.
Like music.He would play the same artists from the 70s and 80s but I love to find something more current as well as the oldies.