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Post by Phantom of London on Aug 3, 2016 20:12:09 GMT
eh, very much with Mallardo on this one, why pre judge something, some of the best things I have seen are when my expectations have been low.
However I can understand this, if getting to thye theatre is expensive i.e. travel fares and hotels or you're on a meagre low budget.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2016 20:42:19 GMT
eh, very much with Mallardo on this one, why pre judge something, some of the best things I have seen are when my expectations have been low. What's the point of having preferences if you're not going to use them to decide what to do? The logic you're trying to apply here is the sort used by the most numbingly boring and tedious of fans, who suffer from the delusion that the things they love are objectively the best of all possible things and so if you don't love them as well it must be because you haven't been subjected to the right persuasion and if they just try hard enough you'll see the light and become a fan too. But it doesn't work that way: often the very aspect of something the fan loves is the aspect that others view with ineffable loathing. For me an example would be a horror movie: it's no good trying to persuade me that any particular horror movie is worth a try because of its especially good characterisation or remarkable effects or intricate plot twists, because the thing that puts me off it isn't the possibility of poor characterisation or shoddy effects or simplistic storytelling. What puts me off is that it's a ****ing horror movie. There's nothing unknown about it I might like that counteracts the thing I do know about it that I hate. Usually, low expectations are low for a reason, and that reason has nothing to do with not knowing what to expect. |
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Post by theatrefan25 on Aug 3, 2016 21:13:27 GMT
Jersey Boys, Thriller, Once, not overly keen on seeing Phantom...
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Post by theatrefan25 on Aug 3, 2016 21:15:03 GMT
Book of Mormon - I don't see the appeal (and I hated South Park when it was on) Kinky Boots - again, doesn't appeal Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - also doesn't appeal Jersey Boys - family and friends put me off it after saying it was rubbish! Billy Elliot - I never got around to seeing it before it closed Stomp - self-explanatory Thriller - ditto Motown - ditto again I haven't yet seen The Bodyguard but do plan on getting around to it during its current run. Out of all of those I would recommend you try and catch Kinky Boots (maybe a £20 day seat if you don't think you'll be keen.) The idea of it didn't appeal to me but I ended up loving it and it's in my top 5 shows  Sorry for the double post. |
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Post by kathryn on Aug 3, 2016 22:18:20 GMT
The Lion King, because nearly every account of it seems to begin with "The first few minutes are good, but". I second this. |
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Post by mallardo on Aug 3, 2016 22:59:50 GMT
The Lion King, because nearly every account of it seems to begin with "The first few minutes are good, but". I second this. So you're accepting other opinions as correct and, presumably, will never know - or care - whether or not they sync up with yours. |
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Post by Phantom of London on Aug 3, 2016 23:00:30 GMT
eh, very much with Mallardo on this one, why pre judge something, some of the best things I have seen are when my expectations have been low. What's the point of having preferences if you're not going to use them to decide what to do? The logic you're trying to apply here is the sort used by the most numbingly boring and tedious of fans, who suffer from the delusion that the things they love are objectively the best of all possible things and so if you don't love them as well it must be because you haven't been subjected to the right persuasion and if they just try hard enough you'll see the light and become a fan too. But it doesn't work that way: often the very aspect of something the fan loves is the aspect that others view with ineffable loathing. For me an example would be a horror movie: it's no good trying to persuade me that any particular horror movie is worth a try because of its especially good characterisation or remarkable effects or intricate plot twists, because the thing that puts me off it isn't the possibility of poor characterisation or shoddy effects or simplistic storytelling. What puts me off is that it's a ****ing horror movie. There's nothing unknown about it I might like that counteracts the thing I do know about it that I hate. Usually, low expectations are low for a reason, and that reason has nothing to do with not knowing what to expect. But theatre is a particular hobby all about challenging your perceptions isn't it? Horror movies is about genre of film, it's like me saying you like musicals, so you must go and see a opera. |
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Post by kathryn on Aug 3, 2016 23:24:56 GMT
So you're accepting other opinions as correct and, presumably, will never know - or care - whether or not they sync up with yours. Yes. In a life where I have neither infinite time nor infinite money, it's the best method of triage I have. Naturally I have assessed the taste of the people who have said this and judged it to more or less align with mine. When people who I regularly disagree with hate something that won't stop me seeing it. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2016 23:45:53 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 4:47:56 GMT
So you're accepting other opinions as correct and, presumably, will never know - or care - whether or not they sync up with yours. You're conflating two different situations in an attempt to defend your point. If there are a wide variety of different views of something about which you have no personal knowledge then it would be silly to pick the most negative ones and assume they represent the one and only truth, but nobody here is claiming to do that. It's a different matter when nearly everyone is reporting the same thing, and especially so when it's an objective fact about a production. People can't see and do everything there is to be seen and done. Nobody here will believe for a moment that you don't combine your personal experience and preferences with what you know about a production when deciding what to see, so stop trying to claim that everyone else is being narrow-minded for using their own experience and preferences to choose how to spend their own time. |
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Post by viserys on Aug 4, 2016 5:06:49 GMT
Wow, I seem to have kicked off something last night! But Matthew makes my point very eloquently. (And incidentally you couldn't drag me into a horror movie either). Time and money are limited, for all of us. I am (as I have stated on this forum before) not a fan of jukebox musicals and I don't want to encourage them by giving them my business as I fear that every successful jukebox musical will encourage producers to bring on more of those and fewer new original musicals (admittedly, riskier to produce). Maybe Beautiful is better/more moving than Thriller Live, Motown or Jersey Boys, but I need to pick and chooese and then, indeed, everything with the jukebox tag loses out. I rather support fringe theatres with my business and new musicals or go and see plays. I'm sorry if that upsets some fans of Beautiful, but hey, I also have to live with the near universal dislike of Cats, one of my all-time favorite shows |
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Post by CBP1 on Aug 4, 2016 9:26:07 GMT
Let's also remember that the name of the thread is "popular things you haven't seen and PROBABLY won't". I personally am not saying I don't want to see any of those things on my list. I just want to see other shows more. Ideally I would see every musical and judge for myself. But that takes time and money. And as there is always something new to see, those shows inevitably end up getting pushed to the back of my list.
I have generally not enjoyed jukebox musicals, so they tend to get pushed. Beautiful is the exception. Although I still didn't think it lived up to the hype.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 10:07:43 GMT
So you're accepting other opinions as correct and, presumably, will never know - or care - whether or not they sync up with yours. Well put! And as it happens my opinion on the Lion King is exactly that BUT I was determind to see if for myself to find out! On the Jukebox front, I'm also in the 'not top of my list BUT...' type. Funds and time are limited and if the music of said jukebox musical isn't my thing (Michael Jackson for instance) I'm not likely to spend time and money because it's a strong possability it won't be my thing. So file Thriller in the 'probably will never see' category. However other Jukebox musicals I either don't know the music at all (Jersey Boys, Sunny Afternoon) and find I'm surprised or I do quite like the music (Abba) but have no strong desire to spend time/money on it (so probably won't see Mama Mia but if it was cheap and I had nothing better on, I would just to see!) |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 10:16:58 GMT
I do quite like the music (Abba) but have no strong desire to spend time/money on it (so probably won't see Mama Mia but if it was cheap and I had nothing better on, I would just to see!) Just to make you jealous, I queued for a couple of hours for a Mamma Mia! return and at the last moment a stylish European group organiser swept up and presented me with a prime front circle ticket for which she refused to accept any money! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 10:29:03 GMT
I go and see stuff all the time that I assume il dislike (Wicked I was correct, Stomp I wasn't) with the thought that if its run for ages then there must be a reason.
In saying that Shakespere is a sack of shi*e and really hope it comes out he was a nonce so he will just go away
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 10:57:45 GMT
I do quite like the music (Abba) but have no strong desire to spend time/money on it (so probably won't see Mama Mia but if it was cheap and I had nothing better on, I would just to see!) Just to make you jealous, I queued for a couple of hours for a Mamma Mia! return and at the last moment a stylish European group organiser swept up and presented me with a prime front circle ticket for which she refused to accept any money! haha amazing! that's the way to see Mama Mia! |
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Post by alece10 on Aug 4, 2016 13:00:56 GMT
Picky! And in capitals too. It's like being back at school and having your homework marked. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 13:08:55 GMT
Just to make you jealous, I queued for a couple of hours for a Mamma Mia! return and at the last moment a stylish European group organiser swept up and presented me with a prime front circle ticket for which she refused to accept any money! I'd suggest the best way to see 'Mamma Mia' is sat on Alexander Skarsgård's lap with Agnetha and Frida on one side and Benny and Björn on the other and enough champagne to drown a small principality but horses for courses I suppose . . . |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 14:11:10 GMT
As ever, Ryan has it.
ETA I was going to say 'nails it' but that's just encouraging him...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 16:09:05 GMT
I think I'm the only one who doesn't want to see Harry Potter! Never seen any films or read a book
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Post by theatreliker on Aug 4, 2016 16:32:53 GMT
Phantom. I wouldn't mind seeing it if we had tickets but it doesn't appeal.
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Post by Phantom of London on Aug 4, 2016 16:50:32 GMT
So you're accepting other opinions as correct and, presumably, will never know - or care - whether or not they sync up with yours. You're conflating two different situations in an attempt to defend your point. If there are a wide variety of different views of something about which you have no personal knowledge then it would be silly to pick the most negative ones and assume they represent the one and only truth, but nobody here is claiming to do that. It's a different matter when nearly everyone is reporting the same thing, and especially so when it's an objective fact about a production. People can't see and do everything there is to be seen and done. Nobody here will believe for a moment that you don't combine your personal experience and preferences with what you know about a production when deciding what to see, so stop trying to claim that everyone else is being narrow-minded for using their own experience and preferences to choose how to spend their own time. I never said anyone was narrow minded, did I? But I would say people should broaden their horizons. Seeing bad theatre intentionally or not makes you appreciate good and great theatre. A good case example was some posters including the O/P and board founder stuck their neck out and went to a fringe venue in Manchester to see Parade, definitely not a mainstream musical, if you read the synopsis or reviews, then this could persuade you not to go, if you listened to the terrible OBCR then you wouldn't have booked tickets. But because board members took a calculated gamble and went to see this, when pre research may have advised people not to see this, but they went and heard on this very message board superlatives such as 'one of the best musical I have seen' and 'moved to tears', so doing a bit of off-roading paid off and rewards you in a way that only theatre can. I would defintely not let a review/s decide what I should and should not see. |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Aug 4, 2016 17:06:08 GMT
Shhhh.... I still get emotional thinking about Parade  |
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Post by synchrony on Aug 4, 2016 17:15:17 GMT
Thriller (like most people seem to have on their lists!)
Jerry Springer: the Opera
Wonder.land
All the Fun of the Fair
Annie Warbucks
Grease 2
Oh! Calcutta!
Any more versions of Peter Pan (I've seen one, as well as the play and several pantomimes. I've concluded that I just don't like Peter Pan as a story).
But I try to be open minded; I surprisingly loved Avenue Q, despite hating Sesame Street, most puppet shows and crude humour. I only went because I was in London, it was cheap and there was nothing else I wanted to see. But I was really glad I did. I also LOVED Carrie, despite hating horror; I only went to see it because it's such a notorious flop. But I listen to the soundtrack all the time.
On the other hand, sometimes I pre-judge and my judgments are right ;-) I did see Beautiful, because my Mum wanted to go for her birthday. I thought it was a bit dull.
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Post by Phantom of London on Aug 4, 2016 18:38:49 GMT
I have to say all the plaudits and high praise bestowed on Jerry Springer: The Opera, I haven't seen it and don't fancy seeing it, but would see it, to see what all the fuss is about.
I haven't seen Motown yet, which I don't fancy and this isn't helped by the cost of tickets, will see this when they come cheaper.
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