Comments | chicafrom3: 022. "That'll Never Be Me", Now. Here. This.

chicafrom3

022. "That'll Never Be Me", Now. Here. This.

Dec 29, 2012 23:04

Confession: I continue to have zero interest in Les Miserables. Sorry. Sometimes this makes me feel like a bad theatre fan but then I realize that faking interest would make a worse theatre fan.

Have a 100 Things entry:

"That'll Never Be Me", as sung by Susan Blackwell (and narrated by Heidi Blickenstaff), from the 2012 Off-Broadway production of ( Read more... )

broadway baby, theatre, 100 things, music

Comments 6

musical_junkie December 30 2012, 21:55:32 UTC

I really need to investigate Now. Here. This.

I totally agree with you about Les Mis. I saw the movie because I had passes to an advanced screening, and my friends wanted to see it, and, apart from the fact that half of the songs have been stuck in my head for the past week, it didn't really affect me. I didn't cry or anything. I've never really cared for it or about it, but it seems to be the one musical that almost all musical theater fans can agree on. I understand that it's good objectively, but that doesn't mean it's my thing.

chicafrom3 December 31 2012, 04:48:57 UTC

You should! I enjoyed it; it varies between extremely funny and really heartbreaking.

I understand that it's good objectively, but that doesn't mean it's my thing.

Yes, this, exactly. It's a solid work of musical theater and I don't begrudge the fans their squee at all, I just ... don't share it.

musical_junkie December 31 2012, 05:16:37 UTC

I just wish more theater fans would be a little more forgiving of people who don't enjoy it. I can guarantee I know just as much, if not more, about musical theater than a lot of them, but if I don't know every word of Les Mis, I'm suddenly Not A Real Theater Fan. It's obnoxious.

chicafrom3 December 31 2012, 20:49:15 UTC

Yes! There are other shows that have had fans trying to push them as the One True Musical, but I don't think I've ever seen it to the extent of Les Mis. Phantom, maybe, but even there you had the vocal anti-Weber contingent to balance it out.

It's like. Yeah, okay, guys, I am familiar with Les Mis. I have given it a chance. I don't hate it. I just don't particularly enjoy it, either, and I'm not emotionally invested in it at all. Do I really need to pull out the bizarrely long list of shows I am emotionally invested in before you'll believe that I'm a Real Theater Fan?

nikojen January 11 2013, 02:15:43 UTC

Heh... I'm slow to see this, but I feel ya re: Les Miz.

It does make me feel a little guilty, because I once had *SUCH* massive love for it. I remember laying in bed listening to the OBC for the first time and just flat-out BAWLING. My love of it was what got me interested in the wider world of theater beyond random shows I'd crossed paths with (stuff like knowing the actors by name, educating myself on other shows they'd done, wanting to own multiple cast recordings...) and I've planned more than one trip to NYC or London for the express purpose of seeing one performer or other in the show.

But nowadays? I dunno... it just doesn't have that emotional resonance any more. The group numbers are still rather stirring for me, but the big solos just seem trite. I can't really summon much interest in the movie at all. Too much Sondheim in my diet or something.

chicafrom3 January 13 2013, 22:09:39 UTC

I'm late in responding, so we're even!

I've never had the Les Mis love, though I tried when I was a young dramaphile; I don't even know why, because it seems like the sort of thing that should have resonated with 13-year-old me, and it just never did.

It frustrates me the Les Mis is held up as the One True Musical that every musical theater fan loves. :/