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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 13, 2023 17:45:48 GMT
In a recent discussion we touched on the theatregoing habits of members, and the split between people who see plays, musicals or both. So this is a fun poll to put some data behind that discussion and to see what that split really looks like.
Where are YOU on the Venn Diagram of TheatreBoard members? Plays, Musicals or Both?
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Post by adamkinsey on Jul 13, 2023 18:58:24 GMT
What about opera?
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19,780 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 13, 2023 20:09:10 GMT
Yep. Totally agree. We have an absence of members commenting on opera. ENO and ROH this season’s threads both with 10k views of the thread but only 60 comments. If the numbers were high enough no doubt they would be included. Are you an opera fan adamkinsey ? |
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Post by mkb on Jul 13, 2023 21:09:05 GMT
Isn't an opera just a musical where you can't make out the words? |
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Post by Dawnstar on Jul 13, 2023 21:13:21 GMT
I went for the equalish numbers of both option but the option I actually need would read "I see ballet, opera, musicals, plays (mostly Mischief) and a bit of improv".
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Post by Jon on Jul 14, 2023 0:06:25 GMT
It's really depends on the year, at the moment I've seen more plays but that could change.
I just love theatre in general, it always surprises me that some people look down on musicals.
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Post by maggiem on Jul 14, 2023 13:32:47 GMT
I used to see more plays than musicals, but when I started going back to the theatres after the Covid lockdowns, there were more musicals on than plays, so I've now seen Wicked, Six, Hairspray, Frozen, Back To The Future, Bedknobs & Broomsticks
and Matilda. I probably wouldn't have seen any of them otherwise, and I've enjoyed them all!
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Post by darreno on Jul 15, 2023 11:38:10 GMT
I used to be far more plays than musicals but over the last ten years or so, total turnaround.
Last year I did 90 x musicals and 9 x plays, so far this year it's following the same pattern.
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Post by keyspi on Jul 15, 2023 19:57:02 GMT
Personally I think there have been far more quality plays than musicals over the past year, so I've roughly got a 85%-15% split of plays to musicals I've seen
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Post by adamkinsey on Jul 15, 2023 20:54:30 GMT
Yep. Totally agree. We have an absence of members commenting on opera. ENO and ROH this season’s threads both with 10k views of the thread but only 60 comments. If the numbers were high enough no doubt they would be included. Are you an opera fan adamkinsey ? Love opera. Love plays. Love musicals. Looking at the last 12 months my viewing has been 40% plays, 35% musicals, 25% opera. |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 15, 2023 21:33:33 GMT
Yep. Totally agree. We have an absence of members commenting on opera. ENO and ROH this season’s threads both with 10k views of the thread but only 60 comments. If the numbers were high enough no doubt they would be included. Are you an opera fan adamkinsey ? Love opera. Love plays. Love musicals. Looking at the last 12 months my viewing has been 40% plays, 35% musicals, 25% opera. Get posting in that opera section then 🙂 |
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Post by solotheatregoer on Jul 16, 2023 9:36:06 GMT
Significantly more plays for me. I'm averaging about one musical per year. This year it will be Sunset Boulevard.
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Post by bee on Jul 17, 2023 16:45:37 GMT
Up until a couple of years ago it would have been 99% plays and the very occasional musical for me. Since then I have started dabbling a bit in opera, ballet and musicals, but I expect it'll still be about 90% plays for me.
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Post by andrew on Jul 17, 2023 17:10:52 GMT
In terms of what I love I'd pick musicals, but there are just so many more plays out there to go and see (with the poor state of British musicalmaking at the moment) so inadvertently I end up going to way more of those.
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Post by sukhavati on Jul 18, 2023 6:04:49 GMT
I'm more of an operetta person than straight opera, although I've seen The Magic Flute three times and Tales of Hoffman once. I made the mistake of sitting through a Ring cycle because I thought it would be "good for me," as far as my education, and that's 16 hours of my life, over a period of days, I'm not getting back. There were elements I found enjoyable, and I love Wagner's incidental music, but there weren't many characters I really found myself liking. I'd rather see a fun production of a Gilbert and Sullivan show that doesn't play it straight. Same with Strauss. I love ballet, the classics and experimental repertoire. But the last few years have not been fun so I'm longing for my familiar favourites in MT, and maybe something new that is lighthearted as well.
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Post by schuttep on Jul 18, 2023 12:56:49 GMT
I've always enjoyed both plays and musicals but I'd never thought what proportion of each I was seeing until this thread popped up.
So far this year I've seen 12 Plays and 7 musicals.
Before Covid I would go to the theatre around 80 times a year but, as you can see, this has very much reduced. This is more because - as I've been attending theatre performances since 1974 - I've already seen a lot of what's cropping up, admittedly in different productions, and I made a conscious decision to only see repeats I absolutely adore.
I've also been lucky to do lots of travel this year (I'll have been abroad 10 times before the end of the year) so my funds are currently being diverted to other hobbies.
Looking at what's coming up I can see that I'm still seeing too many repeats, with only 6 first timers booked so far, as in: The Third Man at the Menier, A Strange Loop, Sarah Kane's Crave, Carly Churchill's Owners, Twiggy at the Menier, and Feeling Afraid as if Something Terrible is Going to Happen at the Bush.
I don't know if it comes across here, but I do count myself very fortunate in what I've seen and done over the years.
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Post by hoopoe on Jul 19, 2023 9:12:39 GMT
For those with a preference for one or the other I'd be interested to hear more about why. My partner and I ended up discussing this at length last month after being disappointed by Ocean at the End of the Lane and reflecting on why we just seem to click more with musicals.
I think for me the strongest factor is around immersion and suspension of disbelief; the addition of breaking out into song makes a musical clearly not intended to be 'real life', so I can more easily believe in everything happening outside of the songs. With plays, I tend to feel very aware that I'm watching people act and feel more critical of things that don't really make sense, so I just can't get into them as much. I can totally see why breaking out into song would be something that ruins immersion for someone else though!
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Post by yokollama on Jul 20, 2023 11:42:33 GMT
About 50/50 pre-Covid. 2:1 in favour of plays so far this year, but I generally do not have a preference. I've drawn up a list of shows I want to see this year and I've just managed to find more good offers for plays compared to the musicals I'm interested in. Most musicals I have on my wishlist are touring productions or have a longer run so this also takes away the urgency to see them.
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Post by appoul on Jul 20, 2023 13:47:17 GMT
Significantly more musicals when visiting the UK. In my country, Greece, we get to see a huge number of plays, but what we really miss is musical theatre. So when I'm in London I see as many musicals as possible and see plays when I really don't want to miss a specific performance (more recently Maureen Lipman or Sheridan Smith). And if there is a slot in my schedule that I cannot fill with a musical, I'll definitely go and see a play (this is how I got to see 2:22 last month).
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Post by distantcousin on Jul 21, 2023 8:48:22 GMT
For me, pre-pandemic my answer would have ALWAYS been "significantly more musicals".
But, as discussed about in the previous musicals post, the musicals scene is so dire to me now that there is very little to go and see - not in terms of challenging, dramatic, original, non jukebox/film adaptation work, that plays are really where it's at for me these days.
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Post by FairyGodmother on Jul 23, 2023 9:06:49 GMT
I've actually been to more concerts than anything else this year. London is a faff as well as expensive so I haven't really looked at getting down, and the local am dram and tours haven't really done it for me so far.
I'll go to a mixture usually, but musicals and ballets do have an advantage that if I know the score I might be keen to book. Plays are more "sight unseen".
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