Musicals Compared to Plays

[broadwaybound]

I have noticed that there are quite a few more posts on the musical forum than the play forum. Is this proof that people prefer musicals? I believe musicals do hold peoples' attention longer due to the music, but I can often times be even more enthralled with a performance of a mere straight play. I am a musical person, but i also love performing in plays. I am interested in hearing your thoughts about why people, if they do, prefer musicals.

[Glissando]

I think it's because people go to the theatre mostly to escape. It's pretty much a safer form of drugs. So when plays echo life too much (as they often do), it scares people away. Musicals are less life-like. Who (besides aboutface and I) randomly burst into song? And I'm not saying thay plays aren't comical sometimes, I'm just saying that they are more likely to be life-lier (I got tired of saying lifelike)than musicals.

[dramaqueen0627]

I personally enjoy both, but a musical seems more memorable. You can always say you enjoyed a person's singing or that guy did a real cool dance move. Plus a musical is like a play because you still have lines, except most of them are just sung or danced.
It is all based on a opinion

[SomedayBroadway]

I just think that the people who post on these forums are more interested in musical theatre because stage agent is a site that is good for finding the vocal range of musical parts, etc. I don't think its that people generally prefer musicals. Personally, I like both pretty much equally. Musicals are very frenzied at times and exciting, but that doesn't mean that plays aren't. Plays such as Anton Chekhovs The Seagull and Tennesee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire have moved me to tears. I saw a wonderfully put up production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus that was violent, exciting, comedic, and sad all at the same time. Noises Off! had me doubled over with laughter. The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh had me laughing just as much, but also shocked and scared me. I personally am more of a musical theatre actress, but that doesn't mean that plays are in any way an inferior art form. Sometimes musicals have singing that make up for bad acting, and with a play, there's no forgiveness with music. Plays can be just as enthralling and take just as much work to put together as a musical.

[matthewTN]

Among actors, I don't think there tends to be a strong preference either way, but audiences are going to come out more for a show they've heard of, and musicals tend to be more well-known.

Personally, if I'm going to community theater or school shows, I would rather go see a play, because a lot of musicals in amateur productions are cast largely on singing ability, and I've seen some shows where the leads were beautiful singers but couldn't act their way out of a paper bag. I would rather see good acting - even if the singing isn't anything special, as long as it's done in character, that's what I'm looking for.

[Dancergirl]

I prefer musicals to plays, but there are some plays that I really love. Has anyone ever heard of the show Sheer Madness? It is half scripted and half improv. It is really funny.

[normingtonk]

well, i kinda think that musicals are so amazing because alot of the emotions expressed in them are not only simplified, but amplified...they are in some respects unrealistic because the characters get to such a point in their emotional journey that fellings overtake them and they just have to break into song.

like in a normal play, the character might just sit on a chair and cry silently... but in a musical the emotion over takes them, boils beneath their chest and explodes in song out of thier mouth. we hear about what the character feels, not just through words but thorugh the art of the composer and how the music is written.

I just think musicals are beautiful and appeal to people who can better understand emotion through dance or music, as well as those who are better at identifing with emotion through words and facial expression.

it captures more peoples imagination because there is a variety in which the emotion is expressed.