A musical or play you disliked the first time, but now like/love?

Musicals: Godspell, Gypsy, Nine

Plays: Angels in America

I hated Oklahoma until Hugh Jackman came along.

This is probably true for a lot of people, but I hated Shakespeare until I was old enough to understand it.

Sweeney Todd.

Glad to know I wasn't the only one Egghumor. "Detested" may have been going too far but I found the play shallow and the characters very unlikeable, the former probably being a function of the later. Irons, Close and Baranski are certainly great actors but they did nothing for me in this one. The only saving moment was the very young Cynthia Nixon, a ray of light in her one very brief scene. The revival, however, was a revelation.

Les Miz, because I was a kid and thought it was way too depressing for a musical.

I was taking vicodin for a bad back and, for the umpteenth time, had to take a relative to see PHANTOM in L.A. Suddenly it was an entirely new show and I wept like I've rarely wept in the theater: I'd never realized that the tragic triangle at the heart of the show was like something from Sophocles or Shakespeare.

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henrik, I'd seen countless productions of COMPANY (including the original on Broadway (with Larry Kert) and the first national tour) and I never thought it worked until the Philharmonic production. It helped that the birthday parties were minimized, but more importantly, Neil Patrick Harris may be the first Robert I ever saw who was sufficiently likable to have that many close friends.

But I never actively disliked the show, I just thought it didn't quite work; so it doesn't count for me here.

The first time I read The Glass Menagerie (as a student) I thought it wasn't all that. It didn't hold a candle to A Streetcar Named Desire (or so I thought).

But as I got older and re-read it, and saw two different productions of it, I came to see that it's a magnificent play. I love it, and re-read it every few years.


I didn't like reading Chekov (The Cherry Orchard) in school, either, but haven't gone back to him. Perhaps some day I'll come to appreciate him as others do.

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Updated On: 11/19/11 at 06:50 PM

@ Henrik and Egghumor, Sorry to read of your disappointment with the '84 Real Thing-- I hold that production up as one of my favorite play-going experiences (though the revival was impressive as well.)

I'm putting WICKED in for the show I first detested (with the OBC) and found very moving (for Act One anyway) with the sitdown LA company that opened at the Pantages 3 or 4 years ago.

Special mention goes to CABARET. The '87 Prince revival with Joel Grey seemed so lifeless I thought the show just couldn't work. Needless to say the Mendes/ Marshall revision at Studio 54 blew the pants off that theory.

american idiot

Hair.
Really wasn't sure about it when I saw it in NYC. Ended up loving it the next two times in London.

Ragtime; actually the revival changed my entire stance on it.

Ok, Cats. First time, I was bored out of my mind (saw tour in SF from way up in the balcony in the barn of the Golden Gate Theatre). Watched the film version on PBS - bored. But daughter loved it and so took her to the Winter Garden theatre to see it before it closed. And, in that theatre, I loved it.
But, then saw a touring production last spring - back to bored.

Les Miz - first time - bored in SF for the sit down there. But it was the 10th Anniversary concert that sold me on the show and ever since.