What do you do if a friend recommends you a show and you hate it?

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 7:23am

Do you tell them you enjoyed it?

Updated On: 4/19/07 at 07:23 AM

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 7:30am

...tell them you hated it. People have their own opinions.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 7:39am

Make the freind spend an entire day on the main board defending their opinion. There is no worse punishment.

[mominator]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 7:56am

Well how much did you "hate it"? Was it just not your taste, or was it really just horrid?
In those situations, what I usually say is. "Sorry, but Ireally did not care for it. Why did you like it so much?" Then try to see it from their point of view.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 7:58am

It was Slava's Snow Show and I hated it and I told him so.

[Princeton78]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 7:59am

You tell them that it wasn't your cup of tea, but you thank them for the reccomendation. At the very least, it's a night at the theatre supporting the arts!

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 8:01am

I could have supported something good.
Also when I saw BKLYN was because someone recommended it to me, and honestly I wish I had the money I spent to see that, right back in my pocket.
Anyways, it wasn't that I wanted to talk about my bad experiences...Im asking you guys, if it happened to you.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 8:18am

It's happened to me many times. mainly with Mamma Mia and Phantom of the Opera.

But I did get into a verbal fight with this teenage wannabe who was a smart ass who thought he knew everything about theatre. He said that Wicked had an "awesome scrpit" and I said"You mean book? No it didn't" he said "No. The book was terrible. The script to the Broadway show." and you can just imagine what went on from there. lol.

[Creative Lunatic]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 10:10am

I think if the person paid for the tickets, then you have to be gracious and find something favorable to say.
If it was just a recommendation, you might say that you can appreciate what excited them but you didn't have the same response. Slava's Snow Show is a very unique theatrical experience. Didn't you have some idea what to expect?
If you're not into clowns and pantomime , it's a long night!
And yeah , Muscle it's happened to me . I've seen something I hated that someone recommended and vice versa.
It's tricky. There is no show that everyone is going to love.
Interesting question though




Updated On: 4/19/07 at 10:10 AM

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 10:24am

I kick them square in the face.

[gymdudeva]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 11:36am

Be somewhat gracious. Find something to praise, even the staging of one scene, or the performance of one actor, or the lighting, or something. Then say, "But I don't think I liked it as much as you did." They will get the picture, and no feelings hurt.

[Albin]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 11:54am

Stomp on their windpipe.

Updated On: 4/19/07 at 11:54 AM

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 12:01pm

Tell your friend the truth...definitely.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 12:05pm

Tell them the truth!

I don't know why some people feel that they need to tip toe around people. If you're actually FRIENDS with someone, you should have NO problem being honest with them. If you do have honesty issues, they're not a good friend.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 12:10pm

This is a show, right? Not their fiance? How hard is this?

[B3TA07]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 12:17pm

Thank you for making this thread. I can only imagine how many friends of Queenies are dealing with this dilemma right now. America's streets are not safe!

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 12:34pm

You just tell him that you didn't care for it. Be nice about it.

I have another question:

What do you do with a BA in English?

[Weez]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 12:48pm

I just tell them. My friends and I are always recommending books to each other and not necessarily agreeing on 'em, we just say "yeah, I totally didn't like 'Twilight' anywhere near as much as you did". We're not exactly going to fall out just because we don't have exactly the same thoughts (although I totally did like 'Twilight' as much as Kelley did, no matter what Ellen thought). If you're saying "OMG, how could you like 'Twilight'? Anyone who likes it must be an idiot, you IDIOT", then we might have problems. But generally we're not.

(Although if a friend continued to recommend shows that I continued to dislike, then perhaps after a while I may stop listening to their recommendations. :P)

[Piercemn]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 1:09pm

Let's see...Rent, Jelly's Last Jam, Passion, Sunday in the Park we Snore, Timbuktu...this list goes on and on. You thank them and tell them why you didn't enjoy it.

Don't make a big deal out of it. You don't have to like everything. However, you can always read website information and decide for yourself before you go.

I almost saw Slava's Snowshow last summer, but fortunately I was chaperoning a student to NYC, and he wanted to see Avenue Q instead.

[Danielm]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 1:49pm

I say, "I didn't really care for it." I don't say "I hated it, what's wrong with you." I don't get snotty and say "if you mean the book it was rotten." If you can't disagree with a friend in a tactful matter maybe you shouldn't have friends.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 2:05pm

What about if a friend keeps recommending "Bombay Dreams" to you even if you have no interest at all in seeing it?

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 2:35pm

I was obsessed with RAGTIME when it first came out and almost broke up with my boyfriend when he told me he hated it. Fortunately, I came to my senses. It's only a show. If we all liked the same things, what a boring world this would be.

[singtopher]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 2:43pm

Tell them you didn't like it. Its okay to not like something. Just do't berate them for liking themselves.

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 2:49pm

Right on, Topher. Look at it this way---if your friend values you enough to share their love of a particular show with you, the least you can do is exercise a little tact.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 3:15pm

I agree you should be tactful, depending on the nature of your relationship.

I went out of my way to get tickets to Caryl Churchill's Far Away when it was here at NYTW. It was like my MUST SEE of the fall. I loved it. The friend I brought to the show did not get its satirical play on society, war and alliances and did not appreciate Churchill's command in use of language. The friend raved about how much they hated it, and I didn't want to hear a word of it.

Now I think a lot less of the friend's intellect and would not waste my or their time inviting them to any cutting edge theatre or theatre that requires picking up on metaphor and analogy. Only old drawing room plays.