Gah! Even Liza!
Yes, I’ve been exposed. To off-Broadway in NYC. I tried, I really did.
She’s on PBS right now, doing what I expect is a meledy of show hits. They can’t even cover pop hits right. I think they try to show us how it should have been done.
They “project”, even while wearing those sneaky little mics.
Bleah.
Thanks
mangeorge
So, Oklahoma isn’t O.K. with you?
I knew a guy who used to bring a boombox to work, and on it he’d listen to showtunes all day long. And not just any showtunes, but showtunes culled from the worst off-broadway musicals in the history of doomed theatrical runs. Maybe he had a profoundly deaf friend who wrote this stuff, I dunno, but it was a bloody horrible torture that he inflicted on everyone else who had to enter his work area.
Still, he was a sweet, sensitive soul, and I think if anyone had revealed to him that his precious abominable caterwauling was universally reviled as execrable bilge, then all the kings horses, etc… So we let him be.
Anyhow, I know just how you feel. I mean, I know that music is a subjective experience, but I’m convinced that this stuff could be scientifically proven to kill a cactus - or at least, cause it to go insane.
Wait, so you saw an Off-Broadway show and you heard Liza sing a few songs, so you’re writing off an entire genre of music? That’s like saying you don’t like The Beatles so all rock music must be bad.
Sounds to me like you guys are listening to the wrong show music. You know, it’s come a long way since Rodgers and Hammerstein. Those guys were brilliant, yes, but why don’t you try some Jason Robert Brown, or maybe some William Finn? Stay away from that schmaltzy crap and sink your teeth into something with some real depth to it.
Who’s Liza?
And yeah, what DooWahDiddy said (though I have my own issues with Jason Robert Brown). These days there’s so much music under the umbrella of “show tunes” that it’s fairly impossible to not find a fair chunk of it you like.
I just wrapped up a run of Bat Boy: The Musical, which is a pretty decent example of what musical theater can be when it’s not trying to sound like musical theater.
Since show music encompasses every type of music, that’s like saying “I hate all music.” You may not like some of it, but unless you hate every type of music, you cannot hate all show music.
Blasphemer!
I heard the opening number of the OCR on an Internet radio show and knew I had to see it. A theatre group staged it here a couple of years ago and it was great.
From the wonderful film, The Sure Thing:
I’m sorry to hear you don’t care for the oeuvre you heard and had been exposed to. I certainly wouldn’t try to force you to be further exposed to them or to endure more than you have.
I’m also firmly of the belief that a world without Gilbert and Sullivan would be much, much poorer.
And I really, really want to see Hello, Hamlet!.
Yes, Annie, it does encompass all kinds of music. Problem is, they do something to it. They make it "showy’, for want of a better word. My vocabulary fails me, so I hope you know what I mean.
Some years ago I heard, on pbs radio, some troupe try to cover Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. Holy Crap! They tried, I think, to make it pretty! I don’t remember hearing the name of the show.
No, I love music. Most any genre, including some opera (arias). It’s just that show music I can’t get into. To each their own, eh!
Why, do you think, musicals are rarely on the popular media? Even PBS.
But, I will go yo my death defending your right to enjoy that music. 
That’s a recent change. Musicals used to be the popular music. Ever hear “Mack the Knife?” Bobby Darin’s super popular hit from 1959? That’s from a musical.
Small quibble. A lot of the songs that were on the charts back in the good ole days were taken from musicals, but re-recorded for radio release. The version of Mack The Knife that Bobby Darin had a hit with was not from a Broadway Soundtrack album, but from a studio recording made specifically for separate release.
And quite often the show tunes that became hits weren’t even performed by the Broadway stars, but by professional radio stars. Sinatra and Martin had tons of ‘broadway’ hits, but weren’t in the Musicals themselves.
Generally speaking, I agree with the O.P. In just about every other genre of music, I can think of songs I really like, artists that really impress, tracks I’ll listen to over and over. But in ‘Show Tunes’ - and ‘New Country’ - there’s nothing. I’ve often wondered why that is, but nonetheless it is so. MHO, and all that.
thwartme
I’ll raise you your show music, mangeorge - I hate musicals AND live theatre as well as show tunes! I’m plebeian and I don’t care who knows it!
Movie most undeserving of the accolades heaped thereon:
West Side Story.
I was sixteen when it came out, and very romantic. I loved Natalie Wood. But I didn’t buy that movie. Not one bit. Gansters dancing and snapping their fingers in unison. Boy oh boy!
Now Breakfast at Tiffany’s, that was a movie. 
I agree with you re WSS. I rented it last summer, in a bit of nostalgia. Good God, that musical has not aged well at all. The make up on the Sharks and their girls was horrible (yes, I know the story)–they look purple. The story is ridiculously naive, given today’s gang bangers and their hos etc. Maybe middle schoolers can watch and be moved by it–I was so impatient with it, I turned it off. Blech.
That said, there are some beautiful songs in musical.
But you guys are missing the point. I completely understand if it’s just not your thing… it’s not for everyone, and that’s cool. But honestly, every musical you’ve cited has been pre-1970, and you’re just not giving it a fair chance by doing that. If I knew more about what kind of music you listened to recreationally, I bet I could name at least five musicals (written this decade) that would surprise you and at the very least make you realize musicals are not what they used to be.*
“Musicals are not what they used to be”–A miraculously good or tragically bad thing, depending on who you ask.
Musicals and other theatre are meant to be performed LIVE. Anything on a screen is not LIVE theatre.
A tape of a LIVE show is not a LIVE show. And speaking of things I hate, it’s people who say they don’t like LIVE theatre because they don’t like tapes of LIVE theatre.
Rent? Sucked. Absolutely unlistenable.
Avenue Q? Funny. Terrible music, but funny. Like when Adam Sandler sings.
Les Mis? Boring story, boring show, boring music. Good singers, boring music.
Anything Andrew Lloyd Webber? Completely without value.
Okay, I’m being silly and harsh. I’m just saying that new or old doesn’t seem to matter. Show tunes are still show tunes, and are written (and sometimes recorded) with a purpose in mind other than just being listened to. They are part of a whole show experience, and often (usually, possibly always) don’t stand up to being listened to on their own.
thwartme
The movie, “Welcome to Woop Woop” might change your mind. It’s weird and wonderful, and chock full o’ show tunes.
Have you tried watching Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog? (yes, he really starts singing a few minutes in)