I once saw a play in college. I've forgotten the name of it, but I remember thinking, "If I wanted to convince someone who had never seen a play before to go see one, I wouldn't recommend this one." It wasn't the actors' fault. They did the best they could with the material. The flaws were in the writing--and one other aspect.
Early in the play, one of the cast members turned to the audience unexpectedly and sang, "They have no money. They have no food. How can they be blamed?"
I thought, "This isn't a musical. Why was that sung?" The actors continued to sing lines at odd, sporadic intervals throughout the play.
A few days later, I talked with a DJ I knew, who was one of the cast members.
"No one wanted to do the singing," she told me. She explained that the play wasn't written that way, but the director wanted the actors to punctuate specific lines by singing them. She told me that one night, an audience member, upon seeing an actress about to start singing, exclaimed, "Oh, not again!" The actress struggled to stifle her laughter while singing. I don't blame her.
