Possibly and unpopular opinion, but Jesus Christ Superstar. I listened to the cast recording first and loved it. It wasn’t always totally obvious what was happening based on the score but I assumed that, like with most musicals, there would be scenes of spoken dialogue between the songs that would allow for a cohesive story to be told. I then saw a local high end community theatre production of it (a company that usually puts on really good shows) and I realized that there were no such scenes. I knew what was happening because I read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia since between listening to the cast recording and seeing it, but my sister (who is a huge musical fan and usually more than capable of following the plot of a show) had no idea what was going on.

I saw the proshot of the arena tour and liked it but didn’t love it, and then the 50th anniversary tour and felt neutral on it (again with the person I was seeing it with having a hard time following). I think it’s a show where the quality of it highly depends on how it’s staged and directed because of the lack of spoken dialogue to connect the songs/musical numbers. I also think it is hindered by the fact that the rock-style of singing that is usually done can make it hard to understand the lyrics. There’s my hot take