Favorite Overtures- Page 3

[Albin]

Posted: 8/11/03 at 4:14pm

Another vote for the "Funny Girl" overture.

I just got the remastered OCR and haven't been able to get past the overture.

It is electrifying...

[robbiej]

Posted: 8/11/03 at 4:47pm

I'm voting with my heart on this one and saying the astonishing overture to the 1981 flop MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.

Posted: 8/12/03 at 2:56pm

The overture to Candide is one of the bests.

And I also have to admit that I liked Suessical. It is so upbeat you cannot help but want to dance around.

Other I liked were Sunset Boulevard, Merrily We Roll Along and A Little Night Music

[Sally]

Posted: 8/12/03 at 7:30pm

South Pacific--because SP was the first musical I was really fond of

Candide

Chicago

Phantom of the Opera

Dance of the Vampires---although I think it set up the wrong expectations for the tone of much of the rest of the show

[Lorelai]

Posted: 8/13/03 at 2:49am

off the top of my head....

the producers
urinetown
thoroughly modern millie
we will rock you

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/13/03 at 2:51am

GYPSY

[broadwaygeek679]

Posted: 8/13/03 at 11:56am

its gotta be:
1. The Phantom of the Opera
2.Les Miserables
3.Dance of the Vampires

those are the best of the best

[TheBalladeer]

Posted: 8/13/03 at 12:08pm

My favorites:

1.) Gypsy
2.) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
3.) Merrily We Roll Along
4.) My Fair Lady
5.) Urinetown
6.) Thoroughly Modern Millie
7.) Jesus Christ Superstar
8.) Candide
9.) West Side Story

Posted: 8/13/03 at 2:57pm

1. Gypsy (all time favorite)!
2. La Cage
3. City of Angels
4. The Producers
5. TMM

[Timmerbo]

Posted: 8/13/03 at 6:19pm

South Pacific and the Carousel Waltz are both great.

Jesus Christ Superstar is one I love to turn up really loud.

[MagicRoy]

Posted: 8/14/03 at 12:52am

The Producers, Urinetown, and On the Twentieth Century.

[jsargent]

Posted: 12/27/03 at 2:05am

Nine
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Gypsy
The Full Monty

[bob8rich]

Posted: 12/27/03 at 3:45am

GYPSY
MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG
SOUTH PACIFIC
MACK AND MABEL
THE KING AND I
FUNNY GIRL

et al

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/27/03 at 12:10pm

Candide
On the Twentieth Century
Carousel
Oklahoma
Gyspy
Nine
The Will Rogers Follies
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Chess
South Pacific
City of Angels
Threepenny Opera
Urinetown

[LiTtLeDaNcEr729]

Posted: 12/27/03 at 12:13pm

I love Millie's overture and 42nd Street's.

[BroadwayDiva]

Posted: 12/27/03 at 12:16pm

Jesus Christ Superstar
Man of La Mancha
Phantom of the Opera
Chicago

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/27/03 at 12:23pm

Carousel has an overture?!?

[dotmarie]

Posted: 12/27/03 at 1:03pm

My current favorite is Gypsy. It's so fun...but does it sound Disney to anybody else? Nine's is always worth a listen too. I could sing those lalala's for hours. =)

[shermanslave]

Posted: 12/27/03 at 1:09pm

My favorite overture, hands down is Candide. I can listen to that anytime and feel so happy to hear it again. If you ever get the chance to hear it played by the New York Philharmonic at Central park in the summer, do NOT miss it.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/27/03 at 3:02pm

1, MAN OF LA MANCHA

2. CANDIDE

3. MAME (the audience applauded each new tune)

4. TWHM (when it was finally added--and yes the
audiences applauded each new tune, as in MAME)

5. KISS ME KATE (When it had one!)

6. THE FULL MONTY

7. IRENE

8. NO, NO NANETTE (love the dual pianos)

9. ANYTHING GOES (either the original or Patti LuPone versions)

10. MY FAIR LADY

[billygoatgirl300]

Posted: 12/3/04 at 8:18pm

Gypsy
Wonderful Town
Urinetown

[cturtle]

Posted: 12/3/04 at 8:29pm

carousel's overture is "the carousel waltz," if i'm not mistaken.

[VeuveClicquot]

Posted: 12/3/04 at 11:51pm

Fun thread.

A huge number of people either pick FUNNY GIRL or GYPSY as their favorite overture, but only one other person on this thread mentioned my favorite overture: PROMISES, PROMISES. It's utterly thrilling.

I am glad to see the MERRILY lovers here, though, that's my second favorite.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/4/04 at 1:07am

Gypsy
Funny Girl
Cats
Dance of the Vampires
The Pajama Game
Bye Bye Birdie
Blood Brothers
The Mikado
The Pirates of Penzance

[magruder]

Posted: 12/4/04 at 7:51am

Many of my favorites have been mentioned, but some great Phil Lang Overtures have not:

TAKE ME ALONG
JAMAICA
LI'L ABNER

Take Me Along's Overture is impossibly lush, with layer upon layer of detail. Listen to the huge sound of this Overture and weep for the anemic little bands we get nowadays, where you are lucky to have half as many musicians. The rollicking title song keeps popping in here and there until it positively explodes near the end of the Overture.

Jamaica's Overture, at least according to the CD liner notes, had not been released previously. It's a devilishly difficult piece of writing that the Broadway orchestra juuuuuuust about makes it through alive. Lots of tricky, shifting rhythms. Again, Lang builds and builds 'til "Push de Button," and the orchestra tears and swings through it. Great stuff.

Li'l Abner is again, another punishing piece of writing. Lots of soaring brass and furiously bowing strings and again, Lang smartly builds to one of the best numbers, "Jubilation T. Cornpone".

A couple of others that I greatly admire:

- Robert Russell Bennett's Overture to On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

What's on the album is a combination of the Overture and the Entr'acte. But it's some of the liveliest writing he ever came up with. I LOVE the whirling circus music version of "On the SS Bernard Cohen".

- Eddie Sauter's Entr'acte to It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman.

Sauter's stuff is always unusual, sounding not quite like any other orchestrator. (Henry Sweet Henry, The Apple Tree and 1776 are some of his other shows). The Superman Entr'acte is fun and surprising and then ends with a fiendishly difficult bop version of "You've Got What I Need". On the CD, you can hear the reeds trying deperately to get through it, and they JUST make it. The one professional production of Superman that I saw, the orchestra wasn't nearly so lucky.

- Sid Ramin and Robert Ginzler's Overture to Wildcat

It's probably Sid Ramin's work, but he and Ginzler worked so closely together that you can never tell who did what. (Like in Gypsy). Wildcat's score is a mix of highs and lows, but the Overture starts off like a bat out of hell, and never lets up. It also makes the show sound like a million bucks.

Updated On: 12/4/04 at 07:51 AM