Best Overtures
Best Overtures
#2Best Overtures
Posted: 11/13/14 at 11:51pm
HIGH SPIRITS (Not available digitally but amazing nonetheless)
LITTLE ME
HAZEL FLAGG
ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER
SUGAR
STEEL PIER
NO NO NANETTE
OH KAY (from he '96 Studio Cast)
THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE
DEAR WORLD
WISH YOU WERE HERE
Those are perhaps some lesser-acclaimed ones if you're looking for something outside of the usual FUNNY GIRL / GYSPY suggestions.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#2Best Overtures
Posted: 11/13/14 at 11:51pm
Gypsy, The King and I, The Threepenny Opera, Show Boat, Carousel, My Fair Lady, and Porgy and Bess are all necessities.
Personally I also love Dear World, Chicago (though you need All That Jazz after it to properly appreciate it), and Little Mary Sunshine.
I can also recommend the entr'acte for Cabaret, which sounds like an overture, and though it's not for a show, the overture to Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall is exhilarating.
Updated On: 11/13/14 at 11:51 PM
#3Best Overtures
Posted: 11/13/14 at 11:55pmSome of my favorites are: Gypsy, South Pacific, The King and I, and Follies.
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#4Best Overtures
Posted: 11/13/14 at 11:59pmAre you talking about the Prologue or the Overture for Follies? I personally prefer the Prologue because of how grand it feels.
#5Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 12:00amI referring to both, but especially the Prologue. They go hand in hand.
#6Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 12:06am
CANDIDE's overture is some of the best overtures ever written by Leonard Bernstein. The overtures to THE KING AND I, SOUTH PACIFIC, FOLLIES, CAROUSEL, SHOW BOAT, PORGY AND BESS etc are amazing as well.
Updated On: 11/14/14 at 12:06 AM
RENT_is_Wicked2
Stand-by Joined: 4/4/11
#8Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 3:36am
Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Gypsy
Anything Goes
The Addams Family
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Chicago
Annie
Beautiful
Funny Girl
Peter Pan
The Wizard of Oz
Porgy and Bess
Cinderella
The Phantom of the Opera
The Producers
Show Boat
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Sweet Charity
South Pacific
The Light in the Piazza
My Fair Lady
Miss Saigon
Shrek
Sunset Boulevard
Mamma Mia
Titanic
#9Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 5:17amMerrily We Roll Along, one of my all time favorites
Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty.
#10Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 6:17am
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman
(one of my favorite scores as well!)
#11Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 7:24am
Darling of the Day, Fanny, Man of La Mancha and Finian's Rainbow are some of my favorites.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
Updated On: 11/14/14 at 07:24 AM
#12Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 8:15am
The Judy Garland Show overture, conducted by Mort Lindsay. Also, in this clip, a thrilling example of early 1960s television camerawork.
#14Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 8:23am
It's also fun watching Leonard Bernstein himself conduct the overture to Candide--or, rather, dance to it!
#15Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 8:31am
Nine
Gypsy
Mack and Mabel
Sugar
Merrily We Roll Along
On the Twentieth Century
La Cage Aux Folles
....but the world goes 'round
#16Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 9:35amMINNIE'S BOYS is fabulous and the perfect Broadway Overture.
#17Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 9:53am
MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG..
GYPSY...
THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT THE SMELL OF THE CROWD...
#18Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 9:59amTENDERLOIN
2016 These Paper Bullets (1/02) Our Mother's Brief Affair (1/06), Dragon Boat Racing (1/08), Howard - reading (1/28), Shear Madness (2/10), Fun Home (2/17), Women Without Men (2/18), Trip Of Love (2/21), The First Gentleman -reading (2/22), Southern Comfort (2/23), The Robber Bridegroom (2/24), She Loves Me (3/11), Shuffle Along (4/12), Shear Madness (4/14), Dear Evan Hansen (4/16), American Psycho (4/23), Tuck Everlasting (5/10), Indian Summer (5/15), Peer Gynt (5/18), Broadway's Rising Stars (7/11), Trip of Love (7/27), CATS (7/31), The Layover (8/17), An Act Of God (8/31), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (8/24), Heisenberg (10/12), Fiddler On The Roof (11/02), Othello (11/23), Dear Evan Hansen (11/26), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (12/21) 2017 In Transit (2/01), Groundhog Day (4/04), Ring Twice For Miranda (4/07), Church And State (4/10), The Lucky One (4/19), Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (5/16), Building The Wall (5/19), Indecent (6/01), Six Degrees of Separation (6/09), Marvin's Room (6/28), A Doll's House Pt 2 (7/25) Curvy Widow (8/01)
dreaming
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/24/09
#21Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 11:06am
Nothing very original comes to mind on short notice.
Although not strictly an overture, the Carousel Waltz, which took over permanent residence in my brain from when my mother played the OBC so frequently.
South Pacific. It begins with the instantly recognizable first three notes of Bali Ha'i, one of the most unique and haunting of Broadway songs.
Candide, which makes me wish desperately that Bernstein had made room for another one or two musicals.
Not strictly an overture, but Robert Russell Bennett's Porgy and Bess suite, always one of my favorite orchestral pieces.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#22Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 11:35amWith a few exceptions, all of the above.
Poster Emeritus
#23Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 1:57pm
Oklahoma
Brigadoon
Carousel
The King & I
Candide
Wonderful Town
Goldilocks
Irma La Douce
Gypsy
First Impressions
Wildcat
Do Re Mi
110 in the Shade
The Canterbury Tales
Bye Bye Birdie
Sweet Charity
Subways are for Sleeping
It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman!
Man of La Mancha
Chicago
The Rothschilds
Annie
Nine
42nd Street
Merrily We Roll Along
Anything Goes (1985)
Me and My Girl
On the Twentieth Century
Mack and Mabel
City of Angels
Crazy For You
Urinetown
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Love Never Dies (hate the show, but that waltz is gorgeous)
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#24Best Overtures
Posted: 11/14/14 at 2:15pmPal Joey, what a great video and thanks for posting it. And what a great piece of music. I knew the overture well, but had never seen this clip. I actually think that Lenny was holding back significantly knowing that he was being filmed. And by the way, spectacular direction. He knew exactly when to cut to various sections or musicians.
CZJ at opening night party for A Little Night Music, Dec 13, 2009.
