Best Openings of Musicals
Best Openings of Musicals
hiltyfied
Understudy Joined: 5/2/06
#1Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:28pmWhat are some outstanding (or personal favorite) openings to musicals?
sidjones09
Leading Actor Joined: 1/4/07
#2re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:29pm
RAGTIME!
We can shut this thread down now. (LOL)
"If you've got something to say, say it, and think well of yourself while you're learning to say it better." - David Mamet
#2re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:31pmditto.
"I'm an American, Damnit!!! And if it's three things I don't believe in, it's quitting and math."
fossemoves
Stand-by Joined: 4/19/05
#3re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:36pm
RAGTIME.
Can I just say that I was uber appreciative that the first comment was one of Ragtime. It just was difinistive American Musical brilliance!
Honorable mentions definately to the Revival of Cabaret, revival of Kiss Me Kate, and the opening of Titanic and Lion King.
#4re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:37pmHairspray hands down has one of the greatest musical openings I have seen in a long time of musical theater history going. "Good Morning Baltimore" is a fantastic song, that totally sets up the entire staging of the show. It's brilliant. I knew that after that number this was going to be a show that would put a smile on my face from begining to end.
#5re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:39pm
Drowsy Chaperone, 42nd Street, Wedding Singer
Updated On: 4/12/07 at 02:39 PM
vmlinnie
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/06
#6re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:39pm
Hmm, I thought that Good Morning Baltimore was one of the best parts of Hairspray, but not the greatest opening ever.
Personal favourites includ Miss Saigon and Les Mis, but that's personal.
All that Jazz - CHICAGO
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
#7re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:43pm
Ragtime
The Wedding Singer
Company
The choice may have been mistaken, The choosing was not... "Every day has the potential to be the greatest day of your life." - Lin-Manuel Miranda
#8re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:45pm
Ragtime!!
I also really like Assassin's opening.
#9re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:47pm
CAROUSEL
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
42ND STREET
CABARET
A CHORUS LINE
INTO THE WOODS
NINE
CHICAGO
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
WOSQ
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/03
#10re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 3:27pm
Best opening of a musical...?
You mean, besides A Chorus Line...?
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable."
--Carrie Fisher
hiltyfied
Understudy Joined: 5/2/06
#11re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 3:30pm
Thanks, this is helpful. Keep them coming 
#12re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 3:31pm
CHICAGO
and of course FOLLIES (brilliant)
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#15re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 3:40pmThere have been some great openings, but Lion King is, I think the greatest.
#16re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 3:41pm
Lion King is quite good.
I loved Legally Blonde. It really set the mood for the show.
for fierce, fabulous and fun times visit eric mathew's world.
http://ericmathew.blogspot.com/
#17re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 3:42pm
I didn't like the show that much, but Lion King's was breathtaking.
Others:
A Chorus Line
Cabaret
Chicago
Sweeney Todd
SITPWG
Ragtime
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
Updated On: 4/12/07 at 03:42 PM
ggersten
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#18re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 3:44pm
What I've seen in person or Tony videos:
The beginning of the opening of 42d Street with the curtain slightly raised until the reveal...briliant
Ragtime and Lion King openings - epic
Wedding Singer/Hairspary - infectious
The ladder coming down in Man of La Mancha - chilling
But, Chorus Line is electric, energetic and just blew me out of my seat. with the count (5-6-7-8!), the music swell and the dancers turn and EXPLODE to the audience (as I remember it from 77 in LA), No opening has matched that experience.
Updated On: 4/12/07 at 03:44 PM
#19re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 4:14pm
"It's Today" from "Mame." Clearly, one of the best, if not the best opening musical numbers in musical theatre. It sets up the entire tone and style of the show.
#20re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 4:21pmhmmm either It's Your Wedding Day from Wedding Singer or i'm a fan of Comedy Tonight from Forum. Also I love Aidas.
Rentaholic2
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/14/04
#21re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 4:31pm
We're leaving out two of the greatest.
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF - the quintessential big opening number
WEST SIDE STORY - The electrifying choreography and movement say as much as words could
I also love:
Ragtime
Lion King
Into the Woods
Parade
Wicked
Thoroughly Modern Millie
LoringsGuy
Broadway Star Joined: 9/28/04
#22re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 4:38pm
There have been a number of threads about this already, but I'll toss in my two cents (most of these have already been mentioned):
RAGTIME
A CHORUS LINE
CABARET
MY FAVORITE YEAR
SIDE SHOW
"Word of advice: Be who you are, wear what you want---just learn how to run real fast." Marc, UGLY BETTY
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#23re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 4:39pm
I agree with many of the shows already posted.
I always liked how Evita started with a B movie of Eva Peron's.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#24re: Best Openings of Musicals
Posted: 4/12/07 at 4:41pmI think the opening of A Little Night Music sets the mood perfectly. Also, "The Best of All Possible Worlds" from Candide.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
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