A Great Musical, Where are you? — Page 2

I PERSONALLY dont think broadway has seen a truly Great musical since Next To Normal.I would totally Rank N2N up with Les Miz,Phantom,Into the woods,evita,Wicked,Miss saigon etc etc.

I liked Book of Mormon.I thought it was funny,but i wouldnt pay to see it again.It serves it's purpose but I personally dont get all the hype about it.still a great show though,very funny. This is coming from a guy who LOVES south park.

There were several commercially and critically acclaimed musicals since The Producers, some of which ran longer as well (Jersey Boys Avenue Q and Hairspray spring to mind). The Producers holds the Tony record, which will make it something of a landmark production, but it mostly limped along after Broderick and Lane left. Then the movie bombed. I didn't care for it, but I can see why people thought it was funny. I'm not sure if it will be the "last great classic".

Also, I'm not convinced a "classic" is defined by critical and/or commercial success. West Side Story divided critics and Follies has never had a profitable Broadway production. Like them or not, I think the last "classics" we've seen on Broadway were Rent, Ragtime and Hairpsray with The Lion King, Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia, Wicked and Book of Mormon being noted as popular blockbusters. Honrable mentions go out to Urinetown, Avenue Q, Caroline or Change, Light in the Piazza, In the Heights, Spring Awakening, Grey Gardens, Drowsy Chaperone, Spelling Bee, Next to Normal and Once. That's not my order of preference, but rather how I see them being noted in the history books.

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Caroline will become the Follies of our current era, I think. A show that everyone knows and acknowledges as one of the best of its time, but never becoming truly SIGNIFICANT or successful. Always a footnote, never a crowning moment.

The people who saw the original will remember how good it was, and people will be jealous of it, but it will never be the ultimate moment to the vast majority, just as Follies will never be Gypsy, Company or Sweeney Todd.

Oh After Eight, I didn't mean to awaken your ire this morning!

I was writing that in response to jasonf's question, "where are the name composers?" and not answering the question about great musicals. He gave an example of Lerner and Loewe (specifically as a team) that had an implication that they churned out golden age musicals at a non-stop pace and you never had to wait for the next one to hit Broadway. That simply isn't the case. Their output is of high quality, but it is not of high quantity.

I was simply pointing out that people like Elton John and even Frank Wildhorn are still "name" composers and their outputs are just as large as many from the Golden Age. I never said, nor implied, that Elton John's musicals were better than Lerner and Loewe's. I only said that he is "name" composer, which was the question asked.

To address your final statements about quality, I happen to like Once a lot more than My Fair Lady, and it will go down as the latest great musical.

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reNt is far from a great musical.

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Rosscoe(au) I agree with you that on face value Rent is not a great musical and with the Off-Broadway revival most of the shows flaws were pointed out, but the problem with critiquing Rent is that it is an unfinished work...since Larson was never able to tweak the show due to his unfortunate death the morning of the first off-Broadway preview. You can compare it to "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" by Charles Dickens despite the fact the novel is unfinished due to Dickens death, it is still considered a great work because of its basic elements. The reason Rent is and will always be considered a landmark/classic is because of the shows impact and success.


Of modern "classics" I would put Next to Normal up near the top of the list, but I am kind of afraid that like most "contemporary" set musicals it is not going to hold up over time...even if they are brilliant to begin with. For example How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying won the Pulitzer when it opened and was treated with the same prestige, but over time its ideals and themes have become extremely outdated and the things that once made the show great now hinder its appeal. The same goes for Bye Bye Birdie, (I know it was not critically loved but its a contemporary set show) its recent revival, which even though it was severely miscast, the miscasting pointed how the show doesn't hold up due to it being set originally in the "present". The shows become museum pieces...which I pray is not the same fate for Next to Normal.

The one thing Next to Normal does have going for it is that it is very much a play whose lines are sung rather than a musical or a play with musical, so it does't really have a book to get creaky as time passes. The show is also a true drama rather than a satire or a dark comedy, which often get stale and whose themes(points of ridicule) become a mute point. The show is at its heart a family drama which should allow it to hold up better over time, since we all know its mental illness treatments will become outdated within the next ten years.

Ghost and Spiderman have put a damper on musicals with their unhummable music
and dodgy books. Sister Act hasn't helped much.


But I have to agree that Wicked, Book of Mormon, being great musicals.
The Producers and Hairspray, Billy Elliot, Avenue Q were also great musicals.

Great ones don't come around that often.


Not impressed by Once. Or Newsies which had great choreography.. But something's coming....

"Magic Mike will solve that problem for you."

LOLOLOLOL!

And to the poster who asked what the last great musical was, the answer is Hello, Dolly!

Thank God that's not true.

reNt is far from a great musical.

Just listened to it again over the weekend and it reminded me how truly great the musical is. Like many other musicals, it is very much a product of its time, but holds up well and will most definitely cemented its place in the classic musical theatre canon.

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