1958: WEST SIDE STORY over The Music Man 1959: FLOWER DRUM SONG over Redhead 1960: GYPSY over The Sound of Music and Fiorello! 1969: HAIR over 1776 1972: FOLLIES over Two Gentlemen of Verona 1978: ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY over Ain't Misbehavin' 1982: DREAMGIRLS over Nine 1984: SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE over La Cage aux Folles 1991: MISS SAIGON over The Will Rogers Follies 1998: RAGTIME over The Lion King 1999: PARADE over Fosse 2002: URINETOWN over Thoroughly Modern Millie 2005: THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA over Monty Python's Spamalot
As for Avenue Q v. Wicked v. Caroline, or Change, I believe that the musical that deserved to win actually won. I love Into the Woods and The Phantom of the Opera equally and since ITW took Best Book and Best Score, Best Musical deservedly went to PHANTOM.
"I'm just a musical prostitute, my dear." ~ Freddie Mercury
Any of the other three nominated musicals- Spelling Bee, Piazza and DRS should have one over Spamalot. All three, in my opinion, were much better than Spamalot and were all equally deserving.
However, I think that in the future (twenty or thirty years) the musical of the past season that will be the most likely to be remembered is Piazza.
But I'm not gonna lie it's pretty much the only one nominated that year I heard all the way through...but I DO know that Contact isnt even performed live (right?)...so that'd be my pick.
FYI - haven't been around musical theater to long (tryin to catch up lol, just got COMPANY and WOW) but thats just my opinion as of now...not to thread jack but any suggestions of EASY to find musicals, i.e. iTunes lol :)
wackjack132, CONTACT is danced to pre-recorded music. I don't believe there was an orchestra.
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
i think we all are in agreement in 05 ... definetly should not have been Spamalot. Hell i loved the show and monty and i still think Piazza (or at the very least DRS) should have won.
Wicked .... eh i'd have picked it over Ave q .... but its not like its unreasonable or anything
While I can agree that WEST SIDE STORY is a great musical, I don't agree that it is better than THE MUSIC MAN (maybe just as good). Same with GYPSY, FIORELLO! and THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and others. However, to me, RAGTIME is infinitely better than THE LION KING, and is my choice for Best Musical that didn't win.
"While I can agree that WEST SIDE STORY is a great musical, I don't agree that it is better than THE MUSIC MAN (maybe just as good)."
Okay. Elaborate. (I'm prepared to vehemently argue this point. And I've played in both shows back-to-back years, so I'm VERY knowledgable about both. It's not like I don't know much about one while arguing the superiority of the other. Good luck).
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
Why? That was one of the only years when all four Best Musical nominations got some praise, not raves, so you didn't know what the hell was gonna win.
And that's why no award should have been given in 1967.
I tell you what should've won in 2002: Definitely Urinetown, but I am glad Millie won as well.
2004: I'm glad "Avenue Q" won because I love that show, but you could've not sent that surprise turn coming at us and you just could've let "Wicked" take it.
"How could she just suddenly, completely disappear into thin water?" - The Little Mermaid
Percy: Sink me! If it isn't Javvurt!
Javert: Zsah-vair, it's pronounced Zsah-vair.
Pecry: But it's spelled J-A-V-E-R-T Javvurt.
Javert: Repeat after me Zsah...Zsah....
Percy: Oh! Zsa-Zsa! Like the Gabor sister! Well I personally have always prefered Eva.
Javert: (Looks for gun)
Okay. Elaborate. (I'm prepared to vehemently argue this point. And I've played in both shows back-to-back years, so I'm VERY knowledgable about both. It's not like I don't know much about one while arguing the superiority of the other. Good luck).
I'm not going to argue the point. It's just that it's apples and oranges, imo. It's your personal taste. No argument necessary. They are both great shows, so I don't see where one was robbed over the other. Certainly not like RAGTIME.
I think I'm in the minority thinking that Ragtime won the awards it deserved. The book was the strongest of the season, but it was still choppy and unfocused. The score is absolutely gorgeous and the cast was brilliant. But that was about it. to me, listening to the CD was far more enjoyable than the actual production. I think the only reason people really wanted it to win Best Musical was simply because it wasn't Disney, not because it was the Best production of a musical that season.
Shows I believed deserved to win:
West Side Story Hair Purlie Dreamgirls Into the Woods Falsettos Tommy Parade The Wild Party The Full Monty Urinetown
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Ragtime Caroline, or Change The Light in the Piazza
http://www.beintheheights.com/katnicole1 (Please click and help me win!)
I chose, and my world was shaken- So what? 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
"And when Idina Menzel is singing, I'm always slightly worried that her teeth are going to jump out of her mouth and chase me." - Schmerg_the_Impaler
I wold not have minded if INOT THE WOODS had won over PHANTOM as I love them both.
WICKED should have won over Q.
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
"You know, a little orphan girl once told me that the sun would come out tomorrow. Her adopted father was a powerful billionaire, so I supressed the urge to laugh in her face. But now, by gum, I think she might have been on to something!"
--Reefer Madness
Caroline, or Change lost to Q She Loves Me lost to HELLO DOLLY (Hello... WHAT!?)
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
I think either Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Light In The Piazza, or Spelling Bee should have won Best Musical last year.
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
I think the only reason people really wanted it to win Best Musical was simply because it wasn't Disney, not because it was the Best production of a musical that season.
I wanted it to win, because I thought it was the best musical I had seen, in about 25 years before it, and since. I hated THE LION KING, so I certainly wasn't pulling for that. I don't hate Disney, though. Far from it.