This thread has been going on so long that I may be repeating someone else's or my own previous posts, but here goes:
1) I think "West Side Story" is too cacophonous.
2) "Oklahoma" is hopelessly dated -- too cutesy-pie. A serious Romeo and Juliet musical about the cowboys versus the farmers would better fit our more cynical times, rather than a musical about who will eat whose food.
3) The Phantom should be a baritone, instead of a tenor. (Yay, Norm Lewis).
4) The much-touted method of singing live in the movie version of Les Mis resulted in wobbly, weak results, and did not work well with a cast made up of actors who are not primarily singers. Even Colm Wilkinson couldn't pull it off.
5) Ramin Karimloo's first album is boring. There is insufficient variation among the songs' rhythms, and his Speedy-Gonzalez version of MOTN is a disaster. Where's the fire?
6) Norm Lewis blows most of the other Phantoms away in terms of both his singing and his acting (not a particularly controversial opinion) but, aside from his, one of the best-acted interpretations of the Phantom belongs to Gerard Butler in the 2004 movie.
7) Russell Crowe couldn't handle Javert in the Les Miz movie (again not a controversial opinion) but if the producers were going for charisma and acting skill and not mellifluous baritone singing, Gerard Butler would have pulled it off. (OK, I'll admit it -- I have a mad crush on the guy).
My Fair Lady does NOT need a fantastic singer in the role of Higgins, thanks to Rex Harrison's accustomizing (is that a word?) everyone to speak-singing, but it DOES need a handsome, youngish, charismatic actor with a beautiful and sexy speaking voice. Most productions fail to recognize the attraction between Higgins and Eliza that Alan Jay Lerner added to GBS's "Pygmalion."
9) Les Miz has a split personality -- the male roles and some of the female roles are written in almost an operatic style, but other female roles (especially Eponine) are written for a rock-style singer, to the overall detriment of the show.
Cue the rotten tomatoes.
Audrey
Audrey, the Phantom Phanatic, who nonetheless would rather be Jean Valjean, who knew how to make lemonade out of lemons.
