Best Musical Theatre Song of All-Time (Pick ONLY One)- Page 4

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 8:55pm

Hand's down:

Adelaide's Lament for "Guys and Dolls"

It's both funny, and touching at the same time. It reveals character, allows for great vocals, and a lot of laughs. Without this song the show would fall apart because Adelaide would not be understandable and unsympathetic.

Akiva

[CurtainUp]

Posted: 7/2/04 at 5:03pm

I love that song and that role!

[J.]

Posted: 7/2/04 at 5:17pm

"Music of the Night" Two years until "The Phantom of the Opera" is the longest running show in Broadway history and since we have the motion picture coming out this year to boost sales even more, I think this is a guarantee. Updated On: 7/2/04 at 05:17 PM

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 10/28/18 at 10:44pm

Bumping this because I've been on a Company binge lately, and I continue to think that "Being Alive" is the indeed greatest song ever written for the stage. No matter how many times I listen to it, I discover new things and am continually moved.

[VotePeron]

Posted: 10/28/18 at 11:08pm

I'm not even a massive fan of Hamilton by any means, but "Satisfied" would be my pick for the Best Musical Theatre Song of All-Time.

[adam.peterson44]

Posted: 10/28/18 at 11:16pm

Although Rodgers and Hammerstein have more entries on my (unwritten) top 100 list than any other songwriter/songwriting team, I do have to give the #1 spot to Impossible Dream.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 12:11am

Someone In A Tree - the sudden shift in perspective, and the way Sondheim uses such an odd, atypical motif, is so beautiful and disquieting. It's difficult to name what the music feels like. It doesn't feel like a goof on another type of music, like many of the other numbers in the show do, and it doesn't feel like any other music I'm aware of, except maybe Terry Riley. It's both churning and ironic - just in the music, Sondheim conveys both the sense of how we plow through life, and are also fixed in time, and are both of utter importance and totally, absolutely trivial.

And then the lyrics! All the commenters are completely self-absorbed and tell us nothing about what we came to hear them say. They constantly reference the concept of how their acts reinforce their existence - "If I knock, then I am here, or the day is incomplete". I get perspective vertigo listening to it sometimes.

edit: of course, the right answer is franklin shepard inc

Updated On: 10/29/18 at 12:11 AM

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 6:34am

"Ol' Man River"

Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II

Show Boat  1927

I gets weary, and sick of trying
I'm tired of livin', but I'm scared of dyin'
But Ol' Man River, he just keeps rolin' along

NPR: 'Ol' Man River': An American Masterpiece

https://www.npr.org/2003/05/31/1279965/ol-man-river-an-american-masterpiece

[Skip23]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 7:17am

There’s No Business Like Show Business

Everything’s Coming Up Roses

The Impossible Dream

[HugoP]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 7:42am

I love all the Sondheim songs being referenced in this thread.   A LITTLE PRIEST might be the greatest of all because it's essential to the show, reveals so much about the characters, is a comment on the state of the world and is a tremendous piece of entertainment on its own.    So, I'll vote for that.   

On a more personal note, I saw PACIFIC OVERTURES in its Boston tryout-- as a 15 year old who had only seen a few Broadway musicals at that point.  SOMEONE IN A TREE is the song that changed the way I looked at musical theatre, history and narrative.   I have studied and savored that song my whole life and, if it's not the greatest musical theatre song of all time,  it's one of the great sequences in musical theatre history.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 9:58am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kXf-3YsOnA

[BuddyStarr]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 10:13am

Losing My Mind: If you've ever loved and lost this song cuts right to the heart.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 4:04pm

Tonight from West Side Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyUV3hIL-G0

 

[luvcaroline]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 6:53pm

Cabaret is the greatest song ever written for the stage

Being Alive is pretty darn good too.

[luvcaroline]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 6:53pm

Double post

Updated On: 10/29/18 at 06:53 PM

[Stage Door Sally]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 7:53pm

You know I soooo want to say Before the Parade Passes By.... but I can't. I heard Brian Stokes Mitchell sing Impossible Dream at an event... and I cried. He can hit the high notes and that song gets me... every single time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g-T46ja95s

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 10/29/18 at 8:34pm

ErinDillyFan said: "Tonight from West Side Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyUV3hIL-G0

"

So Lenny finally got a vote. Let’s see. That makes it Sondheim 34 (give or take a dozen)

Bernstein 1

What a travesty that Sondheim did not write the music in addition to the lyrics of West Side Story.

[jayinchelsea]

Posted: 10/30/18 at 4:17pm

"Finishing the Hat" which encapsulates anything one might say about the arts.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 10/30/18 at 4:51pm

It really is impossible to select the best among so many great songs.  There are two songs that I have always loved just a little more than the others, because they just stroke an emotional cord for me.  The first is 'I Have Dreamed', which often feels like filler in the King and I because it is sung by a minor character, but it is just so lush.  I also love 'The Party's Over', which is just so plaintive.

 

That said, I somehow think that 'Hello,Dolly' has to be the best Broadway song ever.  Where else but in a Broadway show could a song like HD become so iconic; hell, it was the first song to knock The Beatles out of Number 1 on the charts.

[Danielle0314]

Posted: 10/30/18 at 8:33pm

I'm echoing those from 14 years ago by saying One Day More from Les Miserables

Updated On: 11/2/18 at 08:33 PM

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 10/31/18 at 9:05am

ROSE'S TURN - Gypsy!!

[GE 2]

Posted: 10/31/18 at 9:47am

It depends on what I’m listening to. Some amazing songs mentioned.  I’m loving “For Forever” from Dear Evan Hansen at the moment. I just keep repeating it. 

It was “The Bitch of Living” from Spring Awakening earlier this year.  

“Kings of New York” from Newsies a year or so ago. 

But then you have classics from Phantom, Les Miserables, Carousel, Oklahoma, Rent, Chicago... too hard! 

[Broadway Geek2]

Posted: 10/31/18 at 10:01am

I am torn between two:

"Old Man River" (Show Boat) - as mentioned above

"Soliloquy" (Carousel)

On a side note, I recently realized they are written by the same fella (lyrics) ... whatta talent, eh?

[GE 2]

Posted: 10/31/18 at 10:16am

Both incredible songs. 

[LYLS3637]

Posted: 10/31/18 at 10:22am

While I'm not usually one to put HAMILTON on any "best ever" list, I think THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS is probably the best musical theatre song since AMERICA from WEST SIDE STORY