Best Musical of all time?
Best Musical of all time?
theaterlover45
Broadway Star Joined: 8/21/05
Orpheum
Stand-by Joined: 8/24/05
MarkCohen
Broadway Star Joined: 12/19/04
#2re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 7:12pmSweeney Todd. But it's my second favourite.
#3re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 7:20pm
no such thing. you cannot compare apples to oranges to plums to peaches etc...
each musical is different.
"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
theaterlover45
Broadway Star Joined: 8/21/05
Marquise
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/1/04
#5re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 7:46pm
I'll answer this:
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "THE BEST MUSICAL OF ALL TIME".
Orpheum
Stand-by Joined: 8/24/05
#8re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 8:44pm
I, too, don't believe in a "best musical", but i'll put in some contenders:
My Fair Lady
Kiss Me Kate
Gypsy
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
#9re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 8:47pm
I see the question more as musicals that had such an amazing effect on their audiences.
There are plenty of answers, but I'll nominate Hair.
"They hear drums. We hear music."
renthead08
Swing Joined: 8/19/05
#10re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:06pmRent
The stars gleam
The poets dream
The eagles fly
Without you
The Earth turns
the sun burns
But I die, without you
renthead08
Swing Joined: 8/19/05
#11re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:06pmRent
The stars gleam
The poets dream
The eagles fly
Without you
The Earth turns
the sun burns
But I die, without you
#12re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:23pmI agree that they are pretty incomparible but I think Into the Woods is the best.
"No two shows are alike in the making. Each show is a living
piece of your life in a small unreal world with its own character
and integrity; its own new set of memorable experiences and
incredible happenings. You begin to love and adapt to its strangeness.
Dreams harden into substance. Values come into focus. You wish
it would never end. The dream world vanishes like mist before a
rising sun; part of you vanishes with it. And back you land in the
real world with a thud- fogged, uneasy, jittery, difficult to get
along with. There is only one cure. A new show. A new, small
unreal world; new visions, experiences, incredible happenings.
Again you love it, adapt to it, wish it would never end.
But end it does. Another part of you vanishes.
That's show business."-Anonymous
bwayballerina
Broadway Star Joined: 11/14/04
#13re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:25pmThere isn't just one "Best Musical of all Time," but whenever someone asks me this question, I always answer with West Side Story (which is my personal favorite)
I<3Idina
Chorus Member Joined: 8/27/05
#14re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:38pm
WiCkEd 
duhhhh its like SoOoOo awesome. and perfect. and idinaz my heeero
Updated On: 8/27/05 at 10:38 PM
#15re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:41pm
Cabaret
Into the Woods
And I love The Light in the Piazza (it's my second favorite), but I know it has plot holes and it's not one of the best.
Over_the_Moon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/22/05
#16re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:43pmEveryone knows it's- Ragtime!
"what have we learned? Don't smoke... don't do drugs and don't sing 'Defying Gravity'." -CATSNYRevival
#17re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:45pmLes Miserables.
"It's not for sissies, contrary to popular belief." - Tommy Tune, on musical theatre.
My avatar: Yummy, no?
My avatar: Yummy, no?
Born2cthelightsofbway
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/30/04
#18re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 10:56pmThe Phantom of the Opera
"You alone can make my song take flight, it's over now, the Music of the Night!!!!!"
#19re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 11:09pm
Sweeney Todd is always classic
but falsettos which i finally listened too is really growing on me, i think it is the best and sondheim fits the next 5 best
1. Falsettos/In Trousers
2. Sweeney Todd
3. A Little Night Music
4. Into the Woods
5. Cabaret
those r my tops right now but they ALWAYS change...daily or hourly
Marguerite Chauvelin
Broadway Star Joined: 7/19/05
#20re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 11:14pm
Hmmmm.... I do love Les Mis but I haven't seen it (I'm seeing it on tour this year)
Rent is my favorite that I've seen.
If Percy Blakeney were in Les Mis....
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)
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)
wickedrentq
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/6/04
#21re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 11:26pmWest Side Story
"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
Fosse76
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/21/05
#23re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 11:33pmThat depends on your definition. My personal favorite is Miss Saigon. But I also Like Wicked and Avenue Q and Cabaret and Ragtime and... the list is endless.
jam_man
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/25/05
#24re: Best Musical of all time?
Posted: 8/27/05 at 11:52pm
My personal top 10:
1. Sweeney Todd - the peak of the musical theatre (watching Hearn-Lansbury DVD right now!).
2. Gypsy - In the sense of how great and famous it is, it's the Sweeney Todd of the Golden Age, though I wouldn't refer to it as a "Golden Age musical."
3. Fiddler on the Roof - If you were to write a book about writing a musical, the vast majority of your examples would likely be from Fiddler; and it's argubly the last great "Golden Age musical."
4. Cabaret - The first show of the "Experimental Era."
5. West Side Story - It and Gypsy were precursers(sp?) to the "Experimental Era."
6. A Chorus Line - The most famous show from the "Experimental Era."
7. My Fair Lady - The most famous "Golden Age musical," and it's quite possibly the best show of that mold.
8. A Little Night Music - The most sophisticated musical ever, in my opinion. If you truly apprectiate this show, then you are officially a "theatre snob" (as am I).
9. Follies - Wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL score. Bottom line.
10. Company - It asserted Sondheim and Hal Prince as THE leading force of change in 1970s American musical theatre.
Of course, those are just my picks, take them as you will.
"Who is Stephen Sondheim?" -roninjoey
"The man who wishes he had written Phantom of the Opera!" - SueleenGay
GO CARDINALS!!!
Updated On: 8/27/05 at 11:52 PM
"The man who wishes he had written Phantom of the Opera!" - SueleenGay
GO CARDINALS!!!
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