Best Openning Numbers — Page 2

These are great openings. Openings by nature really should be fierce. It's what hooks the audience in to the show. West Side is great because it tells you EXACTLY what you'll see (dancing gang members. I'm sure WISHIHADATONY will tell you the Sondheim anecdote about the mad walking out of the opening. Others I'd like to add

Caroline Or Change
Fosse - for some reason I found the idea of a Danced Overture (an opening comprised of the all the classic moves you'll see in the entire 3 acts) to be inventive.
Chicago

All That Jazz - CHICAGO

Prologue/Overture - THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

Titanic!
42nd Street, On the 20th Century and A Chorus Line are close seconds.

"Comedy Tonight" from A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM

Everybody knows that song; it's great.

"there you are"
from mystery of edwin drood

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Wilkemmon (sp?) - Cabaret

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Some bit of trivia on "Comedy Tonight"... The original opening number was "Love Is in the Air". It took audiences half-way through the first act to realize it was a farce, not a sweet romantic comedy. Director George Abbott asked Sondheim to write a different opening, thus "Comedy Tonight".

I love that number. It even flat out TELLS you it's going to be a happy ending and the whole show is purely for entertainment value, no beating the audience in the face with themes and morals, just Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford being funny as hell. I also like the joke Jerry Zaks added in the '96 revival with the early-raising of the curtain to reveal death and wailing... "Tragedy TOMORROW, comedy TONIGHT!"

EDIT: I forgot to name others...

"Why Can't the English?" Higgins is such a bad-ass...
Sweeney had nice staging as well as great music and lyrics
Into the Woods
It's not a big, splashy opener, but "The Sound of Music"
just to name a few...

Updated On: 3/13/05 at 06:13 PM