Best Scores of the Last 20 Years — Page 2

Passion
Titanic
Ragtime
The Wild Party (Lippa)
The Last Five Years
Hairspray
The Light in the Piazza
Spring Awakening
In the Heights

Anything by David Yazbek

And if movies count:
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Menken)

No love for Little Women?

Love Never Dies
Betty Blue Eyes

To repeat what many other here have said:

RAGTIME

THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA

The best are

Newsies
In The Heights
Billy Elliot
13
The Book of Mormon
Hair
Catch Me If You Can

Among others, already posted and not:

Rent
Titanic
The Drowsy Chaperone
Howard Crabtree's Whoop-dee-Doo (off Broadway)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
and, although others may disagree, I love Sunset Boulevard's score
Next to Normal
Grey Gardens
Triumph of Love
Chess (bad show; great score; although that's somewhat older than the last two decades - yes, it is)

I don't like Side Show as a musical, but the more I listen to its score, the more I have to admit that the music is outstanding. It may well be the most accomplished score of the last two decades.

Not sure Falsettos qualifies as it was written before 20 years ago, although it first appeared on Broadway within the last two decades.

Updated On: 7/21/12 at 10:36 AM

Ragtime

Into the Woods
Passion
Light in the Piazza
The Secret Garden
Parade
The Wild Party (Lippa)
john & jen

Ragtime
The Secret Garden
Tommy (though this one may not count as the rock opera was recorded quite a ways back)
Next to Normal
In the Heights
The Last 5 Years

Into the Woods? Hair?

What part of "last 20 years" do you folks not get?

Ragtime is the best, but Next to Normal is the best of the last 10 years.

On a Side Show note: I think music-wise it is a strong score, but the lyrics bog it down incredibly.

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In order of preference:
1)The Light In The Piazza (It's actually my favourite score of all time. It was the first score that made me realize that music can sometimes tell a story better than words (not that the lyrics aren't beautiful, but a lot of them are in italian and you still understand the story perfectly). The ouverture really makes you feel like you are walking in Italy on a beautiful sunny day)

2)Side Show
(I know that the show has it's flaws (Bill Russell's lyrics are extremely touching, but he sometimes overuses similes), but it's the only show where I never skip a song when I play the cast recording.They are all stellar.)

3)Ragtime
4)Parade
(I love the gorgeous epicness of both scores)

5)Hunchback Of Notre Dame
( I know that the stage adaptation has never been played on Broadway but I think that it's Menken/Schwartz's best work. They are both known for writing fun and light scores, but I think that their undeniable talents shine best on ``dark`` material like this one.)

6)Hairspray
(Usually the score for fun, dance-y shows have bland, unmemorable songs but all the songs in Hairspray are genuinely enjoyable)

7)RENT
8 )Next To Normal
(I'm not that much into rock music, but I really enjoy the scores of RENT and Next To Normal, so that's saying a lot. All the songs are well crafted and memorable)

9)Grey Gardens (It's really an unusual topic for a musical and it could have easily turned into a hot mess, but Scott Frankel and Michael Korie managed to make it a extremely touching and entertaining show.

10)Urinetown (The music is not groundbreaking, but I love how satirical the lyrics are)

#1 - In the Heights
#2 - Rent
#3 - Book of Mormon
#4 - Wicked
#5 - Next to Normal
#6 - Spring Awakening
#7 - Avenue Q
#8 - Bonnie & Clyde
#9 - Drowsy Chaperone
#10- The Color Purple

If we are discussing score and not the troubled original productions, LaChiusa's Wild Party and his *gorgeous* Marie Chrstine definitely need to be included.