Skip to main content
My Shows
News on your favorite shows, specials & more!
Home For You Chat My Shows Register/Login Games Grosses

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

New Post Search Report Abuse Rules

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.

#1

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/10/10 at 8:42pm

What do you think is the best written (score plus book) musical on Broadway currently? Do not include anything other than the score and book in your decision.
"Broadway...I'll lick you yet!"
#5

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/10/10 at 9:19pm

Night Music for sure. I've read the libretto more times than any other book. =)
<-----Bernadette Peters and Alexander Hanson in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC.

Send in the clowns...Send in the crowds!

"I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface."-Stephen Sondheim
#9

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/10/10 at 9:46pm

Probably either West Side Story or A Little Night Music. South Pacific also has one of the best scores, but that book drags too much, in my opinion.


Also, um, I like the score for Hair, but to say it's the best when you have shows like West Side Story, A Little Night Music and South Pacific running is a little...odd.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain. -Kad

Updated On: 2/10/10 at 09:46 PM

#11

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/10/10 at 9:59pm

At the moment? A Little Night Music. WSS and South Pacific are dragged down by their books.

My opinion would be different if Ragtime were still running, mind you.
#12

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/10/10 at 10:28pm

Night Music
West Side Story
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
#13

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/10/10 at 10:49pm

I have to agree: West Side Story and South Pacific are hurt by their books; not saying the shows aren't good, but they drag like no other! A Little Night Music is full of wonderful songs and dialogue.
#15

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/10/10 at 11:39pm

Close seconds would be West Side Story for the score but not the book and A Little Night Music for the book and the score together.

But the all-around writing honors I would, with a little ambivalence, give to Next to Normal.

It takes contemporary lives and problems, both personal and societal, and tells a story with an imaginative use of music and movement and opportunities of everyone in the cats to shine.

It's a silly question, actually, but I would go with Next to Normal, and I think that, were they alive, Lenny and Jerry might agree. (Not Athur, of course.)
#16

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/10/10 at 11:50pm

I was going to say Next to Normal also, but I didn't have that guts to. I have no experience with Night Music but to me the story telling(I am absolutely in love with how they tell it) and interesting and well thought out plot of Next to Normal combined with great lyrics and music make it the best musical written on Broadway right now that isn't a revival. Because the only revival on this list I have experience with is West Side Story(which I love).
#20

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/11/10 at 1:07am

Has to be A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. I find both SOUTH PACIFIC and WEST SIDE STORY a trial to sit through - any production.
#21

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/11/10 at 3:38am

It's gotta be West Side Story, possibly my favorite musical ever. South Pacific and A Little Night Music are also pretty brilliant though.

I would not agree that Next to Normal belongs in a league with the three shows I mentioned. It's a daring show, but nowhere near as good as those classics. In terms of the original musicals playing on Broadway, I think Billy Elliot is a much better written show, combination of score and book.

~Steven
#22

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/11/10 at 4:05am

Rock of Ages! =)

"People have their opinions and that doesn't mean that their opinions are wrong or right. I just take it with a grain of salt because opinions are like as*holes, everyone has one". -Felicia Finley-
#24

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/11/10 at 8:45am

It may be a generation thing -- younger people can't sit still for as long and need more constant action -- not a criticism, just the way it is.

But there is a reason South Pacific plays as well today as it did over 50 years ago, and a reason that even non theatre-goers love it. While I'm in theatre and I love Sondheim and I love A Little Night Music, I've heard from many "non theatre" people who found it slow and boring (including younger ones). That's rarely the case with South Pacific.

#25

Best Written Musical Currently on Broadway?

Posted: 2/11/10 at 8:46am

South Pacific by far. The integration of the score and the book is seamless.

A Little Night Music's is close. WSS's book is good but its weakest asset.

Sad to say, it's been ages since a contemporary book musical could compete with the likes of these. Light in the Piazza and Ragtime are the only two I can think of off hand, and (Ragtime revival aside) they aren't all that recent.

← Back to Message Board

BroadwayWorld TV

View all Videos

Ticket Central
Ticket Central
Ticket Central
Hot Show
Tickets From $59
Hot Show
Tickets From $71
Hot Show
Tickets From $71
Hot Show
Tickets From $95
More Hot Shows Discounts
Recommended For You