Favorite Broadway Overtures!

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 12/5/16 at 3:22pm

I'm tuning into AccuBroadway right now and am continually reminded how many overtures are just fun to listen to. What're your favorites? Entr'actes count here, too. Mine are:

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Candide

Gypsy

The Carousel Waltz

Phantom (guilty pleasure...)

[After Eight]

Posted: 12/5/16 at 3:39pm

Dear World is my favorite. 

And my favorite in the theatre, as well.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 12/5/16 at 3:40pm

I'm pretty partial to Oklahoma!

[Ranger Tom]

Posted: 12/5/16 at 3:40pm

My Fair Lady 

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 12/5/16 at 3:42pm

Jesus Christ Superstar, easily.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 12/5/16 at 3:50pm

South Pacific, Gypsy, Merrily We Roll Along, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

[adam.peterson44]

Posted: 12/5/16 at 4:37pm

I love the Gypsy and 42nd Street overtures, as well as the Carousel Waltz.

[whatdoesntkillme]

Posted: 12/5/16 at 4:39pm

Merrily We Roll Along!

[hork]

Posted: 12/5/16 at 4:45pm

Jesus Christ Superstar

Cats (other than "Memory," it's the only good part of the show)

 

Basically, I like any overture that doesn't begin with a big, showy fanfare (like almost every overture ever written).

 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 12/5/16 at 4:51pm

Merrily. No competition.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 12/6/16 at 12:10pm

FUNNY GIRL

 

HIGH SPIRITS

 

THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (it sounds great on my Golden Ear Technology Triton One speakers).

 

And of course GYPSY.

[Another Winter]

Posted: 12/6/16 at 12:21pm

Funny Girl or Sweet Charity!

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 12/6/16 at 7:41pm

In no particular order:

• * Gypsy
• * Merrily We Roll Along
• * My Fair Lady

And although they're not traditional overtures:

• * The Carousel Waltz from Carousel
• * Runyonland from Guys and Dolls
• * Prologue (All things Bright and Beautiful) from Follies

Updated On: 12/6/16 at 07:41 PM

[Valentina3]

Posted: 12/6/16 at 11:11pm

Funny Girl and Wicked. Both have a very strong power to totally transport me. I actually like Mamma Mia's overture too. It has the same grandioseness to it.

[UncleCharlie]

Posted: 12/6/16 at 11:22pm

Guys and Dolls

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 12/7/16 at 12:09am

 

The Carousel Waltz is such an unbelievable piece of music. I've always wondered why it didn't transcend into the ranks of classical music, or play as a piece on classical music stations.

[Stage Door Sally]

Posted: 12/7/16 at 12:22am

I admire Urinetown for its understated quirkiness. Hello, Dolly! is outright fun!

[ggersten]

Posted: 12/7/16 at 12:34am

Gypsy

Candide

Carousel Waltz

Damn Yankees

[bct14972]

Posted: 12/7/16 at 12:45am

1. Merrily We Roll Along

2. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

3. Candide

4. The Full Monty

5. Sweet Charity

6. Gypsy

7. Amour

8. She Loves Me

9. Nine

10. Guys And Dolls

Urinetown is also great for the music that it is sending up, especially now that I've understood that parody in a richer way in recent years.

 

[PatrickDC]

Posted: 12/7/16 at 12:53am

(jazz) Hands down, CHICAGO, and how it segues into All That Jazz. I actually like CHICAGO's Entr'acte even better.

[JoseLee_]

Posted: 12/7/16 at 2:47am

Priscilla Queen of the Desert

[Roland von Berlin]

Posted: 12/7/16 at 5:33am

This is going back some, but Show Boat has a unique overture in that it is less a medley than a tone poem, and included (in the original 1927 version) music that had been cut. What other overture plays cut music?

Another unusual overture is that to Goodtime Charley, which also has a "tone poem" sound to it, and, on the cast album, sounds as if a huge orchestra were playing, not just the pit band.

[lotiloti]

Posted: 12/7/16 at 5:47am

The Tap Dance Kid overture has always been a favourite of mine

[Pit Monger]

Posted: 12/7/16 at 10:41am

Have to totally agree with:

gypsy

sweet charity

funny girl

chicago

42nd street

also love:

bye bye birdie

annie get your gun (60's Lincoln center)

on your toes (original spialek)

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 12/7/16 at 10:46am

How did I forget Chicago and Show Boat?! Shame on me...