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:
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.
Caption: Every so often there was a rare moment of perfect balance when I soared above him.
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.
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.