Favorite Overture?

#1

Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 4:27pm

Let's hear them!

1. Gypsy
2. South Pacific
3. Hello Dolly!

You can also include 1st song, if the show has no overture

1. Lion King
2. HAIR
3. Wicked
4. Les Miserables

#2

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 4:28pm

South Pacific, Oklahoma, The Lion King.

#3

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 4:41pm

Wicked? I'm surpised at that. As a song, i thought it was one of the weakest. Although it has grown on me, i don't particularly like it, but as a introduction to show/story i think it's good.

I must say I like: Les Miserables/Next to Normal's Intro's Musically.

#4

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 4:43pm

South Pacific
Wicked
A Chorus Line (No overture but Damn the Opening is great!!!)

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#5

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 4:55pm

Oh C'mon nothing is like hearing the Phantom overture live... though it's recorded :/

#6

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 5:02pm

Gypsy was the first thing that came to mind

#7

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 5:04pm

Gypsy, definitely. And Candide's is awesome!!

#8

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 5:08pm

Candide!!!!!!!

And, the original overture for "Sweeney Todd" (Which was cut) played on the organ was magnificent.

And Hair, if we're including first songs in this.

#9

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 5:09pm

Chicago
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Young Frankenstein (EVERYTHING else about that score was a mess)

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#10

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 5:09pm

I hate typical ALW as much as the next guy, but I actually really like JCS's overture. Blends the major themes of the score together beautifully, in my opinion, and leads very well into "Heaven on their Minds."

Gypsy's and South Pacific's are classics.

And for openings, for me, you can't top "White, a blank page or canvas. The challenge: bring order to the whole, through design *CHORD*"

#11

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 5:09pm

"Mame"
"Me & My Girl"

#12

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 5:55pm

Anything by

Jule Styne
Jerry Herman

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#13

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 5:57pm

On The Twentieth Century
Promises Promises
Woman of the Year

#14

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 6:05pm

Curtains, Young Frankenstein, Gypsy, South Pacific, Oklahoma, Thoroughly Modern Mille, West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, The Little Mermaid, Light In The Piazza (before it got cut)

#15

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 6:08pm

Gypsy
Mamma Mia!
Spamalot
Chicago

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#16

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 6:08pm

Oh yes!! Millie had a wonderful overture.

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"There's nothing good on. The media hates Christmas. The media loves vampires, though. Maybe they will show a Twilight Christmas."
-Danmeg's 10 year old son.

#17

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 6:10pm

Phantom of the Opera
Gypsy
A Tale of Two Cities

(My favourite music-only is the Entr'Acte to the Scarlet Pimpernel, however!)

#18

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 6:17pm

Dear World; Jennie; Darling of the Day; Tenderloin; The Unsinkable Molly Brown

#19

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 6:27pm

Peter Pan
Mamma Mia

#20

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 6:35pm

Candide
The Light in the Piazza
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Young Frankenstein
Promises, Promises

#21

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 7:37pm

Subways are for Sleeping
Mack and Mabel
Finian's Rainbow
Can-Can (film version)
Funny Girl (film version)
Star!
Gypsy (1962 film version)
Candide
Oliver! (film version)
Half A Sixpence (film version)
Thoroughly Modern Millie (1966 film version)

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Updated On: 8/2/09 at 07:37 PM

#22

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 8:28pm

Kiss of the Spider Woman: Prologue. What a great way to begin a show and its so creepy and sets the tone for the entire show.

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Genius lasts longer than beauty.

#23

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 8:40pm

Overtures:
The Light in the Piazza
West Side Story

First Songs:
A Chorus Line
Company
Sunday in the Park with George

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"You have two kinds of shows on Broadway – revivals and the same kind of musicals over and over again, all spectacles. You get your tickets for The Lion King a year in advance, and essentially a family... pass on to their children the idea that that's what the theater is – a spectacular musical you see once a year, a stage version of a movie. It has nothing to do with theater at all. It has to do with seeing what is familiar.... I don't think the theatre will die per se, but it's never going to be what it was.... It's a tourist attraction." Stephen Sondheim

#24

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 8:42pm

I always loe overtures it always gets me in to the mood of the show heres my favorites.

1. Gypsy
2. The King and I
3. South Pacific
4. The Producers
5.Beauty and the beast

#25

re: Favorite Overture?

Posted: 8/2/09 at 8:45pm

Gypsy, WSS, and South Pacific. I love Next to Normal's opening, but certainly not in comparison to the first three. I must say, I am a huge fan of overtures in general, I even liked Cry-Baby's because it existed! I think it's a huge part of musical theater that should exist for every show!

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"I've never encountered such religiously, you know, loyal fans as Broadway musical theater fans. It's amazing." --Allison Janney