Favorite Overtures

I adore the overture to CANDIDE.
It has to be one of my all time favorites.

I also like the overture to SEUSSICAL (always gets me in the mood)

I agree with Gypsy...there's something about those squealing trumpet solos! It's so powerful, I love it! I also like Chicago's.

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The Wiz
Nine
Its a bird its a plane...its superman
Debbie Does Dallas
They're Playin Our Song
Scarlet Pimpernel
Jesus Christ Superstar


STEVOS

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Updated On: 10/22/03 at 11:32 PM

Mack and Mable (Jerry Herman knows what a great overture should sound like), Carousel (Prologue/Overture- whatever it is. GORGEOUS), and Gypsy.

hands down GYPSY... as soon as it started, it just gave me this huge thrill of musicals in the late 80s early 90s when i was a small child..and how "old school" bway used to be with the conductor in full tuxedo.. and just real music..not bubble gum stuff..dont get me wrong, i love mamma mia but Gypsy is what bway is all about and that overture is a story in itself.

Updated On: 10/23/03 at 12:34 AM

GYPSY

NO, NO, NANNETTE

MY FAIR LADY

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GYPSY to keep the theme going...LOL.

CANDIDE for sure.

NEW GIRL IN TOWN - a Bob Merrill score available on CD that has some really nice songs.

And CAMELOT.

Gypsy is one of the only shows I saw that even HAD an overture.

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GYPSY, hands down. And if it counts, "Scenes from an Italian Restuarant" from Movin' Out.

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Oklahoma!

Everyone knows the great Styne sound is the standard-bearer. But bravo for remembering one of the most exciting from a flop -- "It's a bird, it's ... superman!" I used to live in the DC area, and a local news show picked it up for its theme. I never tired of hearing it. Another one I love, also by Strouse, is APPLAUSE. The score was pretty ordinary,but the overture sold the show. (I've said it elsewhere, but I thin "Wicked" would be wise to follow suit -- start us off with a big exciting, percussive chunk of "Defying Gravity," rather than the faux Sweeney, atonal stuff that segues into "No one mourns..." If the pop sound was established as the house lights dim, people might not be so jarred when the score uses that idiom for the emotional expressions of its lead, Elphaba. Just a thought. Overtures are sort of passe these days, but they always had a purpose -- to give us a sense of the tone and "feel" of a show.)

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Superman didnt do well because, I don't think they were trying to be as farcical about musical theater as they were. If it came along in todays theater, and was played like Urinetown...it would have been wunderbar!

STEVOS

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