Stand-by Joined: 2/5/13
I'm going to just do my top 6. Without any doubt at all
1. The Bridges of Madison County
and then in no particular order,
Scottsboro Boys
Grey Gardens
Fun Home
Billy Elliot
Wicked
Top Five
Caroline, or Change
Matilda
Fun Home
The Last Five Years
The Bridges of Madison County
I'm only going to list my top 5 since I'm not too familiar with the shows from 2000 onwards.
1. The Wild Party (LaChiusa)
2. Fun Home
3. Urinetown
4. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
5. The Producers
No particular order, except to say that the Comet is my very very favorite.
Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812
Caroline, or Change
Next to Normal
Spring Awakening
Fun Home
Matilda
Ghost Quartet
Grey Gardens
In no order: Next to Normal, Bridges, Spring Awakening, Fun Home, In The Heights, Wicked, Book of Mormon, Here Lies Love,Caroline or Change, and Matilda.
I included a couple of "revivals" that received their Broadway premieres and those that may not be "original" scores, but they are among my favorites, nonetheless.
The Wild Party (LaChiusa)
The Full Monty
Seussical
Jane Eyre
Urinetown
Hairspray
Wicked
Bombay Dreams
Caroline, or Change
The Light in the Piazza
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The Drowsy Chaperone
High Fidelity
Legally Blonde
In the Heights
Billy Elliot
Next to Normal
American Idiot
The Scottsboro Boys
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Bonnie and Clyde
Once
Bring It On
Matilda
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
The Bridges of Madison County
Violet
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
And though I haven't seen or heard them yet, I suspect Fun Home and Hamilton will be added to the list.
Great Comet of 1912
Book of Mormon
Grey Gardens
Fun Home
Caroline, or Change
Avenue Q
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
[title of show]
Ghost Quartet
Urinetown
Hairspray
Here Lies Love
Next to Normal
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Odd that we're restricting this to Best Scores rather than Best Shows. Nonetheless--
The Light in the Piazza
The Bridges of Madison County
Billy Elliott (my favorite show of the last 15 years with a pretty good score)
Grey Gardens
Assassins revival (first production on Broadway)
The Scottsboro Boys
The Color Purple
Bonnie & Clyde
Spring Awakening (for music, despite its lyrics)
Next to Normal
Hairspray (the lone musical comedy here)
and my perennial favorite, Bombshell.
Updated On: 5/29/15 at 08:52 PM
Gonna just do a Top Five:
1. Caroline, or Change (should've won the Pulitzer)
2. The Bridges of Madison County (one of my favorite Best Score wins ever)
3. Matilda (Lyrics on level with Sondheim)
4. Spring Awakening (One of the best rock scores ever written)
5. Fun Home (This show felt less like a musical than a play with songs)
Off the top of my head:
Caroline or Change
Hamilton
Passing Strange
In The Heights
Hairspray
Hamilton
The last ship
Fun Home
The Book of Mormon
Hairspray
Spring Awakening
Caroline or Change
The Light in the Piazza
The Producers
Grey Gardens
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Even though it was deemed ineligible for the Tony, American Idiot is my #1 choice. High on my list are Hedwig, Spring Awakening, Passing Strange, The Last Ship and (in advance) Hamilton.
No particular order:
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Light in the Piazza
Bridges of Madison County
Chaplin
Hairspray
The Producers
I love American Idiot too (the album, not the show, which was dreadful dull), but the Green Day album is way better than the Broadway Cast
Updated On: 5/30/15 at 06:21 PM
Fantod, the two albums from which the musical derive are both iconic, so you get no argument from me about that, but I believe "score" is properly based on the material, not the performances. I'd also note that Tom Kitt's work on the score was superlative-so much so that Green Day hired him to work on some of the arrangements on their subsequent albums.
Understudy Joined: 8/25/14
LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA YESSSSS
Next to Normal, [title of show], Last Five Years...
Leading Actor Joined: 1/23/12
In no particular order:
Chaplin (the entire score is great, but the songs that really get to me are "What Only Love Can See", its Reprise, "Look at all the People", and "Man of All Countries")
American Idiot (I've been a Green Day fan since the late 90s, but what Tom Kitt and Michael Meyer managed to do with the band's American Idiot album and certain other songs from their catalog in adapting them into the theatrical format was nothing short of brilliant and, in some cases, made what were already superb songs - such as "21 Guns", "American Idiot", "Holiday", "Are We The Waiting", and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" - even better)
Newsies (I heard the score for the theatrical version of this show long before I saw the film upon which it was based, and actually prefer the theatrical version of the score to the original film's, especially since the stage version has songs like "Something to Believe In", a much better version of "Santa Fe" that makes far more sense story-wise, "Watch What Happens" and its Reprise, and a much more bombastic version of "Once and For All")
The Little Mermaid (Although the 1989 film's score remains in my mind one of the best film scores of all time, the score for its musical adaptation comes very close to surpassing it, especially with songs like "I Want the Good Times Back", "One Step Closer", and the Quartet version of "If Only", all of which really take what was already a great core storyline and enhance it)
The Producers (I saw the filmic adaptation of the musical before hearing the Original Broadway Cast recording, and while both are great in their own right, I prefer certain aspects of the film's score to its theatrical counterpart, particularly the orchestration on "When You've Got It, Flaunt It" and "Along Came Bialy")
Updated On: 7/3/15 at 12:31 AM
American Idiot, In the Heights, and Avenue Q. It doesn't really get much better than those three. I never get tired of listening to them.
Since CAROLINE, OR CHANGE is the best musical so far of the 21st century it's really the only one that needs to be listed.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/2/14
This is a tough one. Definitely i would say The Light in the Piazza for sure (what a beautiful score just beautiful), Next to Normal, If/Then (just love it), Heathers (fun some good songs), Grey Gardens (exquisite), Far From Heaven (I haven't seen it but the cast album is beautiful) Bridges of Madison County (I mean come on one of the best scores written in a long time), Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 ( I made myself sit through the whole cast album and wow just an amazing and beautiful piece of theatre), The Visit (just a good score all around), Fun Home, Caroline, or Change (just as good as FH), Rebecca, Finding Neverland (the Frankel and Korie score, their might have been some problems but they had some beautiful material),Wonderland (It's a fun score), Women on The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (I haven't listened to all of it but I love every song I have heard. Invisible is such a great modern piece), The Last Ship. That's all I can think of.
1. Caroline, or Change
2. Passing Strange
3. Scottsboro Boys
4. Next to Normal
5. The Visit
6. Here Lies Love
7. Hairspray
8. Kinky Boots
9. Wicked
10. Ghost
Leading Actor Joined: 5/9/15
This is such a tough question.
I gotta say I love:
In the Heights
Heathers
Finding Neverland (I know I may get some hate for this one but some of the songs are just so beautiful)
Spring Awakening
Book of Mormon
If/Then
Next to Normal
Ghost
Leading Actor Joined: 1/23/12
Some more favorite scores from the 2000s:
Bring It On (I've never seen the movie, but really liked the music for this one; it reminded me of stuff like Grease and the High School Musical Trilogy; Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Kitt, and Amanda Green really scored, no pun intended, with this one, with songs like "What I Was Born to Do", "Bring It On", "It's All Happening", "Enjoy the Trip", and "We're Not Done" really standing out)
Spring Awakening (This show strikes me as being what you'd get if you took Les Miserables, American Idiot, RENT, Eve 6's Showerhead, and The Offspring's Kristy, Are You Doing Okay, The Kids Aren't All Right, and Gone Away and threw them into a blender with the plotline from J.K. Rowling's novel The Casual Vacancy. Duncan Sheik's musical score is great, and pairs perfectly with Steven Sater's lyrics, which are at their most poignant and powerful on songs like "Mama Who Bore Me", "The Dark I Know Well", "The Mirror-Blue Night", "The Guilty Ones", "Those You've Known", and "The Song of Purple Summer")
The Wedding Singer (The Wedding Singer was the film that completely changed my opinion on Adam Sandler and helped me appreciate just how brilliant of an actor and comedian he is and was, and the spirit of the original film very much lives on through the score of its musical adaptation. I'm particularly fond of the songs "It's Your Wedding Day", "Someday", "A Note From Linda", "Somebody Kill Me", "Casualty of Love", "Come Out of the Dumpster", and "Grow Old With You")
Tarzan (I love the animated version of this show, but really like what was done, for the most part, in adapting it to the stage [I don't get why they changed Terk's gender, but that's my only complaint about the show]. The new songs that Phil Collins wrote are excellent, particularly "As Sure as Sun Turns to Moon", "Different", and "For the First Time", and fit perfectly into the original storyline)
Fun Home (Who would've thought that a graphic novel memoir written in 2006 would turn out to be such a perfect fit for the stage? Jean Tesori and Lisa Kron, that's who. These two really knocked it out of the park on this score, with songs like "It All Comes Back", "Welcome to Our House on Maple Avenue", "Changing My Major", "Ring of Keys", "Days and Days", "Telephone Wire", and "Flying Away" standing out in particular)
Updated On: 8/2/15 at 10:44 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/24/14
N2N
Hairspray
BOM
Passing Strange
Pippin
James and the Giant Peach
Bridges of Madison County
Bring It On
In the Heights
Newsies
Ave Q
Bloody Bloody AJ
Godspell
YANK
Updated On: 8/2/15 at 10:54 PM
Bridges of Madison County
Fun Home
See What I Wanna See
The Wild Party
Wicked
In The Heights
Matilda
Newsies
Spring Awakening
Next to Normal
Giant
The Light In The Piazza
Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812
Videos