Follies vs.. Two Gentleman of Verona

Best Musical: Follies Vs. Two Gentleman of Verona
Verona Won!.......However it's FOLLIES that's a classic
Best Musical: West Side Story VS. The Music Man
Music man Won!.......However it's WEST SIDE STORY that's a classic

This Year: Best Musical Revival
West Side Story VS. Hair......and the winner will be ??

Agreed that the OP is selling The Music Man a bit short. I know many, many people who greatly prefer it to West Side Story. To imply that it is not a classic is just plain foolish.

The Music Man is a wonderful show. One way to look at it, it's about how art transforms a community.

Music Man was a huge hit, both commercially and artistically, when it first opened on Broadway.

To imply anything less only shows your ignorance.

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Follies is known for its innovation, lavish sets and costumes, classic score, and the whopping original cast. It is something of an academic classic, celebrated among those who are theatre savvy rather than known to the general public, with the exception of a few songs (not the the general public would know what they were from). Unfortunately, the show never found real success in fully staged production (it's the book, if you ask me) and no one has really agreed on how it can be fixed.

Two Gentlemen of Verona was fluffy entertaining piece that was cleverly constructed and ingeniously staged for one purpose: to delight and enchant the audience. It succeeded and won the top prize while Follies won the Tonys it deserved, in my opinion. The biggest distraction in its writing are the clunky lyrics, but I think it is one of the most underrated musicals out there. I saw the production at the Delacorte and while it needed some comedic tightening and the choreography could have been beefed up a bit, I instantly saw how it won Best Musical and the dated style of the piece actually worked in its favor. I don't know why it didn't get a Broadway transfer (Norm Lewis and Renee Elyse Goldsberry would have been major Tony contenders). Even with its faults, it still remains one of my favorite shows I've seen in New York ("Bring All the Boys Back Home" was entirely relevant in the Park and the audience cheered it wildly) and if I had to choose Follies or Two Gentlemen to see again, I'd have to pick the latter.

The Music Man is a classic and actually one of the most perfect musicals ever written.

West Side Story vs Hair? Well, it has nothing to do with the shows themselves so much as the staging and performances, since they are revivals. I get that you're trying to do something of a six degrees thing here, but it doesn't really work. Hair is quite different from Two Gents, much like Passion is quite different from Forum. And comparing revivals to original productions isn't quite the same either. Both West Side Story and Hair lost the Best Musical Tony their respective years to The Music Man and 1776. I think it is a little more interesting to see how they will duke it out the same year for Best Revival, though I'm 90% sure Hair will win.

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I was listening to Seth Rudetsky on Sirius XM a couple of weeks ago, and he weighed in on WSS vs MM by playing the Tonight Quintet followed by Shipoopi.

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Think of "Two Gentlemen" more like In the Heights. It was infectious and easy-to-like. "Bring All the Boys Back Home" was thrilling because it was a musical expressing a political statement. "I'm Very Happy for My Best Friend" was a wonderful comic number. The whole musical was like a party or a carnival.

Follies, with which I was obsessed as a 15-year-old in 1971, was difficult for people to like. Each of the 5 times I brought people to see it, they reacted negatively: teenage friends, older family members--no one shared my obsession.

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Follies is life-changing. Period.

Meanwhile, the biggest hit of that infmous season was GREASE - yet no one complains about it not winning the Tony!

With good reason. GREASE can be fun (if it is done well - which it rarely is) but it is not an award worthy show. It's nominations (Best Musical and Best revivals) was mainly ti fill out teh 4th slot on the category.

Funny trivia about the 1972 Tony awards telecast: They did not present songs from the 4 nominated shows that year. GREASE, FOLLIES and TWO GENTLEMEN were not represented. The 4th Best Musical nominee was AIN'T SUPPOSED TOM DIE A NATURAL DEATH and they offered an extended (and bewildering) sequence from that show.

Although it was not nominated as Best Musical, they did show the Temple scene, Everything's All Right and I Don't Know How to Love Him from JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. (To be fair, the album had been a chart-topper so perhaps they were courting a younger audience.)

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I was a big TWO GENTLEMEN hater for a long time (the OBC didn't help) until I saw the production in Central Park a couple of years. It's a fun, smart feel-good show. No FOLLIES, but still very much worthwhile.

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