Great Musicals with So-So Music?

Do any exist?

(How essential is the music in a musical?)

I don't know if I'd say there are any "Great" musicals (in the sense that Fiddler, My Fair Lady and The King and I are "great" ) with so-so music, but I've definitely ENJOYED musicals whose music I find so-so, such as:

Gentleman's Guide

School of Rock

Rocky

Allegiance

It Shoulda Been You

Again, I don't think any of those shows are really GREAT (though Gentleman's Guide is the best of the bunch), but I enjoyed them all, despite not enjoying the music very much.

There are also some shows like "On the 20th Century" and "1776," whose music I did NOT like on the cast album, but then when I eventually saw them live, I enjoyed the score a lot more because it worked so well in the context of the show.

Updated On: 12/22/15 at 12:57 AM

Since I personally believe that the music is the most important part of a musical, I'd be hard pressed to come up with an example of a "great" musical with so-so music.

However, there are any number of iconic musical productions that were great because of the actress (usually) in the role, or sometimes the synchronicity of the time. However, those "fall from greatness" as revivals fail to capture the magic of the original experience.

If we consider famous hit musicals, then I can think of "Applause" [and "Woman of the Year"] or "Rent."

...or "Mame" or most of ALW (ducking and running)

Updated On: 12/22/15 at 02:40 AM

Could one possibly think a show achieves a greatness which significantly outclasses its score? Sure, why not? (the opposite, so-so or even bad musicals with great scores are commonplace btw).

I, for instance, loved In the Heights. But did I love the score? No. Which is not to say I thought the score was bad.

Others have reached similar conclusions about other shows. While I don't necessarily share the below-paraphrased opinions, I've certainly heard them and believed they honestly reflected the reviewer's opinions:

1776 ("a superb play with some fairly decent music", Nine ("spectacular and moving and there were a few ok songs", Hamilton ("epic and brilliant but the music isn't my cup of tea", The Will Rogers Follies ("what showmanship! what great dancing! the music? I don't really remember much of it, guess it was ok", Into the Woods ("I was profoundly moved by the story and where it unexpectedly took me, how it made me think, but don't really like Sondheim's music all that much", Irma la Douce ("a great show for one reason: Elizabeth Seal!", Man of La Mancha ("a great musical for one reason and one reason alone: Richard Kiley!", Phantom of the Opera ("what a derivative and trite score and the book was even worse but what a grand production; Hal Prince is a genius!" Avenue Q ("I laughed my ass off but the score? meh".

Updated On: 12/22/15 at 08:13 AM

Spamalot. Not a single memorable tune. We bought premium tickets for a special trip to NY the weekend before my wife was to have rotator cuff surgery. The idea was to have a big fun weekend, and to see the big fun musical. I remember getting the CD before we saw the show and being unable to listen to it all the way through -- it was that bad. Easily grounds for divorce.

Curtain came up, and she laughed all night (who knew she loved slapstick?), and bought an "I'm not dead yet" t-shirt on the way out. She wore it to the hospital. (Everything turned out great.)

But the music was terrible.

m

BTW -- I loved the music to Next to Normal, and still play it regularly.

To each their own but I'm a bit surprised to see the inclusion of Next to Normal on a few of these lists. I still think it is one of the best scores in the past 15 years or so.

Mystery of Edwin drood, good show with a few good songs (the finale is one of my favorites though). I'm shocked to see Nine mentioned above, I've always thought the score was terrific.

I don't think anyone mentioned NINE but me, Gypsy101, and I did so merely as an example of a show some people might believe outclasses its score. Personally, I think both the show and the score are equally very good. "Great" might be going too far for me personally in describing either but that's beside the point.

Similarly, for instance, I personally find both NEXT TO NORMAL and its score to be great; but that doesn't mean that there aren't others who, while perhaps huge fans of the show might be less impressed with its score.

Updated On: 12/22/15 at 11:16 AM

Nine had great songs but you would never know by watching the movie. I think Sweeney Todd edited Nine.

Updated On: 12/22/15 at 12:05 PM

The score for Funny, even though slight in nature, was pleasant. They had a chance to do a great film adaptation and butchered the score and weakened the movie in the process.

Oops, I forgot Motherhood as filler. I did not know, but if you consider how few songs were in the show, and the controversy about the originality of the title song, he didn't write a lot of song, I guess. One thing I have learned from this site is that there are lots of different opinions out there, so I will agree to disagree re Ribbons. It find it boring.

Of course, I may change my mind if I ever see another production that is not a carbon copy of the original. It is a song that I would never expect to hear outside of the show.

Hello Dolly is an interesting one for me. The show is my favorite of all time, but I love it for how damn funny it is (which is thanks to Thornton Wilder). The score has my single favorite musical theatre tune in it (Put On Your Sunday Clothes) as well as the title song, Before the Parade Passes By, Dancing, Elegance, and I think Motherhood is hilarious in context with Carol Channing and Carol Channing only. But some of the other songs are really only good in the show. It doesn't detract from my immense love of the show, but I'm not going to argue it's perfect like Carousel, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, etc. It isn't even Herman's best score, which is without a doubt Mame.

I like the Forum score a lot, it gives the audience a moment to collect itself and it's also perfectly mid-60s in a really sweet sort of way.