There are some flops with music that is, well, mediocre. Let's talk about the flops and the songs that stand out as one of the best (especially if the entire score is the best part of the show).
CARRIE - I'm Not Alone, Heaven, Carrie, And Eve Was Weak (very WICKED-like) THE MAGIC SHOW - Goldfarb Variations, West End Avenue, Two's Company, Lion Tamer HIGH FIDELITY - Top 5 Breakups, Nine Percent Chance, Conflict Resolutions, Turn the World Off MY FAVORITE YEAR - everything! ANYONE CAN WHISTLE - Everybody Says Don't ALL AMERICAN - We Speak the Same Language, What a Country, Melt Us! IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE, IT'S SUPERMAN - You've Got Possibilities CHESS - One Night in Bangkok, The Arbiter, Merano, Quartet, Pity the Child, and the "Chess" theme - such a good song to play on piano SMILE - Until Tomorrow Night, A Typical High School Senior, Disneyland SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS - The Column, Dirt, Welcome To The Night, and others METROPOLIS - Nothing Really Matters
"How could she just suddenly, completely disappear into thin water?" - The Little Mermaid
I think you picked some of the weakest songs from Chess. I think Where I Want to Be, Endgame, and The Deal all stand out a lot more than songs like The Arbiter and Merano.
Also, I think Turn the World Off (or whatever the song was called) from High Fidelity was incredibly weak; Number Five with a Bullet and She Goes both deserve to make your list.
Mr. President - The Secret Service, They Love Me Nick and Nora - Boom Chicka Boom, Men, Anything better than Dancing By Jeeves - It's a Pig, That was Nearly Us, Travel Hopefully 1600 - Just about everything in the score is stellar, but especially Take Care of This House, Sonatina and the Monroviad Allegro - Gentleman is a dope Breakfast at Tiffany's - Travelin', Lament for ten men, Quiet Coffee, Home for Wayward Girls, When Daddy Came Home, You've Never kisse her, Stay with Me, grade A treatment The Entire Score of Candide, as well as The Capeman (you can see im going in alphabetical order now) Celebration - Somebody, Not my problem Do I Hear a Waltz - Moon in my window Magic Show - Solid Silver Platform Shoes, Three Company Martin Guerre - Live with Somebody you Love Merrily - almost the whole damned thing Minnie's Boys - Mama a Rainbow Yeston's Phantom - Home Dear World - I've never said I love you The Rink - Colored Lights, Don't Aah Ma Me, The Apple Doesn't Fall, Wallflower Romance, Romance - Words he Doesn't Say, Snoopy - Poor Baby
That's all I can think of right now..
"Fenchurch is correct, as usual."
-Keen on Kean
"Fenchurch is correct, as usual."
- muscle23ftl
BY JEEVES - Travel Hopefully, It's a Pig (I agree with you on that) CAPEMAN - Everything MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG - Everything STEEL PIER - Everything DEAR WORLD - I've Never Said I Love You THE GRAND TOUR - You I Like HIGH FIDELITY - She Goes, Number Five With a Bullet (maybe you're right) BIG - Fun, Cross The Line, Coffee Black, Dancing All The Time MERLIN - Beyond My Wildest Dreams A BROADWAY MUSICAL - Smashing New York Times (they cut that from "Applause" the first time) DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES - Eternity, Logic, There's Never Been a Night Like This, For Sarah, Carpe Noctem
"How could she just suddenly, completely disappear into thin water?" - The Little Mermaid
I HAD A BALL - Title Song BALLROOM - Fifty Percent BAJOUR - I'm Mean CARMELINA - One More Walk Around the Garden THE GRAND TOUR - Marianne, You I Like MACK AND MABEL - Movies Were Movies, I Won't Send Roses, Time Heals Everything
HIGH FIDELITY had a beautiful song that was sung on the demo by Sherie Rene Scott titled "Perfect." You can hear it as sung by Julia Murney on her solo CD, "I'm Not Waiting."
Just about every song on all four of the Unsung Musicals cds.
From the shows you mentioned Josh I also love: The Sun - Metropolis He Who Knows The Way - Merlin Don't Know Where You Leave Off - Sweet Smell More and More/Less and Less - Grand Tour
CANDIDE- "Glitter and Be Gay" THE RINK- "Don't Ah Ma Me" ANYONE CAN WHISTLE-It'd be easier to list which songs aren't great in this brilliant show. SONG & DANCE- "English Girls," "Come Back Wih the Same Look In Your Eyes" THE ACT-"Arthur in the Afternoon" CAROLINE OR CHANGE-The whole show MACK & MABEL-"Wherever He Ain't," "Time Heals Everything," "Look What Happened to Mabel" SEESAW-"Nobody Does It Like Me," "He's Good for Me," "I'm Way Ahead."
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
BAJOUR - Words, Words, Words BALLROOM - More of the Same URBAN COWBOY - That's How Texas Was Born, It Don't Get Better Than This, Mr. Hopalong Heartbreak SNOOPY - Don't Be Anything Less Than Everything You Can Be, Edgar Allan Poe (that one's a laugh riot!), Just One Person LATE NITE COMIC - It's Such a Different World, Nothing's Changing This Love BRING BACK BIRDIE - Well I'm Not BEN FRANKLIN IN PARIS - Half the Battle BAKER'S WIFE - Any-Day-Now Day, Chanson, Merci Madame, Meadowlark, Proud Lady
"How could she just suddenly, completely disappear into thin water?" - The Little Mermaid
Glad I'm not the only one who loves "More of the Same" from BALLROOM, though it sounds like it could belong in MAMMA MIA.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
HIGH FIDELITY - I really liked a good bit of the music, oops? Especially "It's No Problem" (and its reprise), "She Goes", and "Goodbye and Goodluck". All deserve being mentioned.
IN MY LIFE - "I Am My Mother's Son" and "When I Sing"
MARTIN GUERRE - "I'm Martin Gurre", "Dear Louison" (shut up, I like this song), and I liked the majority of this musical.
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' - It's Bob Dylan music sang by Michael Arden, Lisa Brescia, and Thom Sesma... enough said. Whatever its faults, the music was never one of them.
Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you're up to
CARRIE - And Eve Was Weak, Unsuspecting Hearts THE ACT - The Money Tree DRACULA - Life After Life MARTIN GUERRE - Working On The Land, I Will Make You Proud, The Imposter Is Here, Bethlehem JEEVES - Half A Moment (Before it lost a part of the melody to SUNSET BLVD's "As If We..."), It's A Pig THE BEAUTIFUL GAME - God's Own Country
THE MAGIC SHOW played on Broadway for nearly four years, and I believe it made money. Kindly explain why you consider it a flop.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I don't quite get how Carrie is anything like Wicked. The music in Carrie (at least mother/daughter songs) is quite darker and more grandiose in scale, while Wicked tends to go for more of a pop sound.
Lennon - Had some great vocal arrangements for all songs
Brooklyn - the score was generic but 'raven' was good and 'once upon a time' was impressive in what Eden did 8 times a week (without killing herself)
Merrily - Our Time, Good Thing Going, Not a Day Goes By
HOW NOW, DOW JONES- "Step to the Rear", "Shakespeare Lied" SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING- "Once in a Lifetime", "I'm Just Taking My Time"
THE MAGIC SHOW most certainly wasn't a flop. Ran for over 1,900 performances, was the fifth longest running musical from the 1970s (After A CHORUS LINE, GREASE, ANNIE and PIPPIN) and was Stephen Schwartz's third hit show in a row (After GODSPELL and PIPPIN)
Praying Decca Broadway will put "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" on CD!
Definitely agree with the scores of "Sweet Small of Success" and "Steel Pier" but i think "At the Fountain" and "Running in Place" from the respective shows deserve special mention.
Also, the Little Women score was VERY hit or miss but i think "Here Alone" and "The Fire Within Me" were spectacular.
And Side Show. That score is banging. Except "Rare Songbirds..." and if you've seen or been in that show the "double hot dog" part of "Beautiful Day For A Wedding" is wow. beyond ridiculous. But i love that show. Ok, I'm done.