Greatest Book Of A Musical - What do you think? — Page 2

Without a doubt

INTO THE WOODS

GUYS AND DOLLS

ANYTHING GOES

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I agree with most of the above except Show Boat (groundbreaking for sure, but the pace in the second act and the sudden aging of everybody and entrace of Kim! oy vey!) and Anything Goes (funny but incoherent in the original version, lovely music but Porter himself said "I have no book sense"). And, uh, Wicked. But...

What about Carousel and A Little Night Music? I love West Side Story as well; maybe that Shakespeare fellow has something to do with that.

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I agree with a lot of these -- how has no one mentioned Sweeney Todd yet???

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Sweeney Todd's score is outstanding - but honestly, the book isn't that great.

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Gypsy and Oklahoma.

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cturtle -- are you serious? I'm not debating the greatness of the score, but the book works perfectly for Sweeney. I think in a way it's even harder to get a book to work so well in a sung-through show (or nearly) than one where songs and dialogue are mixed.
I think that for example with Les Mis and Rent the source materials were richer, so as good as the books are, I wouldn't consider them "greatest."

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"Gypsy". It's one of the only books that is actually on par with a straight play.

Cabaret's book is very powerful.

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I'm going to go with the majority and say GYPSY, for all the reasons previosuly mentioned. It's simply outstanding.

Anyone agree with considering BLOOD BROTHERS as a more modern example of a great musical book?

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But for one song, the score is forgettable.

Updated On: 5/1/08 at 01:07 AM

im loving all this support that GYPSY is getting...its one of my favorites and im so glad that so many people out there love it so much

fiddler is strong too, as is 42nd just because

ps...hot pic cturtle

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I think that you should take the book of Sweeney very seriously. It is a dark gothic melodrama, with moments of comic relief provided by Lovett, Pirelli and a few others. If it in any way, even for a moment suggests farce or camp, then the director of that particular production is at fault because that is precisely what Prince and Sondheim did NOT intend from the show.

And if, it seemed to you that Turpin ever casually discarded Joanna, that's another wrong-headed directorial choice in the production you saw, and not an issue with the original book.

The book of "Sweeney" is rock-solid, but many directors see it as open for inappropriate interpretation. In the past 150 years, there have been literally dozens of versions of Sweeney Todd on stage in London and elsewhere. Sondheim purposely chose Christopher Bond's adaptation of the story (as opposed to a dozen others), because it gave meat and weight to Todd's motivations in the plot.

While the musical has it's humorous moments, it is NOT supposed to in any way be a farce or comedy. If it comes off that way, then that particular production has done a complete disservice to the original text. It's supposed to be played very serious and scary, albeit in somewhat heightened, stylized dramatic form, never winking to the audience and always with a sense of danger. If with the factory whistles etc.. you don't find yourself at least occasionally unsettled, then you're watching the wrong production of the show.

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Updated On: 6/21/05 at 01:45 AM