In your opinion, what are the ten greatest musicals of all time?- Page 3

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 6/12/05 at 8:01am

Not in any particular order, because, I mean, How CAN YOU?

The Light in The Piazza
Sweeney Todd
Sunday in The Park With George
Man of La Mancha
Ragtime
Cabaret
West Side Story
Into The Woods
Camelot
A Little Night Music

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/13/05 at 2:40am

The heading says "Ten greatest musicals of all time" and once again we get lists of people's favourite shows.

The great ones are shows that forged new territory in the musical theatre, were popular when they premiered and remain popular without having become dated.

Maybe we should compile a list of 25 or so to choose from. How about these:

1. SHOW BOAT
2. PORGY AND BESS
3. OKLAHOMA!
4. CAROUSEL
5. ANNIE GET YOUR GUN
6. KISS ME KATE
7. SOUTH PACIFIC
8. GUYS AND DOLLS
9. THE KING AND I
10.MY FAIR LADY
11.WEST SIDE STORY
12.GYPSY
13.CABARET
14.HAIR
15.COMPANY
16.A CHORUS LINE
17.CHICAGO
18.SWEENEY TODD
19.EVITA
20.SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
21.LES MISERABLES
22.GRAND HOTEL
23.PASSION
24.RENT
25.RAGTIME

[MsNina]

Posted: 6/13/05 at 3:07am

My Fair Lady
West Side Story
Kiss Me, Kate
Gypsy
Candide
Into the Woods
Les Miz
Company
Sweeny Todd
Porgy y Bess

[Teeny Todd]

Posted: 6/13/05 at 10:11pm

Sweeney Todd
Les Miserables
Rent
Jesus Christ Superstar
Cabaret
Gypsy
West Side Story
Chicago
Evita
Jekyll and Hyde

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:03am

Gees, I never knew so many loved Showboat...I guess I should see it.

kind of in order

Rent
Les Miz
Lion King
Fiddler on the Roof
Little Shop of Horrors
Assassins
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Into the Woods
Wicked
Phantom of the Opera

[Whiteguy2088]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:06am

A list is not complete w/o CATS.

Even if you do not like it - it revolutionized theatre and gave it vitality that it needed.

[~*Triple Star On Broadway*~]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:41am

Ugh, okay here goes....

1. A Chorus Line
2. West Side Story
3. Company
4. Chicago
5. Sweeney Todd
6. The Producers
7. Avenue Q
8. Sweet Charity
9. Crazy For You
10. HAIR



Theres about 3476238 others ones i could have chosen, and I will probably change this list later, but these were the ones to come to mind.

[actor/director]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 2:47am

I honestly don't think that any musical written in the past 10 years has any business being on this list. The way musicals have been commercialized and dumbed down for the masses as a result of uninnovative producers has certainly ruined Broadway and Musical Theatre. I also believe that the musicals that did in fact win a Pulitzer Prize for drama all deserve a place on the list, even though I must admit I'm not familiar with all of them. Having said that...here's my list(and if I left a Pulitzer winner off, it's because I'm not familiar enough with it to list, but it still deserves its place). OH...finally...I think that if you did do a list, you should be able to back your answers up better than, "such and such was awesome in it" or "the music was really cool."

In random order:

1. West Side Story(Shakespeare, Bernstein, Robbins, Sondheim...we'll never see a team like that again)

2. Oklahoma(wihtout which, we wouldn't even have musicals)

3. My Fair Lady

4. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

5. South Pacific

6. A Chorus Line(even though I hate this show, it still was innovative)

7. Rent(even though it's waivered these past few years, it's still one of the only musicals in the past 20 years to actually be influenced by the music of its time, like the musicals of Tin Pan Alley era did)

8. Sweeney Todd

9. Sunday in the Park with George(the best documentary style musical)

10. Absolutely nothing by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Future musicals possible for the list are anything by Adam Guettel, once he crawls out of his family's shadow, most anythign by Andrew Lippa when he can get a decent commission, and something by Jason Robert Brown when he finds a collaborator that can deal with his ego.

So...that's my oppinion...let the bashing of my list begin!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 3:01am

What did CATS revolutionize? The bad, plotless musical that was all flash no substance? Finding new ways to incorporate yak hair on stage?

DREAMGIRLS, the year before, had already revolutionized the Broadway musical technologically with the first computerized light and sound board (which CATS used) and was ten times more innovative in terms of stagecraft.

We'd seen other, better dance-oriented shows before (42nd Street, Dancin and other Fosse shows, Bennett shows, Robbins shows et al).

The ONLY thing you can say about CATS is that it had great marketing -- not the first show to have great marketing, but they did it well.

Broadway was not need of "revitalization" and had plenty of hit shows in 1982 when Cats showed up -- Dreamgirls, Nine, A Chorus Line, 42nd Street et al -- and would have been JUST FINE if it had stayed in England and never crawled across the pond.

[actor/director]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 3:16am

Totally agree with ya Margo. Cats did nothing but change Broadway for the worse if anything. I almost added any show produced by Cameron Mackintosh as a negative, because the British invasion of the mega-musical by far was the worst thing to happen. Ticket prices soared, the quality of the material died, and too much emphasis was put on amplification and gimmicks like falling chandaliers and helicopters. The test of a good musical, in my oppinion, is if it is just as good by reading the libretto and listening to the score. Granted choreography plays an improtant role in selecting best musicals, but the ballet sequences in West Side Story and Oklahoma are just as exciting to listen to as they are to watch.

[Hairspraydoll]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 3:50am

It changes all the time but in no particular order:
1 Into the Woods
2 West Side Story
3 A Chorus Line
4 Once On This Island
5 Avenue Q
6 Kiss Me Kate
7 Gypsy
8 Assassins
9 Sweeney Todd
10 Rent

Updated On: 6/14/05 at 03:50 AM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 4:11am

Actor/director--

No bashing, but......

1. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is not respected in theatre circles. Ever since it honored "Harvey" over "The Glass Mengaerie" 60 years ago (and in later years gave "No Award" the year of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" because several jury members considered it to be "filth" and recently made several dubious selections including "Anna in the Tropics" which the the panel of critics awarded based only on reading the play, but then all panned after actually seeing it in production), the award has little meaning. The reputation of "The Pulitzer" has always come from its Journalism Awards -- which are deservedly acclaimed -- NOT from the Drama Prize (and incidentally, you omitted TWO musical recipients -- "Of Thee I Sing" and "Fiorello!").

2. OKLAHOMA is certainly a landmark, but to say "without which, we wouldn't even have musicals" is overstating the case. We had several GREAT, classic, influential musicals before it -- SHOWBOAT, ANYTHING GOES, PAL JOEY, PORGY AND BESS (which Sondheim has called "the only musical that will still be around in 100 years" and considers the greatest ever written). OKLAHOMA wasn't even the first "integrated" musical, but its success elevated the necessity for books and music and lyrics and staging to fit together as one complete, coherent whole. We'd certainly have had musicals -- very good musicals, in fact -- without OKLAHOMA (we'd had hundreds before it), but that it was such a major success changed the standards for the way MOST musicals were written subsequently. It wasn't the first or even best musical, but it may be the most influential.

3. SUNDAY IN THE PARK is FAR from a "documentary-style" musical. It's fiction. In fact, nothing really is known of Georges Seurat's life. We know that he was a 19th century French painter who employed the pointillist style and left behind several impressive paintings that he didn't sell in his lifetime. That's it. We don't know whether he had a mistress or if her name was Dot (for all anyone knows, he could have been gay). We don't know that he had a competitive friend named Jules. We don't know whether he valued art over life itself. We don't know whether he was a loner or that he had an annoying mother. ALL of that is the invention of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim from their impressions of the painting, their imaginations and the very few, very sketchy biogrphical details that are known of Seurat's life. All of the characters and nearly all of the details in the show were crafted during the creative process in order to come up with a plot for a musical about a visionary painter about whom nothing is known -- all we have is his work to draw on. SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE is anything, but documentary-style. It's pure fiction - but, certainly, brilliant fiction at that.

Updated On: 6/14/05 at 04:11 AM

[queenie2]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 5:55am

My ten favorites:

- Elisabeth
- Wicked
- Tick Tick Boom
- Hedwig and the angry inch
- Rent
- Chicago
- The wild party (Lippa)
- Ragtime
- Merrily We Roll Along
- Nine

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 6:29am

Thats fine, Queenie but we don't care about your favourites! We want to know what shows you consider the greatest musicals ... the ones that have influenced the genre and remain popular without becoming dated. Great musicals like OKLAHOMA! and MY FAIR LADY. These shows recieve upwards of 500 productiosn a year.

It is too soon to tell of course but somehow I doubt that 10 years frm now we'll be seeing 500 productions a year of THE WILD PARTY, or HEDWIG, or TICK TICK BOOM. And no one even does ELIZABETH now.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 6:35am

OK - looking back over this thread - I'm amazed that people are not including Light in The Piazza on their lists - have you SEEN IT?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 6:46am

PIAZZA has wonderful music but do you really think it will become a staple of community theatre in 10 years? I gues we'll have to wait and see.

[ken8631]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 8:08am

Most of the people on this list are probably too young to have seen most of whats on that list.

For me, it's Les Mis as Number 1. Saw it 18 times over 15 years while it was on broadway, and continue to see it when it comes by on tour. I've seen many broadway shows, but this is by far number one, and always will be to me.

[zippyjen]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 11:21am

hmm no particular order
cabaret
rent
west side stroy
sweeny todd
hair
king and i

[XOsweet_dancerOX]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 12:13pm

1. Wicked
2. RENT
3. Phantom
4. AIDA
5. Spamalot
6. Piazza
7. Spelling Bee
8. You're a Good Man Charlie Brown
9. La Cage
10. West Side Story

[Rentjenn]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 1:30pm

Why so much venom over lists including favorites instead of a dissertation on importance? Not all landmark musicals were great and not all great musicals were landmark.

1. The Last 5 Years
2. Les Miserables
3. My Fair Lady
4. Wicked
5. Aspects of Love
6. Into the Woods
7. Parade
8. The Phantom of the Opera
9. Rent
10.West Side Story

[DefyGravity23]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 9:01pm

It's hard to do this because there is a definite difference between people's personal favorites and the musicals that were the most well liked, most influencial, longest running, or most successful. It's difficult to define "best".

My personal 10 favorites (as of right now, it seems to change everyday) are:

1. Light in the Piazza
2. Wicked
3. Phantom of the Opera
4. Gypsy
5. Aida
6. Les Miserables
7. Sweeney Todd
8. Once on this Island
9. Miss Saigon
10. West Side Story

If I had seen/heard enough of the classics I would make a list of the musicals that were the best overall, but I haven't seen enough to be able to do justice to it.

[elphieisperky]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 9:12pm

1. Rent
2. Les Miz
3. Wicked
4. West Side Story
5. Ave. Q
6. Spamalot
7. Into the Woods
8. Lion King
9. Gypsy
10. Cats

[joeybiltmore1]

Posted: 6/14/05 at 9:12pm

Guys and Dolls
1776
Fiddler on the Roof
West Side Story
South Pacific
Hello Dolly
The Music Man
Sweeney Todd
A Chorus Line
Les Miserables

plus I'll always hve a soft spot for Annie