Lengthy Opening Numbers that Do and Don't Work...

One that's never worked for me at all was Sunset Boulevard's. It just seems to go on and on and on, and there's never one memorable or interesting piece of music in the whole first ten minutes of the show.

It's terrible.

I like Sunset's. It has that very "Hollywood" feel to it, and I think the melody is rather catchy.

I never thought Dirty Rotten Scoundrels found an opening that fully works.

I think the RENT opening works great with the show and sets up the whole "singing and talking" thing.

Beauty & The Beasts' works well

So does Sunset's IMO.

The Phantom one kind of drags IMO, but I think a lot of people like it.

That opening number for Evita is tough to pull off. A recent Seattle production put me to sleep before Eva even stepped on stage.

I did find one good thing about High Fidelity. The set. But of course, a good set does not a cast recording make. I also enjoy how they pulled quotes from critics to make it look like it was a hit. Nice try!

Ditto on ACL. A great opening sequence. Dreamgirls has a good one too.

I do have to admit, despite being in numerous productions that paid my bills many a summer and winter, the opening sequence of Joseph... yada yada, bores me to tears when I have to watch it.

It was red and yellow and green and snooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeee.

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Sunset has a long opening number? umm which? Similarly what's the long opening for Phantom of the Opera?

Menken does great openings but--Bells of Notre Dame is long and works as does Belle--Skid Row is classic but not all that long I guess. (Similarly Schwartz did a great number, Deliver Us, for the animated Prince of Egypt that the score never quite lives up to again)

Ragtime's opening is brillinat I think.

Chorus Line too.

I do think Hal Prince was maybe right about A Little Night Music--when it's performed with the full overture AND the full Night Waltz it can be over 10 minutes until we as an audience really know who any of these characters are--but the music is so gorgeous I kinda don't care. Other great Sondheim openings are Sunday's title song, ITW, EVerybody's Got the Right and Company--PO coming close.

I *love* the full 8 minute Our Night opening for Pet SHop Boys' Closer to Heaven. it was a mistake not to include it on the CD (they said they wanted the CD to work more as a pop album bu that makes no sense considering the later tracks) but the full version was included as a free download--I just love how it introduces all the characters.

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Into the Wood's prologue is long, but I think it works.

"Sunset has a long opening number? umm which?"

Let's Have Lunch is what the song is called I believe. It goes on Fooorrrrevvveerrrr..... and it's just Joe Gillis meeting with people and having the same reaction with them (He needs money and they turn him down).

I don't know how it would look onstage, but listening to it was painfully dull. But then again I think that show as a whole was a massive dissapointment. It only has two good numbers and the rest of it was just sh*t.

"This Side of the Tracks" in THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL works wonderfully to establish the characters in addition to giving the 3 trailer ladies a chance to strut their stuff and get the audience pumped.

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I second Into the Woods. It's one great flow until they hit the forest.

Ragtime is my personal favorite

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"Footloose/On Any Sunday" gives the audience the song that they're familiar with along with introducing the story. Fantastic opening number.

What happens AFTER the opening number is another story.

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