Most Famous Broadway Show?

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Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:03pm

Most famous past show and most famous show on broadway.
I'd say its a threeway tie for A Chorus Line, Les Mis and Phantom so Phantom would be most famous still on I'd say but Wicked is getting up there.

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:10pm

If you define famous as "everyone's heard of it," I'd say Phantom and Rent.

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:14pm

Most famous by name - The Phantom of the Opera

Most famous by music - The Sound of Music

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:43pm

Cats.

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:53pm

I agree with CalpYo'Hands.

Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:57pm

West Side Story
The Sound of Music

... and Spider-Man

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Updated On: 5/1/11 at 06:57 PM

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 7:09pm

Oklahoma

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 7:18pm

Based on the success of the movie, I'd go with The Sound Of Music, with Grease in the running as well.

"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 7:40pm

I think Rent and Wicked. Seems that people who don't even know Musical Theater are making references to the two of them all the time....

[believe]

#10

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:42pm

Annie Get Your Gun (because of Ethel Merman)

Updated On: 5/1/11 at 11:42 PM

#11

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:53pm

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA's title is not the most famous. The identity of that show is: the guy with the half-mask. Most people who are ignorant of theatre call it "that phantom show." So I would say that it is not the "most famous."

CATS is the most famous Broadway show. Almost *everyone* has heard of it.

If you would of asked what the most famous musical is, THE SOUND OF MUSIC would have won. But because you said "Broadway show" then the answer is CATS. More people know of THE SOUND OF MUSIC as a show rather than its Broadway incarnation.

"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle

#12

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:56pm

HELLO, DOLLY! because Carol Channing is the Universe.

"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)

#13

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/2/11 at 12:45am

At some point, Dolly and Oklahoma probably were the most famous shows, but definitely not now.
AGYG was never the most famous show.
I'll agree with Capn about TSoM being the most famous movie musical but not show, but I'll disagree about Cats- it's been closed a good 10 years so the younger generation isn't really familiar with it, and on a similar note Wicked, which the older generation isn't really familiar with.

#14

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/2/11 at 1:13am

I would say Cats, even if it has been closed for a long time.

"I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand: Till we have built Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land."

#15

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/2/11 at 1:42am

I'm in my mid-twenties and I see that I have a very different perspective than most of you.

I would give extra points to Phantom because most people know it is a Broadway show but they also could describe the plot ("dude in a mask obsessed with a singer"). I'm not sure that's the case anymore for Cats or The Sound of Music.

Also, I think worldwide those two shows are not as well known as Phantom. I can't speak of the U.S. or England but I feel that in other countries most people would think on the film version of West Side Story and not on the Broadway musical.

I would add Chicago to the list. The film version was very successful and I think people do know it is a Broadway show.

#16

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/2/11 at 3:10am

I'm cheating a bit - my answer I think is a representation of the answer of a British person.

#17

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/2/11 at 8:10pm

Oklahoma
My Fair Lady
A Chorus Line
in that order

#18

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/2/11 at 11:19pm

One possible way to measure .... the number of recordings the show has received, which would reflect international albums:

from castalbums.org:

•My Fair Lady (135)
•Grease (127)
•Jesus Christ Superstar (112)
•The Sound Of Music (103)
•South Pacific (93)
•Hair (90)
•West Side Story (8

•Porgy and Bess (87)
•Fiddler on the Roof (74)
•The King and I (6

•Les Misérables (65)
•Evita (61)
•Oklahoma! (56)
•Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (56)
•The Rocky Horror Show (53)
•Godspell (53)
•Annie (52)
•Elisabeth (52)
•The Phantom Of The Opera (49)

2016 These Paper Bullets (1/02) Our Mother's Brief Affair (1/06), Dragon Boat Racing (1/08), Howard - reading (1/28), Shear Madness (2/10), Fun Home (2/17), Women Without Men (2/18), Trip Of Love (2/21), The First Gentleman -reading (2/22), Southern Comfort (2/23), The Robber Bridegroom (2/24), She Loves Me (3/11), Shuffle Along (4/12), Shear Madness (4/14), Dear Evan Hansen (4/16), American Psycho (4/23), Tuck Everlasting (5/10), Indian Summer (5/15), Peer Gynt (5/18), Broadway's Rising Stars (7/11), Trip of Love (7/27), CATS (7/31), The Layover (8/17), An Act Of God (8/31), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (8/24), Heisenberg (10/12), Fiddler On The Roof (11/02), Othello (11/23), Dear Evan Hansen (11/26), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (12/21) 2017 In Transit (2/01), Groundhog Day (4/04), Ring Twice For Miranda (4/07), Church And State (4/10), The Lucky One (4/19), Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (5/16), Building The Wall (5/19), Indecent (6/01), Six Degrees of Separation (6/09), Marvin's Room (6/28), A Doll's House Pt 2 (7/25) Curvy Widow (8/01)

Updated On: 5/2/11 at 11:19 PM

#19

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/3/11 at 8:32am

I would give extra points to Phantom because most people know it is a Broadway show but they also could describe the plot ("dude in a mask obsessed with a singer"). I'm not sure that's the case anymore for Cats or The Sound of Music.

Be fair, a lot of people who've seen Cats couldn't describe the plot of that either.

I'd say Phantom of the Opera. Do you really truly honestly think the average joe in the street knows what A Chorus Line is?

Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter

#20

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/3/11 at 8:40am

Cats had a plot? Who knew?

If there was a successful movie of the show, a lot more people will know about it than if there was no movie or a flop movie. I also like TimesSquareRegular's cast album measurement. Another measure might be how easy it is to license the show for high school productions.

Putting all of those together, I'm going to go with Grease or Sound of Music.

#21

Most Famous Broadway Show?

Posted: 5/3/11 at 9:31am

Honestly, I didn't know about A Chorus Line till I started coming to this website.

Honestly, I think it depends on who you ask and where they are from, but I would say it's The Sound of Music. Even if you've never seen the show or movie, you still know majority of the songs. I even went to Nigeria for the holidays, and that's the musical everyone loves in that country and in Africa in general.

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