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Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

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#1

Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 2:37pm

So I'm currently doing a show that chronicals the history of movies and the ways music influenced those movies, and last night I started thinking about their musical theatre counterparts: which shows, and songs from those shows in particular, really helped shape the genre and make it what it is today? I'm not necessarily asking for a list of the best musicals of all time, because the best-written are not always the most successful or leave the most lasting impression. What are, in your opinion, the most influential songs in the history of the Broadway musical?
#5

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 2:48pm

I'd second "Tomorrow" from Annie, and add in "There's No Business Like Show Business" from Annie Get Your Gun, and as much as most people will deny it, "Defying Gravity" will very well be remembered as an influential piece in contemporary musical theatre this decade.

Updated On: 6/19/07 at 02:48 PM

#6

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 2:52pm

Influential? As in there was nothing like it before? As in changed the course of theater? I don't think any of those named fit the bill.

"Rose's Turn" is probably the song from Gypsy that did the most. The Interrogation scene from Anyone Can Whistle sure was a ground breaker. "Sodomy" from Hair kicked down some doors.
#9

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 2:57pm

What I Did For Love

Losing My Mind

One Day More

Being Alive

Some parts of the Finale of RENT is definetely inspirational, though some may disagree.

I also think many people consider different things influential, and at least to me, some of the influential songs tie in with inspirational.
#10

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 2:58pm

Also, Joe, wasm't "Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'" the first time a capella was used to open a show?
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
#12

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 3:06pm

Tonight Quintet.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
#14

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 3:17pm

I second Tonight Quintet.
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird
#16

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 3:23pm

I'm interpreting this to mean songs that have entered the American lexicon and have been repeated, parodied, and played ad nauseum through the years.

My list would include:

Old Man River - Show Boat
The Impossible Dream - Man of La Mancha
Seasons of Love - Rent
Nothing, What I Did For Love, One - A Chorus Line
Tomorrow - Annie
I Am What I Am - La Cage aux Folles
Send in the Clowns - A Little Night Music
If They Could See Me Now, Big Spender - Sweet Charity
Aquarius, Let the Sun Shine In - Hair
Over the Rainbow - Wizard of Oz

Updated On: 6/19/07 at 03:23 PM

#17

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 3:30pm

Pretty much the entire "West Side Story" score, as it was symphonic, a style not usually seen on Broadway at the time. If I had to pick two though, I'd say:

Dance at the Gym
and
America
"Are you sorry for civilization? I am sorry for it too." ~Coast of Utopia: Shipwreck
#18

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 3:35pm

If we're saying "entered into the lexicon" you can add just about all of Les Miz, most notably "On My Own" (now memorized by every teen girl for auditions/performing arts nights), I Dreamed a Dream, and Master of the House (which, as we all know, played an important part in Seinfeld. Another influential property)
It's just a message board. Let's not take it too seriously.
#20

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 3:36pm

Basically anything from Showboat. That was the first real show with any sort of serious plot or anything, right?
"In the rain, the pavement shines like silver
All the lights are misty in the river
In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight
And all I see is him and me forever and forever."
#21

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 3:42pm

Amen Katurian! Additionally, Bernstein was one of the first composers to actually write dance music. Up until that point, orchestrators just took preestablished music that the composer had written and turned them into the dance music.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
#22

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 3:44pm

Not necessarily the first show with a serious plot, but it's considered to be the first musical play. Meaning that it wasn't an operetta, musical comedy or a revue.

Some of the songs I'd chose would be

Ol' Man River (Showboat)
Everything's Comin' Up Roses/Roses Turn (Gypsy)
One (A Chorus Line)
I Am What I Am (La Cage Aux Folles)
Being Alive (Company)
Anything Goes
There's No Business Like Show Business (Annie Get Your Gun)
New York, New York (On The Town)
Oh What A Beautiful Morning (Oklahoma)

And tons more

There wouldn't be lights bright enough!

Updated On: 6/19/07 at 03:44 PM

#23

re: Most Influential Showtunes in Musical Theatre History

Posted: 6/19/07 at 4:24pm

I guess it depends since the term "most influential" is subject to interpretation, but I'd suggest the following to be landmark theatre songs that became especially famous and that are very often performed even outside the context of the show:

Ol' Man River - Showboat
Oklahoma! - Oklahoma!
You'll Never Walk Alone - Carousel
Climb Every Mountain - The Sound of Music
Everything Coming Up Roses - Gypsy
Tonight - West Side Story
What I Did For Love? - A Chorus Line
Send in the Clowns - A Little Night Music
Being Alive - Company
Tomorrow - Annie
Memory - Cats

"This is wanting something, this is reaching for it, This is wishing that a moment would arrive. This is taking chances, this is almost touching, what the beauty is." --The Light in the Piazza

Updated On: 6/19/07 at 04:24 PM

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