Posted: 11/30/15 at 1:27pm
Has Roxy ever liked a show with major gay content? It is a puzzlement.
Updated On: 11/30/15 at 01:27 PM
Posted: 11/30/15 at 1:30pm
It's all subjective, but:
1962 - No Strings won (Composer); How To Succeed was better
1974 - Gigi won; both Raisin and Seesaw were better
1976 - A Chorus Line won; much as I like it, Pacific Overtures is better
1984 - La Cage aux Folles won; Sunday in the Park with George was better
1987 - Les Miserables won; Rags was a better score
2007 - Spring Awakening won; Grey Gardens was better
2013 - Kinky Boots won; Matilda was better
Posted: 11/30/15 at 1:33pm
Posted: 11/30/15 at 1:36pm
I might be biased but I think Into The Woods rightfully won.
Posted: 11/30/15 at 2:31pm
Jeffrey Karasarides said: "What about when The Who's Tommy tied with Kiss of the Spider Woman? How much of the Tommy score was actually written for the stage?"
While there were a lot of new arrangements and orchestrations, the only new material written for the stage adaptation of Tommy was "I Believe My Own Eyes." Clearly if it was produced under the new rules it would not have been eligible.
Incidentally I remember Pete Townshend saying at one point (maybe in the documentary that was made when the show opened on Broadway?) that "I Believe My Own Eyes" was one of the hardest songs he'd written in his career, because he actually had to consider character and motivation when writing it, which he didn't worry about at all when creating the original concept album.
Posted: 11/30/15 at 3:08pm
popular opinion, clicks and dollars spent are clearly voting for kinky boots as the more popular score....
That is more indicative of a Grammy than a Tony.
Got it wrong (in my opinion):
No Strings over How to Succeed
Hallelujah, Baby! over How Now, Dow Jones
Gigi over Seesaw
Aida over The Wild Party or Marie Christine
The Producers over The Full Monty or Jane Eyre
Avenue Q over Caroline, or Change
Spring Awakening over Grey Gardens or Legally Blonde
The Book of Mormon over Women on the Verge
Kinky Boots over Matilda
Posted: 11/30/15 at 3:12pm
The question here is not which scores are not great, but which scores had one that was actively better than it that year. For example, I don't think The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a good score, but it was the best one of that year. So...
How to Succeed should have beat No Strings
Mame should have beat Man of La Mancha
The Happy Time should have beat Hallelujah, Baby
Chicago (or better yet, Treemonisha) should have beat A Chorus Line
Happy End should have beat Annie
Hollywood/Ukraine should have beat Evita
A Dolls's Life should have beat Cats
The Rink should have beat La Cage (though I love the La Cage score)
Me and My Girl should have beat Les Misérables
Jelly's Last Jam should have beat Falsettos
Steel Pier should have beat Titanic
The Wild Party or The Dead should have beat Aida
Curtains should have beat Spring Awakening
Passing Strange should have beat In the Heights
The Scottsboro Boys should have beat The Book of Mormon
Matilda should have beat Kinky Boots
If/Then or Gentleman's Guide should have beat Bridges of Madison County
The Visit should have beat Fun Home
Oh, and Mack and Mabel was better than The Wiz, despite its score not even being nominated.
Posted: 11/30/15 at 3:22pm
For me:
Matilda should have won over Kinky Boots.
Grey Gardens should have won over Spring Awakening.
Gentleman's Guide should have won over Bridges of Madison County.
I also thought that while Fun Home is a very good score, I think The Last Ship should have won in that year. What with The Visit as well, a real embarassment of riches. For once.
Updated On: 12/1/15 at 03:22 PM
Posted: 11/30/15 at 3:31pm
I also think Bridges of Madison County should have tied with Gentleman's Guide. I find them entirely different but equally strong and effective.
Posted: 11/30/15 at 3:51pm
Spring Awakening (Grey Gardens is so superior)
Kinky Boots (Matilda is a work of genius)
Gigi (Raisin or Seesaw are both so much better)
La Cage (Sunday in the Park should have won)
Will Rogers Follies (I'm a Coleman devotee, but it was the weakest score of that season)
Urinetown (Sweet Smell had no chance, but it's a far better score)
No Strings (How to Succeed would have been my pick)
Posted: 11/30/15 at 3:55pm
Agree on some on your list but not all . Gigi was a few new songs and more existing ones . To think a partial score won over Seesaw is a head scratcher. Raisin needs to be revived or at least done @ Encores
Posted: 11/30/15 at 4:06pm
Titanic > STEEL PIER
Next to Normal > BILLY ELLIOT
Urinetown > THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE
Spring Awakening > GREY GARDENS
Kinky Boots > MATILDA
Avenue Q > WICKED
Memphis
Updated On: 11/30/15 at 04:06 PM
Posted: 11/30/15 at 5:43pm
"How to Succeed should have beat No Strings"
I think No Strings had a better score. But the best scores that year were Milk and Honey and The Gay Life.
Posted: 11/30/15 at 6:00pm
Well, here's a good place to put this: thank you, After Eight, for your repeated praise of the MILK AND HONEY score. I heard it once on the radio as a teenager and wasn't impressed. But I finally downloaded it and I find I like it very much. So thank you for that. (Yes, I already have THE GAY LIFE and the other nominees from that year. Anything Barbara Cook does is worth hearing.)
As for which score should have won, I would probably go with HOW TO SUCCEED because it is the most inventive use of music to tell its story.
Posted: 11/30/15 at 6:52pm
I don't think that anyone has mentioned it yet, but the most egregious ever is Gypsy vs. Sound of Music and, I seem to recall, Fiorello in a tie. I loved the SOM score, but it ain't Gypsy.
i also don't think anyone has mentioned Purlie or even Coco vs. Applause, whose score was mediocre from the outset, even if I enjoyed the show a couple of times. Purlie has a wonderful, joyous score and I think that Coco is under appreciated, although not every song is stellar.
Couple of other comments:
Hallelujah! Baby! Has gotten trashed by several of you. I personally think it is a wonderful score and am appalled that anyone would even mention How Now Dow Jones, which has exactly 2 good songs, one a comedy number. I love The Happy Time score, but don't think it comes anywhere near Hallelujah! Go back and listen to the score.
I love most Sondheim scores, but totally hate the score for Into the Woods. I find it so repetitive, especially the title song. There are a couple of terrific songs, but Phantom has a slew of them.
Nine is one of my favorite scores ever and the recording of it is amazing, with the last 10 minutes or so being a mini-masterpiece. I loved Dreamgirls, saw it more times than Nine, in fact, but I don't think the score is particularly good, with the notable exceptions of Step Into the Bad Side and And I Am Telling You and maybe I am Changing.
Urinetown's score is terrific. It won the Tony against a much bigger financial hit because the voters thought that it was better, not because of its chances of being a success on the road. I disliked Sweet Smell intensely and have to admit to never listening to the score again, but Millie ain't in the same league.
I agree with Jeffrey K's first three comments comparisons...I only disagree with the last one. I think Finding Neverland was last year's best score, which I know is a mortal sin to say, but there ha go.
Finally, I think She Loves Me should have won in its year, but nothing was gonna get in the way of the juggernaut, Hello! Dolly! score, which was the weakest part of the show IMO, although there are God knows some wonderful songs in the show. Since it was not even nominated, it is moot. And I think Chess should have won in its year, even though I think the Les Mis score is wonderful...I think Chess is one of the best ever.
Posted: 11/30/15 at 7:16pm
After Eight, I agree that No Strings has prettier music, but the lyrics in How to Succeed are some of the best ever written, and I think that the two work together. Nothing against Rogers's lyrics in No Strings, but I think that the songs as a whole don't work as well. Unfortunately, while I like Milk and Honey's score, but I don't think it's Herman's best. I totally forgot that The Gay Life was that same year, but I agree that it was the best score that year. Simply divine.
Posted: 11/30/15 at 7:29pm
Agree re Hallelujah being a quality score. My luck when I saw it Uggams was out and I saw it with Freida Payne.
Updated On: 11/30/15 at 07:29 PM
Posted: 11/30/15 at 10:17pm
I agree with Jarethan re: Chess, although the Broadway version of the score isn't the strongest one. Gypsy didn't have to suffer a loss of Best Score to The Sound of Music, thank god, only because the category didn't exist that year.
Posted: 11/30/15 at 10:22pm
Kinky boots.
Posted: 11/30/15 at 11:06pm
Jarethan:
Urinetown not only played more performances than thoroughly modern Millie (it only closed because they lost their theater to demolition and thought it unwise to love the production elsewhere), but it turned a profit on Broadway. Millie closed at a loss. If I remember correctly, Millie only made back about 80% of its initial investment.
Having worked in various parts of the touring theater industry, I can tell you that many presenters base their entire decisions of what shows to bring in solely on title alone. Urinetown really scared many of them. Millie was a far "safer" and more marketable bet for them. I can guarantee you that virtually the entire bloc of road presenters voted that over Urinetown. It's hard to explain how a show that wins best book, score, and director also isn't the best musical.
Posted: 12/1/15 at 2:17am
Without a doubt I think Matilda should have won over Kinky Boots. I did enjoy Kinky Boots and find myself occasionally listening to the recording (I particularly enjoy "Hold Me In Your Heart"
. Indeed, perhaps in another year its win might have been well deserved. But Matilda's score (to me, at least) is absolutely groundbreaking and uses music and lyrics in a far more innovative and interesting way than Kinky Boots does.
Posted: 12/1/15 at 5:30pm
Hallelujah! Baby! Has gotten trashed by several of you. I personally think it is a wonderful score and am appalled that anyone would even mention How Now Dow Jones, which has exactly 2 good songs, one a comedy number.?
I certainly didn't trash it. I just prefer How Now, Dow Jones which has exactly more than 2 good songs, comedic or otherwise.
Go back and listen to the score.
I have. Very recently. Which is how I based my opinion.
I love most Sondheim scores, but totally hate the score for Into the Woods. I find it so repetitive, especially the title song. There are a couple of terrific songs, but Phantom has a slew of them.
Speaking of repetitive, Phantom of the Opera only introduces 3 new songs into the second act. The rest of the act (as well as much of the first) is composed of reprises and repeated motifs.
Posted: 12/1/15 at 5:41pm
Kinky Boots should not have won the Tony, even if it were the only one in the category.
Posted: 12/1/15 at 7:08pm
I'd also like to register my support of HALLELUJAH, BABY! It is wonderful and with FUNNY GIRL and GYPSY, the best of Jule Syne, imo.
TITANIC absolutely deserved that Tony!! ...and I think the score to STEEL PIER is great.
THE WILD PARTY will someday get its' due....AIDA does not hold a candle to it in artistic quality, imo.
KINKY BOOTS has some good songs, but that award was for Cyndi Lauper. MATILDA is one of the most impressive and moving things I have ever seen,
I like and listen to WOMAN OF THE YEAR quite a bit, but it was score of the Year because there wasn't really another option that Year.
Like WILD PARTY, WOMEN ON THE VERGE will one day get its' due as well. I am more impressed by it on each listen.....and Laura Benanti gave one of the best performances in musical ever as far as I am concerned. Had I chosen the winners that year, WOTV would have 2 Tony Awards.
SUNDAY IN THE PARK and THE RINK are both classic and close to perfect scores...LA CAGE is good, but not in the same league, imo.
1991 was a really great year for musicals, but my vote would have gone to THE SECRET GARDEN. That show was an emotional punch in the throat for me and I count it among my most cherished theatre experiences.
I don't know if I would call it 'Better' but I certainly enjoy BARNUM more than EVITA.
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY did nothing for me when I saw it but so many go apesh*t for that score, maybe I need to give it a listen.
