Top Ten Scores of All Time — Page 3

Sweeney Todd (orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick)
Les Miserables
Merrily We Roll Along
Notre Dame de Paris (a rare opinion)
Spring Awakening (music is wonderful, show is so-so)
Dreamgirls
Rent

I'm sorry I can't respect anyone who puts Tarzan on their list.

It might be just me though...

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Show Boat
Porgy and Bess
Babes in Arms
Carousel
Finian's Rainbow
Guys and Dolls
Candide
My Fair Lady
Gypsy
Follies

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Company
Cabaret
Chicago

My Top 3

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In no order - and this wasn't easy!

Les Miserables
Sweeney Todd
South Pacific
Man of LaMancha
She Loves Me
Follies
Kismet
1776
Camelot
Most Happy Fella

What makes these shows work for me as "best scores" are 1)there are very few, if any, clunkers in the piece, 2)I can listen to them time and again, and 3)they've stood the test of time - I've known all of these scores for at LEAST 10 years and I never lose interest in them.

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I have some quirky picks,

(In no particular order)
The Grand Tour - Not sure why, but I am in LOVE with this score at the moment.
1776 - The wonderful songs combined with how seamlessly it blends with the play make this a big favorite.
A Little Night Music - I could listen to Sondheim's 3/4 time forever.
The Scarlet Pimpernel - This score has it all, great patter songs, touching ballads, and songs of intrigue.
Jane Eyre - In a theatre, this score takes you to another world.
West Side Story - The work that must have gone into this score is amazing, it has incredible range.
Oliver! - Love it. Again, range.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood - The music intself bleeds murder mystery.
Grey Gardens - The music creates a mood and a feeling that blends seamlessly with the subject matter.
Marie Christine - Listening to Audra sing those lush melodies is like sex.

Maybe not the best ever, but the best of what I listen to a lot.

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Sweeney Todd
Spring Awakening
The Drowsy Chaperone
Avenue Q
Monty Python's SpamAlot
Assassins
The Producers
Grease
The Who's Tommy
Little Shop of Horrors

Oh, why only 10? Oh well here goes. I make no apologies that only 3 of the 10 are modern shows.

1. Kern: SHOW BOAT - a score that includes that many hit songs deserves a place of honour

2. Rodgers: CAROUSEL - even if you don't like the story, the music is beautiful and "The Carousel Waltz" might well be the greatest piece of 20th century concert music. (With Roders there are so many valid choices: OKLAHOMA!, KING ADN I, SOUTH PACIFIC, BABES IN ARMS, ON YOUR TOES.... But for me the score of CAROUSEL eclipses them all.)

3. Gershwin: PORGY AND BESS - yes it is an opera but we have to have Gershwin show and this was his greatest.

4. Porter: KISS ME KATE - no contest here, it is his greatest even if ANYTHING GOES and CAN-CAN yieleded more "pop" hits (5 each.)

5. Berlin: ANNIE GET YOUR GUN - In a talk at U of T some years ago Sondheim commented that it is not an accident that so many hit songs came out of this one score.

6. Styne: GYPSY - A great score married to some of the best lyrics Broadway has ever heard

7. Bernstein: WEST SIDE STORY - a great piece to show how musical theatre authors can collborate to create a show far greater than the sum of its parts. CANDIDE is a more adventurous musical score, but with WEST SIDE it's all about the show.

8. Sondheim: SWEENEY TODD - His "Porgy & Bess" and a true gift to theatre lovers.

9. Schoenberg: LES MISERABLES - Critics may sneer about this "popera" but the music carries the emotions, and the show has proven itself over and over as one of the most popular musicals ever written.

10. Flaherty: RAGTIME - a rich evocative score weaving different musical styles into a tapestry of American life in the early 19th century.

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"Oh, why only 10?"

Preach it!!! It was so hard to limit this to just 10. By the way, great explanations of each score.

I did not just see someone put Parade as a runner up.

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Updated On: 4/7/07 at 03:27 PM

Another fabulous score:

CITY OF ANGELS

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Chorus Line, A
Floyd Collins: Too bad the book isn't better
Light in the Piazza, The
Little Night Music, A
Little Shop of Horrors
Secret Garden, The: So under-rated, so incredible
Show Boat: One score with Bill and Old Man River.. wow
Smile
Sweeney Todd
Wiz, The: Too bad the book isn't better

Alphabetical, of course

Carousel
Company
Les Miserables
Passion
Porgy and Bess
Ragtime
Show Boat
Sweeney Todd
West Side Story
Wicked (yeah, that's right

The music of GYPSY is so threaded throughout the strong book that you could be forgiven for not realizing its brilliance after one or two listens.

For example, Let Me Entertain You starts off as a simple song, later a tricked up arrangement for the vaudeville act and finally slowed down to a sultry strip number. The words never change but the meaning does. (It is even quoted in the middle of: If Mamma Was Married.)

Another example is how the "I Had a Dream" theme appears at the top of the Overture, in the middle of Some People, then as the verse to Everything's Coming up Roses. It gets quoted again in Rose's Turn and then the motif becomes the last 4 notes played as the curtain falls.

We take such through-composition for granted now (though I wish more contemporary composers would use these gimmicks) but when GYPSY premiered in 1959 they were quite innovative, and not surprisingly few critics at the time picked up on it. Of course you can't really until you have been through the score a couple of times.

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