What are the most rarely seen/under-appreciated musicals? — Page 2

She Loves Me

I like that someone else agreed with Ballroom.

I'd add The Act as well.

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They need to revive Shenandoah
Also-Dear World is a good choice and I'd like to see Edwin Drood as a revival

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Oh ljay, you must be lovin' some Gwen! I think REDHEAD and NEW GIRL IN TOWN should be rediscovered...

If it's by Jason Robert Brown, it's pretty underappreciated to me. Same if it's by David Yasbek or Jeanine Tesori (and I'm not talkin' about Millie)

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Promises, Promises

No Strings ( I would love to see this show done again!)

Zorba

One Touch of Venus (This needs to be done again!)

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Here here on Promises Promises.

Also 1/2 here here to Dear World and Milk and Honey--great scores, not so great books.

Bajour
The Boys From Syracuse
Jamaica

I cannot recommend too highly a British musical called "The Crooked Mile" Book and lyrics by Peter Wildeblood and Music by Peter Greenwell. It's a masterpiece, utterly unlike any other British show and miles ahead of most American shows of its time (1959).

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I also like "Bravo Giovanni" for the music and some witty lyrics and the knockout performance by teenage Michelle Lee.

The Three Musketeers by Laurie Johnston, the MAN who wrote the theme music for "The Avengers" with Harry Secombe is a guilty pleasure as is "Cantebury Tales". I have the opening night program for "Cantebury Tales" the musical from the early 60s. Amazingly enough, if you didn't know it was a musical you'd never know from the program. There is no mention of the music and no list of songs. Strange, those British.....

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VIOLET and FLOYD COLLINS. Both are incredibly strong and quintessentially American; both should have entered the standard musical repertory in this country. COLLINS' thunder was stolen by RENT, but the indifference to VIOLET has never made sense to me.

I think THE BOYFRIEND is unjustly neglected, too; it's a much more dead-on takeoff of the 1920s than the overacclaimed DROWSY CHAPERONE or the horrifying THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE.

Most underappreciated musical of all TIME, though, HAS to be...CITY OF ANGELS! Is there a less frequently produced Best Musical Award winner? Producers are scared of it because it costs too much to produce and isn't a "name" (outside us "inside" theatre devotees.) What a witty book and score! The only thing wrong with it is that it tries to be a little too clever; it outsmarts itself. That is not a flaw I find unforgivable.

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Scripps2, I LIKE the show. I think the music is a blast. However, that being said, what I meant about not mentioning the song list was inaccurate. They don't mention that it is a musical AT ALL. There is nothing in the entire 48 page program that indicates music will be performed, no mention of musicians, composers, lyricists and nobody in the extensively-detailed cast list mentions having sung professionally before (BTW, I am talking about the British original production, not the much more Broadwayized American remounting). And I am certain what I have is the original program, the dates match and the cast is identical as the one listed in Theatre World. It's just plain weird.

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Updated On: 5/24/08 at 11:48 AM