What is the BEST musical of ALL Time and what is the WORST musical of all time". "What do YOU think are the best and worst?- Page 2

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/22/06 at 6:28pm

Best:

Nine
Sweeney Todd
Follies
Sunday in the Park with George
Company
A Little Night Music
Carousel
The King and I
Gypsy
West Side Story
Oliver
The Sound of Music
Hair
Into the Woods
Gypsy
Cabaret
My Fair Lady
Fiddler on the Roof
Rent
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Hello Dolly
The Music Man
Oklahoma!
The Secret Garden
Shenandoah
Showboat
South Pacific
The Threepenny Opera
Urinetown


WORST:

Amour
Annie Warbucks
Big
Brooklyn
Bring Back Birdie
Chess
Fame
The Frogs
Grease
Jekyll and Hyde
Dracula
Good Vibrations
Saturday Night Fever
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Spamalot

[gavrochegirl]

Posted: 1/22/06 at 8:25pm

Best: Les Miz, The Drowsy Chaperone, RENT, Sweeney Todd, Ragtime, The Secret Garden...and probably many more.

Worst: CATS and Annie for now.

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 1/22/06 at 8:28pm

For me the all time best ever is GYPSY with Sweeney Todd as a close second.

I can't pick the worst because I haven't seen everything.

[ihearttheatre]

Posted: 1/22/06 at 8:35pm

Best: Into The Woods


Worst: The Phantom of the Opera

[Danitriniqueen]

Posted: 1/22/06 at 9:32pm

I wonder how many people really hate CATS.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 1/22/06 at 10:16pm

ok now peoples worst lists are so big it just seems like they put it on because they just didn't care for it. Worst doesn't have to be your will not attend again list.

[downtoearth]

Posted: 1/22/06 at 10:49pm

Consider that there are thousands of musicals and most of them aren't very good. I will not even count the ones that do not deserve being counted: flopped shows like Dracula or Brooklyn don't even count by their nature. Cats I will agree was not a good show...but it served its purpose. You don't actually have to know English to see it and so it survived because of tourists. The only shows worth examining are ones considered by some measure successful. Also, the best show ever really needs to be a show that has had some effect on musical theater as a whole.

Best shows: Guys and Dolls and Oklahoma, and My Fair Lady. They basically created and/or drastically changed/improved musical theater as we know it today. All three of those shows also have some sort of depth.

Worst shows: Bye Bye Birdie, and any other show that survives on the cliches of musical theater while not giving another layer.

[??]

Posted: 1/22/06 at 11:03pm

No offense ThunderCat but do you honestly think that Jerry Springer: The Opera is a better show then Jesus Christ Superstar?

Superstar, if done right, is absolutely phenomenal. While more modern productions cast more broadway type singers, it is thrilling to see it done with rock singers....ie: Ted Neely and Carl Anderson. For someone who loves the rock and roll music of Queen, I am surprised you wouldn't like JCS. Also, JCS really paved the way for shows like RENT, bringing rock music to the stage...along with many others of course. I'm not trying to offend you of course as I think CATS is bad, and Avenue Q is overrated.

I'm also surprised Fiddler got a worst nomination. It's a really great show, with a great message and awesome music. Perhaps by todays standards when we have Phantoms and puppets and huge sets and Idina Menzels on the stage, the show seems simple and contrite...too old. But it is truly beautiful and Tevye might be one of the most coveted roles for men in musical theatre.

What exactly constitutes the BEST musical? Is it by how long it lasts, how long it is popular? In that case wouldn't Oklahoma, Fiddler, The Sound of Music, Kiss me Kate...all of which go through revival after revival, sung at auditions endlessly, and presented by community theatres everywhere, be considered the best?

If it's by music, thats hard. Alot of people really dislike Sondheim, Wicked seems to contrite, Fiddler is too old, Hair is too hippy, JCS is to rock, Godspell is odd, Avenue Q is shock value etc etc etc.

Some people may say that long running, famous succesful musicals are best. Les Mis...great. Phantom...blugh. (IMHO)

Sorry, that was really long winded.

Oh well, at least we can all agree Annie sucks

[littleredridinghood]

Posted: 1/22/06 at 11:37pm

Best: A Chorus Line, Sweeney Todd, Carousel, My Fair Lady
Worst: Bring Back Birdie

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 1:21am

Best - Sweeney Todd, sheer masterpiece. Its brilliant.

Worst - Cats, well Mario Cantone sums it up the best: "A Jellicle Cat can ear a hat. A jellicle Cat gets tit for tat, the jellicle luve the jellicle... What the **** is a jellicle cat? We'll tell you! *repeat* you know what! Kiss my jellicle ass. By the end of the show I had claw marks all over me, and they were self inflicted"

I know exactly how he feels

[Attendthetale331]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 1:51am

Best: Assassins
Worst: Rags

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 2:08am

attend the tale, I like both or your choices, not a fan of rags at all and love Assassins, all most as brilliant as Sweeney but not before Sweeney, come to think of it Sondheim could take best show with at least 4 shows coming to mind.

[AlmostFamous]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 8:26am

Alphie - You didn't like AIDA? OMG i loved it!

BEST- POTO, WIW, AIDA, WICKED
WORST - CATS UGHHHH!!!

[AlmostFamous]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 8:26am

Cats really bothers me Updated On: 1/24/06 at 08:26 AM

[ThunderCat8]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 8:35am

Well, I thought I would really like Jesus Christ Superstar. I saw a touring version of it in Southampton, and the guy playing Jesus was just terrible. It was totally Justin-from-the-Darkness, and just made us laugh. I understand how it was a breakthrough musical paving the way for other rock musicals, but I just do not like it. Perhaps it's just that it is old-fashioned now. Or perhaps it's that I just dislike Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals-for-beginners style.

And sticking up for Jerry Springer the Opera - one of the finest pieces of theatre I have ever had the fortune to see. The cast was incredible, some of the best voices ever. The songs were catchy, funny, well written. I enjoyed it thorougly, and am seeing it again in May in Newcastle.

Yes I agree however, that Annie is crap!

And if we are saying what is the best breakthrough musical and all that jazz, I'd say West Side Story is the best. The songs are still brilliant, and it doesn't feel too old fashioned. Good ol' Bernstein/Sondheim! Updated On: 1/23/06 at 08:35 AM

Posted: 1/23/06 at 10:39am

Asking someone what they think are the best and worst of all time is different from asking them what they liked the most and least of what they've seen. I mean, I never saw 'South Pacific' or 'Anything Goes' on Broadway, but I bet they were great shows for their era.

I forget who ran it, but there was a poll last year asking which Broadway show had the biggest impact on Broadway itself. I'll paraphrase heavily, but basically they asked, was it 'Oklahoma' with its use of songs to advance the plot? Was it 'West Side Story' integrating classical ballet and streetfighting? Or was it 'A Chorus Line' for giving people a good reason to go back to Times Square?

I chose the latter, because I can remember when Broadway, Eighth Ave. and 42nd Street were no-go zones during almost all the years between 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'Basketball Diaries.' You'd be lucky if all they snatched was your purse or chain as you ran the gauntlet to and from the Shubert Theater. Yet 'A Chorus Line' ran there for nearly 15 years, and a new Broadway sprouted all around it.

The show I've personally enjoyed seeing the most was 'Gypsy.' But the show I think most deserves its Best Musical Tony Award is 'A Chorus Line,' for being Broadway's ghost light during its darkest time.

Likewise, though I've never seen 'Carrie,' it gets my vote because it's been skewered so thoroughly and celebrated so frequently as the worst musical ever, becoming, as in Ken Mandelbaum's book, the benchmark against which all other bad musicals are measured.

[Enjolras77]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 11:06am

I am just going to go by shows that I have seen or been in productions of since how can I really judge shows I haven't. I mean shows like BKLYN and Good Vibrations just looked so bad that I never even wanted to see them.

BEST HISTORICALLY: Gypsy and Guys and Dolls

BEST CONTEMPORARY: Ragtime

WORST: Thou Shalt Not

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 11:21am

Well, it's nice to see another "Cats" bashing thread.

Sounds like most of you don't "get" poetry in general, as opposed to lyrics. They ARE different, after all... and Cats is/was a different kind of show. Maybe many of you were too young to appreciate seeing "poetry" come to life in an experimental way, as a theatre "mood piece"... but I'm pretty convinced that the people who really think it's the WORST show they've ever seen, either haven't been exposed to very much experimental theatre... OR they just don't "get" poetry in general, or fell asleep in their English Lit classes more often than they tried to connect to it. Or T.S. Elliott. It's pretty obvious to me here when ANYONE tries to over-analyze or dissect the literal meaning of "Jellicle Cat." It shows more about your individual aversion to abstract poetry, or at the very least your lack of comprehension of what that really is, than it does to the "failings" of this show. Cats was and is one of the most daring and unique shows I've ever seen, or will likely see, on any "commercial" stage.

Sorry, guys, I'm in a bitchy mood this morning.

*sigh*

Some people just don't "get" Shakespeare either, and don't even want to try.

[timote316]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 11:29am

I wouldn't call Cats the worst musical, but I just don't get how it was so successful.

My best musical: Sweeney Todd

In my upper level (in no order): Rent, Music Man, West Side Story, Evita, Assassins, Urinetown, Man of La Mancha, Fiddler on the Roof... and others, but I'm drawing a blank

Worst show I have seen: Phantom of the Opera

(I won't call it the worst, because I'm in no way qualified to call a musical the worst ever)

[WickedRentEder]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 12:30pm

The best (I have more than one)

1) Wicked
2) Sound of Music -- Can't help it..HUGE fan!
3) Phantom

Worst:

1) 1776 -- but I think worst is too harsh a word
2) Grease

It's tough, I've liked every show I've seen...

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 2:16pm

1776 and ANNIE? I know that now, ANNIE is the most overdone production ever, but if you examine the material, it's hardly one of the worst musicals ever written. Many would say it's among the best and most solid.

downtoearth: BYE BYE BIRDIE? You have got to be joking. Cliche? In the 60's, BYE BYE BIRDIE is one of the shows that created this "musical theatre cliche" that you're talking about. It wasn't trite and overdone when it was written.

[Dramatic_Irony]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 2:30pm

BEST:
Phantom of the Opera
RENT
Sweeney Todd
Cabaret
Aida
Urinetown

WORST:
Grease
Thoroughly Modern Millie

[once a month]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 2:43pm

BEST: A Chorus Line, GYPSY

Worst: Thou Shalt Not, HANDS DOWN

PLAY:

BEST: Nicholas Nickleby

WORST: Joe Papps The Leaf People

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 2:54pm

Best: Ragtime
Worst: In My Life

[tthomas76]

Posted: 1/23/06 at 2:56pm

My best:

Gypsy, Chicago, Wicked, Millie

Worst:

Jesus Christ Superstar (sorry, didn't like it at all)