I'm really curious what you guys are gonna say, I posted this on my facebook and got the answers Skyscraper, Avenue Q, A Little Night Music, Grey Gardens, Bat Boy, State Fair, UnineTown, 1776, and The Big Bang The musical.
Obvi some people didn't understand the obscure part of my question........
Example, what is the musical you mention when you're trying to impress people with your theatre knowledge?
Without bread we'd just be hungry
but without theatre we'd be dead
The House of Martin Guerre by Leslie Arden. Fantastic productions in Chicago (1996) and Toronto (1997). Never went further because of Martin Guerre by Schönberg and Boublil. Deserves to be on Broadway IMO.
Does it have to be obscure and brilliant? I've always liked Snoopy! ever since I played Woodstock in a production of it when I was ten but I don't think it's brilliant.
doesn't have to be both. I've just been thinking about all the backlash hate that shows like Wicked and Next To Normal seem to get because they have lots of fans. And everyone seems to have those shows that they love and think are better than the "hits."
Without bread we'd just be hungry
but without theatre we'd be dead
GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER, an early effort by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. It was an off-Broadway flop in 1979, but I loved it.
Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)
I second God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. I've only heard it through demos and bootlegs, but it is a clever, brilliant adaptation of a great source with some really memorable tunes.
I said The Big Bang the musical and honestly, it is really good. It was on Off-Broadway and I did it at Orlando Shakes. So funny. Here is the plot of it:
"Have you ever dreamed of getting involved in a big-time Broadway production? Join us in the elegant Park Avenue apartment of Dr. Sid and Sylvia Lipbalm as two wannabe producers, Jed and Boyd, try to line up backers for The Big Bang, the most expensive and lavish Broadway musical ever written. With a budget of $83,000,000, a cast of 318, 6428 costumes and 1400 wigs, this show will depict the entire history of the world - from the formation of the planets, to the building of the pyramid. From Napolean's France to the present . Adam and Eve, Nefertiti and the slaves, Ceaser, Mrs. Ghandi, Attila, Columbus, Minnehaha, Tokyo Rose, Eva Braun and more. Will Broadway ever be the same? Surely, the Lipbalm apartment won't!"
and all the props and costumes they use are items in the apartment.
<--- the set of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I was assistant stage manager for during the 2007 season at the STNJ outdoor stage.
-Dre-
You must remember all the same that at the crux of every game is knowing when it's time to leave the table... And it's important to be artful in your exit. No turning back, you must accept the con is done... It was a ball, it was a blast. And it's a shame it couldn't last. But every chapter has to end, you must agree. ~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
There's a special kind of people known as show people. We live in a world full of dreams. Sometimes we're not too certain what's false and what's real. But we're seldom in doubt about what we feel. ~Curtains~
It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to, than I have ever known. ~A Tale of Two Cities ~
Romance In Hard Times by William Finn. It was a glorious show, and never even got a recording. Better than its earlier version, America Kicks Up Its Heels.
The Golden Apple by John LaTouche and Jerome Moross
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
"Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70
"Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
Once Upon A Time at the Adelphi completely blew me away when I saw it in London. Completely unknown in USA but in Liverpool most people would know it hehe.
it may not be super obscure but it's old and therefor off a lot of people's radar but I love Noel Coward's "Sail Away." The lyrics still hold up and at times are still really really funny.
Marie Christine Hello Again Better Being Bad - A workshop of a musical adaptation of Machiavelli's The Mandragola I was involved with about ten years ago Goldilocks
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
"Now is the Time for all Good Men" opened Off-Broadway at the Theater De lys (Now the Lucille Lortel) in 1967. Written by Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford, It starred Gretchen and her husband David Cryer (the parents of actor Jon Cryer) in a musical highlighting the philosophy of Henry Thoreau. My best friend's father was one of the backers and it's message had a profound impact on me at the time.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
I don't know if this really counts as obscure, but I LOVE See What I Wanna See...I saw it when it was at the Public and absolutely fell in love with it, I think it's brilliant in the truest sense of the word.
"Bravo Giovanni" has some lovely tunes and "The Crooked Mile" a British musical has a wonderful score and was decades ahead of its time.
I also love to play Christopher Plummer's musical of "Cyrano" and Laurie Johnston's "The Four Musketeers" with Harry Secombe, a marvelously cheezy 60s adaptation which played Drury Lane. Laurie (a man) wrote the theme music for "The Avengers" TV series.
Romance In Hard Times by William Finn is a completely underrated masterpiece. Lolita, My Love was an impressive accomplishment especially considering the delicate source material. It has one of the best scores of the 1970s by film composer John Barry and sparkling lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. I love Galt MacDermot's The Human Comedy, though it is not brilliant per se, it is truly warm and engaging in the theater. It left behind a lovely cast recording.
Is Falsettos obscure? Or, rather, the Marvin Trilogy. I still think it is among the best musicals ever and I wish people performed it more. Brilliant, funny, moving and some gorgeous music to boot.
Moby Dick the musical from the West End, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, is kinda brilliant and stupid all at the same time. Fun live recording! Out of print but cheap as all get out on Amazon marketplace.
Love's Fowl is an off-Broadway puppet opera about the further adventures of Chicken Little. It has a lovely score, sung entirely in Italian, by Dreamgirls and Side Show composer Henry Krieger. On the same label, Original Cast Records, there is a cast recording I never hear anyone talk about: Duel. It is a musical about Byron and Shelley. it's a fun pop-operatic-oriented score with lovely Michael Starobin (or Starobin sounding?) orchestrations; so 1970s. The song "Feast or Famine" is a big highlight. I would love to see it staged.