Your Favorite American History Musical?

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 12:26pm

Take the poll, or just answer below.
4th of July Poll: Your Favorite American History Musical

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 12:50pm

No love for "Ragtime" "Rags" or "Teddy & Alice"?

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 12:54pm

Ragtime, baby.

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 1:23pm

Ragtime and Rags are both included in the poll. There's also a slot to add any musical omitted from the list. (One person has already submitted "Hairspray.")

[peerrjb]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 2:58pm

"Tintypes". Real music, real history, real fun.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 3:08pm

Hairspray.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 3:09pm

Ragtime.

[RaisedOnMusicals]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 3:15pm

And wouldn't Fiorello be a candidate?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 3:32pm

One who was elected.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 3:40pm

So far it's just me and one other person who very smartly picked 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 5:41pm

Curious that Assassins is polling second, behind Ragtime.

I think that listening to 1776, A White House Cantata (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) and Ragtime together, one after the other, creates a good narrative arc about US history and aspiration.



Updated On: 7/4/14 at 05:41 PM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 6:47pm

I've gotta go with RAGTIME.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 10:45pm

Went the PARADE route.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 11:30pm

I voted for 1776 but actually it's a tie for me with Ragtime. I felt like Sophie's Choice here...

Those two are both up there in my personal top five shows...

[After Eight]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 6:36am

Mayor

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 11:10am

I thought including Floyd Collins was an odd choice-- Bonnie and Clyde seemed much more in keeping with the American History theme if you want a Depression musical, and even Annie has Roosevelt's whole cabinet onstage!

And yeah, I voted for Ragtime too.



Updated On: 7/5/14 at 11:10 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 11:30am

You left out Bloomer Girl by Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen, about a young woman before the Civil War (Barbara Cook) who is an abolitionist and a believer in women's rights who defies her father and wears bloomers and refuses to marry her fiancee until he frees his slave.



Here is a very young Barbara Cook singing two of the duets from the show (with the handsome Keith Andes), "Evalina" and "Right As the Rain":

http://youtu.be/gdcXbcji9Co


And here is the famous Civil War ballet by Agnes de Mille:








Bloomer Girl - Civil War Ballet - Agnes de Mille - Harold Arlen - James Mitchell

Updated On: 7/5/14 at 11:30 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 11:42am

And here is Lena Horne, singing an oddly uptempo version of the slave's abolitionist ballad "The Eagle and Me":

http://youtu.be/cMgO5PtlYVk?t=2m21s


River, it like to flow.
Eagle, it like to fly.
Eagle, it like to feel
Its wings against the sky.

Possum, it like to run.
Ivy, it like to climb.
Bird in the tree and bumblebee
Want freedom in autumn or summertime.

Ever since that day
When the world was an onion,
'Twas natch'ral for the spirit
To soar and play...
The way the Lawd' a-wanted it!

Free as the sun is free,
That's how it's gotta be.
Whatever is right
For bumblebee and river and eagle
Is right for me!
We gotta be free,
The eagle and me!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 11:44am

How brave of the young Barbara Cook to play an abortionist back then.

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 7/6/14 at 12:09pm

I can see why you'd think Bonnie and Clyde is an omission, but why is Floyd Collins an odd choice? It is about a specific historical event that some believe -- because of all the attention it got in the media-- to be a pivotal moment in American history.

[The Glenbuck Laird]

Posted: 7/6/14 at 12:11pm

Carousel, everyday

[mamaleh]

Posted: 7/6/14 at 8:45pm

Don't forget BEN FRANKLIN IN PARIS He invented himself, you know.

[musicaljen]

Posted: 7/6/14 at 8:48pm

South Pacific

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 8:34pm

(Apparently) final results: 1. Ragtime, 2. Assassins, 3. 1776

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 10:59pm

It would still take courage to play an abolitionist. I used to be a Yankee Civil War civilian reenactor. Some of the Confederate reenactors insisted the war would have happened without slavery. I don't buy it for one second. Even one of the top honchos in the Museum of the Confederacy agreed with my comment that South Carolina seceded to protect slavery.

Audrey (AKA Mrs. Jacob Levy when I'm reenacting)