5 Favorite stage musical.

[Vanyel]

So tell me, what is your favorite stage musical. You don't have to have seen the original production (but if you did see the original production of Show Boat I'd love to hear about it) just tell your 5 favorite.

Mine are:

West Side Story - The new version came to town recently, and while I love the guys and girls singing "America" in the movie, having the girls sing it was just as awesome. Having actual Latino's and Latina's as the Sharks and their girls was an added bonus.

The Phantom of the Opera - Andrew Lloyd Webbers best work. Seen it 5 times.

Les Miserables - I thought I'd get bored in a musical that was as long as this, but instead I laughed and cried and have seen it 7 times, 8 come January.

Annie - It's just so fun.

My Fair Lady - One of the best musicals ever. I did see a revival of it and it was great. I wish I was old enough to have seen Julie Andrews in here prime playing Eliza Doolittle.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Urinetown.

 

[Servo]

I only have one, 'cause I'm not a fan of musicals in general, but it's just so brilliant that it transcends my dislike...

Evil Dead: The Musical

 

[EnderAKH]

Phantom of the Opera
The Drowsy Chaperone
Legally Blonde
Wicked
Rent

Honorable Mentions:
The Lion King
Mamma Mia
Jesus Christ Superstar

 

[Kirby]

I'm not really a musical guy, I'll take a regular play any day. These are the ones that don't bug the hell out of me:

Grease
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

thats about it.

 

[scotpens]

Cabaret — Saw a stage production back in the Sixties, which was quite different from the Bob Fosse movie. Best of Kander and Ebb’s scores — they really nailed the Kurt Weill/Bertold Brecht esthetic. I mean, the songs just sound so damn German!

Carousel — Unquestionably the best of the Rodgers & Hammerstein shows.

Gypsy — Big, splashy, show-bizzy, the way musicals used to be. Check out the 1993 Bette Midler version — despite its made-for-TV origins, it’s more faithful to the Broadway show and, IMHO, superior to the 1962 movie with Roz Russell.

(To this day, whenever I meet someone named Goldstone, I have to resist the temptation to offer them an eggroll.)

The Music Man — What can I say? It’s the quintessential American musical.

One that may be somewhat obscure to you younger folks: Fiorello! I just love the songs.

 

[Sci]

- Rent
- Next to Normal
- Spring Awakening
- Cabaret
- The Last Five Years

Honorable mentions:

- Assassins
- Parade
- Evita
- Jesus Christ Superstar
- Urinetown!: The Musical
- Bat Boy: The Musical
- Hairspray
- In the Heights
- Avenue Q
- Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
- tick, tick... BOOM!
- Fiddler on the Roof

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I only have one, 'cause I'm not a fan of musicals in general, but it's just so brilliant that it transcends my dislike...

Evil Dead: The Musical

Then you'll probably love Toxic Avenger: The Musical. http://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Avenger...=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1311215876&sr=1-1

Les Miserables is a great set of songs. So great in fact that any attempt to actually stage the damn thing usually detracts from the experience. Just stick with the 10th Anniversary album.

Jesus Christ Superstar is a rockin' examination of the greatest story ever told, and this time told in an unexpected way. This is perhaps the most human Jesus ever depicted.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I thought about mentioning Movin' Out, since I am a huge Billy Joel fan. But that is not so much a musical, as a concert by a Billy Joel tribute band (which is suspended above the stage) while the lyrics are acted out onstage by the dancers. There is no dialogue, other than one bit with a drill sergeant barking out orders.

 

[Kira's Mom]

1776
Into the Woods
Chicago
Les Miz
Phantom of the Opera

Runners up- Wicked, Rent, The Producers, Dreamgirls, Damn Yankees.

I love musicals!

 

[Vanyel]

Lots of good choices.

I need to say that Into the Woods, Evita, Sweeny Todd and Jesus Christ Superstar are very good musicals and came close to being on my list.

 

[JiNX-01]

Chicago
West Side Story
The Sound of Music
Les Miserables
My Fair Lady

 

[Sci]

Jesus Christ Superstar is a rockin' examination of the greatest story ever told, and this time told in an unexpected way. This is perhaps the most human Jesus ever depicted.

The thing I always liked about JCS is that it's very much told from Judas's point of view -- it could easily be retitled The Gospel According to Judas. It's very much the story of two revolutionaries who come into conflict with one-another while living under foreign occupation.

 

[nightwind1]

These are actually my favorite 5 from the shows I've actually BEEN in (in no particular order, with the characters I've played):

1776- Col. Thomas McKean
Fiddler on the Roof- Avram the Bookseller
Guys and Dolls- Lt. Brannigan
Camelot- King Pellinor
Unsinkable Molly Brown- Christmas Morgan

 

[scotpens]

After the five I mentioned upthread, some close runners-up are Damn Yankees, The Pajama Game, and Guys and Dolls. These 1950s shows get revived again and again and somehow, they never get stale.

And, of course, Pajama Game gave us the seminal Bob Fosse dance number, “Steam Heat.”

I thought about mentioning Movin' Out, since I am a huge Billy Joel fan. But that is not so much a musical, as a concert by a Billy Joel tribute band (which is suspended above the stage) while the lyrics are acted out onstage by the dancers. There is no dialogue, other than one bit with a drill sergeant barking out orders.

Sounds like a revue, as opposed to a musical with a plot. Smokey Joe’s Cafe is one of my favorite musical revues. I love the songs of Leiber and Stoller.

 

[ancientone51]

Guys and Dolls (seeing it Sat in Dallas for the umpteenth time)
Brigadoon
Fiddler on the Roof
1776 (saw the original cast on tour in St Louis, AWESOME!!!)
South Pacific (little remembered song: You've Got to be Carefully Taught should be
Manditory in schools...look it up)

others I'd like to have added: A Little Night Music, Music Man,
also like Pajama Game and Most Happy Fella, Showboat, I Do, I Do and The Fantastiks
way too many others to list

 

[mimic]

Sweeney Todd
Into the Woods
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - Tony Braithwaite absolutely stole the show when I saw this in Philly
West Side Story
Fiddler on the Roof

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I'm a huge fan of Maltby & Shire's Closer Than Ever. It's kind of more a revue than a musical, although the stage version I saw in community college rearranged the songs so that it forms a sort of narrative for the different characters.

These are actually my favorite 5 from the shows I've actually BEEN in (in no particular order, with the characters I've played):

1776- Col. Thomas McKean
Fiddler on the Roof- Avram the Bookseller
Guys and Dolls- Lt. Brannigan
Camelot- King Pellinor
Unsinkable Molly Brown- Christmas Morgan

Nice to compare notes with a fellow actor. My 5 favorite musicals that I was actually in:

1. Little Shop of Horrors, Mr. Mushnik. This is one of the biggest stage roles I've ever had and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time in my life. After being very poorly treated in my high school theatre department, it was so amazing to be able to stretch my wings like this in college. (Point of pride, I was also among the last 3 finalists to play Seymour, with the other 2 actors being double cast in the role. And I was one of the last finalists to play the dentist too!)

2. Lucky Stiff, Mr. Loomis/croupier/old man #2/etc. I didn't have a big role in this. I don't care. I didn't really have a lot of time to devote to this show. But when I listened to the comic madness of the opening number, I realized that I absolutely needed to be in this show in some capacity, even if it meant flunking my public speaking class!

3. West Side Story, Snowboy. It's not a favorite show of mine but I have fond memories of it because I was in peak physical condition at the time. (I was also crazy busy, also starring in campus productions of The Miser and Of Mice & Men and shooting a feature film at the same time.)

4. Grease, Eugene. Maybe I had the unfair advantage of barely needing to act the part, but I nailed the role of the high school nerd.

5. The Fantasticks, Mortimer. It's a lot of fun when you're only job is coming up with over-the-top death scenes. (And yet, the New Times reviewer called me "an annoying distraction from the rest of the cast's inadequacies." )

 

[Terengo]

Hairspray
Drowsy Chaperone
The Fantasticks - played el Gallo!
Beauty and the Beast - played Maurice
Music Man - played one of the quartet (can't remember his name)

 

[Kira's Mom]

Oh, I forgot Hairspray! I loved it.