5 Favorite stage musical.

[Terengo]

Now I'm having second thoughts about Drowsy Chaperone. I still love it, but not because of its music. In fact, the music of the play within a play is not all that good, as I recall, and kind of a parody. What really makes the show is the Man In Chair and his story. Without him, the Drowsy Chaperone would be clever, but that's about it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

- Urinetown!: The Musical

What is your favorite song from that, BTW? This is mine:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNTYLEmSNTM[/yt]

And when you saw it (if you did), was Jeff McCarthy in the cast? I've seen it three times but never with him in it.

 

[Sci]

- Urinetown!: The Musical

What is your favorite song from that, BTW?

And when you saw it (if you did), was Jeff McCarthy in the cast? I've seen it three times but never with him in it.

My favorite song from Urinetown is the Act One Finale.

I'm afraid that the productions I've seen of Urinetown have all been local community theatre or university theatre productions. I have a copy of the original Broadway cast recording, however.

 

[Mistral]

Jesus Christ, Superstar-got to see the revival with Sebastian Bach and the original performer, Carl Anderson, as Judas on the first and final shows of the tour. Awesome.

Fiddler on the Roof
(although its a musical movie) Moulin Rouge
Cabaret
West Side Story

 

[Star Wolf]

I have seen the SoCal institution Ramona, Don't Bother Me I Can't Cope and our Junior High did Bye Bye Birdie on stage.

I have seen West Side Story and The Sound of Music countless times on TV.

Growing up when my mom had the stereo on saturday mornings The Sound of Music and Don't Bother Me soundtrack albums were on constant rotation

 

[Goliath]

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

Nice. I saw that in Toronto. I wished afterward that I'd sat in the "splatter zone," close to the stage.

I haven't actually seen all that many musicals on stage. Of the few I've seen, besides Evil Dead, I think my favourite is Oh! What a Lovely War. Its version of "Keep the Home Fires Burning" was heartbreaking.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Oh wow, just five?

West Side Story
The Producers
South Pacific
Cabaret
The Music Man

Honorable mentions to Fiddler on the Roof, Little Shop of Horrors and 1776.

I used to like Jesus Christ, Superstar, but now I dunno...hasn't aged well.

Believe it or not, I have never seen Grease - the movie, or on stage. I guess this is a job for Netflix!

 

[Sci]

I used to like Jesus Christ, Superstar, but now I dunno...hasn't aged well.

I think the music and lyrics for Jesus Christ Superstar have aged just fine, apart from "What's the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying." But the original staging and costume design -- especially as exemplified in the film adaptation starring Carl Anderson and Ted Neely -- haven't aged well at all.

 

[Forbin]

West Side Story
Jesus Christ, Superstar
Hair


There are others?

 

[Sci]

West Side Story
Jesus Christ, Superstar
Hair


There are others?

Yes. And most of them are better than those three.

 

[Forbin]

West Side Story
Jesus Christ, Superstar
Hair


There are others?

Yes. And most of them are better than those three.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Believe it or not, I have never seen Grease - the movie, or on stage. I guess this is a job for Netflix!

Keep in mind, the movie frequently deviates from the stage version. That's not a bad thing but it is a thing. In fact, some of the most famous songs that it's known for, like "You're the One That I Want" & "Hopelessly Devoted to You," originated with the movie, not the stage version. Plus, there's just no way you could put an actual car race on stage like they did in the movie.

Still, the movie & stage versions of Grease both hit basically the same plot points, unlike the Dick Van Dyke movie version of Bye Bye Birdie, which completely upends the entire structure of the story. The movie climaxes with Conrad Birdie's appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. In the stage version, that's merely the end of act 1.

I used to like Jesus Christ, Superstar, but now I dunno...hasn't aged well.

I think the music and lyrics for Jesus Christ Superstar have aged just fine, apart from "What's the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying." But the original staging and costume design -- especially as exemplified in the film adaptation starring Carl Anderson and Ted Neely -- haven't aged well at all.

That's why I prefer the Rent-rejects/Nazi-Romans look of the 2001 movie version. http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Christ-...1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1311900499&sr=1-3 Mercifully, this version doesn't keep painfully reminding you that it's the 1970s.

 

[Sci]

I used to like Jesus Christ, Superstar, but now I dunno...hasn't aged well.

I think the music and lyrics for Jesus Christ Superstar have aged just fine, apart from "What's the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying." But the original staging and costume design -- especially as exemplified in the film adaptation starring Carl Anderson and Ted Neely -- haven't aged well at all.

That's why I prefer the Rent-rejects/Nazi-Romans look of the 2001 movie version. http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Christ-...1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1311900499&sr=1-3 Mercifully, this version doesn't keep painfully reminding you that it's the 1970s.

No, instead it keeps painfully reminding you that it's the late 90s/early 00s.

At the end of the day, all works of art are products of their time. The costume design and "show within a show" concept behind the 1973 film are badly dated, true, but the idea of performing the musical in ancient Israeli ruins, to me, works just fine -- echoes of history, if you will. And the score and book overpower the problems with it.

(I was unfair to JCS when I said most musicals are better than it earlier. While JCS is not the best musical ever, it represents, IMO, the height of Andrew Lloyd Webber's abilities [he has sadly degenerated over the years] and is certainly one of the stronger musicals out there. It's certainly better than, say, an overly-melodramatic piece of pretension like Les Mis.)

 

[Forbin]

Next thing you're gonna tell me is that you can't handle "No, No, Nanette" because its 1920s setting is SO dated!

JC:SS was written at the end of "the sixties", the movie's a product of "the seventies" and there's no reason in the world it shouldn't be accepted as such for all eternity.

It sounds a little odd to say something made in the seventies about events that happened around 33AD seems "dated."

 

[MHT1138]

I love musicals, but I haven't had the opportunity to see that many live.
My 5 favorite of the ones I've seen live:

Beauty and the Beast
The Sound of Music
My Fair Lady
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah ( A musical revue of Allan Sherman songs)
The Producers

 

[Sakrysta]

^That Allen Sherman revue sounds awesome. I would love to see that!

- 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

So glad to see Jason Robert Brown getting some love.

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.

I completely, wholeheartedly agree.

I simply can't narrow down to 5 - 7 was hard enough:

Parade
The Secret Garden
Sunday in the Park with George
Into the Woods
Jane Eyre
My Favorite Year
Blood Brothers

I tend to judge musicals on the music alone, because I have very little opportunity to see the shows. You'll notice that my list doesn't have anything on it very new - I think Jane Eyre is the most recent one up there, and it's from 2000. I've found very little of value since then. There's the stray song here and there, but I can't remember the last time I listened to a new show through and found myself amazed and moved at the end.

Year after year of Tony awards, I make a list of things to try, find a way to listen to them (much easier these days with Napster), and never go back to them. There's nothing there worth revisiting.

I will say, I just added The Drowsy Chaperone to my Broadway Unexplored playlist in Napster. I had completely forgotten about it.

 

[Corwwyn]

Rhythm of the Dance
Stomp
Jesus Christ Superstar

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Next thing you're gonna tell me is that you can't handle "No, No, Nanette" because its 1920s setting is SO dated!

JC:SS was written at the end of "the sixties", the movie's a product of "the seventies" and there's no reason in the world it shouldn't be accepted as such for all eternity.

It's not bad for something to be clearly a product of its time if the trappings of that time were any good to begin with. As is, most of the 1970s was just a bad idea (with the exceptions of Star Wars, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker episodes of Doctor Who).

 

[adamnirwan]

Music is best source of relaxation mostly people like to listen music according there choice as like me I like stage music and my favorite stage musical are-
She Loves Me
A Little Night Music
Urinetown
City of Angels
Lady in the Dark
Dreamgirls

 

[Sagart]

Sunset Boulevard
Mary Poppins
Les Mis
Phantom
Spamalot