I went and saw South Pacific this week with the fabulous Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner. My head’s been stuffed full of those songs ever since. It’s definitely one of my favouritest musicals. I’d only seen the movie before and, well, “good” is not a word you can use to describe it. But the stage production at Lincoln Centre is wondrously good. I’d go see it again in a heartbeat.
I’ve seen so few musicals live. Kiss Me Kate is, I think, the only other one I’ve seen as an adult. Loved it! My resolution for this year is to see many, many more. I’m dying to see Passing Strange. And I’m convinced that getting to see good productions of Anything Goes and West Side Story would make my life complete. The movie version of West Side Story is disfigured by the horrible miscasting of the leads, who can neither sing nor act, without Rita Moreno and Russ Tamblyn that movie would be unwatchable.
I’m also a fan of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, but, again have only seen the movie.
So what are your favourite musicals? Which do you think I should see if I get the chance? I do live in NYC half the year, afterall. I hear they have musicals here.
Be aware though that I cannot stand Les Miserables. I also really hate the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. I’m not even sure you can call it music. I would rather eat my own eyeballs than sit through Phantom of the Opera.
So, Justine, I shouldn’t regale you with stories of my childhood in amateur musical theatre? *grin*
Anything Goes is one of my favourite old-school musicals, highly recommended if you can find a good production (and handwave the Chinese subplot as a product of its time).
But I loooove the, ahem, non-traditional musicals as well. For example, there’s a jazz version of The Mikado that has pretty much spoiled me for any Gilbert & Sullivan not set in a nightclub in the 1920s. And I loved Jerry Springer: The Opera in London, magnificently wrong as it was. I haven’t seen the movie, but the iOTA version of Hedwig in Sydney was mind-blowingly awesome.
Do not, under any circumstances, see Li’l Abner.
I would love to see wicked or spring awakening. Those would be my top suggestions.
A Chorus Line! It’s a wonderful, classic show, and I loved the current Broadway revival, which I saw last spring.
I like the music from Wicked, but I was less impressed with it on stage (hated the ending). Conversely, I liked Spamalot much more on stage than I do on disc.
And definitely any Cole Porter! I’d adore to see Kiss Me Kate, Anything Goes, or Fifty Million Frenchmen (which is lesser known but has some great songs).
I hate that you hate Andrew Lloyd Webber. I’ve been hating Andrew Lloyd Webber for most of my life and was hoping to get into a nasty argument with someone over it. I really really hate him. Oh and Sondheim too. Yuck. Everybody raves about Spring Awakening, but I didn’t like it. The music was just mediocre indie-folk-rock and the story was even lamer than a musical should be. I think you’re going to have to wait for my musical about sentient software programs to come out.
i very much enjoyed the producers.
and i’m dying to see spamalot!
Hereandnow: There was an extremely short run version of Jerry Springer on here in NYC with Harvey Keitel as Springer. Apparently it was brilliant. I only heard about it after the run was finished. Grrr.
LBS: It’s just as well I don’t have children. I would be horrible. “No, I can’t come see you in your school play. You’re all hideous amateurs. Leave mummy alone so she can finish her martini.”
Lauren: Well, I hate that you hate Andrew Lloyd Webber more than you hate that I hate Andrew Lloyd Webber. So nyer!
i feel so dreadful and sad! i like several of the shows not to be named in this here blog, so i will not mention them. i am not a big fan of sondhiem either, but some of that stuff i can deal with. i even like the musical version of “aladin” even though i am not supposed to because it is unfair in places to people of my ethnicity. (but only if jafar is properly evil. if jafar is improperly evil, it has no zing.)
i also love high school and college productions! i love a show where the lead is not the hunky hero but a skinny kid with glasses who can SING! and i like the no money part of it. i saw a “big musical” (not going to name it because i am not like that) where the lead was sexy and handsome and sang and made is so freaking obvious that he was bored and jaded. he basically walked through the part, only really shining on his solo pieces. i got my $$$ back btw. he left the production shortly thereafter. when you get into the school productions, you have people who want to be there and are there for the heck of it because it is fun.
i do like professional shows too, though and i am dying to see Spamalot when it tours again. I loved the Sweeney Todd movie, but if you can see it as the original on stage, you really should!
A Chorus Line, definitely. So energizing and wonderful. I’m also a fan of a lot of the others that have been mentioned - classic R&H, etc. Personally I also love Oliver! and Annie. The soundtrack of The Music Man is in my top 5 of musicals, but I’m not in love with the book. I’d rather just listen to the record.
I agree with your comment on Andrew L W. (and it makes me think of the Crowded House song “Chocolate Cake”). But I loved Les Miz! It’s been years since I saw it, but I remember much sobbing on my part. Maybe I was PMSing.
p.s. LOVE Godspell! But then, I grew up in a seventies hippie Christian household, so we were all about it. Still, when I listen to the CD now (both the original cast recording and the movie version), I think the songs are, on the whole, pretty amazing.
Ysa: I totally take your point that amateur productions can be good at the pro ones can be dreadful. Indeed, I stopped going to theatre all together for many years on account of having seen some really dreadful professional productions. Nothing is worse than bad theatre. Actors who just work through their parts are evil and wrong.
On the whole, though, I’ve seen more good pro theatre than good amateur.
Sara Z: Godspell is the only movie I have ever walked out of. It was So. Very. Bad.
the godspell play is 8 million times better than the movie. the movie just sucks.
im still rooting for equus tho.
Emily: I suspected as much. The South Pacific movie is also horrible.
Equus makes me nervous.
Why is Bernstein being neglected. Just to mention 3 ground breaking musicals. There is the early celebration of NYC: On the Town, which did become a fab movie. West Side Story just shifted the whole ground of musicals (I don’t think Hair could have been done without its precedent). And my favourite, Candide (which we all saw at Belvior), a much underrated spoof.
I did mention Hair which gave us Marcia Hines.
Did you not see this sentence above where I wrote, “And I’m convinced that getting to see good productions of Anything Goes and West Side Story would make my life complete.”?
Didn’t mention On the Town precisely because the movie is so good. I know I saw Candide but I don’t remember it at all.
Ok, I agree with many of the recs already made, but I’ll make a few others:
Ok, less cerebral or…impressive, than Chicago, Wicked or Rent, and not nearly the classic of Chorus Line, but I am huge fan of The Lion King and Mama Mia.
Mama Mia is just good Abba-liscious fun. Kind of like the “beach read” of musicals.
The Lion King has fabulous music and incredible Julie Taymor costumes and direction.
If you were only going to see one or two, I’d definitely go to Rent and then Chorus Line or Chicago. But if you really are going to see more, especially if you do the half-price tickets booth thing, consider giving Mama Mia and Lion King a chance…
Emily
Ah, yes! WSS: Melbourne 1960; Telaviv 1961.
If it’s ever revived, see Big River, which is Huckleberry Finn set to music. The songs — by the late country music star Roger Miller — aren’t your typical Broadway caterwauling. They comprise a kind of tour through the many flavors of early American folk music.
I’m also with the ALW haytaz, with one exception. See the next professional production of Evita you come across. Awesome stuff. The character “Che” is a great charismatic trickster figure. Even the song “Don’t Cry for Me blah blah,” which I kinda detest, is really affecting in context. The Madonna movie is way, way, waaaay weak in comparison.
Side note: Only ever walked out of two movies — Eraserhead and Urban Cowboy. And both involved irritating music! Hmmm.
RENT is awsomes if you can see it you should. Wicked and Spamalot are also really good.
P.S. Rock on for the Hedwig love!!
If you find a production of West Side Story going on…well, definitely go and see it, but also let me know where it is going on so I can kill one of the orchestra’s violinists and steal his/her seat. My own orchestra just finished working on this, and it has the single best score of any musical I’ve been exposed to. A Leonard Bernstein score makes just about anything worth seeing.
As per previous recommendations, Wicked is wonderfully fantastic and at the top of my list; Spamalot is hysterically funny; and a lot of the “classics” like Chicago, Chorus Line, Rent, and the Cole Porter works are deservingly popular.
P.S. As I do not live in NY, I have no idea if this is going on anywhere, but…if Fiddler on the Roof is being put on anywhere, see it. It’s delightful and funny and moving and the movie version is my favorite movie of all time.
P.P.S. I have never met a musician who likes Webber. I believe there is a good reason for that.
To whoever mentioned Fiddler on the Roof - definitely. I think Tevye has got to be one of the greatest characters ever written. The whole thing is one of the most touchingly human musicals I’ve seen.
I love Rent, Hairspray, and
Avenue Q.most people here have already mentioned the good ones like
avenue qand hairspray (which is TONS better than the recent movie), but i do know that “cry-baby,” based on the 1990 john waters film, is coming to broadway later this month. i’ve heard a couple of songs and they’re pretty fun and quirky.*as a side note: the songs were written by david javerbaum, who was a writer on the daily show with jon stewart (so that should be exciting to see, or hear)
Although about 98789 other people have said this, you absolutely have to see Wicked. I didn’t like the Wizard of Oz until I read the book, and I like the musical a lot better than the book.
I finally saw it last weekend, we took a trip to Chicago just for that reason and it was AMAZING! As in, almost-in-tears Amazing. I’d already been addicted to the OBC soundtrack, and the Chicago singers were just as good! I was surprised.
The DVD of Working absolutely sucked, but my high school drama club (including me) is performing it. And it is way better than the movie because, well, we make it more interesting. If you are in the “chorus”, like me, you’re not just an extra, but you have a backstory, even if the audience doesn’t realize it. I may be a restaurant patron, but the backstory is that I am with a group of my sorority friends in that scene.
We have about six guys and they have to be more than one male lead while we have 20-something girls. It’s basically the atmosphere that makes the musical. Working is a bunch of monologues and solos, but everyone can have fun.
(I hope that made sense)
can i recommend anything by soundheim?
if you love musicals, or don’t care for them - he has turned the whole genre inside out 7 times over. makes lovers out of haters & lovers even more mad for musical theatre! he is a serious antidote for phantom & les miz.
especially enjoyable for writers - the man elevates musicals to a whole other sphere! sunday in the park is crazy genious. into the woods is clever & fun!
i am also lover of classics (like south pacific & gigi) but another new interesting pushing-the-envelope musical that was up a few years ago was caroline or change. written by the tony kushner who wrote angels in america.
seriously? you hate Phantom of the Opera?? …that makes me sad. i loved it. oh well i guess. different people like different things. i’ve also seen Mamma Mia. i love that one too. and am hoping to go see Rent once it comes to my little city in May. i’ve kinda become obsessed with brodway musicals latly. i’ve seen 2 so far this year.