Your Favorite Musical?

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South Pacific is back on Broadway! Ditto Gypsy! And of course, there is Les Miz, Phantom, Hairspray, The Sound of Music and many many more. Your favorite Broadway, off-Broadway, movie musical(s)?

Mine are (in no particular order): Cabaret (who can forget Joel Gray and Liza Minneli in the movie version?), West Side Story, (the music, the story, the dancing, WOW!) the Fantasticks, A Chorus Line, Sweet Charity, Fiddler on the Roof,(I still can’t get *If I Were a Rich Man… *out of my head), **The Pajama Game **(for Steam Heat and Hernando’s Hideaway) and I could go on and on.

Least favorite: **All That Jazz **(open heart surgery just doesn’ cut it for me as a plot device) and **Jesus Christ Superstar **(just too sappy for my taste).

Here’s a list from A to Z to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musicals:_A_to_Lhelp to bring back the memories:
 
CATS! >^.^<

“My Fair Lady”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Sound of Music”

But as someone once pointed out, “West Side Story” stretches credulity.

Come on, the guy’s running down the street in Little Italy screaming “Maria!”… and only ONE girl comes to the window???😉
 
Love “West Side Story” - probably cuz I was in a college production a few? years ago. Every time I see it, I just know this time, Tony isn’t going to die:( .

New favorite - Wicked. Do NOT read the book but the musical was wonderful.

There are so many others I love - Music Man, Oklahoma, 7 Brides or 7 Brothers, Sound of Music, Meet Me in St. Louis …

I’m not especially fond of Les Mis or My Fair Lady but there’s very few I wouldn’t sit through.

I’m spoiled living in St. Louis with The Muny - our outdoor theater. I pay for some shows and others I sit in the free seats in the back. Yes, I’m going to “High School Musical” there this summer and I’m looking forward to it:D .

Kris
 
bluerose said:
CATS! >^.^<

But as someone once pointed out, “West Side Story” stretches credulity.
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Sure does. Gangs bursting in song and dance and “rumbling” with chains and knives is not exactly reality, even back then. But it is worth suspending disbelief to enjoy the score, the book and the choreography. By the way, what musical doesn’t "stretch credulity?"
 
Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I and South Pacific would be my top three.

The Wikipedia list includes some Gilbert and Sullivan but IMHO that’s a whole other list. 🙂
 
Musical or musical score?

I have practically made my CD of the original cast recording of “Camelot” see-through, playing it so often. (Julie Andrews AND Robert Goulet AND Richard Burton, in their prime!) But sitting through the production which can be HOURS long (factoring in at least 1 and often 2 intermissions). . .that isn’t so great!

Anything I’ve actually done the playing for (piano) is high up there just because when I play, I invest a lot of ‘myself’. . .so Carousel, South Pacific, Godspell (give me a break, it was 1975!!!), Oklahoma, Brigadoon, and Babes in Arms still bring a lump to my throat and an ‘itch’ to the fingers.

Never could get into A Chorus Line; saw Once On This Island in the early 90s and enjoyed it at the time but the songs didn’t really ‘live on’ in memory; ditto with A Little Night Music.

Fiddler, Mame, Hello Dolly, The Fantastics, The King and I all have been enjoyed by me to a greater or lesser degree depending on ‘external’ factors more than the actual music or storyline.

They really pounded West Side Story into us in high school so it’s not really a fave although my kids had a ritual when they were little of running through the living room and kitchen and circling back whenever I would play “Tonight”. I never knew why! For some reason, they also liked to do the same to “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”, go figure.

Never saw Cats (and I’m an ailurophile!), hated J.C. Superstar which again was POUNDED into us ad nauseam, liked Phantom of the Opera for the voices (Brightman, Crawford) but not for the story line.

My Fair Lady is still a treat.

Too many ‘edgy’ musicals (Avenue Q and Rent, for example) that probably have some musical worth but I’m just one person and the older I get, the more I tend to weed out the ephemeral, the trendy, even the adequate, for the really STERLING stuff.

So I’ll probably find more hidden diamonds in the old, find more meaning in some that currently have less meaning for me, may even find some new musical favorite (not Wicked, can’t separate it from the book which is awful as well as some problematic storylines though a couple of the songs are absolutely terrific).
 
For me it’s Godspell – the play, not the movie version. I could see it every day (although I’ve only been lucky enough to see it 5 times, 3 of those as stage manager). No, don’t bother, I don’t care what anyone says, I love it. 😛

Other favorites are “The Music Man”; “My Fair Lady”; Les Miz (I cried from the time Jean Valjean knelt breaking rocks in Scene 1); Little Shop of Horrors; West Side Story (although I must admit that when I rewatched it recently, I found it a little thin although I still love the sound track)
 
I have seen West Side Story about 1 million times. I saw it the first time at 6 (the film) I cry every time at the end.

Yeah, it isn’t so believable…Maria gets over her brother pretty quick. She really only knows Tony for a day.

But the music and songs are great. I also think the film version is better than the play, because the songs are in a more logical order.

I saw Chicago, thought it was good, a little risque.

I also saw Miss Saigon, I didn’t like it at all…really not at all, I’m not sure why.

Does any one know if *Sweet Charity *was based on The Nights of Cabiria, by Fellini?
 
Mary_Gail_36 said:
Does any one know if *Sweet Charity *was based on The Nights of Cabiria, by Fellini?
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Yes, it is. At the IMBD website Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano & Tullio Pinelli are credited as the writers of the screenplay for original “Le Notti di Cabiria” followed by Neil Simon 'Book of musical 'Sweet Charity" and Peter Stone as screenplay writer, in English I presume.
 
Singin’ In The Rain is the Best by far.

Sound of Music is my favorite.
 
The King and I - Cats - The Sound of Music - My Fair Lady - Hello Dolly! - White Christmas - Fiddler On the Roof - Brigadoon.

I know there are more, but I can’t think right now. The first time I saw West Side Story was the movie, and I was a teen. I burst out laughing when the ‘gangs’ came out dancing and singing. I chuckled through the whole thing. Even poor Tony dieing. I must admit, the next time I saw it, I was able to enjoy the movie without getting fits of the giggles.
 
What a fun thread! 😃

In no particular order

Sound of Music, The Music Man, Camelot, Fiddler on the Roof, Man of La Mancha (aka Don Quixote), Damn Yankees, Guys and Dolls…I expect there’s more, but I can’t really think of them right now.

The only one that I really didn’t care much for was Some Like it Hot. (though that particular production did have an interesting scene with tap dancing mobsters…) Oh, and I’ve never been much of a fan of Annie, either.

One noteworthy one…though it had NO redeeming moral value whatsoever, was RENT. Musically, spectacular. Thematically, you couldn’t pay me to see it again.
 
The Sound of Music, White Christmas, Grease, the Wizard of Oz. I LOVE THEM ALL! But if I had to pick a fave, it would be White Christmas. It drives FH crazy when I start singing, “Snow, snow, snowww!!!” or “Gee, I wish is was back in the army!” 😃 Can’t help it they stick in my head.

Agreed with PP, I saw a stage production of Rent, and while the cast were extremely talented I had no idea what was going on!
 
Baptista said:
The King and I - Cats - The Sound of Music - My Fair Lady - Hello Dolly! - White Christmas - Fiddler On the Roof - Brigadoon.
I am probably one of the few people who doesn’t understand why this is this classic Irving Berlin show when the musical, Holiday Inn is the show that first introduced the song “White Christmas” (plus Easter Parade and a few others). I wish Holiday Inn would make it as a Broadway type show; it was one of the first musicals I remember seeing on tv when I was little and I was enthralled with the whole idea of music and movies together.

Kris
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For me in no particular order:
Wicked, Oliver, Lion King, Sound of Music (actually meet one of the real Von Trapp sisters)
 
‘Sweeney Todd’, ‘Phantom’ and ‘Man of La Mancha’ are my favorites.

I won’t see ‘Les Miserables’ and I absolutely detest ‘West Side Story’, especially the movie.
 
kwitz said:
Baptista;3629196:
The King and I - Cats - The Sound of Music - My Fair Lady - Hello Dolly! - White Christmas
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  • Fiddler On the Roof - Brigadoon.
I am probably one of the few people who doesn’t understand why this is this classic Irving Berlin show when the musical, Holiday Inn is the show that first introduced the song “White Christmas” (plus Easter Parade and a few others). I wish Holiday Inn would make it as a Broadway type show; it was one of the first musicals I remember seeing on tv when I was little and I was enthralled with the whole idea of music and movies together.

Kris
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I also liked Holiday Inn, and Easter Parade, and some others, but I think White Christmas became the classic, as you say, exactly because it’s climax is Christmas Eve, and the soldiers give “the old man” a wonderful gift. I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. :rolleyes: 😊 I don’t think we can have too many “Christmas classics”. 👍
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Chicago.
It’s worth the whole movie just for this scene where Richard Gere (the Lawyer) is working his client like a ventriloquist’s dummy and at the same time pulling the reporters’ strings like a puppeteer.
 
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