Favorite Stage Musical

[Hey_Porter]

Les Mis is certainly up there, although each time I see it, there is one actor whose voice I don't like for the part, and that always ends up bugging me.

Cabaret might be my favorite though. Extremely poignant.

[RJT]

Forgot all about Cabaret - good choice.

[diebitter]

[ QUOTE ]

Cabaret might be my favorite though. Extremely poignant.

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Cabaret means a lot to me too. I saw a simple little touring production just after I'd got married and moved to a new city where we knew no-one, so we were pretty isolated, and it was a wonderful tonic to the blues.

They did a scene which started with one of the KitKat waiters did a tenor-solo of 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me'. It sounded sweet and hearfelt, and then another joined. Suddenly on the other side of the stage, the sarcastic MC was spotlit, doing his makeup at the dressing-room chair, and he seems to notice the song, and looked bemused.

Then a third waiter joined in, and the beat became more milataristic, and the voices deeper and more masculine.

The MC got up and started walking around, looking at the singers, sneering, pulling faces, and then looking worried and again bemused.

Then a fourth waiter joined in singing, and it got into a full-flow militaristic anthem. The MC shook his head, sneered at them, and then walked up some stairs, across a gangway that was above the stage, at the back. As they drew to a close at full military beat, the MC drew a Hilter moustache on himself, and struck the Nazi salute, standing in a strong down-light.

The music stopped suddenly, and the place fell silent, and all lights went off except that on the MC-s standing there, looking like and saluting like Hitler. Then it went pitch black, and you heard the MC snort a contemptuous 'hah!'


You had to be there really, but it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Wonderful theatre.

[Josh W]

City of Angels.

To those who say Phantom....do you mean Phantom or do you mean Phantom of the Opera?

Josh

[Mrs. Utah]

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City of Angels.

To those who say Phantom....do you mean Phantom or do you mean Phantom of the Opera?

Josh

[/ QUOTE ]

I am saying Phantom of the Opera.

[MrMon]

I've seen Phantom twice, once in London, once with the touring company, and although I respect the performances, the songs, the sets, and I can see why people love it, I really don't. It has to do with the characters themselves and my interpretation of what's going on.

Women seem to love it because it's so romantic. But lets face it, the Phantom is a psycho that kills people because he's obsessed with the one he loves, and he wants to imprison her too. Unforgivable in my book, not romantic, I don't care that he's some wounded soul. I have no sympathy for anyone in the musical, so despite everything, I just don't like it.

Now, if one looks a little deeper at the musical and spins it into a tale of Christine's descent into madness, where the Phantom is all in her mind and her fiances love for her rescue's her from a prison of her own making, I could like that. The story doesn't quite fit, but I find it much more palatable.

[Analyst]

[ QUOTE ]
City of Angels.

To those who say Phantom....do you mean Phantom or do you mean Phantom of the Opera?

Josh

[/ QUOTE ]

*Ding*

I've played in the pit orchestras for a lot of musicals - easily more than 60 different titles - and Maury Yeston's shows are the best that I've played and/or seen. Yeston's Phantom may not have the instantly-memorable tunes that a lot of other shows do (ex: Phantom of the Opera), but the music is wonderful and very, very well orchestrated. The story is a lot better than the "other" Phantom as well.

Still, one of Yeston's other shows, Nine, is the best musical I've ever played. In most shows, I'm bored with the music by the time the show opens. When I've played Nine, I hated closing.

After Phantom and Nine, my favorites (to play) are:

- Man of La Mancha
- Fiddler on the Roof
- My Fair Lady
- Guys and Dolls

Bernstein's shows are also great. On The Town has outstanding music as does, obviously, West Side Story but the latter is just a bear for reed players.

[John Cole]

My Fair Lady at Trinity in Providence with two pianists on stage during the performance interacting with the cast. The guy who played Eliza's father almost made me forget Stanley Holloway, and one actor who played an English twit watching the race didn't utter a line, yet he nearly stole the show with his facial expressions.

[AAAA]

a couple points...as an old fart, South Pacific and other R&H musicals were quite "out there" vanguard type of social commentary for their times...we have just progressed, thank heavens.


also, i just saw a musical play reading at the Phoenix Theater that was way up there on the poignant rating, and the music was excellent as well. "The Journey" is a play about a breast cancer survivor and wasn't overly sappy, but rather quite informative for any cancer victim or members of their families.

One of my personal favorites is the video "oliver" which i taught to several classes as social commentary as well as wonderful music.

[GoblinMason (Craig)]

I love musicals. Not sure what my fav is, but this thread made me realize there are lots of good ones I haven´t seen.

-Craig