Your Favorite Broadway Shows/Musicals

wow great thread

1 Man from La Mancha - Impossible Dream is one of my favorite songs
2 Caberet - Saw it first as movie and loved it - play even better. Would have loved to see Joel Grey in play
3 Chorus Line- Music never leaves you
4 Hair - soft spot as it was first musical I ever went to
5 Oklahoma - did a poor Curley the Cowboy in HS Musical
6 Brigadoon - My grandmothers favorite - always played it .

 

Better than Cats?[/blue]

Echo the love for "Guys and Dolls". Asked to direct by the local community theater a few years back, I told them, "Only if we do THIS show. You want anything different, find somebody else."

Sondheim: "Sweeney Todd" is absolutely brilliant. Little surprised at the absence of "Into The Woods" so far, though. Wasn't fortunate enough to see Ms. Peters perform it live, but wore out a VHS copy of the "Great Performances" version.

"Les Mis", with Colm Wilkinson (who else?) as Valjean. I'd already seen all I wanted of "Phantom" before he opened it in Toronto, but made the trek simply to hear Mr. Wilkinson sing the role.

Anything with Nathan Lane playing the lead.

Julie Taymor's fantastic vision for "The Lion King," although I can't imagine trying to sing in some of those costumes.

And lest I release the hounds from Ben_Hecht's hypothetical "Most Hated" thread -- think I may have already stirred them by citing "Phantom" -- the opening scene from "Evita" still sends a chill up my spine every time I see it. Were I ever to take a crack at a Lloyd Webber show, this would be the one. The Baron was a fool to part ways with Tim Rice. (A rich and famous fool, of course, but a fool nonetheless...)

 

1. Mamma Mia (I'm a sucker for Abba)
2. Les Miz (The mid-1980s version)
3. Fire Angel (Saw in late 1970s in London)

 

My handle kinda gives away my love for "Sunday in the Park with George," but every production of a Sondheim musical, to me, gets hurt by the fact that the books tend to be such weak links compared to the music (possible exception: A Little Night Music).

And I've probably seen a half-dozen productions of Guys & Dolls, including the black-cast revival mentioned a couple of times on this thread, and would go see another good production any chance I could.

A lot of good shows, of course, can be killed by a bad cast. Sondheim's Assassins can be funny, outrageous and wildly entertaining, or it can sit there like a lump, depending on the cast.

 

I've seen it three times in various places. No matter where, the cast seems to have a great time with it.

 

Surprised there is not more love for Avenue Q. I don't think I've ever heard someone say they saw it and didn't like it a ton. But then, most of the people I know are in the early-30s and under crowd -- the generation that grew up on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.

 

Rent, I never got.
I went to Wicked with my daughter, and was surprisingly entertained. "Defying Gravity" is a great number. And I thought the musicalization of Tommy was a terrific surprise.
I loved the score of A Chorus Line, but hated the book. Whiny losers.
1776, I guess, is my fave, along with My Fair Lady.

 

Since we don't really get many musicals out here, I have to base which ones I like on the songs, so I love Sweeney Todd, Oklahoma and Evita.

Chicago's really good and I also own My Fair Lady and Rent. That's all I gots.

 

It's pretty obscure, but Sondheim's "Pacific Overtures" is absolutely brilliant. Most of his works have serious flaws despite the extraordinary quality of the music and lyrics, but this one's a fully realized success.

I've never seen "Chess," but the original concept recording is a guilty pleasure.