The Bestest Musical Ever - Fall 2012

I love the fall. I've always been the type of nerd who couldn't wait to get back to school. And now that I teach full-time, that nerd-liness continues unabated.

Of course, one of the things that I look forward to the most is teaching my musical-theater history course, and this year I had something extra exciting to look forward to. For this academic year, my course is two-semesters long. Previously, it was only one semester for my freshmen sections, although last year I did get a chance to teach two semesters to the grad students for the first time.

And more students means more work, naturally, but for you, dear reader, it also means more robust lists. Every year, I start my course by asking students to write down the three best musicals of all time. We then make a list on the board of the shows that people have voted for, and then we start a discussion about what makes good shows good.

This year, I had 75 students in total voting, and here are their choices, as well as the number of students who chose that show as one of their top three:

West Side Story 25
Les Miserables 20
Ragtime 15
Into the Woods 14
Oklahoma 12
Hair 9
The Phantom of the Opera 8
Sweeney Todd 8
Rent 5
South Pacific 5
A Chorus Line 4
Carousel 4
In the Heights 4
My Fair Lady 4
Next to Normal 4
Singin' in the Rain 4
Spring Awakening 4
Sunday in the Park with George 4
Wicked 4
Anything Goes 3
The Light in the Piazza 3
The Music Man 3
Once 3
Parade 3
Porgy and Bess 3
Show Boat 3
The Sound of Music 3
Aida 2
Cabaret 2
Chicago 2
Gypsy 2
Hairspray 2
Kiss Me Kate 2
The Lion King 2
Miss Saigon 2

Here are the shows that received one vote each:

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Cinderella, Company, Crazy for You, Damn Yankees, Follies, Fosse, Good News, Grey Gardens, Guys and Dolls, Jersey Boys, Jesus Christ Superstar, Little Shop of Horrors, Mary Poppins, Memphis, Passion, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Songs for a New World, Spamalot, The Fantasticks, The Producers, The Rocky Horror Show, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Scottsboro Boys, The Wild Party (Lippa), The Wizard of Oz, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Urinetown

So, what do we see here? Well, as always, the students' choices are partly governed by which shows are currently, or were recently, playing on Broadway and/or touring the country. The presence of West Side Story at the top of the list was no doubt influenced by the national tour, which recently ended its trans-continental traverse. The similarly high ranking of Les Miserables and Into the Woods is likely related to the number of regional and high-school productions of those shows.

Rent is ranking much lower than it has in the past. Not sure what to make of that, other than the fact that more people are getting a chance to see it regionally, and it's possible that the show seems less impressive without professionals performing the vocally challenging score.

Spring Awakening also seems to have slipped in recent years. I'm thinking this is because the show needs a very strong directorial concept to work, and even though the show has been getting a lot of regional play, it's possible that in the absence of a strong director, people are noticing that the show itself isn't really that strong.

Wicked is ranking a lot lower than it has in the past. Perhaps the Future Show Queens of America (FSQA) have finally moved beyond the whole "Wicked is Like the Fiercest Show That Ever Was" (WILFSTEW) stage and started including other shows in their general barometer of fierce-osity. (Don't get me wrong. I love Wicked. But I also love when show queens broaden their horizons beyond Elphaba worship.)

It's wonderful to see Ragtime place so highly on this list. For years, I was concerned that Ragtime would sort of fade from the national consciousness, mostly under the presumption that not many local theaters would put the show on because of the controversial subject matter as well as because of the need for large numbers of African Americans, who traditionally haven't been as involved in community and regional theater. Thankfully, that seems to be changing, which gives more people a chance to see this powerful and challenging show.

So many classic shows placed relatively strongly on this year's list, including a big thumbs-up for Rodgers and Hammerstein shows, including Oklahoma, Carousel and South Pacific. Regular readers will recall my deep and abiding esteem for the first two of these shows, and my relative disdain for the last.

Among the new shows, Next to Normal has been holding fast over the past few semesters. This will likely continue as the show continues to catch on regionally. Regular readers will also recall my ambivalence about Next to Normal: I admire the craft of the show, but have significant problems with its apparent message regarding psychiatry. One lovely new addition to the list is Once, the big winner this year at the Tony Awards -- and rightly so -- and a significant financial success, having recently recouped its investment, and continuing to perform strongly at the box office, even in the traditional post-Labor Day drop-off.

There are always a few oddballs and aberrations on the list each year. Who'd a thunk Gypsy would rank so low? And after the wonderful revival of Follies last season, you'd think the show would get more than one vote, right? Also, why are Singin' in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz even on the list? I guess I should have specified that we would be focusing on stage musicals as opposed to movie musicals. (Sure, both shows have been done on the stage, but never very well, at least IMHO.)

How about you, dear reader? What do you notice in the list year's list? Any surprises, pleasant or otherwise? Any glaring omissions, from where you sit? Any shows included here that warm the cockles of your heart? Do the choices of these FSQAs give you hope for the future, or do they make you wish ever more strongly for a musical-theater time machine? Lemme know, m'kay?

 

Comments

[James bean]

I've always loved this yearly survey. It's good to see that classic Broadway is surviving amongst all of this new age nonsense. Curious to see Book of Mormon not on the list, any word on the desire of these kids to stray away from the mainstream in an attempt to seem more knowledgeable and hip?

[BwayAbridged]

I look forward to this list every year.

[Alexis Scheer]

Where's Fiddler on the Roof???

[Esther]

Hey Chris,

First of all, congratulations on the extra teaching time!

It's interesting how the passage of time can make you see a show differently.

I first saw Les Miserables about 25 years ago on tour in Syracuse and I loved it. I didn't go to the theatre very often and I was captivated by the emotional, epic story.

I saw the revival on tour a couple years ago and I don't know what happened, maybe I'd built it up in my mind too much the first time, but it just seemed to go on and on. I was really disappointed that I didn't love it as much as I did the first time. Although I do still love the score.

[Geoff]

The almost complete absence of anything by Frank Loesser is discouraging, especially after the highly successful run of "H2S." Yet only a single vote for "Guys and Dolls" (surely the most perfectly crafted of golden era musical comedies)? And not a single vote for his masterpiece "The Most Happy Fella"? I never thought Loesser would go out of fashion, but I guess styles change.

I see nobody opted for high maestro opus with "Candide," perhaps a little too heady a taste for such a list, but arguably one of the greatest scores Broadway ever heard. Always pleased when the great R&H titles appear, but where's "The King and I"? I've always ranked it #2 on my list of great R&H titles so its absent is a puzzlement. Is the show considered racist or non-PC? God, I hope not. It's one of Hammerstein's finest creations.

So happy to see "My Fair Lady" hanging in there. It's beginning to look a little creaky in revival and somebody needs to give it an entirely new staging, but the character writing is first rate and the score a God send. Glad the kids still know about it.

[Joshua]

Three for Parade is surprising to me. I suppose this is because of the cast recording? I can't imagine there's an influx of regional productions for all of the reasons you mentioned about Ragtime, only times 10. I know as a musical theatre geek stuck in the Midwest, most of my experience with a number of shows (Parade included) comes from putting on a CD rather that sitting in a theatre, so I always find it interesting which cast albums manage to grow in peoples' esteem for what they dare rather than how long they ran or how much money they made.

[ccaggiano]

Jimmy, unquestionably there's always going to be an element of professor-pleasing, although the votes are anonymous. And frankly I can't imagine many of these kids can afford to see Book of Mormon.

[ccaggiano]

Alexis, we have our work cut out for us, assuredly.

[ccaggiano]

Careful, Esther, my dear. You don't want to start getting all blasé and cynical, like me and Geoff. ;-)

[ccaggiano]

Geoff, remember these are 17-18 year olds, for the most part, and they don't all come from the NYC area, so what's playing in NY is not always the most top of mind for them. Also, I think perhaps Loesser is more of an acquired taste, or at least a dish with more of a complex mixture of favors. Especially Happy Fella. But the fact that Guys and Dolls got only one vote is extremely surprising.

[ccaggiano]

Parade gets a surprising number of regional productions. I say "surprising" because IMHO it's very difficult to sit through. Yes, it's an honorable show. Yes, it shows both craft and a social conscience. But it's a show that I sat through once and never want to sit through again. It's unrelentingly grim. Tragedies don't have to be grim. West Side Story, The Scottsboro Boys, Titanic, Next to Normal, Ragtime. All have significant tragic elements, but they're not nearly as hard to sit through as Parade.

[POB]

JRB love, easily found in this age group, can easily account for PARADE's tally.

[Forrest]

Thought-provoking list as always, and as a N2N fan, it's interesting to see it retaining recognition amoung young theatre fans. I'm as surprised as you to find Gypsy is not higher up, but it is good to see The Light in the Piazza and Once being mentioned.
As a theatre fan in Tennessee, I also find it difficult to go see shows in NY(I've only seen Wicked and Phantom there). So most of my judgements are based on soundtracks and shows on national tours.
I would enjoy seeing your list of the best soundtracks, Chris, and to see how it differs from your list of best musicals.
Great work!

[Geoff]

He's blasé and I'm cynical, just so you don't get us confused. If you'd like to join our group then you can be Grace, I'll be Comfort, and Chris can be Style. Anybody who doesn't understand this reference has no business reading this blog and the angels will weep for you.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=653593095]

I wanna hug the kid who chose Guys & Dolls, but I guarantee it's some skinny kid who played Nathan Detroit in high school. (Oh. How would I know that?)

I'm fascinated at your love for the wife-beater musical, Chris. At least we agree on your love of Oklahoma and disdain for South Pacific.

[-Rich]

I am a little disappointed that my three favorite shows (Cabaret, Chicago, and The Fantasticks) combined only garnered 5 of the votes. I do find it vary interesting that there is, essentially, a complete lack of comedy on the list above. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Spamalot, and The Producers got one vote, but the complete absence of The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q makes me wonder if people have even a remote sense that a funny musical, can in fact be a great musical. Its disheartening to see such pieces of comedic genius ignored, while shows like Aida, The Lion King, and Miss Saigon somehow managed to all receive two votes. I do love these lists, but I feel a lot of amazing shows have been ignored bu the students.

[harry]

I found it very encouraging that so many of your students voted for Ragtime. I saw the original production five times during its try-out in Toronto. I think it is a masterpiece. I was certain that it would run "now and forever" in New York and was very surprised and disappointed when it didn't. I'm curious as to how so many of your students would even be aware of the show. It was never filmed and never televised. The Broadway revival certainly didn't last long. I can only assume that your kids have come to admire the show through the CD recording of Ahrens and Flaherty's magnificent score.

[Lisa]

I love reading this list each year.

I find it interesting that Into the Woods appears above Sweeney, Sunday, and Company. Into the Woods is a good show, but nowhere near the other three, not to mention Follies. This actually confirms my thought that Into the Woods is kind of the "gateway" Sondheim. When I was younger, Into the Woods was the first Sondheim I loved, but then once I was exposed to his other work, it faded in my admiration.

I'm curious to see if you took this survey again after you taught the course, if the order would change. Once you understand structure and the possibility for profundity in musicals, it's hard to see Into the Woods in the same light as Sweeney, Sunday, or Follies. (I'm not as fond of Company)

[Jen]

Lisa makes some good points regarding 'before and after' lists, and also that 'Into the Woods' is the access pass to Sondheim. I have used 'The Witches Lament' as the basis of a large 3d illustration project, playing the video of Peters/Gleason/Zien to support the text. I am pleasantly surprised at how much the (design) students enjoy the musical, insist on seeing the entire piece beyond class, and further, scour the net for other performances only to return to class quite critical of them, in thrall of Peters' interpretation.

'Sunday in the Park with George' is one of my personal favourites, though it leaves me emotionally spent; I saw only a live excerpt when it was nominated at the Tony Awards ('Sunday') and was mesmerized by the brilliant scenic design, music and performances to the point where I knew I wanted to be a designer, and indeed, trained and became one. I would love to see the 2005 performance if there is one available mentioned in your link to the show (do you know of one?), though the original holds such affection, both musically and artistically. I suspect some of your students may choose their favourites based on their own experiences being in a school/local production; something resonated.

I do not see 'Finian's Rainbow'. Perhaps it is a tad old-fashioned, but I like the 'subversive' social comment dressed in whimsy… Glad to see 'Scottsboro Boys' mentioned too. Both open up interesting discussions about content in musicals, and, even in these times, how controversial a musical can be. I'm thinking about the boycotts in New York during the Broadway production of SB.

[Dave]

I returned to the stage in a local production of Ragtime this year and there's no way I could have been luckier with such an amazing production. It does my heart good that so many college students would appreciate Ragtime for what it is: a great piece of theater and a wonderful story of America.

[Jono]

The lack of 'Caroline, or Change' saddens me.

[Mitchell Mulkey]

I really don't like the lack of "Spamalot" I know you dont like this show but I think it was brilliant. It was my first soundtrack I really got into and I've liked it since. But I do like that A Funny Thing... Is on this list. But my top three would be Spamalot, Spring Awakening and Either Les Mis or Jersey Boys

[Mitchell Mulkey]

And Singing in The Rain Was a Stage Musical in the 80's