Top Five Musicals "Poll"

[justom]

Inspired by seeing the musical version of High Fidelity last night (world premiere at the Colonial, through October 22nd, before going to Broadway), which is full of Top Five lists, the inevitable discussion ensued

Comments

[marcusmarcusrc]

Man of La Mancha
Sweeney Todd
Into the Woods
Cage Aux Folles
Avenue Q

(but what about A Shoggoth on the Roof? Or the Star Wars Musical?)
(this list being highly arbitrary, and I have a feeling that two of the shows on this list are mostly here because I saw them on Broadway)

[firstfrost]

My personal five favorites as of this morning:
Children of Eden
Full Monty
Miss Saigon
Scarlet Pimpernel
Urinetown

justom complains that I haven't even seen several of them, but for me it's all about the music (which is why I don't care so much what it was adapted from).

I figured if I was a critic, I'd have some Sondheim in there, especially West Side Story...

[desireearmfeldt]

I did in fact (without thinking about it) remove from consideration anything I've only heard but not seen. It's kinda comparing apples and oranges, or maybe apples and apple pie--even if all you care about is how the apples turned out, it's a little wierd to compare crusts for the things that had crusts and not for the ones that didn't;... :)

[firstfrost]

See, for me, it's much closer to asking "which symphonies are your favorites?" Darned if I can even *remember* which ones I've seen performed live, but I still know which ones I like best.

(Okay, so I can remember which musicals I've seen live, so it's not a perfect analogy...)

[desireearmfeldt]

But symphonies don't have extra stuff that isn't on the recording, nor do they have any real visual component. That analogy just doesn't make *sense*. :)

(I understand, you're saying you're just in it for the music. *That* makes sense. :) )

[chanaleh]

Strictly for personal preference (in that "Oh, another production of X! I must go see it!" kind of way):

The Secret Garden
Guys and Dolls
Godspell
The Pirates of Penzance (shut up, it's totally a musical)
The Music Man

Runners-up: Oklahoma! (mediocre storyline stitching together brilliant songs), Into the Woods, Camelot, Les Miserables

[desireearmfeldt]

(I, on the other hand, instinctively considered niether G&S nor opera/operetta as being in the "musicals" category, so didn't even think of them.)

I like that reasoning...

[chenoameg]

In alphabetical order:

1776
Avenue Q
Into the Woods

Why only three, you ask? Well, I haven't seen very many of the musicals that I really like the music to. I suspect that if I had seen A Music Man and Singin' in the Rain on stage they would also be on my list, but I don't feel like I can judge from the list. I'm tempted by Guys & Dolls and Pirates of Penzance too (both of which I have seen on stage, although I'd like to see a really good production of Guys & Dolls sometime, not just the high school ones I've seen.)

Re: I like that reasoning...

[desireearmfeldt]

I quite like the movie version of Guys & Dolls with Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra. (If Sinatra pisses you off, well, you probably won't like it. I say he makes a fine Nathan Detroit.)

[twe]

Hmm....

Man of La Mancha
Chess (with black cover, not any of the later abberations)
Jesus Christ, Superstar
Cabaret

Azure or Crimson

[anonymous]

1776 (which I've never seen live)
Little Shop of Horrors
Chess (which I've never seen, see firstfrost's comment)
Evita
A Fvnny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forvm

(Hey, I have to confirm that I'm a human? They're assuming too much)