For Valentine’s Day, Larry picked us up some tickets to see the always sold-out Billy Elliott musical on Broadway. It is (not) surprisingly a very great show, as evidenced by the fact that it did win the 2009 Tony award for Best Musical. If you haven’t seen the movie Billy Elliott, please do yourself a favor and rent or NetFlix it. Yes, it’s about a boy in Northern England who discovers he’s good at ballet and isn’t content to live the life of a coal miner. It’s his reluctance to embrace his talent and his struggles with his family that really make the movie though, not to mention the amazing chemistry that Jamie Bell and Julie Walters have as student and teacher. The movie has as its soundtrack an awesome mix of The Clash, T-Rex and other great British bands from the 70s and 80s. Obviously Elton John saw the potential for this to become more than a movie, working with the movie’s director to bring it to Broadway. Instead of it being a showcase like Mamma Mia! or Rock of Ages to just sing 70s and 80s songs from the movie, he wrote completely original music for it. That was a great surprise and the songs are very good. Even better was the choreography and the staging – very inventive and creative ways to mix the clash of miners and policemen and little ballerinas. After the amazing show concluded, I got to thinking about where I’d place this on my favorite musicals list. And that led me to actually creating that list, which I’ve put below, in order from my favorite to those I’m okay with having seen just once:
- Les Miserables (Pasadena, San Antonio, London): If you haven’t seen it, then you haven’t seen the best musical ever. Maybe it’s a tad overdramatic at times, but I defy you to not be sobbing into your hankey more than once throughout this amazing show. The music is instantly memorable, the staging is highly inventive and awesome, and the sheer bombasticness of it all allowed this decision to be quite easy.
- Avenue Q (New York x3): A musical with foul-mouthed puppets and all-too-human people. It’s been referred to as the Sesame Street for Adults, and that’s hard to argue with. It’s filled with hilarious songs that are all relatable to everyone who has grown up into an adult. Plus, these songs are again all instantly memorable. You may see a theme that those musicals up at the top for me most importantly have songs that I remember or want to hear again. That’s very key to my enjoyment of a musical.
- Billy Elliott (New York): I’ve raved enough about it in this post. Simply fantastic.
- The Lion King (New York): An amazing surprise, especially since it’s a Disney production. I was expecting shlocky or tacky, but its redemption is because Julie Taymor was responsible for it. The show blows you away with its effective use of the already amazing songs and extremely creative staging. It felt very tribal too, making it all the better.
- Mamma Mia! (London, Las Vegas x2, Colorado Springs, New York): How can you not walk away from this musical with a smile and an extreme love of ABBA? I’ve seen this musical 5 times. I’d go see it again in a heartbeat. Great music, exuberant performances, and a “Waterloo†finale! Yeah, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this musical, even if it paved the way for the Jukebox musical that’s currently wearing out its welcome in Broadway.
- Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Los Angeles, San Antonio): One of the first musicals I ever saw. It was a colorful (naturally) overwhelming experience to behold and the songs were nothing but infectious. They still are. It’s of course a little goofy in hindsight, but you can’t deny the fun factor, especially when the Pharoah busts out Elvis moves. Another musical though that has fantastic songs I wanted to hear immediately again. As we get further down this list, expect less and less of that….
- West Side Story (New York): One of my favorite musical movies, which of course was adapted from an original musical. This iteration was a revival with some twists like “I Feel Pretty†and “A Boy Like That†sung in Spanish and “Somewhere†staged with a dream-child that could be Maria and Tony’s in a future they’ll never have. The music is already known by everyone, so the key is the staging and the performances. West Side Story was almost perfect, but for the lead who plays Tony in this staging. He is gorgeous…GORGEOUS….but way way way way way tooo Broadway for the role. For me, it’s important that you fall into the illusion they’re real people singing real feelings…not an actor singing his lines up on stage. Ah well.
- Wicked (New York): Yeah yeah yeah….this show is STILL sold out every night and it’s been almost 6 years since it came out. I loved the book and couldn’t wait to see this musical when I got the chance. But unfortunately, it is a musical that has AMAZING scenery, performances and staging yet has almost a completely generic soundtrack. Yes, there is of course “Defying Gravity†and “Popularâ€, which are awesome. But the rest of the songs? Eh. And that is very disappointing.
- Rock of Ages (New York): Jukebox musical? Check. Extremely awesome and fun? CHECK. It’s all covers of extremely cheesy rock from the 80s, but damn if you aren’t having a blast the entire show. You even get a damn fake LED lighter to use when they sing the ballads. It’s fun, doesn’t take itself seriously, and the performances are fantastic. Lots of fun doesn’t overcome the fact that it’s still an opportunistic jukebox musical though, which is why it’s relatively low on my list.
- Sunset Boulevard (Los Angeles): Another one of my first musicals, and amazing seats too. This had Glenn Close in the lead, so the vocals were okay, but no Patti Lupone. But the set….oh, the set. Dear Lord, the set. It was jaw-dropping how they recreated Norma Desmond’s opulent mansion, only for it to float in space in seconds. Seriously. Some pretty good songs too, but it is Andrew Lloyd Webber, so you get a lot of repetition. Still, I loved the source material so this gets a lot of that goodwill.
- title of show (New York): I’m proud to have given my money to this very cute show. It’s a low budget staging with only 4 cast members, but the songs were funny and the cast was incredible. But still….not a lot there. I wish I could say I wanted to hear the songs again, but I really didn’t. It was one of those shows where the song requires the staging in order for it to be truly entertaining.
- Xanadu (New York): We didn’t get to see it with Cheyenne Jackson. Fail. It’s hard to overcome that deficit, to be honest, as the show is sooooo silly. It was still a lot of fun though, especially for us kitchy gays, but its main draws are the fact that the songs were already known from Olivia Newton John and ELO. The source movie….I’ve never seen. But I loved that the musical referenced it and mocked it mercilessly, especially the lead female’s intentionally silly Australian accent. KEEEEEErrrahh.
- We Will Rock You (Las Vegas): It’s a jukebox musical based on the music of Queen! My mom loved it and wanted to see it again, so I went with her. It was actually pretty good but again, kind of forgettable, especially in the wake of something like Mamma Mia!.
- Phantom of the Opera (New York): I don’t get the near universal love that this musical gets. Maybe because it’s one of the original blockbuster shows? Maybe because Michael Crawford got so famous for singing “Music of the Nightâ€?  I saw this last year and I just could not get into it. It was so SILLY. And not in a good way. The songs were ultra-generic and constantly re-utilized. Plus seriously….that bitch Christine is nuts. So yeah, this headed to the bottom of the list, especially after in my staging of it, the “crashing†chandelier fell slower than the Peoplemover at Disneyland. It’s hard to buy that the actors were in danger with that. I will give props though on the two opening scenes with the way they dramatically reveal the set. Especially that reveal of all those people on the staircase in Act 2.
- In The Heights (New York): Another show that gets nothing but praise…yet I really didn’t get into it. I really really appreciate the backstory of how the show got made, I do. But that alone is not enough for me to then say I loved the show. It’s another one where there’s not ONE song that I can remember now, let alone remember right after I saw the show. And c’mon, it’s a musical, you want the audience to remember your songs. Do I remember the characters? Yes. The Washington Heights life the musical was all about? Remembered. But that’s not enough for a musical…to me.
- Chicago (London): I know, I know. WTF? How can I put this at the bottom? Well, because I saw the movie first and thought it was a direct adaptation of the musical. I was wrong. Very wrong. And after seeing the musical, well, I wanted to see the movie again. As it was much better. Obviously I was probably tainted in this case as I saw the movie first. Oh well. My list, my rules.
So that ends my list. I don’t think I’ve forgotten any of the musicals I’ve managed to see throughout my life, and I want to see so many more! Jersey Boys, Next to Normal, Promises Promises….and I’d kill to see Les Mis again. Just saying.