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Top 50 Musicals: By the Numbers

Johnny Unusual

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)

Coming in to this one, I need to make a confession; while I like musicals, this is also a bit of a blind spot for me. Part of it is I’m mostly just seeing the musicals that are in film or TV form. It’s pretty rare for me to get to the theatre and I live in a fairly small city with fairly small shows (though every Halloween or so, they do perform the Evil Dead musical). So for some entries, I apologize for my lack of insight. In fact, I’ll get ahead and say I don’t think I’ve seen ANY Sondheim musical, despite him being the most respected musical maker on the list.

But what I DO want to do is thank everyone for taking part. This list is a lot of fun and I really like what people have brought to the table. And who are those people? Check out the cast listing in the playbill



Johnny Unusual
Torzelbaum
Nataeryn
Adrenaline
Pombar


Daikaiju
ViolentVixen



Bulgakov
Baudshaw
Kirin
Falselogic
FelixSH



RT-55J
Issun


Lokii
WildcatJF


So sit down, take a look at your playbill and warning; the first few rows will get wet. We aren't sure why and we are looking into the problem.
 
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54 Points, 2 Lists, Highest Vote: #7 @Bulgakov​

Originators: Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler

Time: the 19th Century

Place: Fleet Street and Environs




A mysterious man has come to London, one Sweeney Todd. Upon arriving at the pie shop of Mrs. Lovett to enquire about her upstairs apartment, she reveals that a barber named Benjamin Barker, who was arrested on false charges by a corrupt judge who lusted after his wife. Todd reveals to her that he IS Barker, having returned under a pseudonym. Lovett promises to keep his secret and informs him that Barker's wife poisoned herself after being sexually assaulted by the judge and that Barker's daughter was adopted by that same judge. Todd decides to seek revenge and to that end returns to his profession of barber to get close enough to slit the throat of the judge and his underling. But as his campaign wears on, Todd realizes two men are not enough to sate his bloodlust and he will have to kill many more... but to keep in business, he and Lovett concoct a hideous solution to the problem of what to do with the bodies...



Based on the 19th century penny dreadful A String of Pearls, and gives depth to the iconic Sweeney Todd character. It is also, by the standards of a musical a real grand guignol as the bodies keep piling up with increasingly horrific deaths and reveals, as Todd's misanthropic plot manifests in ways beyond the gory. This is our first Sondheim and not the last for sure, an it's a good reminder of how we might think of musicals as hokey and fun, some can really dive into the deliciously grotesque.

The wordplay in ""A little Priest"" is great, but my favorite number is the duet, ""Pretty Women."""
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- @Bulgakov




Next show (based on the title): Oh, this must be a medical story!
 
49.

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54 Points, 2 Lists, Highest Vote: #6 @Johnny Unusual​

Originators: Chuck Jones, Michael Maltese

Time: 11th Century (or earlier)

Place: A Germanic forest




Hunter and demigod Elmer Fudd is looking for rabbit Bugs Bunny in order to kill him. With him is his sword and magic helmet (sword and magic helmet), he has a great advantage over the rabbit but Bugs Bunny is clever and deceptive and will use any trick in the book to get away. He might be able to make Fudd look the fool but can he survive? Not really.



The shortest entry in the entire list, What’s Opera, Doc is a parody of Wagnerian opera and Fantasia but not a simple Mad Magazine nose-thumbing. It, like Fantasia, is a beautiful piece of work in favour of a silly story and by the end is surprisingly evocative. It’s no wonder it was three times more expensive and took 6 times longer and more expensive than the other cartoons being produced at the time and it shows in those last shots. But even beyond that, the ending, even with a silly beat, is far more existential and sad than most Looney Tunes and toys with our expectations in terms of the eternal conflict of it’s beloved rivals coming to an end.






Next show (based on the title): House music!
 
Two strong picks to start! I had Sweeney Todd on my long list but didn't make the final one. So good though.

I did not think of What's Opera Doc and feel silly.
 
I mean, when I picked it I thought "I'm probably the only one" since it's a short feature.

Sondheim, as mentioned, feels like a writer who is up my ally but I haven't even seen West Side Story. I feel like there's a darkness to a lot of his works that speak to me. Not even the depraved elements like in Sweeney Todd but just a general sense that he explores aspects of human nature that aren't usually touched on in musicals.
 
I didn't think of What's Opera Doc? but that is an inspired choice.

The extent of my experience with Sweeney Todd is that one episode of The Office.
 
I tried watching Sweeney Todd one time, but it's just not the same on a small screen. But that was forever ago, I should try again.
 
48.

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54 Points, 3 Lists, Highest Vote: #11 @Daikaiju​

Originators: Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Charise Castro Smith, Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse, Lin-Manuel Miranda

Time: Early 20th Century, maybe

Place: Columbia




The Family Madrigal is a family who fled from oppressors long ago and the matriarch managed to protect her family with a miracle; a magical house. The house granted special gifts to each members that they used to enrich their community. However, Mirabel, one of the grandchildren, was never granted a gift. At age 15, Mirabel is supportive of her family but feels decidedly unspecial. But when Mirabel begins to see that the house is breaking apart. No one else seems to notice, though as the house is often repairing itself but Mirabel is determined to discover the cause, and in doing so begins to discover that within her loving family is unease and unaddressed resentments. Mirabel feels that the secrets may lie with Bruno, the family member who disappeared years ago…



Encanto is Disney in tail end of a pretty strong run of films. Between Wish and Strange World (a good movie that bombed), Disney would hit a real wall but Encanto is a real delight of a film. It helps that you have superstar songwriter Lin Manuel Miranda writing the music but even beyond that is a story about the dangers of putting on a strong face at the expense of yourself. To me, the surprising part is the big breakout song isn’t one of the obvious ones like either of the songs of Mirabel’s sisters (Surface Pressure is my personal favourite) but instead an odder little song that feels like a riff on a villain song. And I’m kind of glad that this off beat choice is the one kids are getting into.






Next show (based on the title): Oh, this one is about football. I’m not familiar with this position, though!
 
I honestly didn't expect this to rank. Good job Daikaiju and other voter.

Do we talk about Bruno?
Yes
>No
 
On the board! Yay!

Also, What's Opera, Doc? didn't occur to me either but I wholly approve its inclusion.
 
I thought of Encanto, and then forgot it immediately. Fir the list, I mean, I enjoyed it. Including the songs, they are fun.
 
Oh come on... I forgot disney movies...

I think Encanto is a very good movie, but the musical aspects are second to its characterization.

What I like the most is that the family's powers come from traditional familial stereotypes. For example: the aunt whose mood changes with the weather, the sister who hears about everything, the mother who makes healing food, the cousin who's grown so much they've become a different person, stuff like that.
 
47.

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56 Points, 2 Lists, Highest Vote: #7 @Baudshaw​

Originators: Alan Menkin, Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Tab Murphy, Irene Mecchi, Bob Tzudiker, Noni White, Jonathan Roberts

Time: 1482

Place: Paris



When Judge Frollo murders an escaping Roma woman while she seeks sanctuary, the archdeacon makes him fearful for his soul. He reluctantly takes in the deformed son of the woman and has him raised in the church bell tower. Years later, the child has become a man, Quasimodo, who dreams of living with others. In an attempt to join the festival of fools, he is celebrated but then quickly humiliated and shunned. Soon he winds up befriending Esmerelda, a Roma performer. Soon, Quasimodo finds his life upended when Esmerelda takes sanctuary in the church, while Frollo plots a genocide for the Roma of Paris.



The Hunchback of Notre Dame is deep into the Disney renaissance. The film here start to get a little… wonkier. Not bad, per se and there are real gems in the post-Lion King era. Pocahontas is weird in using a REAL PERSON’S story and heavily sanitizing it. Also, a magic tree. Hunchback is similarly weird. I’m sure people unfamiliar with the source material associate the Hunchback with the Universal monsters but in fact the tale is an epic tragedy following many characters and ends… real dark. It’s wild to make it a Disney movie. But on its own terms, it’s got some great things going on. Granted, even more than usual I’m not into the wacky animal sidekicks (or rock sidekicks) but it is also one of the film that does go darker than the average Disney film with an absolute top tier Disney villain song, the epic Hellfire.






Next show (based on the title): …so to answer your question, I don’t know.
 
I thought I had forgotten Hunchback, but thankfully didn't. Not thinking of the stage musical, though, only of the Disney movie. And having seen the stage musical now, a year ago, I know that I like the changes.

Aside from Hellfire, Bells of Notre Dame is a great opening song. When I watched the movie in 2012 for the first time, revisiting and first watching Disney movies I missed / hadn't seen in a long time, I was blown away by how much I enjoyed the whole film.

And yeah, it's super weird, how a Victor Hugo novel (who also wrote Les Miserable) was chosen for a Disney movie. I still haven't read Hunchback, but I did Les Mis, and going from that, it's clear that the book has to be much, much grimmer than the Disney movie would imply.
 
FelixSH said:
I still haven't read Hunchback, but I did Les Mis, and going from that, it's clear that the book has to be much, much grimmer than the Disney movie would imply.
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Not only that, reading the synopsis makes it seem very much like an epic, whereas I think most film adaptations aren't too long. Heck the Hunchback is one of the Universal monsters (albeit sort of after the fact. One of their earlier films before that became their brand).
 
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56 Points, 2 Lists, Highest Vote: #5 @Johnny Unusual​

Originators: James Bobin, Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller, Bret MacKenzie

Time: 2011

Place: Los Angeles, California




Walter, a Muppet superfan, leads a charmed life with his brother Gary. But things change when he takes a trip to Los Angeles to see the Muppet studio and learns that it is on the verge of being purchased by an evil oil tycoon. In order to save it, Walter approaches Kermit, now a near-recluse who hasn’t performed in years and is inspired to put on a telethon to save the studio and to do it needs support and performances by the original Muppet line up, even Ms. Piggy, who has since had a falling out with Kermit. Can they get the whole band back together? YES! Can they raise the $10,000,000 to save the studio! Uh, no.

Jim Henson had been gone for over 20 years an in the interim, the muppet franchise had hit something of a low with the TV specials The Muppets Wizard of Oz and A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa. The Muppets has a very specific voice and while the performers have definitely been doing good work since, it felt like the franchise lacked direction. And that direction came from Muppets fan Jason Seagel, who co-wrote and stars in the film. But Jason knows better because while he has a significant role, the Muppets are put back front and center with some fantastic songs. The initial song sets the pace with a title and tone that at first blush might seem ironic in it’s old-fashioned sincerity (“Life’s a Happy Song”), especially knowing it is written by one of the Flight of the Concord guys (not that one, the other one). But while there are jokes in it, it embraces the Muppets with sincerity. I think it is also smart because while the Muppets were big in the 70s, there was always an underdog quality to their narrative. And now the Muppets really are in a place where they are less remembered (especially by younger viewers) and they get to embrace that with a classic “Let’s put on a show” narrative. It’s consistently funny but also not afraid to pull on the heart strings (and the nostalgia strings).

(I feel like Life’s a Happy Song is the best song and should have been the Oscar winning song but this is the show stopper)


Next show (based on the title): Paul Skenes is playing for Cornwall, now?
 
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