We Love Musicals Week | A Handful (or Two) of My Favorite Musicals

It feels like it's been ages since I've really discussed musical theatre on here, and what better time to remedy that than during my friend Rachel's We Love Musicals week?

As the title of this post suggests, this will be a look at some of my current favorite musicals.  Specifically, I wanted to focus on those musicals that I'll more frequently choose to listen to as I'm going about my day, rather than just the movie musicals that I'll more frequently sit down to watch, as the two groups seldom overlap.  

For example, as we all know, the 1964 film version of My Fair Lady is tied for my top favorite film of all time, but will I regularly listen to the soundtrack?  No, because while I do like the music, my adoration of the movie is due more to its non-musical elements.  (Of course, there are exceptions to this rule — you'll find both Evita and Newsies in this post, but I probably watch screen versions of both of those almost as often as I listen to their soundtracks.)

I don't feel like ranking these shows by preference, so I'm listing them in alphabetical order and including their creators by name (credit where credit's due, and all that).  Enjoy!

⸻

✦ Aida ✦

Elton John, Tim Rice, Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang

"Is it written in the stars?  Are we paying for some crime?  Is that all that we are good for — just some stretch of mortal time?"

source

Favorite Songs:  "Dance of the Robe" ● "The Gods Love Nubia" ● "How I Know You (Reprise)" ● "I Know the Truth"

Standard theatrical fare combines with inexplicable rock stylings in true Elton John fashion to form a slightly offbeat powerhouse of a show that I just adore.  Rice's libretto is exquisite.  Look at these lyrics from a song set immediately after the Nubian protagonist is enslaved by Egyptian invaders:

"The past is now another land, far beyond my reach — invaded by insidious foreign bodies, foreign speech — where the timeless joys of childhood lie broken on the beach.  The present is an empty space between the good and bad:  a moment leading nowhere, too pointless to be sad, but time enough to lay to waste any certainty I had.  The future is a barren world from which I can't return:  both heartless and material; its wretched spoils, not my concern; shining like an evil sun as my childhood treasures burn."

Like?!

Also, Heather Headley's voice absolutely runs me over like a Mack truck.  "The Gods Love Nubia" is a show-stopping masterpiece that gives me chills every time, and the simmering anger and disillusionment she pours into "Easy As Life" are remarkable.

✦ Evita ✦

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

"I'm Argentina and always will be."

source

Favorite Songs:  "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" ● "The Lady's Got Potential" ● "Rainbow Tour" ● "And the Money Kept Rolling In (And Out)" ● "Waltz for Eva and Che" ●  "Eva's Final Broadcast" ● "Lament"

Magnificent, sordid, tragic — practically flawless.  I adore this score so much, and the plot is so compellingly told.  I will never get over my beautiful, symbolic Che.  (Speaking of which, Antonio Banderas in the film adaptation, my beloved!  So angry, so angsty.)  

The libretto is so caustically clever; I'm obsessed.  "They had themselves a party at the point of a gun. They were slightly to the right of Attila the Hun — a bomb or two, and very few objected . . ."  || "Italy's unconvinced by Argentine glory; they equate Peron with Mussolini — can't think why."

Probably, if I were forced to choose at gunpoint, my top favorite musical.  

✦ Hadestown ✦

Anais Mitchell

"See, someone's got to tell the tale, whether or not it turns out well — maybe it will turn out this time . . . "

source

Favorite Songs:  "Road to Hell" ● "Way Down Hadestown" ● "Flowers" ● "Epic III ("They danced . . . ")" ● "Word to the Wise" ● "Wait for Me (Reprise)"

Catch me in my feelings about Hades and Persephone. *sniffles*  I'm not as fully obsessed with this show as many of its fans are, but I can see why they are.  Soft, dusty, autumnal melancholia by way of mythology.  Iconic.

✦ Newsies ✦

Alan Menken, Jack Feldman, and Harvey Fierstein

"'Stead of hawking headlines, we'll be making 'em today."

source

Favorite Songs:  "Carrying the Banner" ● "The World Will Know" ● "Santa Fe" ● "Once and for All"

It took me a while to board the Newsies train, but once I did, I stayed there.  The live recording of the 2016 revival is a powerhouse.  The sheer energy of that entire cast absolutely crackles through the screen like a live wire.  Please do yourself a favor and watch it.

✦ Rumi ✦

Dana Al Fardan and Nadim Naaman

"Far beyond ideas of wrong and right, there is a field — I'll meet you there."

source

Favorite Songs:  "I Saw the Sun" ● "Say Who Am I" ● "Behold the Golden Sun" ● "Somewhere" ● "Finale"

I know exactly nothing about this musical except that its concept album is gorgeous.  (And also that it features Ramin Karimloo.)  So.  Here we are.

✦ Six ✦

Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow

"Every Tudor rose has its thorns."

source

Favorite Songs:  "Ex-Wives" ● "No Way" ● "Get Down" ● "All You Wanna Do"

Historical revisionism can be one of my favorite fictional exercises, and Six is no exception.  Why, yes, I do want to watch a Hamilton-esque take on the wives of Henry VIII, and yes, I do want the songs to be girly-pop anthemic earworms.  Go off, ladies.

The lyricism in this show is fantastic; "All You Wanna Do" is a particularly impressive education in double entendre, and I love how the peppy beat hides such a chilling, horrifying message about sexual assault.

(Fun fact:  "Get Down" always makes me think of Orlando by Virginia Woolf.)

✦ Starry ✦

Kelly Lynne D'Angelo and Matt Dahan

"The dawn's no guarantee, but the sight of the starry night — the sight of the starry night makes me free."

source

Favorite Songs:  "Impress Me" ● "A New Horizon" ● "Something After All" ● "On the Threshold of Eternity" ● "The Starry Night" ● "Wheat Fields/Finale Ultimo"

As with Rumi, my familiarity with this show is due solely to the concept album that has been released.  I don't believe that the show has really been developed into a finalized performance yet, but I could be wrong.  Either way, if the score is any indication, such a performance would be fabulous.  Go forth and listen!

✦ The Pirates of Penzance ✦

Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert

"Oh, better far to live and die under the brave black flag I fly, than play a sanctimonious part with a pirate head and a pirate heart."

source

Favorite Songs:  "Oh, False One, You Have Deceived Me" ● "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" ● "My Eyes Are Fully Open" ● "Away! Away! My Heart's on Fire" ● "With Cat-Like Tread, Upon Our Prey We Steal"

Technically, this is considered an opera/operetta, so it doesn't quite belong in a post about musicals, as such — but let me live, OK?  I don't know exactly why this show tickles me as much as it does, but . . . it really does.  I find it ever so entertaining.  The live recording of the 1980 open-air production starring Kevin Kline (of all people! and he's fantastic??) is especially delicious.

Ruth is an icon (albeit a cradle-robber) and we love her.  ("You told me you were fair as gold — "  "And, master, am I not so?!?"  Please let me play her.)

⸻

Which are your favorite musicals?

Gimme all the recs!