In the last line of my Phantom review, I wrote "this is a show that anyone who likes musical theatre should see at least once", but in truth, anyone can enjoy The Phantom of the Opera, whether or not you consider yourself a musical aficionado. Here are nine more musicals you should listen to at least once, even if you think "musicals are not you're thing" - if you enjoy music you'll appreciate their surprising melodies, diverse arrangements and intriguing lyrics you won't often hear in mainstream music.
1. Phantom of the Opera - Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart
2. The Last Five Years - Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
3. Spring Awakening - Music by Duncan Sheik and lyrics by Steven Sater
4. Tick, Tick... BOOM! - Music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson
5. Chicago - Music and lyrics by Kander and Ebb
6. Sweeney Todd - Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
7. A Chorus Line - Music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban
8. Songs for a New World - Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
9. RENT - Music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson
10. Les Miserables - Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil
And there are loads more in both film and stage versions (I stuck with stage productions for this list and based my selection purely on the accessibility of the music). For more, you can check out Film4's Top 100 Greatest Musicals HERE.
What musicals would you recommend to the non-musical fan?
*the picture is from The Black Crook (1866), considered by some historians to be the first musical.
1 comment:
This definitely isn't a stage musical and isn't really much of a "traditional" musical, but I would say that Once is a great musical for those who don't like musicals. It blends the music into the story in a way that most musicals don't, avoiding that sometimes awkward transition between spoken dialogue and song. Plus, the music is just plain amazing.
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