What's the best musical ever, in your opinion?

[carrottea]

I'm here to start some (friendly) fist fights. What's your favorite musical and why?

No snobbery allowed, if your favorite musical is a Disney movie, or La La Land, or whatever, you can say it.

I'll go first!

Rent. Yes, really.
What can I say, I'm gay, I like the characters, the songs pull on my heartstrings even years after watching it, and Maureen and Angel are some of my favorite characters ever.

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[Bat]

I saw Cats when it came out in theaters, and it's a recent musical which really stuck with me! Particularly Mr. Mistoffelees:



I find myself singing that song in particular every now and then. It's a jam!

[carrottea]

I saw Cats when it came out in theaters, and it's a recent musical which really stuck with me! Particularly Mr. Mistoffelees:



I find myself singing that song in particular every now and then. It's a jam!

Hell yeah. Cats is simultaneously such a fun and depressing musical. It's got everything. Drama. Makeup. Advanced Choreography. I saw it at a small local theater a few years ago and it was totally worth it. I'll admit I haven't watched the movie yet, but your reply is a good reminder to watch it.

[Ice]

Oh man I love musicals I don't know if I have an all time favorite one, though??

Obviously from the Disney corner I do love Frozen/2, but Mulan is a fucking classic (maybe, one of, if not the best, Disney ones) and from the newer ones Tangled and Moana are up there as well!

For broadway musicals I've always had a soft spot for Phantom of the Opera, the first one I saw on broadway when I was younger. The score for Phantom is just so epic... gives me chills all the time. And you can't forget West Side Story for it's powerful narrative and equally epic score. Watched a filmed version as a kid and would sing along rather inappropriately to a bunch of songs I had no idea what they were actually talking about.

Grease/2 are also very nostalgic and fun to watch and sing along to although it's been quite some time since I last watched either. I probably like 2 more than 1 because Stephanie > Sandy, facts.

[SabiSweaters]

I really love Fun Home. I never got to see it on Broadway, but my university put on a really wonderful production of it.

It's based on Alison Bechdel's memoir, and it's a really emotional story about her coming out as a lesbian while dealing with a fragmented family and her relationship with her closeted gay father. I really identified with her story of self-discovery (and since like 95% of adult Neopets players are gay, I think many of you would too!), and I also really appreciated how relatable a lot of the supporting characters were too. It's not the most iconic song from the show, but my favorite is probably Days and Days. It's sung by Alison's mom as she works through her feelings about Alison's coming out as well as her own broken marriage.


Also, Spring Awakening has a special spot in my heart. Touch Me is such a good song!

[carrottea]

Oh man I love musicals I don't know if I have an all time favorite one, though??

Obviously from the Disney corner I do love Frozen/2, but Mulan is a fucking classic (maybe, one of, if not the best, Disney ones) and from the newer ones Tangled and Moana are up there as well!

For broadway musicals I've always had a soft spot for Phantom of the Opera, the first one I saw on broadway when I was younger. The score for Phantom is just so epic... gives me chills all the time. And you can't forget West Side Story for it's powerful narrative and equally epic score. Watched a filmed version as a kid and would sing along rather inappropriately to a bunch of songs I had no idea what they were actually talking about.

Grease/2 are also very nostalgic and fun to watch and sing along to although it's been quite some time since I last watched either. I probably like 2 more than 1 because Stephanie > Sandy, facts.

Yesss!!! For all the hate Frozen gets, the songs are actually class. Strongly agree on Tangled/Moana, some of the stronger recent movies. And Mulan's soundtrack is so iconic, definitely my favorite disney movie!! I grew up listening to it in both English and Spanish and it's just great both ways.

Ok no one can resist just how powerful PotO is, the vocals are for powerhouses Only, and it's always nice how sometimes your favorites are your faves by pure association with good memories.
I admit I'm not a huge fan of West Side Story but the songs/dancing are incredible still.

Omg I don't think I ever watched Grease 2, but now I think I will. But Grease itself? Oof, why it's automatic, it's systematic, it's hydromatic

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I really love Fun Home. I never got to see it on Broadway, but my university put on a really wonderful production of it.

It's based on Alison Bechdel's memoir, and it's a really emotional story about her coming out as a lesbian while dealing with a fragmented family and her relationship with her closeted gay father. I really identified with her story of self-discovery (and since like 95% of adult Neopets players are gay, I think many of you would too!), and I also really appreciated how relatable a lot of the supporting characters were too. It's not the most iconic song from the show, but my favorite is probably Days and Days. It's sung by Alison's mom as she works through her feelings about Alison's coming out as well as her own broken marriage.


Also, Spring Awakening has a special spot in my heart. Touch Me is such a good song!

Ooooooh. Thank you for the rec! I'd heard of Fun Home before but it never pinged hard in my radar for me to give it a second glance. It's definitely going up there on my watchlist.

And Spring Awakening is amazing!! Look how many careers it launched.

[Mama Bear]

Rent (Jesse L. Martin, you break my heart every time), Spring Awakening (Touch Me is so fucking beautiful) and the Phantom of the Opera (who *doesn't* try to sing along with that tough as fuck title song?) are all good calls said already. Wicked hasn't been said yet, and while it did get very hyped, it is still a damn good show. I'm obsessed with the music of Six (as hinted by the music userbar for months), but there isn't much to the book beyond that.


I submit for your consideration Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I love Hedwig and the Angry Inch, particularly the movie version. I came across it on SBS (public access channel that is the one typically showing foreign/queer stuff) late at night and was transfixed (pun not intended). It's empowering (Tear Me Down, Wig in a Box), haunting (Origin of Love), funny (Sugar Daddy) and melancholic (Wicked Little Town). It takes you on such an emotional journey of struggle and adversity...Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell created real art with this, and as much as NPH is beloved, I just can't go past JCM's Hedwig. Trask not doing another musical is a travesty. So yeah. Hedwig. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favour and change that.

[kittyray]

I've been wanting to see Hedwig And The Angry Inch for ages, I've heard great things about it!

[Wormjaw]

Shrek musical. :^) Watched the version on netflix and I enjoyed it more than the movie, lol.

[Flordibel]

Cats is unironically my favorite. It's the reason I begged my parents for internet access back in the early aughts. I rolled around all the Cats fansites (Geocities and Angelfire were big) and the forum on Musicals.net. My "brand" handle is a masked Cats reference (not Flordibel, lol). I know more trivia than will EVER serve me. I stage-managed a production of it once. I've seen it twice. I cosplayed it. I just love it so, so much - it was truly a landmark musical when it first premiered. No one had ever seen anything like it, and I'll venture a comment to say that nothing since has even come close to the phenomenon.

I also like Cabaret. Not the new Menier Chocolate Factory version that popularized the, um - the "bad end" ending, but the original Joel Grey film. My go-to audition song for a long time was "Maybe This Time."

I also really adore A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, and Avenue Q. The Lord of the Rings Musical is also REALLY, really good, but that never played on Broadway (only Toronto and the West End), so it's more of a cult classic from b-roll and bootlegs online.

I'm pretty old-school - new musicals aren't doing much for me lately. EXCEPT for Newsies. That show fuckin rocks. Oh, and Dogfight!! Some incredible vocals in Dogfight. The premise is about marines on shore leave who take the ugliest girls they can find to a dance, and then there's a silent "dogfight" where the ugliest girl wins. It's a pretty empowering premise throughout the show, and very poignant. Here's my favorite song from it: