Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals

The Most Overrated Musical - Spring 2010

I'm getting the feeling that the "overrated musical" assignment that I charge my students with each semester is becoming less and less representative. In other words, the exercise is becoming less about what the students genuinely think is overrated and more about what they think *I* think is overrated.

First of all, the shows that students are choosing to write about seem to be coming almost exclusively from my own list of The Most Overrated Musicals. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I certainly don't want to develop into a benevolent dictator. (Well, more of a benevolent dictator...)

Here are the shows that students chose to lambaste this semester, along with the number of students who chose to write about each:

3 In the Heights
3 Spring Awakening
3 Bye Bye Birdie
2 Cats
2 Oliver!
2 Pippin

And here are the shows that received only one "vote" each:

The Producers, The Wiz, The Phantom of the Opera, Annie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Sweet Charity, South Pacific, Man of La Mancha, Passion, Footloose, The Wild Party (Lippa), Big River, Mamma Mia, Les Miserables, Legally Blonde.

The only shows listed above that aren't on my own overrated list are Sweet Charity, Annie, and The Producers. (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is on my list of The Musicals That Suck. The movie is fun -- albeit lo-o-o-ong -- but the stage show sapped whatever life the movie may have contained.) I suppose it's perfectly natural for students to want to try to please me. But I think that they'll find that it's not really the show choice that determines their final grade, but rather how well they've supported their arguments. I've given out A's to people who've torn apart shows that I personally love, and low grades to some who've ripped a new one for shows I despise.

Another factor that makes this exercise less than representative is the fact that, in my discussions with my students, I usually try to steer them away from particular shows, ones that I've found previous students have had difficulty with. For instance, every year a number of students initially propose Grease, which I try to discourage. It's not that I think Grease is a good show, but I've never read a strong paper about Grease, one that really captures what's wrong with it. Students seem to focus mostly on the "message" at the end, when Sandy becomes a skank to attract Danny. Well, the show isn't necessarily condoning that choice. It's saying, "Isn't it interesting what kids of the time felt they needed to do in order to fit in?" Grease is a soft-pedal satire of the 1950s, and in order to criticize a satire, you first need to understand what it's satirizing. 

Other students propose writing about shows that aren't very well known, like Lone Star Love, Zanna Don't, or Little Mary Sunshine. Well, who's overrating these shows? For a show to be considered overrated, it needs to be relatively well known, either by the general public or by theater insiders. And none of those shows really fits that bill. Yes, the paper is more about how well the students defend their choices, but they need to start with a show that fits the general premise.

And then there's Cats. Every semester, Cats rears its fur-covered head, and it's another choice that I strongly discourage. Again, I'm not great fan of Cats, but I've found that students have a difficult time specifying what's wrong with the show. They often focus on the fact that it has very little, if any, plot. Well, the same could be said of A Chorus Line. In fact, the shows have pretty much the same plot: a bunch of characters meet up and take turns talking about themselves in the hope of winning a particular honor. And then the sentimental favorite gets picked at the end. I did have one student this semester who had some solid ideas about the real problem with Cats, mostly stemming from the fact that the creators chose a literal translation of T.S. Elliot's poems, which results in a lot of third-person narration, and robs the characters of any dimension or relatability. I haven't read her final paper yet, but based on our discussions, it did seem like a promising tack to take.

So, what do you think, dear reader? Are my students onto something here? Or are there some other show choices that would make for more deserving targets for the "overrated" treatment?

The Bestest Musical Ever - Spring 2010

Another semester, another spate of impressionable minds to indoctrinate into the...er...doctrine of musical theater.

Regular readers eagerly anticipate my students' biannual lists of the "bestest" musicals ever. At the start of my musical-theater history course, I ask my students to write down their choices for the three best musicals ever, and we tally the votes on the board. This prompts a discussion of what, if anything, these shows might have in common. We then take a huge step backward and begin our tour through 150 years of musicals.

Upon reflection, I'm not entirely sure why I use the twee neologism "bestest" to describe these lists. I think it's because it's the start of a new semester, before we've had a chance to establish a set of critical criteria for evaluating shows. The hope is that, by the end of the semester, they'll have a stronger sense of what "best" might entail. (More than a little condescending, I know. I've been accused of worse.)

In any case, here's the list for this semester's class. Here are the shows that received more than one vote:

8 A Chorus Line
7 Into the Woods
6 Les Miserables
5 Cabaret
5 Oklahoma!
4 West Side Story
4 Ragtime
3 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
3 Company
3 Wicked
2 The Phantom of the Opera
2 Hair
2 In the Heights
2 Sunday in the Park With George
2 The Drowsy Chaperone
2 Gypsy

And here are the shows that received one vote each:

Parade, Spring Awakening, The Wild Party (Lippa), Guys and Dolls, 42nd Street, Show Boat, Golden Boy, Carousel, A Little Night Music, The Fantasticks, Evita, The Secret Garden, Candide, Pippin, The Light in the Piazza, Cats, Next to Normal, Aida, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, The Threepenny Opera, Mamma Mia, Legally Blonde, Phantom (Yeston)

It's interesting that the number-one show this semester, A Chorus Line, was only chosen by one person last semester. And West Side Story, which topped last semester's list, has fallen four slots to tie with Ragtime for fifth place. This is hardly a scientific sampling, but I do find the exercise vaguely illustrative of the changing tastes of the future theater queens of America. (As I've said before, I consider "theater queens" to be an all-inclusive term, male/female, gay/straight, whatever.)

I'm pleased to see The Drowsy Chaperone, a personal favorite of mine, make its first appearance on the list. Perhaps this is in some way a reaction to the recent announcement that MTI recently made available the amateur performance rights. Maybe two of my current students are harboring not-so-secret desires to play Man in Chair. (Get in line, bitches.)

As always, there are some interesting one-off choices on the list. Jacques Brel is a relatively recent discovery for me, based on listening to the wonderful revival cast recording. Some of the English lyrics are a bit pretentious and forced, but overall the raw sentiment of the songs and the haunting music itself are (at times, strangely) compelling. I'm particularly enamored of Robert Cuccioli's heartfelt recording of "Song for Old Lovers," so moving that I saw fit to include the song on my list of The Most Beautiful Theater Songs Ever. 

And then there's Golden Boy. I'm intrigued as to how this particular student even knows about the show's existence, let alone choose it as one of the best shows ever. Golden Boy ran 568 performances in the mid-sixties, mostly based on the popularity of its star, Sammy Davis, Jr. Davis reprised the role in London in 1968, but the show then proceeded to pretty much disappear. There was talk a few years back of a Broadway revival of the show starring Usher, but beyond the initial announcement I haven't heard anything further.

As for the presence of Cats, Legally Blonde, and Mamma Mia on the list, well, the goal is that by the end of the semester, the students will have a stronger sense of what these shows are lacking in the context of the overall progression of the musical form. They're certainly free to enjoy whichever shows they choose. But maybe they'll have a slightly clearer idea of why Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, and My Fair Lady are that much better.

The Worst Musicals of the 2000s

I love bad musicals. Not necessarily when I'm sitting through them, of course, but I cherish having the chance to relate the gory details to my friends, students, and readers. I can't count the number of times that I've dined out on Into the Light, an atrocious show whose creators chose to musicalize the process of scientifically verifying the Shroud of Turin. I always say that there's no such thing as a bad idea for a musical, only poor execution, but without question there are some show creators who are biting off more than they can chew. Into the Light contained the following immortal line: "Science with the data is like Christ without the stigmata." You don't soon forget a lyric that heinous.

Lately, one of my favorite topics for bad-musical discussions has been the song "Lice" from Kristina, in which two characters accuse each other of infesting a boat full of immigrants with the creepy crawlies. Charming. Then, in an attempt to quell the argument, one character intervenes by discussing how you can take the lice and put them between two slices of bread and feed them to your children. "It tastes like toffee," she exclaims.

The following shows were full of such what-were-they-thinking moments. Which is why I've come to almost treasure them, in a perverse sort of way. I tell my students that it's important to see bad shows to fully understand what makes good shows good. If that's true, then the creators of the shows listed here have provided me with quite an education indeed. And for that, I thank them.

The Worst Musicals of the 2000s

15. Ordinary Days: The Roundabout Theater has not exactly had a stellar track record of late. (Bye Bye Birdie? Pal Joey? The Ritz? Oy oy oy.) Lately, it's gotten to the point where I automatically assume that something put forth by the Roundabout Theater will be dreadful until I'm proven otherwise. But I'd like to think that I approached Ordinary Days with a relatively open mind. The show was the first musical presented as part of the Roundabout Underground series, and for the most part it was fairly innocuous. (Read my review.) But for one reason and one reason alone I chose to include the show on this list: because of the cheap, manipulative, and clumsy way that author Adam Gwon used 9/11 for dramatic effect at the end of the show. One of the female characters has trouble committing to a relationship, and in justification she sings about a whirlwind romance she had a few years earlier. Everything was going fine...and then first tower fell. I'm not saying 9/11 is off limits. But it needs to be consistent with the tone of the rest of the show, and in Ordinary Days, a would-be quirky romantic comedy, it decidedly was not.

14. The Boy From Oz: This was the sorriest excuse for a star show since Happy Hunting. Had it not been for the involvement of Hugh Jackman, this lame bio/jukebox musical would never have made it out of Australia. The life and songbook of Peter Allen just weren't enough to hang an entire show on. What's more, the producers knew that, so they crafted the show in such a way that Jackman was rarely off-stage, to the point where he actually changed costumes in full view of the audience. Now, I'll certainly pay good money to see Hugh Jackman with his shirt off, especially if he's kissing Jarrod Emmick as part of the deal. But in terms of compelling and interesting musical theater, The Boy From Oz was mere window dressing and nothing more.

13. The Tin Pan Alley Rag: I have to admit, including The Tin Pan Alley Rag on this list was just a wee bit vindictive. After publishing my negative review of the show, I received an email from the show's librettist, one Mark Saltzman. He said that, after reading my review, he wondered whether he should give back all the money he's made from the show, and return all the awards that he's won. But he ultimately decided not to. I didn't answer him directly, but I did publish an open reply on my blog: Dear Bad Writer: Are you sending hate mail to everyone who panned your show? You must be very busy. Regards, Chris. At the time, I didn't mention Saltzman by name, nor did I specify the show, lest I come off as overly petty. But now his show has closed, and I feel better now about addressing his snark directly. If Tin Pan Alley Rag had been half as entertaining as Saltzman's email, he might have had a winner on his hands. But the show was a turgid history lesson, frequently didactic but rarely entertaining. So hold onto those awards, Mr. Saltzman. They may be the last you'll ever see.

12. Vanities: Another yawnfest. Vanities is the musical version of an amiable and popular Off-Broadway play of the same name by Jack Heifner. Heifner also wrote the libretto for the musical, and the result was rather one-dimensional and dramatically unsatisfying. The characters lost any shred of believability in the transition from play to musical. And the score by David Kirshenbaum was more than merely forgettable. The songs seemed to add nothing to the plot, the characters, or even help establish the time and place. You could remove any or all of them and still be able to follow the story. That's a sign of a poorly integrated musical. Vanities was supposed to have landed on Broadway, but financing fell through in the bad economy. Which is probably a good thing: instead of a high-profile death on the main stem, the show was able to fail quietly in the relative shelter of the non-profit world.

11. Kristina: Ah, Kristina. I couldn't possibly finish up my list of the worst of the 2000s without making mention of Kristina. I received more hate mail in response to my review of the Carnegie Hall concert presentation of Kristina than in my entire three-and-a-half years of writing reviews for this blog combined. The entire nation of Sweden, it seemed, wanted to rip me a new one. I have never before been subjected to such vitriol, such discourtesy, such childish whining than in the comments to my Kristina review. That experience alone might have justified my placing the show at the top of my worst list. But I ranked it relatively low on my list because it's still a show under development. I must repeat, however, that the show I saw at Carnegie Hall didn't show a tremendous amount of promise. The drama was manufactured, the plot was detrimentally episodic, and the lyrics were replete with cliches and banalities. So, even without the ad homenem attack, Kristina would still have made this list. And quite handily so.

10. Saved: Not so much bad as bland, Saved suffered from a complete lack of focus. The creators couldn't seem to decide whether they were making a fluffy musical comedy, a trenchant social satire, or a serious musical about religion. (Read my original review.) The source material was pretty strong: the 2004 movie "Saved" starring Macaulay Culkin. But the show never established a consistent tone, veering from upbeat kitsch to ponderous introspection, all the while wasting a truly sensational cast of Broadway pros, including Aaron Tveit, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Julia Murney, Curtis Holbrook, and John Dossett. The show has since disappeared entirely - no cast recording, no regional productions, no developmental workshops - and I would be very surprised to see it resurface. There just wasn't enough there to make it salvageable. [Must resist urge to include "salvation" pun. Must...resist...]

9. 9 to 5: The movie "Nine to Five" has always been a sentimental favorite for me. I keenly recall sitting in the now-defunct Sack Cheri Theater in Boston watching the movie with my fellow drama nerds from high school, all of us convulsed with laughter, particularly during the fantasy/revenge sequence. I was genuinely rooting for this show to be a well-crafted hit. Alas, the show was neither well-crafted nor a hit. (Read my review.) Director Joe Mantello has officially lost whatever capital he may have accrued for his previous successes. The otherwise talented choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler was easily the worst possible choice for this show. His pop-and-lock style may have worked for In the Heights and The Wiz, but here it was woefully anachronistic. Librettist Patricia Resnick seemed to have no idea how to craft a musical, which forced Mantello and Blankenbeuhler to cover the clumsy transitions with pointless business and dance sequences. And Dolly Parton's score was awkward, tuneless, and unmemorable, save for the insanely catchy title tune from the movie. The only reason to sit through this show was to witness three terrific actresses at their best: Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block, and Megan Hilty. Otherwise, 9 to 5 was an utter washout.

8. Happy Days: Easily the worst of the nostalgia-motivated musical adaptations, Happy Days was an affront to the eyes and ears. (Read my review.) I don't think it was such a bad idea to make the classic TV show "Happy Days" into a musical. Unfortunately, the show's creator, Garry Marshall, decided that he was the right person to write the libretto. Oh, how wrong he was. And Paul Williams' insipid songs didn't exactly enhance the show's prospects for success. I caught the show at the Goodspeed in Connecticut, where it apparently was very popular. Unfortunately, popularity at the esteemed Goodspeed isn't always an accurate indicator of quality or future success. (cf. The Story of My Life, 13, Little Johnny Jones, Harrigan 'n' Hart, All Shook Up, etc.) But I'd sooner sit through any of those shows again before deigning to revisit [shudder] Happy Days.

7. Evil Dead: Intentional camp is very difficult to pull off. Of course, it helps if you start with a cheesy classic like Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead." Then you need the chops to craft material that's simultaneously true to the source but also genuinely solid in its own right. The creators of Evil Dead seemed to think that the script and score didn't need to be any good because the show wasn't meant to be taken seriously. (Read my review.) But anyone familiar with Little Shop of Horrors or Bat Boy or even Xanadu knows that precisely the opposite is true: campy shows need to be even better than serious shows. Any actor or playwright can tell you that comedy is much harder to execute than drama. Apart from the hysterical denouement of Evil Dead -- a veritable ballet of blood -- the show was almost completely forgettable and without merit.

6. The Pirate Queen: Oh, the bloated, listing, foundering mess that was The Pirate Queen, the latest attempt by the creators of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon to get back on the boards. Bad word of mouth dogged the production based on its poorly received 2006 Chicago tryout, so the producers brought in director Richard Maltby, Jr. to help right the ship. But then Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil refused to make changes based on Maltby's advice, and the show that arrived on Broadway was slightly different from how it had been in Chicago, but not much better. Among The Pirate Queen's crimes were cardboard characters, bland power ballads, incomprehensible staging, and turgid, unbelievable drama. (Read my full review.) With the ignominious failure of The Pirate Queen, along with the taint of the pair's two London failures, Martin Guerre and Marguerite, one wonders if we'll see a new show from Boublil and Schönberg any time soon -- on either side of the pond.

5. Young Frankenstein: No sooner had The Pirate Queen sunk than another bloated monster of a show took its place at the cavernous Hilton Theatre. Young Frankenstein may have been damned before it ever started performances in New York. The production team committed a number of PR blunders leading up to the show's opening, including some rather tacky behavior on the part of Mel Brooks, as well as an obscenely high top ticket price of $450. (Read a full account in my review.) But all would have been forgiven if the show had been any good. It wasn't. It was one of the laziest, most unimaginative productions I've witnessed in more than 30 years of theater going. Brooks seemed to think that, based on the phenomenal success of The Producers, all he had to do was throw the original "Young Frankenstein" movie on stage with a bunch of random, generic songs, pump it all up with Susan Stroman stagecraft, and the watch the money pour in. The show closed after little more than a year, and although Brooks famously didn't make the show's numbers public, there ain't no way in hell that a run that short could pay back on production costs that easily exceeded $20 million. Boo hoo.

4. Dirty Dancing: As cynical as Young Frankenstein was, it couldn't hold a candle to the staged abomination that was Dirty Dancing. The show has been running for years in cities across the world, which just goes to show that popularity and artistic quality are at best vague acquaintances. I caught the show during its Boston stint, and it was every bit as bad as I expected. And quite a bit more. (Read my full review.) Whatever its flaws, Young Frankenstein at least made a feint attempt at putting songs into the mouths of its characters. Not Dirty Dancing. The lead characters never sang a note. The songs from the best-selling soundtrack of what I guess is now considered a "classic" movie were sung by pool boys and chamber maids drifting along in the background. In other words, there was no creativity in evidence whatsoever. The dance was generic. The set was hideous. There were some decent performers in the cast, but the guy I saw play Johnny had all the charisma of cinder block. So far, Dirty Dancing hasn't made it to Broadway. (Perhaps the garlic and holy water that I secreted under the TKTS booth are working...) If you're ever faced with the option of seeing the show, stay home and throw in the DVD. It's the least you can do to honor the memory of the late Patrick Swayze.

3. A Tale of Two Cities: Every once in a while, a show makes it to Broadway to a collective cry of "WTF?!" A Tale of Two Cities was one of those shows. (Read my review.) It's hard to imagine that anyone could have seen this raw material and thought it was ready for a New York stage. It's also hard to conceive of producers who genuinely thought that the public would be crying out to see Les Miserables all over again, except this time without the decent score and credible human drama. Nonetheless, A Tale of Two Cities played an inexplicable 60 performances at the Al Hirschfeld Theater, then seemingly disappeared. Ah, but not so fast. Like many other unworthy properties, A Tale of Two Cities has found an international fan base, and will receive a studio cast recording and a PBS concert broadcast, which will reportedly be released on DVD. I say catch it on TV when it plays in your area. Don't take my word for it: witness for yourself the muddled, amateurish horror that is A Tale of Two Cities.

2. Frankenstein: Most bad musicals are tedious. But then there's the occasional misstep that becomes a bastion of unintentional comedy. Frankenstein was one of those shows. Not to be confused with Young Frankenstein, this show was a sober attempt at setting the tale of the Modern Prometheus to music. And while Young Frankenstein was trying unsuccessfully to be funny, Frankenstein fought a losing battle to be taken seriously. (Read my review.) The real fun started when the monster himself made his first appearance. Eschewing the green-skinned, bolt-necked Hollywood cliche, the creators came up with the idea of making the monster look like a gay porn star/speed-metal bass player. (Click here to see a picture of the horrible hottie.) The show pretty much went downhill from there.

1. Lestat:  If the 2000s taught us one thing, it's that creating a musical about monsters (Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein) or vampires (Dracula, Dance of the Vampires) is fraught with peril. I didn't have a chance to see the latter two shows, but I have a feeling that if I had, they would have placed prominently on this list. I did, however, get to see Lestat. In fact, my review for Lestat was my very first post ever on this blog. Such an auspicious debut. The show has since become my low-water mark against which to measure bad shows. ("Was it worse than Lestat? Could anything ever be?") The main problem with Lestat was that it was mind-crushingly dull. The show moved at a positively glacial pace, and when it wasn't putting me to sleep, it was setting my nerves on edge with its shrill, unlikable characters, and Bernie Taupin's puerile lyrics. Elton John has since gone on to greater acclaim with the overrated Billy Elliot, on top of his phenomenal success with The Lion King. I get the feeling he would rather we just forgot about Lestat. The cast went into the recording studio before the show closed, but as yet the CD hasn't been released. But cast recording or no, I will never forget Lestat, Sir Elton. Never.  

The Best Musicals of the 2000s - Part 2

Following up on yesterday's list, here are my remaining choices for the best musicals of the 2000s. Feel free to carp, snipe, and otherwise disagree. But, in my humble estimation, these ten musicals represent the best that Broadway and Off-Broadway had to offer over the past ten years.

10. Xanadu: I loves me some Xanadu. I saw the show three times on Broadway, and each time was a delight. (Read my review, my re-review, and my re-re-review.) Some found the show's appeal limited, or even nonexistent. One joke in the show refers to itself as children's theater for 40-year-old gay men. Many people seemed to agree, and failed to find the any charm in the show. Frankly, I pity those people. Xanadu wore its satiric heart on its sleeve, to be sure, and absolutely nothing in the show was meant to be taken seriously. It wasn't just another jukebox musical; it was a satire of jukebox musicals. Librettist Douglas Carter Beane took one of the worst movies of all time and turned it into a night of hilarity and frivolity. That's no small feat, and I for one can't wait to catch the show again as the national tour wends its way to Providence, R.I.

9. A Man of No Importance: No list of the best musicals of the past decade would be complete without the presence of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. In my humble opinion, Flaherty and Ahrens are the most talented writing pair we currently have in musical theater. At their best, we get Ragtime and Once on This Island. But even when they misfire, we still get My Favorite Year or The Glorious Ones. A Man of No Importance may turn out to be their best show. There's a seriousness of intent and a quiet dignity than in many respects surpasses those of their other shows. And the show certainly doesn't skimp on entertainment or comedy. But, most important, it reflects the desire that Flaherty once told me that he and Ahrens have for all their shows: to give voice to the underrepresented and to bring about social change. And with the able assistance of their Ragtime librettist, Terrence McNally, Flaherty and Ahrens achieve those goals with A Man of No Importance, and without making the show strident or preachy. That's certainly no mean feat.

8. Grey Gardens: The 2006-2007 Broadway season gave rise to two very different musicals, with nonetheless similar development arcs. Both Spring Awakening and Grey Gardens began their professional lives Off-Broadway at non-profit theaters: Atlantic Theatre Company and Playwrights Horizons, respectively. But, other than the fact that they are both musicals, the similarity really ends there. And, as is so often the case when there are two strong shows in a given season, theater aficionados tend to form camps, championing their favorite, to the dismissive exclusion of the other. I know that many of my readers are in the Spring Awakening camp. I am not. Both shows are worthy in their own ways, and each has its flaws, but for me Grey Gardens was significantly more powerful and better crafted. Many took issue with the first act of Grey Gardens, but I saw it as an intentional homage to the typical musicals of the time period. And the second act is simply devastating. Some people implied that Grey Gardens was for the fogies while Spring Awakening appealed to more youthful theatergoers. If that's true, I'll gladly accede to fogy-dom. 

7. The Drowsy Chaperone: Quite a few recent shows have made affectionate fun of musical theater, including Urinetown, Xanadu, and Bat Boy, all of which appear elsewhere on this list. But The Drowsy Chaperone holds a special place in my heart, no doubt because I identified so strongly with "Man in Chair," played with great warmth and minor neurosis by co-librettist Bob Martin. The conceit of the show is that Man in Chair puts on one of his favorite cast records -- yes, records -- and the show comes to life around him, turning his dreary New York City basement apartment into a frothy 1920s musical comedy. The show was nothing but fun, and that's exactly what I had each of the three times I've seen the show: fun. Some of the songs are a bit lame, perhaps intentionally so. But the overall feel of the show was infectious, and the talented original cast, including Sutton Foster, Georgia Engel, Edward Hibbert, Beth Leavel, and Danny Burstein. was an unmitigated pleasure to watch. I dearly hope one day to actually play Man in Chair. And I don't care who I have to step over to get the part. (Hear that, Ricky?)

6. Bat Boy: Fans of musical theater have a lot to thank Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman for. These men single-handedly (well, double-handedly) created an entirely new sub-genre of musical theater with their wonderful Little Shop of Horrors. That genre: The Campy Off-Broadway Bloodbath. Granted, it took almost two decades for the genre to take off, but once it did we got a profusion of small shows with camp factors of 11 and body counts higher than that of Hamlet. Some of these shows were quite good (cf. Urinetown, Reefer Madness). Others, well, not so much. (cf. The Toxic Avenger, Evil Dead). Among the best was Bat Boy, which is easily one of the funniest shows I've ever seen, at least in its original Off Broadway production. The show closed prematurely in the aftermath of 9/11, but it has since gone on to become a staple in regional theater. It couldn't happen to a nicer half-boy/half-rodent.

5. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee: Easily my sentimental favorite of the decade, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is an absolute joy. I think a lot of us theater nerds saw ourselves in these misfit kids and their outside-the-mainstream passion for spelling. And William Finn created one of his best scores for the show, one full of humor, heartbreak and warmth. I thought at first I might be a bit biased: when I saw the show at the Second Stage, I was one of the onstage audience member spellers, and I was the last one eliminated, a fact of which I remain quite proud. (Read my original post here.) But I've since seen the show on tour and at its birthplace, the Barrington Stage, and I still had a ball even when I wasn't on stage. The show seems poised for a long and healthy afterlife, and I hope someday to play Vice Principal Douglas Panch. And I don't care who I have to step over to get the part. (Hear that, Ricky?)

4. The Light in the Piazza: I have a confession: I didn't really like The Light in the Piazza the first time I saw it. I guess I wasn't smelling what composer/lyricist Adam Guettel and librettist Craig Lucas were cooking, at least not at first. The show is often quiet and slow, and the music can be difficult to take in on a first hearing. Thankfully, The Light in the Piazza received a TV broadcast shortly before it closed, and I've since had the chance to watch the video again and again, each time finding more to appreciate and more to fall in love with. Likewise, repeated hearings of the score revealed an emotional richness and subtlety that few musicals strive for, let alone achieve. I greatly look forward to seeing what Guettel comes up with next, now that The Princess Bride appears to be a goner. Let's hope it's not another ten-year gap, as we had between Floyd Collins and Piazza.

3. Avenue Q: So much more than just a smart and funny new musical, Avenue Q represented something of an economic watershed. The show came seemingly out of nowhere, snatched the Tony for best musical from the hands of Wicked, and proved that small shows could make a profit on Broadway. Conventional wisdom held that, in order to make money, musicals needed to be huge, with elaborate sets and lots of theatrical pyrotechnics. Wrong. If it weren't for Avenue Q, we might not have seen many of the musicals on this list make it to Broadway, including Spelling Bee, Xanadu, and The Drowsy Chaperone. And now that Avenue Q has made the almost unprecedented move from Broadway to Off Broadway, the show appears to have opened yet another...well, avenue...for smaller shows to follow. Beyond that, it's also a very good show, full of wit, wisdom, and an entrancingly tuneful score by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Even if it hadn't rewritten the rules, Avenue Q would still have made this list for the sheer quality of the writing.

2. Adding Machine: I had a really hard time deciding which show to place first on this list, but ultimately I had to make a decision. A tie would have been too annoying, and a bit lazy. But I could just as easily have justified putting Adding Machine first. I was simply blown away by this show. It wasn't just Joshua Schmidt's dynamic and eclectic score, or his and Jason Loewith's faithful adaptation of Elmer Rice's original play. It was also David Cromer's brave, uncompromising direction. The show starts off as a tale of the faceless everyman, but it quickly veers into far more subversive and satisfying territory. I greatly look forward to seeing the show again when Boston's Speakeasy Stage produces it this spring. If you're in the Boston area, I urge you to check it out. If not, I highly recommend the cast recording. This is a show to be experienced and savored. Truly one for the ages.

1. Urinetown: An unlikely masterpiece. Rarely have I experienced a musical that was so cohesive, so united in its intent, so solid in its execution as Urinetown. Mark Hollmann's score is a direct homage to Kurt Weill, and the show itself is partly a re-imagining of Marc Blitzstein's seminal The Cradle Will Rock. But Urinetown is so much more than that. It's also a shrewd satire of theater itself, and musical theater in particular, and that's really the level upon which the show truly shines. The book by Greg Kotis basically asks "What is the worst possible idea for a musical?" And the answer that it provides is nothing less than brilliant, and frequently hilarious to boot. In the original production, director John Rando kept all the actors on the same satiric page, and choreographer John Carrafa made comic reference to everyone from Bob Fosse to Gower Champion. The show has really caught on in the provinces, a fact that I find both gratifying and a bit surprising. Thankfully there appears to be room in the hearts and minds of the theater-going public for more than just Andrew Lloyd Webber and Mamma Mia. 

Honorable mention: [title of show]: I couldn't finish up this list without making mention of [title of show]. I genuinely considered placing it somewhere on this list, but I decided that I needed to separate my affection for the show from an objective view of its inherent quality. I had a marvelous time both times I saw [title of show] on Broadway. I inadvertently bought a ticket to the show's first Broadway preview, an experience that was alternately thrilling and annoying: thrilling because of the sheer energy that permeated the proceedings, but annoying because of the exaggerated ovations and disproportionate response that each number, and seemingly every line, received from the [tos]-ser faithful. When I went back the next day, the show received a more moderated and realistic response, and while I once again genuinely enjoyed myself, I had to question whether the show would appeal to the general public. And, as it turns out, [title of show] wasn't able to cross over and attract a mainstream audience. I remain an ardent fan of Hunter Bell's sweet and witty book. But I also remain unimpressed by Jeff Bowen's music and lyrics. The music is fine for what it is, if somewhat derivative, but the lyrics are full of bad scansion ("car-RIE", "mar-RY"), filler lines ("And if they like us, will they mic us, me and you?"), and bland repetition ("Filling out the form, filling out the form...", "Festival medley, festival medley..."). I have great affection for [title of show], mostly because of its unapologetic and unbridled love of musical theater. But, as for being a genuinely well-crafted show, I'm afraid that it comes up just a little short.

The Best Musicals of the 2000s - Part 1

I recently had a friend, in response to a negative review that I wrote, post on my Facebook page "Well, you hate everything." Even taking into account the obvious hyperbole there, I took significant umbrage at that remark. I most certainly do not hate everything. Why would I devote so much of my time and attention to musical theater if I didn't somehow find it captivating, moving, even transcendent? 

I suppose the best evidence I can present to counter my friend's comment is the following list. This was easily the hardest one to compile, simply because there were so many shows that I was enamored of, or at least admired, in the past ten years. I had such a hard time choosing only ten shows that I ultimately gave up and expanded the list to 20, which I've broken up into two separate posts. And even then, I included an "honorable mention" category, which I will include in the next portion of the list. So I guess I don't hate everything, now do I?

The fact that there were so many strong musicals to choose from certainly belies the notion that musicals are a dying art form. There's plenty of evidence to the contrary. The number-one album this week is Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream. The hottest movie of the holiday season is Rob Marshall's "Nine." Musical theater may never be the cultural force that it once was, but reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.

The Best Musicals of the 2000s 

20. Hairspray: I think a lot of us musical-theater mavens develop a knee-jerk distaste for the popular. It's almost as though admitting that we like something like Wicked (see below), or Les Miserables, or anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber is tantamount to surrendering our theater-queen credentials. Well, some of these shows have much to recommend them, and Hairspray definitely belongs in that category. How could you *not* root for a musical with a plus-size leading lady and message of racial tolerance? And when that musical delivers with a solid score (by Marc Shaiman and his life partner Scott Wittman) and an amusing book (by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan), well, all the better. The movie version was a bit of a bloated botch, overloaded with celebrities and would-be celebrities, but the show itself remains entertaining, and relatively true to the off-beat style of the 1988 John Waters film upon which it is based.

19. Caroline, or Change: One of the most interesting and ambitious musicals of this or any decade was Caroline, or Change. Any musical with a libretto by Pulitzer-Prize winner Tony Kushner (Angels in America) is worthy of attention, but Kushner delivered in spades with a show that confounded expectations and brought the form into new directions. The multifarious score further demonstrated that composer Jeanine Tesori is just as comfortable with more adventurous fare (Violet) as she is with musical comedy (Thoroughly Modern Millie). That said, the show is a bit of a downer. I mean, look at the CD cover: who decided that such a dour image would make people want to see this show? True, the image is consistent with the show's tone, but hey, throw the general public a bone, guys. Nonetheless, Caroline, or Change remains a challenging, moving, and -- for those who are willing to give it a shot -- satisfying musical.

18. The Producers: After the unmitigated mess that was Young Frankenstein, it might be easy to forget that Mel Brooks is a genuinely talented man, and that earlier in the decade he gave us one of the funniest musicals of all time, The Producers. Of course, having Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the lead roles was certainly a boon, but The Producers works well even without these talented men. Did the show really deserve its record-breaking 12 Tony Awards? I think not. (Best lighting? Best set design?) The Tony voters were very likely just looking to break a record. Was it worth paying premium prices of $400 or more? No show is. But now that the dust of hype has settled, and we can analyze the show for its objective strengths, I have the feeling that The Producers will be one for the ages, becoming a staple in regional theaters, and an enduring favorite among theatergoers.

17. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: One of the most pleasant surprises for me this decade was Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I had never even seen the 1988 movie upon which the show is based, so I went in with no expectations. I was looking forward to seeing if composer/lyricist David Yazbek could follow up on The Full Monty (see below) with a score that was just as fresh, funny, and appealing, and fortunately he did not disappoint. Jack O'Brien's direction kept the show moving at a quick clip, and if Jerry Mitchell's choreography was a tad uninspired, there was plenty to enjoy in the leading performances, including John Lithgow, Sherie Rene Scott, Norbert Leo Butz, Joanna Gleason, and Gregory Jbara. The show unfortunately proved to be rather star-dependent; although it ran well with Jonathan Pryce, replacement Keith Carradine couldn't quite keep the show open.

16. Contact: There was quite the controversy when Contact made the move from the Mitzi Newhouse to the Vivian Beaumont. Musicians were up in arms because the show used prerecorded music. Theater purists were pissy because the show didn't match their rigid criteria for what could be called a musical. As I've said before, if the people who put a particular show together call it a musical, then as far as I'm concerned it's a musical. The question is: Is it any good? And Contact is good. Very good. The show comprises three distinct but thematically related dance sequences. The first is just a bit of fluff that brings a famous (if treacly) painting by Jean-Honore Fragonard to life. The second explores the fantasies of a woman in an abusive relationship. And the third relates the story of an unhappy advertising exec on one fateful night. The common element: contact. The desire for human contact. Writer John Weidman revealed that he does in fact have a heart (the vast majority of his musical-theater work to the contrary), and Susan Stroman showed us for the first time that she was capable of far more than creating stunning dance routines.

15. Wicked: I am completely unapologetic in my love for Wicked. I remember when I first saw the show, and I told my class that I really enjoyed it, one of my students said, "You what?!" and gave me one of the most dismissive looks I've ever seen. (Sometimes I think my students forget that I'm giving them a grade at the end...) Wicked is a show that people can enjoy on multiple levels. If you just want spectacle, you certainly won't be disappointed, but there are also some genuinely interesting and provocative ideas to be found, particularly in the scenes and songs featuring the Wizard: the notion that we need an enemy to define who we are, and the insidious appeal of fame and power. Original ideas? Hardly. But Wicked isn't just some fluffy, mindless spectacle. If you're listening, you might actually learn something.

14. The Full Monty: It seems as though the ticket-buying public only has room in its consciousness for one hit musical per season. So, frequently we get a situation in which a terrific show gets upstaged by a more successful competitor. In 2001, the big hit was The Producers, a show that was so hot, not even the 9/11 attacks could dampen ticket sales. Lost amid the ballyhoo was a strong musical that had opened 6 months earlier, The Full Monty. Now, the show wound up running about 770 performances, which is fairly decent, and which is why I didn't put Monty on my underrated list. Plus, the show really seems to be catching on in regional theater. I think this is because The Full Monty has a funny and moving book by Terrence McNally, and a terrific score by newcomer David Yazbek, who has since shown with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels that he very likely has the power to sustain.

13. Passing Strange: Some of the best shows of the past decade were created by outsiders, folks who weren't schooled in the "rules" of musical theater, and who therefore didn't feel compelled to follow them. Passing Strange is one of those musicals. The show impressed me with its innovative storytelling and surprisingly accessible score. (Read my review and my re-review.) Stew's book and lyrics are erudite and allusive, although they do occasionally border on pretense. The show tells its coming-of-age story with just the right balance of humor and angst, and the result is a theatrical marvel. But when I mentioned Passing Strange in class recently, very few of my students had even heard of it. Perhaps that will change in January, when Spike Lee's filmed version of Passing Strange gets it DVD release. The show may have only run 165 performances on Broadway, but the DVD will assure that a greater number of people will get to experience the raw power of Passing Strange.

12. Next to Normal: I certainly have a long and tortured history with Next to Normal. The first time I saw the show, I was disappointed in the quality of the writing, but I also took great exception to the apparent message of the show, which I found to be profoundly anti-psychiatry. (Read my review of the Off-Broadway run here.) My review sparked the ire of librettist Brian Yorkey, and he sent me a number of angry emails taking me to task. When Yorkey's emails took on a more collegial tone, I responded politely but firmly, restating my initial objections. When I saw the show again on Broadway, I found it vastly improved in terms of its tone and emotional impact, but I still noticed a vestige of bias. (Read my Broadway review here.) Even so, I came to appreciate the show for its stirring story and moving score, and have actually become something of a fan. I find myself tearing up every time I listen to the recording. Not many shows take on subjects as serious as mental illness, and very few creators could have done it with as much style and compassion as Yorkey and his composer, Tom Kitt. 

11. A Catered Affair: There were many musicals during the 2000s that didn't quite catch on, or even failed outright, but for me the most heart-breaking was A Catered Affair. Is there a place on Broadway for a small, sweet, heartfelt musical with nothing more on its mind than to bring a small, humble, flawed group of people to empathetic life? I'm really not sure. All I know is that I was thoroughly captivated by the show, from John Bucchino's lovely score to Harvey Fierstein's touching book. (Read my review and my re-review.) I find myself returning to the CD again and again, and find something new to appreciate every time I listen. The production also featured numerous strong, even revelatory, performances, notably those from Faith Prince, Leslie Kritzer and Tom Wopat. My hope is that the show will catch on with small theaters around the country looking for an off-beat but heartfelt show to captivate its audience.

COMING VERY SOON: The Top 10 Musicals of the 2000s

The Most Underrated Musicals of the 2000s

As my students discover every semester, the idea of a musical being "overrated" or "underrated" is ultimately subjective. Some people consider Wicked overrated. I don't. I find the show extremely entertaining, even if my open admission lessens my worth in the eyes of certain theater snobs. Others might consider [title of show] to be underrated. Again, not me. I'm very fond of the show, and I'm glad it played Broadway, if only to give the story a fitting coda. But I think it played about as long as it was ever going to, poor economy or no. The appeal of the show turned out to be fairly limited, but I'm sure it will find success in regional productions. 

For me, calling a musical "underrated" means that the show had a lot more going for it than its limited run would imply. Perhaps there were some great songs amid a relatively weak book. Or a compelling story surrounding a lackluster score. Whatever the combo, the following shows IMHO didn't get a fair shake, and are certainly worth your attention, if they haven't already popped up on your radar.

The Most Underrated Musicals of the 2000s 

10. Curtains: It seemed as though the only reason most people went to see Curtains was to see David Hyde Pierce. And he was certainly very good, winning a well-deserved Tony Award, after being incomprehensibly passed over for a nomination for his hilarious turn in Spamalot. But Curtains was so much more than a star show. The score, while not exactly top-drawer Kander and Ebb, was moderately memorable. And Rupert Holmes' book was engaging, and genuinely kept me guessing until the final revelation. Plus, it featured a cast of Broadway's absolute best, including Debra Monk, Karen Ziemba, Edward Hibbert, and Jason Danieley. Sure, it was old-fashioned. But every now and then, old-fashioned can be just what the doctor ordered.

9. High Fidelity: When I saw High Fidelity during its Boston tryout, I knew it was in trouble. But I don't think the problem was the material. The score, with lyrics by Amanda Green and music by Tom Kitt, is actually quite solid, with a number of tuneful and humorous numbers. And David Lindsay-Abaire's book, based on the Nick Hornby novel, is fairly strong, although it certainly could have used a humor transfusion. I blame director Walter Bobbie for not having a clue as to how to form these promising parts into an entertaining whole. Bobbie seems to be coasting on his Chicago success, but his directing career since (Footloose, Sweet Charity, White Christmas, etc.) hasn't lived up to that promise. If High Fidelity had had a stronger director, one with more experience at shaping a show under development, the results might have been a lot more impressive.

8. The Little Mermaid: People spew vitriol over The Little Mermaid, as if it were some deliberate attempt on Disney's part to destroy Broadway. No, that's Mary Poppins. The Little Mermaid is just a lovely story with a beautiful score that somehow got lost amid the sparkle and pomp of the Broadway production. If Disney had simply trusted the story, and not felt the need to fill the stage with enough glitz and mechanics to populate three shows, there might have been more critical affection for The Little Mermaid. Sure, many of the new songs by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater are pointless ("One Step Closer") or redundant ("The World Above," AKA "Part of Your World, The Intro"). But "I Want the Good Times Back" is a show-stopping charmer, evoking the bite and charm of the late Howard Ashman at his best. I don't think we've seen the last of The Little Mermaid, as there is certain to be a national tour. And experience has taught Disney that even its poorest efforts can have a successful life overseas. (cf. the successful production of Tarzan in Holland.)

7. The Story of My Life: I took a day trip down to the Goodspeed late last year to catch one of the final pre-Broadway performances of The Story of My Life. Despite an over-dependence on cultural cliches (The "butterfly effect," snow angels, "It's a Wonderful Life," The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, etc.) the show has a delightful score that revealed composer/lyricist Neil Bartram as a very promising new voice. Fortunately, the producers had the foresight to close the Broadway production after only four performances to preserve their financial resources to create a cast recording, thus ensuring that the show would have an afterlife. Perhaps the show's gee-whiz tone was a bit much for New York audiences, but there are undoubtedly many far less cynical crowds out there that will respond deeply to this perhaps overly earnest but nonetheless heartfelt show. 

6. Cry-Baby: I know. WTF? I fully expect this to be the most controversial of my choices for this list. But I sort of enjoyed Cry-Baby. I realize that I am in a small minority here, and I'm certainly not saying that it's a great show. But it's also not the ignominious failure that its 68 performances would suggest. Cry-Baby certainly doesn't compare very favorably with Hairspray, a show with which it shared much of its production team as well as its John-Waters-movie inspiration. Perhaps Cry-Baby would have been better with a Marc Shaiman/Scott Wittman score, but the songs by Broadway neophytes David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger were more than serviceable, and the book by Broadway vets Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan is focused and funny. The show wasn't recorded, but I'm told there's movement afoot to bring the touring cast into a recording booth. If that happens, the show may live on in the provinces. If not, it's a goner.

5. Reefer Madness: This show was a pleasant surprise for me. I bought the Reefer Madness CD during one of my I'll-buy-anything phases, but didn't listen to it for the longest time. Then, I happened to hear "Romeo and Juliet" somewhere, and decided I needed to hear the rest of the score. I wasn't disappointed. The score is full of well-crafted and memorable numbers, from "The Stuff" to "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy." I saw the show during its brief Off-Broadway run, and on stage the joke gets old pretty fast. I was a bit surprised when Showtime announced it was producing a film version of the show; I can think of dozens of other shows that I'd sooner see on film. But I bought the DVD, and again, the show loses momentum considerably. But if you take Reefer Madness in installments, there's much to enjoy.

4. The Wedding Singer: When I first saw The Wedding Singer, I was unimpressed. Here was yet another entrant in the movie-into-musical genre, and seemingly not a very inspired one at that. The choreography was overly exuberant, as if Rob Ashford were trying to make up for a lack of substance with sheer energy. But the more I listened to the score, the more enamored of the show I have became. And, frankly, the more mediocre movie-to-musical adaptations have hit Broadway (Legally Blonde, 9 to 5), the better The Wedding Singer has come to look by comparison. The show has a very sweet central story, and a lot of genuinely tuneful ("Someday"), clever ("A Note From Linda"), and rousing ("Saturday Night in the City") numbers along the way.

3. Amour: I was one of the very few people who saw Amour during its abbreviated Broadway run. (17 performances, 2002) Even though it played the Music Box, one of Broadway's smaller houses, I was left with the feeling that this was a show that belonged in a much more intimate space. The elaborate physical production, inspired by the paintings of Rene Magritte, ironically served to emphasize that Amour would have worked much better in a more modest presentation. Lost in the shuffle were Michel Legrand's wonderfully tuneful score and two understated performances by Melissa Errico and Malcolm Gets. Fortunately, we have the charming Amour cast recording to savor. The translated English lyrics by Jeremy Sams can get a bit clunky at times, but the show remains a quiet, bittersweet little marvel.

2. 13: Another heart-breaker. As a show, 13 seemed to have so much going for it, particularly composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown, who, after numerous respected but financially disappointing shows, seemed poised to score his first crossover hit. When I saw the show at the Goodspeed, I honestly thought that, with a few changes, the show would become a crowd-pleasing hit. How wrong I was. The show limped through 103 performances last fall, only to succumb to the annual January Broadway chill. But here's a show that seems a natural for regional and school productions. In anticipation of just such a likelihood, the show has given rise to not one but two cast recordings, the second recently released with a few changes in song running order, a new song, and an extra CD with karaoke tracks and cut numbers. Coming soon to a junior high or church basement near you: 13 - the Karaoke Musical?

1. Dessa Rose: A nearly forgotten gem of a show. I'm a huge fan of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and have a deep abiding affection for nearly all of their shows. (Although I can't quite warm up to Lucky Stiff.) Dessa Rose is a powerful exploration of the relationship between two very strong women, played masterfully by LaChanze and Rachel York, one a runaway slave and the other the woman who almost accidentally becomes an abolitionist. In their score, Flaherty and Ahrens reflect their expertise at crafting sweeping opening numbers ("We Are Descended") as well as extended character explorations ("Twelve Children"). If you're not already familiar with this moving and heartfelt show, I strongly recommend picking up a copy of the Dessa Rose CD. You're in for a real treat.

The Most Overrated Musicals of the 2000s

So, it's the end of the year, and also the end of a decade, and that means lists, lists, lists. Other media outlets have been focusing on the best entertainers, the best movies, the best music, etc. A few lists have marginally addressed musical theater, but I haven't yet seen anyone specifically take on the best and worst musicals of the decade. I'll gladly fill the void.

The 2000s represented a renaissance of sorts for musical theater. The previous three decades were often grim, both in terms of the number of shows per season and the tone of the shows themselves. But with the advent of the new millennium came a few heartening trends. First, there was the return of musical comedy (The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty), which was in rather short supply since the 1960s. Second was the "Little Show That Could," small funny shows (Avenue Q, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Drowsy Chaperone) that proved that you didn't have to be an overblown spectacle to make money on Broadway. Rest assured that the above-listed shows will feature prominently in the forthcoming lists.

In keeping with my previous lists, I'll be dividing the shows of the 2000s into four categories: The Most Overrated, the Most Underrated, the Best, and the Worst, in that order. Look for the remaining lists to follow over the next few weeks.

The Most Overrated Musicals of the 2000s

10. Thoroughly Modern Millie: Now, truth be told, I actually enjoy Millie, but the show earned its place on this list simply because it beat out Urinetown for the best-musical Tony. Excuse me? Millie is a pleasant diversion at best, with a moderately enjoyable score and a funny-but-slight book. But, as my students point out each year in their "overrated" papers, Millie has at least two songs that serve no function whatsoever -- "Only in New York" and "Long As I'm Here With You" -- both of which happen to belong to Muzzy. Millie is certainly fine for what it is, but it's no Urinetown. Not by a long shot.

 
9. Legally Blonde: Again, there are certain aspects of Legally Blonde that I can appreciate, particularly some of the songs. But overall I found the show lacking any real depth or humor. Even light musicals need three-dimensional characters, and in that department, Legally Blonde comes up decidedly short. The show will doubtless have a healthy afterlife in the high school-community theater realm, and there are certainly worse shows that they could be doing (cf. Fame and Footloose). But, for my money, Legally Blonde ranks rather low in the movie-to-musical genre, and that's not a particularly illustrious genre to begin with.

8. Aida: Call it "The Case of the Disappearing Hit." Aida ran for 1,852 performances, which is about four and a half years. And yet today the show is virtually forgotten. You rarely hear it come up in any discussion of people's favorites, nor even the shows that they dislike or dismiss. Despite its long and presumably profitable run, Aida has become a virtual nonentity. Every once in a while, someone dredges up "Easy As Life" or "Elaborate Lives" for an audition piece or a cabaret performance. And the Boston Gay Men's Chorus, with which I sing, used the number "My Strongest Suit" as part of its Elton John show a few years back. But, overall, the show has sort of disappeared from the public consciousness. In my book, that's an overrated musical.

7. Spamalot: I have two obsessions: musical theater and Monty Python. So you'd think that a show that brought these two together would have me kvelling. Nope. Spamalot was rather amusing in performance, sometimes riotously so. But I can never quite get past the show's score, which is simply atrocious. The musicality is primitive, and the lyrics are forced and awkward. All of which would seem beside the point for the show's presumed fan base, but as a musical-theater aficionado, I must cry foul. Perhaps if composer John Du Prez and librettist Eric Idle had brought in some more experienced hands to shape the score, the result would have been more satisfying. But, for me, Spamalot was a major disappointment. Plus, it beat out The Light in the Piazza, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for the best-musical Tony, and Spamalot is easily the least distinguished of the lot.

6. In the Heights: When I first saw In the Heights Off-Broadway, I was unimpressed. I found the emotions pat, the plot contrived, and the performances overwrought. The show underwent significant changes en route to Broadway, and the end result was much tighter and more enjoyable. But it's still a cartoon. If you take West Side Story, remove all the drama and tension, and substitute unbelievably noble stick figures for characters, you basically get In the Heights. That said, the choreography was outstanding, and Lin-Manuel Miranda shows promise as a composer and lyricist, although his Spanish lyrics for the West Side Story revival were less than stellar. Overall, either Passing Strange or Xanadu would have been a superior choice for best musical in 2008.

5. Spring Awakening: I think a lot of us, myself included, were a bit dazzled at first by the raw energy and bold presentation of Spring Awakening. The show has a great message to impart, and the style and youthful exuberance were hard to resist. But the show hasn't held up upon repeated viewings, at least not for me. Too many of the songs have scant relevance to the plot. Yes, this was deliberate on the authors' part, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Also, the show has too many subplots that are left under-developed, particularly the ones concerning abuse and homosexuality. And, try as I may, I simply can't abide by slant rhyme, which occurs in annoying profusion throughout Steven Sater's lyrics and Duncan Sheik's score. It may be an acceptable practice in popular music, but I hold musical theater to a higher standard. Flawed though it may be, Grey Gardens was my choice as best musical of 2007.

4. Movin' Out: I never got to see Movin' Out when it was on Broadway. Let me rephrase that: I never wanted to see Movin' Out when it was on Broadway, where it ran for 1,303 performances. Much as I admire Twyla Tharp, and as iconic as Billy Joel was during my 1970s youth, the idea of the show just never appealed to me. I did finally see Movin' Out on tour, and was underwhelmed. Tharp displayed little of her trademark eclecticism in her choreography, and the show was only sporadically...well...moving. It's no wonder her second songbook effort, The Times They Are a Changin', based on the songs of Bob Dylan, died a quick and ignominious death in 2006. But Twyla remains undeterred, and is in the process of developing Come Fly With Me, based on the Frank Sinatra songbook. The word on the street is that the show is actually quite good, so I'll reserve judgment until I get a chance to see it. But as for Movin' Out, yeah, not so much.

3. Mary Poppins. I remain thoroughly bewildered by the success, and extended Broadway run, of Mary Poppins. I absolutely hated the show when I saw it in London. Friends exhorted me to give the show another chance, and I simply couldn't bring myself to. I found the entire enterprise irritating and shrill, lacking any and all of the charm of the original "Mary Poppins" movie. The new songs added nothing, the staging was pointless, and the set was dull and washed out. I'd rather sit through a revival of Lestat than endure the sheer pain of Mary Poppins again. There aren't enough spoonfuls of sugar in the world...

2. Mamma Mia: It's so easy to bash Mamma Mia. Too easy. I must admit I had fun when I saw it on tour in Boston. But the show is now the 13th-longest-running show in Broadway history, and will soon pass Grease to become number 12. It ain't that good. The book is thinner than parchment, and the well-known songs often feel wedged in with a ball-peen hammer. And the movie...oh, my sainted aunt, that movie. The show somehow works much better on stage, but just the fact that Mamma Mia the show gave rise to that cinematic atrocity is reason enough to earn the show its place on this list. Plus, Mamma Mia was the show that started the whole jukebox musical trend, and for that, it must pay.

1. Billy Elliot: There really wasn't a contest here. For me, Billy Elliot is one of the most overrated musicals of all time, let alone the decade. I saw it in London and was nonplussed. I saw it again on Broadway, and saw just a bit more to admire than I had the first time, but I was still sort of meh. As with most of the other musicals on this list, I'm not saying that Billy Elliot is a bad show. It's just not the second coming, which many people seem to make it out to be. The score is forgettable at best, clumsy at worst. The dance is dynamic, but indistinct. The story is quite moving, and there are some really charming moments throughout the show. But I simply don't think it's one for the ages. The real nail in the coffin for me was when the Tony voters gave the best actor award to all three Billys. Oh, isn't that just adorable. We wouldn't want to have to make an actual decision and hurt someone's iddoo biddy feewings, now would we? The Billy I saw - the now-departed Kiril Kulish - was a terrific dancer, but no great shakes in the acting department. To my mind, Billy Elliot is admirable in its intent, but significantly flawed in its execution. The delightful movie "Billy Elliot" deserved far better.

The Most Underrated Musical - Fall 2009

I just finished grading this semester's crop of "underrated musical" papers. I know how much my readers enjoy hearing about which shows my students have chosen to defend, so I always like to pass the list along. This semester's top choices comprise a decidedly eclectic mix of shows. Here are the works that more than one student chose to write about:

3 Once on This Island
2 Bat Boy
2 Wicked
2 City of Angels
2 Working

Plenty of choices that melt my icy heart, particularly Once on This Island. Grading those three papers prompted me to break out the cast recording, which I haven't listened to in years, and it was a joy to rediscover this inventive and heartfelt little show. Once on This Island was the show that brought Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens to my attention, and this talented duo has been firmly on my radar ever since.

If you're not familiar with Once on This Island, I urge you to get a hold of the recording, which contains the show in its delightful entirety. It's basically a Caribbean take on the "The Little Mermaid," as opposed to the Disney version, which completely changes the ending, and the intent, of Hans Christian Andersen's original tale. 

As for the other top choices, I personally love every last one of them. Working is especially dear, and contains quite a few powerful scenes and songs (particularly "Just a Housewife" and "If I Could've Been"), although there is the occasional misstep. ("Neat to Be a Newsboy," anyone? Yeesh.) As for Bat Boy, although many of my students over the years have chosen it as their underrated musical, nobody has ever really been able to capture why it's good in the course of writing their papers. They all take it way too seriously, and even if they do focus on the humor, they're never really successful at analyzing why it's just so darn funny. This is actually true of most of the wacky, zany Off-Broadway satires. (See Zombie Prom below.) 

Here's the rest of the list, the shows that received one paper each:

On the Town, The Wiz, Once Upon a Mattress, She Loves Me, One Touch of Venus, Ragtime, The Wild Party (Lippa), Children of Eden, The Fantasticks, Goblin Market, Les Miserables, Assassins, Into the Woods, Parade, The Frogs, Zombie Prom, Curtains, Beauty and the Beast

A lot of usual suspects, including The Wild Party (yawn) and Children of Eden (Y-A-W-N). But I was rather intrigued by Goblin Market and One Touch of Venus. I'm not overly familiar with Goblin Market, although that student's paper made me want to dig out the cast recording and get a copy of the script. The show is essentially a Victorian poem (by Christina Rossetti) come to life in the form of an ambitious two-character show. I haven't had a chance to give it much attention, but it's definitely on my play list and night stand.

And then there's One Touch of Venus. I've never seen the show, but I have read the script, and once saw the rather lame movie version with Ava Gardner. But the Kurt Weill score is stunning, with some of his best songs, including "Speak Low" and "I'm a Stranger Here Myself." I used to include the show in my course syllabus, but I had to cut it because that particular class was running way too long. The story concerns a statue of Venus that comes to life and wreaks havoc in the lives of a few select mortals, and on the whole the show is a real charmer.

One Touch of Venus is one of those shows that was a huge success back in the day only to later slip into near obscurity. (Another example: Lady in the Dark.) Encores did it 13 years ago, and it's been dusted off by The Goodspeed Opera House and a few international theaters. But it's really the sort of show that could stand a first-class revival. It would probably require a big star, but maybe Catherine Zeta-Jones (A Little Night Music) will start a trend of big stars coming to Broadway to anchor musical revivals that otherwise not have seen the light of day. 

Scarlett Johansen, are you listening, girl?

The Most Overrated Musical - Fall 2009

Yesterday, my students passed in the first of their papers, this one defending their choice for the most overrated musical. It's a task that I acknowledge is unfair and arbitrary, but I find it useful nonetheless. Writing the paper gives them a chance to get to know what I'm looking for, and for me to get to see how they think. And it encourages them to start thinking critically about the shows we're discussing,the shows that they see, and the shows that they do.

Here's a list of shows that they chose to write about this semester, along with the number of students who chose that particular show:

7 Spring Awakening
5 Legally Blonde
2 Footloose
2 Jekyll & Hyde
2 Mamma Mia
2 Thoroughly Modern Millie

The following shows received one "vote" each:

42nd Street, In the Heights, Nunsense, We Will Rock You, The Who's Tommy, Victor/Victoria, Camelot, Sweet Charity, Les Miserables, Rent, Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera

We seem to have a very clear winner, as well as a strong contender in second place. Both Spring Awakening and Legally Blonde seem to have followed a similar trajectory in terms of public opinion. When the shows first appeared, there were certain contingents that were thrilled, albeit a drastically different set of folks for each show. Legally Blonde, although not a blockbuster, became a clear favorite with teenage and tween-age girls, most likely including a number of the young women who are currently enrolled in my course. But as time has passed, it appears the that bloom has faded from that garishly pink rose, at least for some people.

I find the case of Spring Awakening to be even more interesting. When the show first came on the theater scene, many heralded it as the future of musical theater, a bold and vital statement on the power of live theater to attract younger audiences. And, in many respects, they were right. However, I think these people -- and that includes this blogger -- were temporarily dazzled by the energy, style, and presentation of the show. And there's no denying the power that Spring Awakening has to engage, anger, and move. But I think as many people have taken a second look, the flaws of the show have become all too apparent: the minor plot points that go nowhere, the songs that bear scant relevance to the plot, the lyrics that veer past poetry into pretension.

Bear in mind that, in our first class, a number of my students chose Spring Awakening as one of the best musicals ever. So the theater-going public hasn't executed a complete about-face with regard to the show. However, it will be interesting to see how Spring Awakening weathers the passage of time, especially when the amateur performance rights become available.

The Bestest Musical Ever -- Fall 2009

Ah, fall. When a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of showtunes. Or at least, one not-so-young man's fancy. And his captive audience of 32 bewildered students.

Every semester, I start my musical-theater history course at the Boston Conservatory by asking my students to write down the three best musicals of all time. We then tally the votes on the board and embark on a discussion of what characteristics, if any, these shows might share. We then take a giant step backward in time to begin our chronological survey of musical theater. ("How did you get to be here, Mr. Shepherd?")

The list we create is always an interesting glimpse at the waxing and waning of shows and their popularity. Because that's what we're really discussing here: what's currently popular. My goal in the course is to help my students establish a set of aesthetic criteria for discerning what makes for a quality show. So we start with what they like, then slowly transition into discussing why those shows are good. Or perhaps why they're not quite as good as they may have initially thought. 

So here's the list for this semester, along with the number of votes that particular show received:

9 West Side Story
8 Sweeney Todd
7 Ragtime
7 Les Miserables
4 The Phantom of the Opera
4 Wicked
3 Anything Goes
3 Gypsy
3 Into the Woods
3 Parade
3 Rent
2 Carousel
2 Hair
2 Show Boat
2 Spring Awakening

Not a lot of surprises, really. West Side Story and Hair have clearly benefited from their current Broadway revivals. West Side Story almost always shows up on the list (see the lists from the fall and spring of last yea.), while Hair tends to come and go. Anything Goes makes a strong resurgence: there hasn't been a Broadway revival in 20 years, although it's one of the most popular shows on the community and school circuits.

Ragtime has been pretty consistently present on the list, after years of anonymity. I must admit that I was surprised when Ragtime became so popular regionally: I would have sworn that the need for African Americans in the show would have limited the number of productions, as African Americans have not historically been very involved in community theater. Thankfully, that has begun to change, as witnessed by the swelling ranks of black student sin the theater department at the BoCo. I'm likewise amazed and pleased that Parade has caught on. It's a strong show, but it's a real downer, and not your typical summer stock fare. Perhaps it's a testament to the broadening tastes of theatergoers that both Ragtime and Parade have become, if not quite staples, at least a welcome foray into substance. And it bodes well for the upcoming Ragtime revival.

Here are the shows that received one vote each:

Cabaret, Carrie, Cats, A Chorus Line, Chicago, The Color Purple, Company, Curtains, Dreamgirls, Fiddler on the Roof, The Frogs, Funny Girl, Guys and Dolls, Hello Dolly, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Last Five Years, A Little Night Music, Little Shop of Horrors, Miss Saigon, My Fair Lady, Next to Normal, Naughty Marietta, Once on This Island, Oklahoma, The Roar of the Greasepaint/The Smell of the Crowd, The Sound of Music, Sunday in the Park With George, Thoroughly Modern Millie, [title of show], The Wild Party (Lippa), Urinetown, The Wiz

A number of surprises here. (We'll get to Carrie in a second.) First, it's interesting that My Fair Lady and Oklahoma, two of the best and most important musicals of all time, should receive such a poor showing. Admittedly, My Fair Lady appeals to a more mature crowd, and doesn't receive quite as much regional play as it should, perhaps because the central roles are so demanding. But Oklahoma has always been pretty ubiquitous, although it has recently fallen off the radar in terms of the most produced high school musicals. 

Every year semester we see a few quirky choices, and this semester we get Naughty Marietta and Roar/Crowd. It's very likely that the students that chose these shows recently appeared in them, so we have the top-of-mind factor. It's likely that Next to Normal has a similar recency effect, in that it's currently running in New York. And The Frogs likely came from a Sondheim aficionado, or perhaps someone trying to impress.

And then there's Carrie. I think this might be someone's little joke. I often start the first class of my course by showing a video of the opening number to Carrie, which I follow with a comment like "By the end of this course, you'll understand why that sucks." In fact, I end the course with a discussion of three bad shows: Carrie, Victor/Victoria, and Jekyll and Hyde. We watch a scene from each, and I encourage the students to use what they've learned to discuss what's wrong with these shows. So I get the feeling someone's putting me on here.

At least I hope so.

The Most Influential People in Musical-Theater History

While teaching my course on the history of musical theater at the Boston Conservatory, I frequently point to Oscar Hammerstein II as the most important person in the history of musical theater. I genuinely believe that. Hammerstein was not only crucial for what he did, but also in whom he taught and inspired, namely one Stephen Sondheim. 

To understand Hammerstein's immeasurable contributions, it's important to understand integration, one of the most important concepts in the evolution of musicals. Integration basically means the trend toward having every element of a show serve some dramatic purpose. As Richard Rodgers famously once said, the reason that Oklahoma worked as well as it did was because "the orchestrations sound the way the costumes look." This always surprises my students, but there was a time when songs in a musical didn't have much to do with the plot, and dance was mere decoration. And that time was basically B.H. (Before Hammerstein) 

That's a gross simplification, of course, but Oscar Hammerstein was indeed an integration pioneer, starting with his work in operettas and musical comedy, continuing with the seminal Show Boat, and culminating in his work with Rodgers. Hammerstein didn't invent integration, but he did more than any other single person to make it come about, and the rest of musical-theater history rests squarely on his shoulders and accomplishments. 

My admiration of Hammerstein got me thinking about which other people are responsible for the development of the musical-theater form, and since I've been a list-making mood lately, well, you can probably see where this is heading. Here then is my attempt to list the most influential people in the history of musical theater. Some of these names will be very well known, others not so much. I've included links for all the names, plus brief explanations for those I deemed it appropriate. I'm sure that there will be many people who feel that I've left someone out, or ranked someone too low or too high. If so, feel free to drop me a line.

As with all of my other lists, this one will be listed as a sub-page of in the left-hand margin.

1. Oscar Hammerstein
2. Stephen Sondheim
3. Jerome Kern - composer of Show Boat, as well as the seminal Princess shows, which include Very Good Eddie and Oh, Boy!
4. Harold Prince
5. Richard Rodgers
6. Jerome Robbins
7. Arthur Laurents - librettist for West Side Story and Gypsy
8. George M. Cohan - the do-it-all impresario showman, who not only wrote and starred in his own shows, but was also an integration pioneer
9. Agnes de Mille - first female director/choreographer, key force behind Oklahoma and the integration of dance
10. George Gershwin
11. Kurt Weill - composer of The Threepenny Opera, as well as such wonderful but underperformed shows as Lady in the Dark and Lost in the Stars
12. Bob Fosse
13. George S. Kaufman - librettist for Of Thee I Sing, Strike Up the Band, and key force behind Guys and Dolls
    
14. Florenz Ziegfeld - producer of the Ziegfeld Follies and the seminal Show Boat
15. Moss Hart - librettist for Lady in the Dark and As Thousands Cheer, and key force behind My Fair Lady
    
16. Ethel Merman
17. Alan Jay Lerner - librettist/lyricist for Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, and Camelot
18. Guy Bolton - librettist for the seminal Princess shows, among many others
19. P.G. Wodehouse - lyricist for seminal Princess shows, among many others
20. Irving Berlin
21. Lorenz Hart - lyricist who worked with Richard Rodgers on many shows, including Pal Joey, The Boys from Syracuse, A Connecticut Yankee, and On Your Toes
22. Ira Gershwin - lyricist who went on after his brother's death to create Lady in the Dark and A Star Is Born
23. George Balanchine - first person to receive the credit "choreography by" versus "dances by"
24. Frederick Loewe - composer of Brigadoon and My Fair Lady
25. W.S. Gilbert - librettist/lyricist half of Gilbert & Sullivan
26. Cole Porter
27. Fred Ebb
28. Frank Loesser
29. John Kander
30. Arthur Sullivan - composer half of Gilbert & Sullivan
31. Marc Blitzstein - composer lyricist of The Cradle Will Rock and Juno
32. Peter Stone - librettist of 1776, Titanic, and Woman of the Year
33. Noel Coward
34. James Lapine
35. Chita Rivera
36. Michael Stewart - librettist of 42nd Street, Bye Bye Birdie, Carnival!, and Hello, Dolly!
37. Gertrude Lawrence - star of Lady in the Dark and The King and I
38. David Merrick - controversial producer of such hits as Hello, Dolly!, Carnival, and Gypsy
39. Victor Herbert - the first significant American composer to write an entire musical score himself (Babes in Toyland), versus group efforts and song interpolations. Also, invented American operetta
40. Michael Bennett
41. Betty Comden
42. Al Jolson
43. Bertie Williams - first African-American star
44. Jerry Herman
45. Sheldon Harnick/Jerry Bock - composer/lyricist team that wrote Fiorello, She Loves Me, and Fiddler on the Roof
46. Gower Champion - director/choreographer of Bye Bye Birdie, Hello, Dolly, Carnival, and 42nd Street
47. Stephen Schwartz
48. Adolph Green
49. Leonard Bernstein
50. Mary Martin
51. Otto Harbach - prolific lyricist and librettist of both musical comedies and operettas
52. B.G. DeSylva/Ray Henderson/Lew Brown - creators of a successful series of shows in the 1920s, including Good News
53. Ethel Watters - first female African-American star
54. Michael Kidd - prolific and influential choreographer
55. Bernadette Peters
56. Victor Moore/William Gaxton - popular comic actors and frequent co-stars
57. Gwen Verdon
58. H.Y. "Yip" Harburg - known primarily as the lyricist for "The Wizard of Oz," but responsible for much more, including Finian's Rainbow
59. Morrie Ryskind - known for his work with the Marx Brothers, but also worked with Kaufman on Of Thee I Sing and Strike Up the Band
60. Harry B. Smith - the most prolific writer in Broadway history, working on 122 separate shows, including...nothing you've ever heard of
61. Carol Channing
62. Bob Merrill - composer and lyricist who worked on such shows as Carnival and Funny Girl
63. Sigmund Romberg - composer of numerous successful operettas, including The Student Prince, The Desert Song, and The New Moon
64. Joseph Stein - librettist for numerous shows, including Fiddler on the Roof
65. Rudolph Friml - composer of numerous successful operettas, including Rose Marie and The Vagabond King
66. Harvey Schmidt/Tom Jones - composer and lyricist of The Fantasticks, 110 in the Shade and others
    
67. Joseph Papp - producer of Hair, The Pirates of Penzance, and A Chorus Line, among others
68. Edward Harrigan/Tony Hart - creators of a series of popular and influential shows, including The Mulligan Guard Ball, in the 1800s. The first famous collaboration in the American musical theater
69. Marilyn Miller - popular star of the musical theater in the 1920s and 1930s.
70. Eubie Blake/Noble Sissle - authors of the first successful show created entirely by African Americans, Shuffle Along
71. Dorothy Fields - first successful female lyricist and librettist, whose shows include Annie Get Your Gun and Sweet Charity
72. George Abbott - producer, director, and librettist with a career spanning more than seven decades. Shows include Pal Joey, On the Town, and The Pajama Game
73. Herbert Fields - librettist and lyricist, whose shows include Annie Get Your Gun and A Connecticut Yankee
74. Tommy Tune
75. Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz - composer/lyricist team, whose shows include The Band Wagon, and The Gay Life
76. Charles H. Hoyt - author of a number of farce comedies in the 1800s, including A Trip to Chinatown
    
77. Harold Rome - composer/lyricist of such shows as Pins and Needles and I Can Get It for You Wholesale
78. Kay Swift - first woman to score and entire musical, Fine and Dandy
    
79. Rouben Mamoulian - director of Porgy and Bess, Oklahoma!, Carousel, and Lost in the Stars
80. Onna White - choreographer of The Music Man, Mame, and 1776
81. Joshua Logan - director of Knickerbocker Holiday, South Pacific, and Annie Get Your Gun
82. Andrew Lloyd Webber
83. Patti LuPone
84. Howard Lindsay/Russell Crouse - librettists of The Sound of Music, Call Me Madam, and Anything Goes
85. Cameron Mackintosh
86. Tim Rice
87. Jule Styne - composer of Gypsy, Funny Girl, and Bells Are Ringing
88. Charles Strouse - composer of Bye Bye Birdie and Annie
89. Neil Simon - librettist for Sweet Charity, Promises, Promises, and They're Playing Our Song, as well as script doctor for A Chorus Line
    
90. William Finn - composer/lyricist for Falsettos, A New Brain, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
91. Thomas Meehan - librettist for Annie, The Producers, and Hairspray
92. Cy Coleman - composer of Sweet Charity, On The Twentieth Century, and City of Angels
93. Trevor Nunn - director of Les Misérables, Cats, Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard
94. John Weidman - librettist of Pacific Overtures, Assassins, and Contact
95. Walt Disney - the company, not the man
96. Jason Robert Brown - composer/lyricist of Parade, The Last Five Years, and 13
97. Susan Stroman - director choreographer of Contact, The Producers, and Young Frankenstein
98. Alan Menken/Howard Ashman - composer/lyricist pair responsible for Little Shop of Horrors and the Disney films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin
99. Ivor Novello - composer/lyricist of British shows, including Careless Rapture and The Dancing Years
100. Michael John LaChiusa - composer/lyricist/librettist of Hello Again, Marie Christine, The Wild Party, and See What I Wanna See

The Most Underrated Musicals

Once my students are through venting their respective spleens over The Most Overrated Musicals, they get a chance to get their hominy grits going in the other direction and write about their choices for the most underrated musical.

These papers are usually much more pleasant to read, but not simply because they have a positive tone. At this point in the semester, most of my students have caught on as to what I'm looking for (a coherent thesis, specific examples, etc.) and the papers are typically more well-reasoned and thoughtful.

But the underrated paper is also a chance for me to bond with my students over much-beloved shows that for some reason never caught on, or perhaps did catch on, only to fade from memory.

Here, then, is my own list of musicals that don't quite get the credit that they deserve. Feel free to disagree as well as submit your own candidates.

110 in the Shade
13
Amour
Anyone Can Whistle
Assassins
Baby
The Baker's Wife
Barnum
Bloomer Girl
Carnival
Caroline, or Change
A Catered Affair
City of Angels
A Class Act
Coco
The Cradle Will Rock
Cry-Baby
A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine
Dear World
Dessa Rose
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Drowsy Chaperone
Fanny
Fiorello!
Flora the Red Menace
Flower Drum Song
The Full Monty
The Golden Apple
The Goodbye Girl
The Grand Tour
The Grass Harp
Grey Gardens
High Fidelity
High Spirits
How Now, Dow Jones
The Human Comedy
I Love My Wife
Irma la Douce
Is There Life After High School?
Lady in the Dark
The Life
Little Me
Lost in the Stars
The Last Five Years
Mack and Mabel
A Man of No Importance
My Favorite Year
A New Brain
Once on This Island
One Touch of Venus
On the Twentieth Century
Plain and Fancy
Pump Boys and Dinettes
Rags
The Rink
Romance/Romance
Romantic Poetry
The Secret Garden
Smile
She Loves Me
Steel Pier
The Story of My Life
Sugar
Sunday in the Park With George
Sunset Boulevard
tick, tick...BOOM!
Tintypes
Titanic
Triumph of Love
Violet
The Wedding Singer
Whoop-Up
Wicked
Woman of the Year
Working
Xanadu

The Most Overrated Musicals

I've really been in a listing sort of mood lately. I've always loved making lists, and it seems that my readers also like reading through them. Recently, I posted about my new list of The Most Beautiful Theater Songs Ever, which was extremely popular. In fact, I received more comments on that post than any other in the three-plus-year history of my blog. By a factor of three.

I'm all in favor of giving my readers what they want. And I noticed that the number-one search term on my blog has become "overrated musicals," which nudged "next to normal" and "paulo szot gay" out of the top spot. So I've created my own list of The Most Overrated Musicals, although I'm sure some of my choices will cause some consternation. As I've done with my other lists, I've created a separate sub-page for this one. All of my sub-pages are listed n the left-hand margin.

Some history: Every year, I ask my Boston Conservatory students to write two different papers, one defending their choice for the most underrated musical of all time, and the other for the most overrated. The tasks are subjective and arbitrary, but it gives them a chance to start thinking about what makes good shows good and vice versa.

Some of these shows are big hits that IMHO are a tad overblown. Others are classics of which I've never really understood the appeal. Still others are cult classics that -- again, IMHO -- don't quite merit cult status.

Bear in mind that I'm not saying that these shows are bad. Some of these shows I genuinely like, or at least appreciate. I just think, on the whole and for various reasons, they're not exactly as amazing as some people make them out to be. Feel free to disagree, as well as to submit your own candidates.

Big River
Billy Elliot
Blood Brothers
Bye Bye Birdie
Cats
Footloose
Forever Plaid
Grand Hotel
Grease
Jekyll & Hyde
La Cage aux Folles
Legally Blonde
Les Miserables
The Lion King
Man of La Mancha
Mamma Mia
Mary Poppins
Miss Saigon
The Most Happy Fella
Movin' Out
Nunsense
Oliver
Passion
The Phantom of the Opera
Pippin
The Sound of Music
South Pacific
Spamalot
Spring Awakening
We Will Rock You
The Who's Tommy
The Wild Party (Lippa)
The Wiz

Hate Mail, Shows That Suck, and Walking Out

I get hate mail. I guess it comes with the territory. I'm pretty honest with my views, although I certainly do try to back those views up with credible support. And I must confess I have a tendency to get a tad snarky when it comes to writing up a review on a show that...well...sucked.

Ergo, the hate mail. Here's an email that I received recently from the author of a show to which I gave a rather negative review:

I'm sorry you were so unhappy watching the performance of my musical, [Suck-Job Special]. I feel like I owe you a little happiness. In fact,  reviews like yours gave me an uneasy feeling --  a feeling that I should give back the honors and the piles of royalties that this musical of mine has brought me over the twelve years, and continues to bring me. And there were many, many productions over those years, successful both with audiences and critics throughout the country. Anyway, here's the part that will make you happy: That feeling about giving it all back? It passed.

In other words, he's laughing all the way to the bank. Well, all I can say is: No, he's not. This show is not doing that well at the box office, and I would be very surprised if it had any kind of afterlife once it closes. But even if it did, so what? Since when is economic success equivalent to artistic achievement? If only his show were as well-crafted as his email, I might have given it a better review. I have no intention of responding directly to this gentleman, but I did make mention of the email on Facebook and Twitter. (Follow me on Twitter @ccaggiano) I reprint the essence of those posts here:

Dear Bad Writer: Are you sending angry emails to everyone who panned your show? You must be very busy.

Of course, many of my homies came to my defense. A college friend wrote me saying "You obviously are doing something right. People never respond strongly to the mediocre. Congrats." I must admit that I get a sinking feeling whenever I see the name of a composer, librettist or lyricist in my in-box. I usually reread my review before I read their correspondence to solidify my resolve, and sometimes wait a day or two before I'm ready to face the music, as it were.

I was reminded of the hate-mail kerfuffle when my dear friend Steve on Broadway sparked a lively discourse on Twitter when he asked if anyone had ever walked out of a Broadway show. (You can read the responses on Twitter by searching for #walkoutofshow.) I myself have never walked out of a Broadway show, nor any professional production for that matter. Obviously, that doesn't mean that I've enjoyed everything that I've ever seen. As the above discussion would indicate, that's hardly the case. But the reason that I've never walked out is that, as a teacher and indeed student of musical theater, I always learn something even from the most atrocious shows, even if it's what not to do.

Oh, there have been times when I've been tempted. I've seen some pretty dreadful stuff over the years, most of which I've listed on my page The Musicals That Suck. Some recent shows that have been downright painful to sit through include The Pirate Queen, A Tale of Two Cities, Dirty Dancing, Happy Days, Lestat, Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein, and LoveMusik. Some historical stinkers I've suffered through include Victor/Victoria, Starlight Express, Roza, Mutiny, and Into the Light.

But never once did I consider walking out. Before I started blogging, I hung in there because the more notorious the flop, the more I got to dine out on the whole sordid story with my theater friends. And now that I have the blog, I get to vent in printed form. I mean, come on, aren't the bad reviews the most fun to read? Well, they're pretty darned fun to write as well. I guess I'm able to suffer through the worst with the knowledge that I'll be able to get a bit of my own back when I sit down at my computer. 

What about you, dear reader? Have you ever walked out of a Broadway show? A touring company? A London show? I mean, even I've walked out of bad community productions or high school travesties. I'm talking professional shows, put on by people who really should know better, or presumably should be able to produce better. If you have walked out, what was the show, and why? If you didn't leave, why did you stay?

The Most Beautiful Theater Songs Ever

Ever since I fell in love with "Another Winter in a Summer Town" from Grey Gardens, I've been thinking about which theater songs are the most beautiful. Not necessarily the best, or else I'd simply be listing Stephen Sondheim's entire catalog. No, the most beautiful. The ones that, when you hear the first notes, you melt. The ones that murder you each time you hear them because they're just so frickin'...well, beautiful.

So, I've been keeping a running list. Subjective, to be sure, but a fun exercise nonetheless. For many of these songs, their beauty hinges on their emotional context within the show. For others, it's simply the songs themselves. But one of the things I've always loved about theater music is that you're not just listening to music, you're learning something about the singer, you're following that character's growth, or lack thereof. 

So, here's my list. I've created a separate page on my blog so I can keep the list current. (See below left, near my pages of Upcoming Musicals, The Musicals That Suck, and my newly revised list of The 100 Best Musicals of All Time.) Feel free to submit your candidates. Or even make a list of your own.

"All the Things You Are," Very Warm for May
"Another Winter in a Summer Town," Grey Gardens
"Back to Before," Ragtime
"But Not For Me," Girl Crazy
"Children of the Wind," Rags
"Coney Island," A Catered Affair
"Dear Friend," She Loves Me
"Dividing Day," The Light in the Piazza
"Every Time We Say Goodbye," Seven Lively Arts
"Far From the Home I Love," Fiddler on the Roof
"Her Face," Carnival
"How Could I Ever Know," The Secret Garden
"How Glory Goes," Floyd Collins
"I Dreamed a Dance," Next To Normal
"If I Loved You," Carousel
"If Love Were All," Bitter Sweet
"I Loved You Once in Silence," Camelot
"I Say Hello," Destry Rides Again
"Is it Really Me," 110 in the Shade
"It Never Was You," Knickerbocker Holiday
"I Was Here," The Glorious Ones
"I Wish It So," Juno
"Losing My Mind," Follies
"Lost in the Stars," Lost in the Stars
"Love is Only Love," Hello, Dolly (film)
"Love, Look Away," Flower Drum Song
"Love Me for What I Am," In Trousers
"Loving You," Passion
"Make Believe," Show Boat
"Make Our Garden Grow," Candide
"My Funny Valentine," Babes in Arms
"My Heart is So Full of You," The Most Happy Fella
"My Ship," Lady in the Dark
"New Music," Ragtime
"Nothing Like You've Ever Known," Song and Dance
"One More Walk Around the Garden," Carmelina
"Sailing," A New Brain
"Send in the Clowns," A Little Night Music
"Serenity," Triumph of Love
"She Touched Me," Drat, the Cat
"So Far," Allegro
"So in Love," Kiss Me Kate
"Someone to Watch Over Me," Oh, Kay!
"Something You Never Had Before," The Gay Life
"Song for Old Lovers," Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
"That Something Extra Special," Darling of the Day
"The Land of Might-Have-Been," Our Nell
"There But for You Go I," Brigadoon
"The Sun Whose Ray Are All Ablaze," The Mikado
"They Were You," The Fantasticks
"This Is All Very New to Me," Plain and Fancy
"'Til Tomorrow," Fiorello
"Time Heals Everything," Mack and Mabel
"Too Beautiful for Words," The Color Purple
"Unusual Way," Nine
"What More Can I Say," Falsettos
"What Would I Do," Falsettos
"When There's No One," Carrie
"Where or When," Babes in Arms
"Will He Like Me," She Loves Me
"You Are Love," Show Boat

Upcoming Musicals: A Running List

I try to keep up with as many of the upcoming musicals as possible, but it seems like every day I hear about a new one. (Witness the recently announced Sleepless in Seattle musical.) I recently received an E-mail from a regular reader who asked if I kept a list of shows that are in development. Well, other than my archives, I really didn't, nor did I know of one that was reasonably comprehensive. So, I figured I'd take a stab at it myself.

But, dear reader, I'm asking for your help in this continuing effort. I make no claims to being privy to every musical in existence. So, please take a look at my list, which henceforth will be available on one of my blog's subpages, right next to my lists of the 100 Best Musicals of All Time and The Musicals That Suck. And let me know if you know of any musicals aborning that I should be keeping track of. 

I haven't listed any shows that are currently in the active process of opening, such as The Toxic Avenger and Happiness. I've also tried to limit the list to new musicals (versus revivals) and to serious efforts, which basically means they have an outside shot of actually making it to New York, or London, or some other international theater Mecca.

Here's what I've go so far:

• The Addams Family
• All About Us (AKA The Skin of Our Teeth)
• American Psycho
• Angels
• Betty Boop
• Big Time
• Bonnie and Clyde
• Bruce Lee: Journey to the West
• Catch Me if You Can
• Children of Eden
• Coraline
• Dancing in the Dark
• Death Takes a Holiday
• Dirty Dancing
• Ever After
• Father of the Bride
• Finding Neverland
• The First Wives Club
• The Flamingo Kid
• Flashdance
• Ghost Brothers of Darkland County
• Grumpy Old Men
• Houdini
• Herringbone
• The Hudsucker Proxy
• Jerry Christmas
• Kristina från Duvemåla
• Leap of Faith
• Little House on the Prairie
  
• A Little Princess
• Lone Star Love
• The Man in the Ceiling
• Merry Go Round
• The Minister's Wife
• Minsky's
• Nerds
• Nice Work if You Can Get It
• Once
• Paradise Found
• Phantom: Once Upon Another Time
• Princesses
• Priscilla Queen of the Desert
• Pure Country
• Rebecca
• Robin and the 7 Hoods
• Secondhand Lions
• Sister Act 
• Sleepless in Seattle
• Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark
• A Star Is Born
• Tales of the City
• Thriller
• Turn of the Century
• Vanities
• The Visit
• Untitled Mandela Musical
• Waiting for the Moon
• Whisper House
• White Noise

The Most Underrated Musical -- Spring 2009

Last week, I posted about my current Boston Conservatory students and their selections for the most overrated musicals of all time. My blog traffic saw a nice little spike, and readers comments rose as well. Clearly, my readers love lists, as well as attitude.

So, yesterday, when this same crop of students handed in their papers defending their choices for the most underrated musicals, I knew I needed to share their choices on my blog as well. (What can I say? I'm just a whore for page hits.) 

Here are the shows that my students chose as the subject of their underrated papers, along with the number of students who wrote about that particular show.

Bat Boy - 2
Children of Eden - 2
She Loves Me - 2
The Last Five Years - 2
The Secret Garden - 2
The Scarlet Pimpernel - 2

So, whaddya think, huh? Lots of choices that warm the cockles of my barren heart. I've long been a huge fan of Bat Boy. It's not only a very smart and funny show, it also has one of the best scores of the past ten years. Composer/lyricist Laurence O'Keefe is definitely someone to keep an eye on in the future, the forgettable nature of most of his work on Legally Blonde notwithstanding.

I was also very pleased to see two of my sentimental favorites make the list: The Secret Garden and She Loves Me. I adore both of these lovely shows, and it's great to see that they're not forgotten by the next generation of theater queens. (A term I use in an ecumenical sense: you don't have to be a gay male to be a TQ.) I find in particularly gratifying that The Secret Garden seems to have outlasted The Will Rogers Follies in the public consciousness, as well as in regional productions. As I've said here before, although Will Rogers won the 1991 Tony Award for best musical, it was easily the least distinguished show nominated that year, the others being The Secret Garden, Once on This Island, and Miss Saigon. (Yes, I even think Miss Saigon is better than The Will Rogers Follies. So sue me.)

Here are the shows that received one "vote" (i.e. paper) each: A Little Night Music, Baby, Carousel, Fiorello, Flower Drum Song, Mack and Mabel, Seussical, The Full Monty, The Light in the Piazza, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Wedding Singer, The Wiz, Wicked, and Xanadu.

It's quite a melange, although for me certain shows stand out as perhaps not quite fitting the underrated bill. A Little Night Music is one of very few Stephen Sondheim shows to actually turn a profit on Broadway. Sure, there hasn't yet been a revival, but the show is performed quite frequently, and may see a full-scale New York staging next year with no less than Natasha Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave as its stars.

Another show with questionable "underrated" status is Spelling Bee, which ran for two years, made back its investment, and will very likely see a long and healthy afterlife. And Carousel? Underrated? I suppose if you think about its estimation with the general public that might be so, but the show receives profuse and deserved acclaim in the theatrical world as being a landmark show, in many ways superior to its elder Rodgers and Hammerstein sibling, Oklahoma.

And then there's Fiorello. This is always the show that trips my students up when I ask them to name all seven musicals that have won the Pulitzer Prize. (Chronologically, Of Thee I Sing, South Pacific, Fiorello, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Chorus Line, Sunday in the Park With George, and Rent). Fiorello also has the historical distinction of splitting the 1959 Tony Award for best musical with The Sound of Music, with both shows besting the infinitely superior Gypsy. But Fiorello, while virtually forgotten, and pretty much unrevivable, has an outstanding score by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, one that anyone who cares about music thater show really become familiar with.

Of course, it's not really the student's choice for underrated musical that makes for a successful paper. It's how well they defend and support their choices. So, depending on the approach, a compelling case could be made for practically any show as being "underrated," at least by some subsection of the population. So, dear reader, if you were one of my students, what show would *you* choose to write about?

The Most Overrated Musical -- Spring 2009

I apologize for my extended absence from the blogosphere, but I had a perfect storm of real work last week, and couldn't find the time to post. One of the things that was keeping me busy was grading this season's crop of "overrated" papers from my Boston Conservatory students.

As regular readers may recall, each semester, I have my BoCo students write papers defending their choices for the most overrated and underrated musicals. It's not a totally fare task, I must admit: since my students are typically around 17 or 18 years old, they really haven't had enough exposure to musical theater to make a definitive pronouncement in either regard. But the two papers get them thinking critically about the form, and they serve as a sort of out-of-town tryout for the midterm and final exams.

The point really has nothing to do with whether I agree with their choices. For me, it's all about how they argue and support their respective cases. Often, I wind up giving higher grades to people who are offering up for sacrifice shows that I personally love, and lower grades to people who are skewering shows that I, too, detest. Regardless, the list of "overrated" musicals is always illuminating. Here's this semester's victims, along with the number of people who chose write about that particular show:

Spring Awakening - 3
Annie - 2
Bye Bye Birdie - 2
Damn Yankees - 2
Legally Blonde - 2
Les Misérables - 2
Rent - 2

The following shows received one "vote" each: 42nd Street, Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, Avenue Q, Cats, Hairspray, Jersey Boys, Singin' in the Rain, South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza, The Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music, The Wild Party (Lippa)

It's an interesting mix of recent shows that the students have likely seen on Broadway or on tour, and shows that they've likely done in high school or with community groups. (The Conservatory is currently rehearsing a production of 42nd Street. Did the person who wrote about that show not get cast? Or did he or she actually make it into the show, only to discover a lack of there there?)

Lots of the usual suspects, but I was struck by Spring Awakening taking the top spot. In the very recent past, the BoCo folk were all kvelling over Spring Awakening. In fact, a number of my former students were cast in both the Broadway and touring productions. And now there seems to be a bit of a backlash. I found the Broadway production quite stirring and innovative, if a bit of a downer. (Read my review here.) It's not really the sort of show I'd normally want to see again, thinking that I'd spend the whole time dreading what was to come in terms of the plot. But I do have a ticket to see the tour when it comes to Boston, if only to see my former students in action. 

Next Monday, the students hand in their "underrated papers," and I must confess I usually look forward to grading those papers more. Less bile and vitriol, and all that. ("But, Chris, I would have thought that you'd love all that bile." Sure, when it's coming from MY spleen...) I've already started to get requests from students to borrow the librettos to Bat Boy, The Full Monty, She Loves Me, and...The Scarlett Pimpernel? Hey, don't laugh. Last year, the student who got the highest grade on the underrated paper wrote about Footloose. She did a terrific job of pointing out the show's admittedly scarce merits.

So, anything's possible.

The Bestest Musical Ever - Spring 2009

So, it's the start of a new semester, and as always I began my Boston Conservatory course by asking my students to write down the three best musicals ever. We then tally the votes on the board, and use the list to spark a discussion about what makes a musical good. Here's the list of shows that received multiple votes this semester:

7 - Les Miserables
5 - Gypsy
5 - Into the Woods
5 - West Side Story
3 - Grey Gardens
3 - The Last Five Years
3 - The Lion King
3 - South Pacific
3 - Wicked
2 - Company
2 - Ragtime
2 - The King & I
2 - A Chorus Line
2 - Evita
2 - Little Shop of Horrors
2 - Miss Saigon
2 - Rent
2 - The Scarlet Pimpernel
2 - Sunday in the Park With George
2 - Sweeney Todd

The following shows received one vote each: Spamalot, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Mamma Mia, In the Heights, Billy Elliot, Aida, Bare, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evening Primrose, Beauty and the Beast, Songs for  New World, Parade, Zanna Don't, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, 42nd Street, The Fantasticks, My Fair Lady, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Light in the Piazza, Hair, Once on the Island, Spring Awakening

So, a lot of the usual suspects. It's great to see Gypsy and West Side Story rank so highly, and deservedly so. Given the popularity that Les Miserables and Into the Woods enjoy in high school and regional productions around the country, it's certainly no surprise that these two shows would be so prominent. And given its current high-profile revival, it makes sense that South Pacific would be top-of-mind, although it hasn't showed up much when I've done this exercise in previous years.

But what struck me was some of the less-than-usual suspects. I've never really been a fan of Bare, although I may need to give it another listen. It's been recommended highly to me by numerous people, but what little I've heard hasn't thrilled me. Zanna Don't didn't really float my boat, but then I saw a local production that had some pacing issues: the show played a brisk 90 minutes Off-Broadway, whereas the local edition clocked in at about two hours and fifteen minutes. Without an intermission. Yeesh.

Also, I really need to make a point of watching "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" all the way through. I've only ever caught it in snippets on cable and at showtune nights at local gay bars. What I've seen of Michael Kidd's choreography is simply thrilling, and I've been meaning to set myself down and watch in all in context. 

Probably the most striking mention in the list above is Evening Primrose. Um...really? The best musical ever? Or at least in someone's top three? Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely piece. But I couldn't help thinking that whoever listed it was trying to impress me. If you're not familiar with Evening Primrose, it's one of Stephen Sondheim's more obscure efforts, an hour-long, made-for-television musical that aired in 1966. It's a macabre little tale about a writer (played by Anthony Perkins. Yes, that Anthony Perkins) who takes refuge from the world by hiding out in a department store, only to discover an entire subculture of people who've beat him to the punch. He falls in love with a woman (played by Charmian Carr, Liesl from the movie version of "The Sound of Music") who has lived in the store most of her life, and, well, it all ends with a sort of bittersweet, O. Henry-like twist. 

The score to Evening Primrose has been recorded numerous times. The first recording was the original TV soundtrack, which was recently released on CD by Kritzerland, although it was a limited release of only 3,000 copies. The four full-length songs from the show have appeared on numerous other recordings over the years. Mandy Patinkin included all four songs, which he performed with Bernadette Peters, on his otherwise unbearable "Dress Casual" CD. And the songs also appeared on the first full-length recording of Sondheim's The Frogs (not the 2004 Broadway cast album, but rather the 2001 studio version), which is the version that I personally recommend. Neil Patrick Harris and Theresa McCarthy, who sing the songs on that CD, give both the most musical and the most restrained renditions of Sondheim's haunting and evocative songs. 

Speaking of which, I was thrilled to learn that my very own Boston Gay Men's Chorus will be performing "Take Me to The World" from Evening Primrose as part of our next concert in March. We're singing it as part of a medley with an obscure Marc Blitzstein song, "Never Get Lost" from the virtually unknown show Reuben Reuben. The latter is a charming little lullaby, and the two songs together make for a simply lovely combo. I'm really looking forward to singing them, even if I have to also suffer through three regrettable Rufus Wainwright songs ("Vibrate," "Oh What a World," and "Beautiful Child") as part of the bargain. Yeah, I'm not a fan.

The Worst Musicals of 2008

When you see a lot of theater, there are going to be some missteps and disasters, and 2008 was certainly no exception. There was plenty of dreck in evidence on Broadway, Off Broadway, and in the provinces. My choices below certainly won't contain many surprises for regular readers: I have made no secret of my contempt for the shows listed. (Click on the show titles to read my original reviews.)

In compiling this list, I've tried to steer clear from shows that were simply disappointing (The Story of My Life, Shrek) or IMHO overrated (Billy Elliot, In the Heights). I've also omitted some shows that received generally bad reviews, but which I actually sorta kinda enjoyed, at least on some level (Cry-Baby, Romantic Poetry). But, as I'm fond of saying, for me there's no such thing as a wasted night in the theater. As a student of the form, I always learn something, even if it's what not to do. And, frankly, the more disastrous a show, the more fun it is to blog and bitch about. (cf. Lestat, The Pirate Queen, etc.) Also, I didn't include Glory Days here, because I didn't get to see it (and with only one regular performance and 17 previews, it's no wonder), and that really wouldn't be fair.

Feel free to disagree with my selections. I know some of them will be controversial, or at least vexing to some. But these are the shows and/or productions that I personally enjoyed the least in 2008. 

10. South Pacific. I know, I know. It's a huge hit, and a classic show, and it won the Pulitzer, and yadda yadda yadda. Well, I gave it a chance, and I still don't like it. And I remain quizzical as to the praise for this production. Admittedly, I saw it early in previews, but the pacing to me seemed glacial. The show features songs with questionable integration and plodding exposition. I genuinely enjoyed Kelli O'Hara's perfromance as Nellie Forbush, but most of the other performances left me cold. I'm glad that the Lincoln Center Theater seems to have found a new cash cow, but I've never liked this show, and probably never will. By all accounts, this is about as good a production of South Pacific as one might expect, and it still left me cold. For me, that more than justifies the show's place on this list.

9. She Loves Me. This one's another controversial choice, but I was deeply disappointed in the recent production of the otherwise delightful She Loves Me at Boston's Huntington Theatre. Let me make on thing clear: I adore this show. But that's probably why I was nonplussed by this production, particularly by the actors who played the central couple, the admittedly talented Kate Baldwin and Brooks Ashmanskas. But Baldwin was simply misdirected, Ashmanskas miscast. The show received some pretty rapturous reviews, so I'm probably in the minority here. But overall director Nicholas Martin's production had me wishing I was back watching the lovely 1993 Roundabout Theater revival.

8. Road Show. Another disappointment, but at least here I was in line with most of the critics. (Not that that matters much to me: I'm more than happy to be the cheese that stands alone.) This latest effort from our greatest living composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, was a long time aborning, and frankly not worth the wait. Something about the story of the brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner never quite sang for me. John Doyle's production was dull and dreary, and the show itself an unfocused mess. Here was yet another Sondheim collaboration with book writer John Weidman that played more like a master's thesis than a genuine flesh-and-blood musical. The cast of pros, led by Alexander Gemignani and Michael Cerveris, tried gamely to inject some life into the proceedings, but alas in vain. Let us all hope that Stephen Sondheim can soon redeem himself with another show that even comes close to the brilliance of his earlier work.

7. Fela. Here's another critics' darling that, for me, fell flat. So much of what I read about this show seemed to focus on its worthy subject matter, and not on the fact that the show itself was one, long, inert monologue. Admittedly, the life of Nigerian recording artist and activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti was rife with incident, and his music brimming with anger and celebration. But director and co-librettist Bill T. Jones and his writing partner Jim Lewis undermine the import and gravity of their subject matter at every turn and with every choice. There was much talk of bringing the show to Broadway, but that seems to have died down. No doubt there are financial considerations here, but it's also possible that the creators began to question the crossover appeal of the show, and whether there would be any audience for it beyond its limited Off-Broadway run.

6. Saved. This is easily the most forgettable show on my list. It was only when I was rummaging through my archives that I was reminded that I had taken in a performance of Saved at Playwrights Horizons during its limited run last spring. Based on the 2004 movie of the same name, Saved never quite figured out what it wanted to be when it grew up. The show was neither fish nor foul, neither drama nor comedy, neither satire nor homage. The score by composer Michael Friedman and lyricists Friedman, John Dempsey, and Rinne Groff was only memorable when it was painfully bad. And some of Broadway's best performers, including Celia Keenan-Bolger, Julia Murney, Curtis Holbrook, and John Dossett, were left floundering in a show that wasn't worthy of their collective talents.

5. Happy Days. This was easily the worst show qua show on my list, but I list it as number five because the shows below were more egregious in other respects. Happy Days had no business being on a professional stage of any kind. It played more like a talent show that a bunch of college kids threw together, or the vanity production of some would-be impresario. Happy Days relied mostly on the name-recognition of the 1970s/80s television show upon which it was based. Garry Marshall's script was flat and lifeless, and the score by Paul Williams was forgettable at best and painful at worst. The show is apparently making its way across the country in a national tour. Give it a wide, wide berth, my friend, unless you're looking for a masochistic thrill.

4. Young Frankenstein. It's really impossible for me to separate my disdain for the show Young Frankenstein from my contempt for the actions of the production staff. But, you know what? I don't have to. Young Frankenstein was, from start to finish, a cynical, lazy, and insulting enterprise. It seemed as though Mel Brooks didn't even try to create something of quality, but instead said to himself, "Well, they loved The Producers, so they're gonna love this." It certainly didn't help that Mel and his co-producers on YF made a number of now-famous PR blunders, including setting a ridiculously high top ticket price of $450.00. And Mel and company can try to blame the show's failure on the negative press all they want, but what really killed Young Frankenstein was that the show just plain sucked. It wasn't funny, and the songs were terrible. Case closed.

3. Next to Normal. This was the show that made me the most angry in 2008, but not really because it was a bad show. In fact, the show itself has a lot to recommend it, although it certainly has its flaws. Next to Normal has a very inconsistent tone, and there are some songs and plot devices that simply didn't work. But the real reason the show made me furious was the apparent message that librettist Brian Yorkey seemed to be espousing. Next to Normal is essentially about a mother with bipolar disorder, and shows her undergoing various treatment modalities, including talk therapy, psychotropic drugs, and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). But in the end she rejects them all and tries to make it on her own. I took great issue with this apparent dismissal of medicine and reason, and wrote a review excoriating Yorkey for what I considered a dangerous point of view. Yorkey sent me an angry email, but at no point in that long screed did he contradict my take on his apparent views. So my pan stands, unless I see a new version of the show that moves me to reconsider. Which I'm certainly open to. It's a worthy subject, and there was much in the show that suggested it could have been much better than it was.

2. Bash'd. Here's another show that baffled me with its apparent message. Bash'd is a self-described "gay rap opera" about the star-crossed romance of two gay Canadian guys. The idea behind the show was to use the often-homophobic medium of rap to tell the story of two lovers who become involved in a gay-bashing incident. Again, worthy intent. But the inscrutable message at the end of the show left me scratching my head. There was a real "Thelma and Louise" vibe to the show, and I was and still am hard-pressed to figure out what I was supposed to make of the tragedy. Hey, I'm all for serious musicals, but throw me a bone here, guys. Along the way, there was a lot to enjoy in the show, written and performed by Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow. I get the feeling they were trying to make me think, but they ended up making me cranky.

1. A Tale of Two Cities. There really was no contest here. Just as Adding Machine was far and away the best musical that I saw in 2008, A Tale of Two Cities was by miles the worst. (Again, I didn't see Glory Days, so I can't say Tale is the absolute worst of the year, just the worst that I saw.) A Tale of Two Cities was completely without merit in its music, book, and lyrics, which were all by one Jill Santoriello. Something tells me we're not going to be seeing her name again on the Rialto any time soon. The Broadway pros in the cast, including Greg Edelman, Aaron Lazar, and James Barbour, did their best to render the show playable, but to no avail. The only cultural impact of this wretched show was in giving critics and bloggers the chance to craft lame puns on the book's opening line ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.") and closing line ("It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.") Hardly a legacy of which to be proud.