Musical theater is my other special interest (although it’s secondary to Doctor Who right now). My current favorite is Cabaret (I own both the 2023 cast recording and the movie soundtrack on vinyl), but I also had a big American Psycho phase last summer (and a Newsies hyperfixation and a Heathers hyperfixation before that). I saw Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway a few months ago, and I can not recommend it enough (both the stage show and the cast recording). I have a massive musicals playlist, and I could list every single musical I’ve liked enough to put on the playlist (and some others that aren’t on the playlist), but that would be a bit much (unless anyone is interested).
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I enjoy listening to songs from musicals. There are plenty of times where I haven’t watched the musical itself, but am familiar with the songs. One notable example is Wicked, since I’ve listened to the broadway album many times, and I even read the book, but haven’t watched it.
I’ve also listened to the songs from The Wiz many times. That one, I have watched the movie. I think I prefer listening to the song while watching a clip from the movie to watching the whole movie.
Into the Woods, I’ve specifically watched the version that was on PBS, which I believe is the original Broadway version. Haven’t watched the Disney version. Bernadette Peters is so good as the witch!
Little Shop of Horrors, I’ve watched the movie, and heard both the movie and broadway versions of the songs, including ones cut from the movie. And I’ve watched the non-musical original movie.
And yes, I’ve heard all the songs from Sound of Music and watched it.
I’d also consider the show Centaurworld to be a musical, and I’ve watched season 1 and heard all the songs. My Little Pony had a surprising number of songs, most of which I’ve heard. I’ve heard a lot of the songs from Littlest Pet Shop even though I only watched the first episode or two. Same person behind them as My Little Pony’s songs, after all. I’ve listened to lots of Disney musical songs. And I watched season 1 of Hazbin Hotel, and love the songs from that.
Plenty of other ones I’m not thinking about here, too, I’m sure. Like, for example, I’ve heard this song and nothing else from this musical:
Similarly, I really need to watch Pippin sometime. This song’s great:
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I’ve seen Six… nine times, I think? Eight or nine. I kind of lost count at seven. This year was actually the first time I’ve been to London that I didn’t see it at least once. Other than that:
- Acorn Antiques! (DVD) - Lame. The whole script is shockingly dull and unfunny, even given that the original Acorn Antiques isn’t my favorite Victoria Wood sketch. Acted really well, though.
- Mamma Mia! (London 2022) - Honestly really disappointing. I was expecting it to be a production, and the staging is actually minimalist. I also didn’t realize the movie was adapted mostly word-for-word from the stage version, so I already knew almost all of it by heart, since it is my favorite movie (followed, of course, by Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again). I liked the Under Attack scene a lot though.
- Tina (London 2022) - Also disappointing, ironically because I’m a big enough Tina Turner fan that I was sitting there the whole time thinking “that’s not how that happened!” It also didn’t do a good job of using the songs to tell the story, with the exception of Don’t Turn Around and maybe What’s Love Got to Do with It. (Using I Don’t Wanna Fight after Tina leaves Ike was particularly strange.)
- & Juliet (London 2022/23) - This was actually the production I wanted MM! to be. Admittedly, it too didn’t use most of the songs well - surprisingly, the one that actually nailed it was Baby One More Time - but it was a lot less egregious in that than Tina (or Titanique, see below). It was a bit too self-consciously socially aware (which is incredibly ironic since its Broadway run was co-produced by Dr. Puke), but the script was pretty good. The moment you realize the narrative reason why Juliet mispronounces François’s name is a scream.
- Sister Act (London 2024) - I actually loved this and thought it was a lot better than the original version as heard on the soundtrack. Beverley Knight’s American accent was horrendous, but she is such a nice person I can’t hold it against her. Ruth Jones was fantastic.
- Death Becomes Her (NYC 2024) - Megan Hilty was really really good and got a couple absolute screamers as lines, and Michelle Williams obviously killed it. But overall I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the movie. I think it was trying to be too nice.
- The Devil Wears Prada (London 2025) - I was disappointed to get an understudy as Emily instead of Amy di Bartolomeo, as I’d seen her as Aragon the very first time I saw Six, but she acted her heart out. Which was good because I didn’t like Andy, and Vanessa Williams was wildly underused as Miranda. Why would you write a musical knowing Vanessa was going to star in it and not give her any big musical numbers? There were three songs I really liked and the rest were meh. Not Elton’s best effort. I also liked the addition of a love story for Emily, but I really disliked the way Andy’s was rewritten.
- Titanique (London 2025) - I commented on it on here already, but this was another disappointment. It has such a good concept, but it’s just a string of gay jokes and cultural references strung together with absolutely no meat to it. And again, doesn’t use the songs well, except for Taking Chances. It probably says a lot that the funniest lines always seem to be the ones that Céline improvises in the stairway scene.
Movie-wise, Chicago and Moulin Rouge! round out my Letterboxd top 4, and the Brandy/Whitney version of R&H’s Cinderella was a childhood classic. And here’s my regularly scheduled plea to watch Blackpool, starring Davids Tennant, Morrissey, and Bradley and Sarah Parish.
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I love a good musical! I’ve mostly seen them on film, but I have seen a few stage musicals.
Let’s see…
Wicked comes to mind first, the Finnish version that had a run something like 15 years ago at the Helsinki City Theatre. Then there’s a teen musical called PlayMe, which I saw with my class back in 2009 or 2010 at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki, and it was amazing. I still own the soundtrack CD.
Oh, and the superb Tomten är far till alla barnen (In Bed With Santa), which I saw at Cirkus in Stockholm last November.
I’ve seen a couple of summer theatre musical productions. All Shook Up a couple of years ago and We Will Rock You this summer.
On film, some of my favourites are Mamma Mia, West Side Story (both versions), most Disney musicals, Tick Tick Boom, and Inside.
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I’ve loved Phantom for about a decade now, and I’ve a real soft spot for Heathers - Meant to be Yours and Dead Girl Walking (Reprise) are two of my favourite songs full stop.
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I’ve seen many a movie musical but I’ve been lucky enough to see Mean Girls, Sweeney Todd and Cabaret on Broadway.
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Sod all that Doctor Who stuff, why didn’t I start this thread?!?
I ADORE musicals and have done since I was a kid. We had a LP record of Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat which I played on repeat. I can still sing the lyrics almost word perfect (including the colours in Joseph’s Coat). I then saw it on stage. We’d been going to the pantomime every year since I was little and those are basically musicals, so it was seeping into my blood from a young age.
The next was Barnum with Michael Crawford on a school trip. Again, I know most of the lyrics off by heart and had it taped off the TV too which was played constantly at home. Love that one.
Then when I was 13 I was taken to see Starlight Express (the original) and it’s fair to say I was hooked on musicals for life.
My spotify playlist is predominantly musicals, I see at least one a year on stage (and more if we can afford it) and the list of my favourites is loooonnngggg.
But I’ve actually got a week or so of theatre coming up. This Tuesday we’re going to see Hadestown and then on Thursday we’re seeing Hercules. And then next week we’re taking my 13 year old daughter to see Starlight Express (the new version) and so the circle is complete!
So what else have I seen and loved? #1 musical of all time for me is Rent - I’ve seen it 3 times on stage (the second time had Adam Rickett (remember him) as Mark and the third time had Caprice (remember her!!) as Maureen!!)
Of what I’ve seen on stage, I also love:
Hairspray
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (adore this show)
Snoopy,
Avenue Q (phenomenally funny)
Back to the Future
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
The Lion King
Matilda
Aladdin
Beauty and the Beast
The Book of Mormon (died laughing at jokes I don’t think you’re supposed to laugh at…)
City of Angels
Five Guys Named Moe
The Witches of Eastwick
Moulin Rouge
Strictly Ballroom
Stepping Out
School of Rock
Grease (with Sonia - remember her!)
Blood Brothers (with Stefan Dennis from Neighbours and his was superb! - and it was also the first proper date with my now wife)
Martin Guerre
Sweet Charity (which I saw with Bonnie in the lead role)
Hot Mikado
Film favourites:
Little Shop of Horrors (all-time favourite this one)
Sunshine on Leith
The Greatest Showman (natch - I didn’t see it straight away and thankfully it lived up to the hype)
Rocketman
Rock of Ages
The Prom
Tick Tick Boom (Jonathan Larson was a genius taken from us way too soon).
And there are so many, many, many soundtracks of musicals I haven’t seen on stage I still adore such as & Juliet, Dear Evan Hansen (You Will Be Found makes me cry every single time), Ghost, Bonnie and Clyde, Ain’t Misbehavin, Bubble Boy, Big River, The Cher Show, Billy Elliot, Be More Chill and so, so, so many more.
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We shall never speak again @SophieScarlet - I’m a huge Victoria Wood fan and saw this on stage for its limited run and have it on DVD. One of the best, funniest musicals ever and the songs are sublime especially Tip Top Tap.
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How could I forget this one in my list?!? I adore Into the Woods. I love the Bernadette Peters version - oh those songs are so, so good.
I saw a youth theatre version which was attended by Prince Edward and Sophie of Wessex, don’t you know! It was late starting because we were waiting for them to arrive. It was extremely well done.
I also saw a version done by a local high school. It was not extremely well done…
The Disney version is actually a really good, faithful adaptation. (And I’m not allergic to James Corden like some people seem to be and think he’s pretty good in musicals like this and The Prom).
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Blood Brothers is great, I can’t believe I forgot to mention that earlier.
Dear Evan Hansen is another that I have a fondness for.
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I love the gender switched versions of the recent revival, especially You Could Drive a Person Crazy and Not Getting Married Today (have you seen the filmed version of Jonathan Bailey doing it on stage? Really good!)
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From Now On is such a good song too and the choreo in that one is insane!
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Wrong quote here. The Witch is definitely not getting married today…
(Though that’s a great song.)
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Oh I’m a big VW fan too. But the musical was a big swing and a miss for me. I guess they can’t all be Hannah Gordon’s Celebrity Paint-by-Numbers.
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It’s special for me, obviously for the wife reason, but as a musical it’s so powerful. My eldest was doing it for English Lit in Year 9 so I took them to see a touring version and they were so impressed seeing it come to life on stage. Thankfully, both our kids enjoy seeing musicals, although my eldest is pickier than my youngest.
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Literally no idea how that happened!!
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But,…but …Julie Walters? Duncan Preston… Celia Imrie… Josie Lawrence!! Neil Lindsay…!! And ‘dear old Ozzy Osbourne… having a custard ■■■■■■■ cream and shut the ■■■■ up…!’
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Probably a copy didn’t take somewhere.
Into the Woods is good enough to be mentioned twice, though.
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Giants in the Sky, Last Midnight, Agony, Children Will Listen… so, so so, many great songs. For me, it’s Sondheim’s best (but that’s probably sacrilege to think so).
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I did Blood Brothers for GCSE drama, i was 18 year old Eddie iirc
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