History Main / OpeningChorus

* "The Heat is on in Saigon" from ''MissSaigon''.

* Spoofed in ''{{Spamalot}}'', in which the chorus mishears the Historian's introduction and thus the show opens with a musical number about Finland (instead of England) until they're corrected.

* "Aquarius" in ''{{Hair}}''

* "After Today" from ''AGoofyMovie''

* "High On A Hill" from ''TheDesertSong''. Hammerstein himself apologized for not writing good lyrics.

** And the same for "Science Fiction\Double Feature" in both The Rocky Horror Show and TheRockyHorrorPictureShow.

* "Wintergreen For President" from ''Of Thee I Sing''.

* Half-subverted in ''Theatre/AvenueQ'', where the opening song is a recording by (presumably) the original cast, played alongside an opening video. It parodies ''SesameStreet,'' what else can we say.

* "Joseph Taylor, Junior" from RodgersAndHammerstein's ''Allegro''.

* The titular song of ''{{Ragtime}}''.

* In a rare example of {{Disney}} subverting stuff, many of Disney's opening numbers are not [[CrowdSong Crowd Songs]]. "The Circle of Life" from ''Disney/TheLionKing'' (with a large ensemble standing around being interesting looking), "The Bells of Notre Dame" from ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'', and "Arabian Nights" from ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' are all sung by one person. However, "Belle" from ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'', "The Virginia Company" from ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'' and "Fathoms Below" from ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' do fall under this.

* Subversion: "An Opening For A Princess" ''doesn't'' open ''OnceUponAMattress'', despite its title and full ensemble participation; it's even the second song in the show, since the prologue already has "Many Moons Ago."

* "Kids Just Being Kids" from ''TheFairlyOddparents: School's Out! The Musical''

* [[TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Boys and girls of every age/wouldn't you like to see something strange?/Come with us and you will see/this our town of Halloween . . .]]

* Non-theatre example: Almost all of Creator/JohannSebastianBach's cantatas start with an opening chorus, though a few aversions do exist (notably the Coffee Cantata, or ''Schweight stille, plaudert nicht'', which starts with a recitative). Usually cantatas that do not start with a chorus instead start with a Sinfonia movement (a completely instrumental movement).

* Non-musical example: Almost all of J.S. Bach's cantatas start with an opening chorus, though a few aversions do exist (notably the Coffee Cantata, or ''Schweight stille, plaudert nicht'', which starts with a recitative). Usually cantatas that do not start with a chorus instead start with a Sinfonia movement (a completely instrumental movement).

* "Tower of Babble" from ''{{Godspell}}''.

* "The Old Red Hills of Home" from ''{{Parade}}''

* Almost all of the GilbertAndSullivan shows have an OpeningChorus:

** "Ring forth, ye bells" from ''TheSorcerer''.

** "Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry" from ''ThePiratesOfPenzance''.
** "Twenty love-sick maidens we" from ''{{Patience}}''.
** "Tripping hither, tripping thither" from ''{{Iolanthe}}''.
** "Search throughout the panorama" from ''PrincessIda''.
** "If you want to know who we are" from ''TheMikado''.
** "Fair is Rose" from ''{{Ruddigore}}''.
** "List and learn" from ''TheGondoliers''.
** "In lazy languor" from ''Utopia, Limited''.
** "Won't it be a pretty wedding?" from ''The Grand Duke''.
** Sole exception: ''TheYeomenOfTheGuard'', which begins with Phoebe's song, "When maiden loves." Shortly after that, though, we get "Tower warders, under orders" with the full ensemble.

* Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors uses this trope with the prologue variation.

* "21 Jumbo Street" from ''DougLive''

* "Bells Are Ringing" from ''BellsAreRinging''.
* "Call On Dolly" from ''HelloDolly!''.

** "Hark, the hour of ten is sounding" from ''TrialByJury''.

* Half-subverted in ''AvenueQ'', where the opening song is a recording by (presumably) the original cast, played alongside an opening video. It parodies ''SesameStreet,'' what else can we say.

* "High On A Hill" from "TheDesertSong."