Why so dead, Live Performance?

It's totally unnacceptable! Post your favorite musical, or... something. You're too quiet.

My favorite musical that I have seen live is Little Shop of Horrors, and my favorite musical that I have not seen live is Theatre.The Book Of Mormon.

My favorite musicals include Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables, Camelot, Assassins, and The Consul (though that's actually an opera).

Little Shop of Horrors, The Producers, and Avenue Q.

How did I forget Sweeney Todd.

edited 18th Sep '11 7:21:06 AM by Firestarter

I've written a couple of Little Shop of Horrors WM Gs, they're the last two on the page (the inanimate one and the incest one).

Everyone not Pannic is so cliche!

Les Mis. Sondheim just... Sondheim. 7 brides for 7 brothers.

Don't make me choose my favorite musical! We'll be here all night if I have to list off all of those.

Ooh, I'll have to go with Company. Also Grand Hotel, Gray Gardens, Candide, and Hedwig (among many, many others).

What would you say is the most obscure show you've ever seen? I'll go with Cole Porter's Jubilee, although runners-up include unusual Rodgers/Sondheim collab Do I Hear a Waltz, Steve's first solo effort Saturday Night, and Noel Coward's Alternate History Peace in Our Time in its US premiere.

edited 18th Sep '11 1:54:21 AM by GinaInTheKingsRoad

Back to the 80's is probably among the most obscure.

Company's great.

Candide I have mixed feelings about. It's got some wonderful music, but the plot just seems like... a bit of a mess. Granted, I only saw the concert version with Kristen Chenoweth, which was somewhat annoying. I swear, the thing near-constantly pandered to Patti Lupone. And they cut out Martin!

I felt that Thomas Allen as Pangloss was the best thing about that concert. I'll need to see if I can get the version conducted by Bernstein, with Jerry Hadely in the title role.

Oh dear, obscure shows... well, I mentioned Menotti's opera The Consul. I could go on about obscure operas, like Susannah and The Tender Land and The Ghosts Of Versailles. But musicals? I'm very fond of Anyone Can Whistle. With more Sondheim, I found The Frogs a bit difficult to get into... but upon re-listening, man, it's got some awesome choral writing.

Other musicals I need to mention are Titanic, The Secret Garden, and Parade.

Oh man, Parade...

edited 18th Sep '11 2:45:43 PM by Pannic

I recently read Lillian Hellman's original libretto for Candide, but haven't seen the 2004 concert production in quite a while; it would be interesting to compare. I remember really liking the use of the huge chorus- they actually contributed to the action, and didn't just stand there the whole time. I think Lonny Price's direction has a particularly good grasp on the energy and bite a show like Candide needs.

Ooh, Anyone Can Whistle! I've seen that as well- I believe it was the West Coast premiere, probably 2003. Actually, Whistle has more than a little in common with Candide. That would be a very interesting comparison. *nerd*

I dunno. The 2004 concert thing just didn't seem satisfying to me. Like it was a bunch of loosely-connected skits and then it just... ended.

edited 18th Sep '11 5:04:05 PM by Pannic

Whistle and Company are phenomal.

Little Shop of Horrors and Hello Dolly (this is "my-school-did-this-and-was-amazing" bias), student-written musical adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Medea (same bias), Jesus Christ Superstar for the music, and Hosanna, which I saw in Stratford last week.

In honor of Rosh Hashanah, I will necro this thread to say that one of my favorite musicals is Fiddler On The Roof

My favorite musical I've seen is probably Avenue Q.

The most obscure, on the other hand, is probably All Shook Up, although I don't know how big it is. XD

Personally, I think it's a little dead because people can't shell out $30+ to see actual live performances and are stuck with You Tube.

My favorite musicals are Sweeney Todd, RENT, Spring Awakening, Carousel, Avenue Q, and Wicked.

I've seen... hmm... mostly mainstream shows I think, and not very many. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Into the Woods, Beauty and the Beast, Smoky Joe's Cafe, Wicked, and Will Rodgers Follies. I think that's it, but I've seen Joseph almost as many times as the other individual shows put together.

I guess out of those either Smoky Joe's Cafe or Will Rodgers Follies would be the most obscure. I'm not really sure.

For non-musical shows I like: Lend Me A Tenor, Polaroid Stories, and Angels In America.

Plays I like include Magic, Death of a Salesman, and...

Huh. My mind has gone surprisigly blank. I like King Lear a lot.

Wow, I completely forgot my favorite musical ever- Forever Plaid. And I also saw Man of La Mancha somewhere in there.

I have to admit I'm not particularly fond of straight plays. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I'm more into the music than the theater, so I don't go out of my way to catch them. Aside from some field trips to a local dinner theater when I was little, I've only seen plays my school has done. A Few Good Men, 12 Angry Men, Steel Magnolias, and this year they're doing To Kill A Mockingbird, which I'm pretty excited about.

My favorite is absolutely Into The Woods. It's so good!

Next To Normal and Urinetown are awesome, though I haven't actually...seen them legally...a musical I did see legally that was amazing was In The Heights.

Favorite musicals....Lets see.

Little Shop of Horrors

Urinetown

Chicago

yeah, I have a bit of a thing for dark satire.

Only one I've seen live was a local college rendition of Urinetown. But it was awesome.

edited 19th Oct '11 10:01:28 AM by Midgetsnowman

Midgetsnowman, you might like The Sweet Smell of Success. It's got some flaws, but it's pretty underrated.