By Walker Joyce
In my last column, I set out to write a list of the Top Five Musicals in Broadway history. Or at least in MY history, I gave preference to my own favorites while acknowledging consensus opinions. I actually found it hard to limit myself to five.
In fact, alert readers may have noticed that I actually listed Six, as my affection got away from me and I finished with my own fave, 1776, in which I have a huge personal and professional legacy.
So what say we add a few more to bring things up to a nice, round Top 10? Once again, it will be hard for me to pick from such a rich tapestry of excellence over the last century.
But here goes—in no particular order:
MY FAIR LADY—I felt a tad guilty in leaving this one out of the first piece, as it is generally considered the greatest of the classic Broadway tune-fests. It’s inarguably Lerner & Lowe’s masterpiece, with a flawless score of now-standard songs like “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “On the Street Where You Live.” It’s based on Shaw’s classic play, Pygmalion. It made a star of Julie Andrews—though she was bumped from the movie version in favor of Audrey Hepburn. I’m not going to put this list in an order, but most who do will probably give this one first place.
GUYS & DOLLS—Nobody will dispute this choice, as it would make the pantheon of anyone’s Best. It’s composer-lyricist Frank Loesser’s greatest achievement (I’m wearing out the word masterpiece), and its book (libretto) is sourced by the timeless tales of Manhattan scribe Damon Runyan, a journalist and short story writer who virtually invented the Broadway world in the public imagination. It’s charming, romantic, and very funny, with another bevy of standards like “I’ll Know,” “Luck Be a Lady,” and the showstopper, “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.”
SOUTH PACIFIC—Another 1950s smash, and like all the others on this list, also a hit movie. Rodgers & Hammerstein, the favorite pick for Broadway’s Greatest partnership, wrote every note and word of this tribute to the World War II generation. Yet another cornucopia for the Great American Songbook, e.g., “Some Enchanted Evening,” “This Nearly Was Mine,” and “Younger Than Springtime,” with a story that has dramatic elements to balance out the comedy, including a subplot about racism.
And finally,
OLIVER! —British composer Lionel Bart’s soaring adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Like most Victorian genius stories, it’s a saga brimming with tragedy, triumph, humor and social criticism, revealed and advanced via unforgettable, now-legendary characters. Anyone who didn’t read the novel in school probably saw the stage treatment or the Best Picture Oscar-winner (along with five other Oscars), released in 1968. It could stand alone as a play, another thing most of these shows have in common, but who’d
want to forsake numbers like “Consider Yourself,” “Where Is Love?,” “As Long As He Needs Me” and the lump-in-the throat-tour de force, “Who Will Buy.”
There are many others, like GYPSY and KISS ME KATE, which could’ve made the cut, but let’s save those for another day!
