Yes, I can hear you thinking, “Here goes Professor Ceiling Cat again arguing that popular music reached its apogee in his youth and has gone downhill ever since.”
Well, you’re right. I do think that, but I think the same thing for all the arts save photography, literature and film. The decline of the arts, in my view, holds for painting, classical music, and poetry.
Here I’ll maintain that the Broadway musical is an example of this decline. Let me be explicit about what I’m saying: although musicals may have gotten more sophisticated with time (viz., “Hamilton”), the songs in musicals have gotten worse in recent days, having reached their peak between the early 1940s and the early 1960s. So I’m talking about the songs in plays, not the quality of the stories in or intricacies of those songs.
I realized this when I came across the song below, which I see as one of only three great Broadway-musical songs in the last fifty years. It is, of course, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” from the musical “Evita,” written Andrew Lloyd Webber (tune) and Tim Rice (lyrics; the musical is completely sung). The song had a somewhat bumpy genesis, but, as Wikipedia reports,
Rice and Lloyd Webber’s research showed that Eva had not in reality delivered any major oration on the day of her husband Juan Perón’s inauguration ceremony, but not long after becoming Argentina’s new First Lady, she started making highly emotional speeches, the intensity of which they wanted to capture with “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”. The song was composed to appear at the opening and near the end of the show, initially as the spirit of the dead Eva exhorting the people of Argentina not to mourn her, and finally during Eva’s speech from the balcony of Casa Rosada.
The original was sung by Julie Covington on a “concept album” issued in 1976 (her version here), by Patti LuPone in the 1979 Broadway play (her version here) and by Madonna in the 1996 film version (her rendition here). None of these versions comes close to that of Karen Carpenter, which was suggested for me by YouTube. Covington’s version is too high and too light, and LuPone’s lacks lyrical force (LuPone was a belter, which is why she snagged so many Broadway roles). Madonna’s is the best of the so-so lot, but in my view lacks emotion.
This version by Karen Carpenter, who along with Barbra Streisand is one of the two great female singers of our time, is virtually unknown. I’m a huge Karen Carpenter fan, but I’d never heard this until the YouTube bot spat it out:
The song is beautiful, with several parts, including a speech, and, as far as I know, is something that Evita herself would have though, as it accurately reflects her life and her goals. I highly recommend the biography Evita: The Real Life of Eva Perón, by
Here’s Evita’s final speech in 1951 from the Casa Rosada; she was already dying when she gave it:
There are two other songs from musicals in recent times that I think are great: “Send in the clowns” (by Stephen Sondheim from the 1973 play “A little night music”), and “All I ask of you” (by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, from the 1986 play “The Phantom of the Opera”). See below for Babs’s versions:
And that’s it for recent times. I can’t think of another Broadway song that combines words and (especially) music in ways like the three songs above. And believe me, I’ve listened to “popular” Broadway songs of recent days, and have been disappointed. Have a listen, for example, to the much-touted song “My Shot” from “Hamilton” (here). It is heavily influenced by rap: good words and a good story but set to a totally lame tune. Overall, it’s dreck: it doesn’t work as a song. Have you heard anybody humming or singing it lately?
But I’ll stop here about recent musicals; if you know of fantastic songs from Broadway musicals appearing after 1980, by all means describe and defend them below.
Now I get to tout my favorites: the earlier musicals that have memorable songs. I give them in no particular order save when they came to mind. I’ll link to the musicals and list some of my favorite songs from them, linking to the best. I claim that no modern musical comes close to these in musical quality:
Brigadoon, by Lerner and Loewe (1947). This great musical is all but forgotten. The original cast album is far superior to the 1954 film that starred Gene Kelly. Great songs (i’ve highlighted YouTube versions from the original cast):
I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean
Come to Me, Bend to Me
There But For You Go I
From this Day On (After time travel, the lovers part, apparently to be separated forever. Such a beautiful song.)
Oklahoma! by Rodgers and Hammerstein (1943) Great songs:
Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’
I Cain’t Say No
Many a New Day
People Will Say We’re in Love
Pore Jud Is Daid
My Fair Lady by Lerner and Loewe (1956). Many great songs:
Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?
With a Little Bit of Luck
I’m an Ordinary Man
The Rain in Spain
I Could Have Danced All Night
On the Street Where You Live
Just You Wait
Get Me to the Church on Time
I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face
Camelot by Lerner and Loewe (1960). Again, many great songs:
I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight
Camelot
C’est Moi
The Lusty Month of May
If Ever I Would Leave You
What Do the Simple Folk Do?
I Loved You Once In Silence
South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein (1949)
Some Enchanted Evening
I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair
I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy
Younger than Springtime
You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught (a bold denunciation for its time about the teaching of racism)
West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim (1957)
Maria
Tonight
Gee, Officer Krupke
I Feel Pretty
Somewhere (I’ve put up Barbra Streisand’s live version as there’s nothing comparable to it. The preliminary music starts about 16 seconds in).
Show Boat by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein (1927)
Ol’ Man River
Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man
And I may have forgotten one or two, as I’m working from memory here.
Now some of these musicals came out when I was too young for them to have been part of my life, except that my parents had most of them on albums and I listened to them. Since none of my contemporaries listened to them, I will argue that I like them because of their quality, not because they were in the air when was I was growing up. I will further argue that I love jazz (up to and including Coltrane) despite not having heard a lick of it until I was in my forties. I love jazz because much of the stuff up to Coltrane was great, not because it was part of my youth.
I’ll end with two great songs that came out more recently than those above, as well as an earlier song recycled into a movie. Both are renditions by Barbra Streisand, for who else could do them justice?
First, “Send in the clowns” from “A Little Night Music” by Stephen Sondheim (1973):
Second “All I ask of you” (by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, from the 1986 play “The Phantom of the Opera”. This song gives me the shivers.
The song below, “My Man,” didn’t originate in a Broadway musical, but as a 1920 French song, “Mon Homme”, by Maurice Yvain, Jacques-Charles and Albert Willemetz. Comedian, actor, and singer Fanny Brice (1891-1951) popularized the English version; which became one of her hallmark numbers. Brice’s version came out in 1921, and later appeared in the eponymous 1928 talkie (that version is here).
But the hallmark version, and a comsummate piece of both acting and singing is (again) Barbra Streisand’s version in the 1958 film “Funny Girl” (“My Man” did not appear in the earlier stage verssions). In the movie, Streisand sings it when she has to go onstage immediately after having broken up with the gambler Nicky Arnstein in her dressing room. That accounts for the slow and tearful beginning you’ll see below. Eventually it segues into a fantastic ending, which is why I’m posting it here.
So be it; those are my views and have at me, maties. I just realized that everybody mentioned in this video, including all the songwriters, Fanny Brice, and Barbra Streisand, were Jewish. The sole exception is Karen Carpenter and a few people like Andrew Lloyd Webber. So there: you just wouldn’t have classic Broadway without the Jews. It must have been a conspiracy to indoctrinate people and infect them with earworms. Joking aside, it’s amazing that, given their low percentage in the American population, the predominance of great musicals were written by Jews. I have no idea why.
I’m probably off base here, but weren’t Gerry Goffin and Carole King also a great Jewish songwriting team? Regardless, their hits were great.
It seems that a great many of the Brill Building songwriters were Jewish.
Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
Lieber and Stoller
Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry
Doc Pomus and Mort Shumann
Burt Bachrach and Hal David
Neil Diamond
Etc.
For my part, the combination of those songwriters and the girl groups that sang many of those songs are one of my embarrassing weaknesses—for a Deadhead.
Can’t comment on the musicals, except to say that some of the songs are great.
I’m talking about (Broadway) musicals, not songwriting duos in general. But yes, as the comment below says, many writers of popular songs were Jewish.
Most…. MOST composers of the American Songbook were Jewish! Except Cole Porter. We wouldn’t have ANY American music without the Jews.
Among the later writers that were superb were Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Who wrote song after great songs in the. 80’s. Barbara Streisand sang the hell out of them. Then they wrote “Yentl”. Brilliant!
No love for Les Mis?
Nope, not musically.
So many wonderful songs from those musicals, a great selection. I would also add from Fiddler on the Roof, “Sunrise, Sunset.” It still gives me a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.
Let’s face it. The rise of rock ‘n’ roll, whatever one thinks of it, killed American Popular Song, of which classic Broadway was a part. The tradition lived on in Disney movies until not too long ago, and there were some notable late examples elsewhere, like the theme from “New York, New York.” Broadway nowadays seems a self-conscious imitation (or angry child) of its former self. The stories are weak; the singers weaker.
To add to Jerry’s list, off the top of my head I would add:
Guys and Dolls (title song, Fugue for Tin Horns, Luck Be a Lady Tonight, Adelaide’s Lament)
The King and I (Shall We Dance, Whistle a Happy Tune, Hello Young Lovers)
Carousel (If I Loved You)
Anything Goes (title song, You’re the Top, All Through the Night, It’s De-Lovely)
Kiss Me Kate (Brush Up Your Shakespeare, Where Is the Life That Late I Led, Too Darn Hot, So in Love, Always True to You in My Fashion)
I am not sure that blaming the death of Broadway musicals on the rise of rock and roll is accurate. Yes, they are roughly coincidental, but they are different art forms appealing to disparate audiences.
In addition, much of the appeal of musicals was visual. That was not the case for R&R.
And regarding disparate audiences. My in-laws were both Holocaust survivors. The immigrated (legally of course) and built lives in Brooklyn and later in Queens. They were both Orthodox Jews, so there was some limit to how much they could assimilate, but like most Jews, they loved the country that adopted them and took much pride in being American.
The relevance to this thread is that one of the things that they most loved was the music of the Broadway musicals. To them, that was one thing that epitomized America, and my wife and her sisters grew up listening to the Rogers and Hart, Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe records to the point where they still know all the songs by heart.
Those musicals were very much part of Jewish immigration life, at least in New York. And when R&R came along, that generation of immigrants loved it as much as the descendants of the Pilgrims and the Daughters of the Confederacy. That is to say, not at all.
Soliloquy from Carousel is gorgeous. Not a song you hum coming out of the theater though.
So many Broadway shows today are remakes of movies. Backers don’t want to take a very expensive chance on something untried that might not run long like Jane Eyer! Absolutely gorgeous, but couldn’t compete with The Producers!
Don’t forget Carousel. Even with its inexcusably offensive message, some of the loveliest music from that time. I know, I know, the context of the times. But even then it was evident that Billy Bigelow was no prize. As my mother said all those years ago as we were leaving the movie theater, “You can do better than that, Alison.”
I would have thought you would like HAIR. Some great songs there.
Kind of a fun list of the top 100 musicals. I am not sure I agree with their order but good memories:
https://web.archive.org/web/20090528073009/http://www.channel4.com/film/newsfeatures/microsites/M/musicals/results_100to96.html
Margaret Thatcher is far from forgotten in the UK – a new radio drama based on her appearance at an awards ceremony in which she performed in a skit based on her favourite TV show, the BBC’s Yes, Minister is due to be broadcast on Tuesday: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0030cf8
Awareness in the UK of Eva Peron, outside of the musical, is pretty non-existent as far as I can tell and to the best of my knowledge this has always been the case on this side of the Atlantic.
I was about to post the same thing. Her presence looms large in the UK. It’s like saying Reagan is long forgotten in the US
I’ve heard her mentioned twice this evening on two different radio programmes, one an art review/preview show and the other about crime statistics in the UK.
PBS has a documentary on Jews and Broadway, which I recommend if you’re a subscriber: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/broadway-musicals-a-jewish-legacy-about-the-film/1476/
I grew up with musical theater and while I do love some of the modern musicals like “Hamilton,” whether any of them have real staying power remains to be seen.
Since you didn’t mention Cole Porter, I have to give him a shoutout (despite not being Jewish) for writing some of the catchiest tunes and cleverest lyrics:
“I’ve made a haul in all the leading rackets
From which rip-roar in’ rich I happen to be
And if thou wouldst attain the upper brackets—
Marry me, marry me, marry me.”
From “Kiss Me, Kate” chef’s kiss
Jane Oliver… a drop dead fantastic live performance of “Some Enchanted Evening”
https://youtu.be/my0wluaE_io?si=kQxZz01DyW7-nGak
I listened to all the music from the musicals you listed when I was a child. My Dad built a Heathkit stereo system in the 50s and my parents would blast that music, so that we, my siblings and I, knew the lyrics by heart and it was not unusual to hear one of us belting out “I Could Danced All Night” or “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy” while swinging on the backyard swings. When my two older siblings became teens, the backyard song-singing switched to Elvis or “Come Along and Be My Party Doll”, but that is another story. (My Dad was not crazy about the fact that his precious Heathkit was being used for rock ‘n roll, and then later by me for Beatles music – though he did let us use it.)
But I would like to add “Jesus Christ Superstar”, which ran for 711 performances on Broadway in 1971, to the line up. I still love the music, with “I Only Want to Say” being my favourite on the album. I particularly love the rendition by Ben Forster, who played Jesus in the 2012-13 run of the show in the UK and Australia. Sadly, the tour did not come to North America. I would love to have attended to hear him sing it live. Amazing voice.
Yes, JC Superstar is brilliant! I relisten to the music often.
Maybe. I have no dog in this, but “Memory” from Cats is moving.
I will take the opportunity to bring up the very funny Broadway musical Spamalot, whose plot is based mainly on the Search for the Holy Grail movie. I laughed very hard, had a great time, and there is this number about how you need Jews to succeed on Broadway. [Hope it’s ok. This is meant to be tongue in cheek].
Once upon a time we had Kern, Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Porter, Bernstein, and many others–every one a Jew except for Old King Cole. When Rodgers traded Hart for Hammerstein, that, for me signaled the begining of the end: all the ascerbic wit devolved into deracinated schmaltz (and no, I’m not a Sondheim fan). Broadway had a good run, but it’s long been over. I recently saw Titanique on Broadway, and it was an stupefyingly embarrassing mess. I didn’t crack even a single smile.
Rodgers & Hammerstein fans irritate me with their insistence that musicals were lowbrow crap until R&H wrote Oklahoma. The Berlin-Gershwin-Porter era created lovely music and clever wordplay that are still hugely enjoyable. R&H musicals are smug and dull. And while Sondheim wrote great lyrics, a lot of his melodies are a chore to listen to.
Agreed! Sondheim has composed a few lovely melodies, but so much of his work is just smart-alecky proto-rap.
Oh, and yes, I forgot the Gershwins in my little list of greats.
Well, I was singing My Shot to myself just yesterday…
But for two other great modern musicals, there are The Count of Monte Cristo and Jekyll & Hyde, both composed by Frank Wildhorn (who is Jewish, if you wanted to know). I only know the concept albums but I believe the songs were changed in the final play. I’m a big fan of Board Governors from Jekyll & Hyde which I believe was heavily changed for the final version. But the concept album version is great, it’s a slow burn but lots of mixing voices. Also it’s a scientist getting his grant rejected!
“[…] I will argue that I like them because of their quality, not because they were in the air when was I was growing up. I will further argue that I love jazz (up to and including Coltrane) despite not having heard a lick of it until I was in my forties.”
Proof.
At some point, I wondered why jazzers always play standards. I thought they just play random whatever.
Listening carefully to the music – which takes some work – showed me why — and turns out when I listened back to time-tested pop tunes etc. I could see the structure, the logic, the depth…
Maybe some are born with that ear sense. Otherwise, it requires something like getting out of a comfort zone …
I like a lot of recent musicals, e.g., Hamilton, Hadestown, Book of Mormon, Operation Mincemeat. These aren’t traditional musicals (BoM is the closest), but I like how musicals aren’t a static art. Not everyone is going to like how it’s evolving, but that’s fine, nothing wrong with sticking to the Golden Age if that’s what you prefer.
That said, may I suggest a recent show PCCE might like? Schmigadoon, originally an Apple TV series, now adapted for the stage, spoofs Golden Age musicals (mostly Oklahoma, Carousel, and Music Man). I saw it on Broadway in June. It’s an affectionate parody, with songs that sound just enough like the originals without plagiarizing. The tv show soundtrack is on Spotify, where you can also find a playlist with the show’s songs and the song they’re referencing. The Broadway cast recording will be released later this week. The tv show had a second season, Schmicago, which spoofs 60s/70s musicals, such as Pippin, Cabaret, Chicago, Sweeney Todd, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Hair.
Comment by Greg Mayer
The Producers originated as a 1967 movie about a Broadway musical, but I also like the soundtrack of the 2001 stage version based on the movie. (I didn’t get to see the play; there was also a 2005 movie based on the 2001 play that was based on the 1967 movie.) “Springtime for Hitler” is memorable: I used to sing it, with altered words, when putting my kids to bed. (“Bedtime for . . . .)
Mel Brooks wrote the songs for the original movie, and also the additional songs for the later versions. Maybe 1967 falls in Jerry’s classic period, but the added songs from the later versions don’t.
GCM
I was wondering if someone was going to mention “Springtime for Hitler”. Definitely a classic for me. Winter for Poland and France!
Ha, I love “Springtime For Hitler,” and I too sing altered lyrics at bedtime — to my cats.
Brooks wrote the music as well as the lyrics, by the way.
Given your handle, you should only be singing altered lyrics.
Pretty much agree with PCC(E).
Lovely version of “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina.” Karen Carpenter had a lovely voice. She died young of anorexia, sadly.
I liked this comment to the KC video:
I’ve always wondered why some people can sing, and others can’t. It just has to be something physiological.
Anyway, as lovely as Carpenter’s voice was, my favorite version of Don’t Cry for Me is still the one by Madonna. I’ve never heard a song sung with so much feeling.
My fave song from WSS is America. Rita Moreno was such a standout in that movie. If you’re a fan of hers, like me, you’ll be happy to know that she is still going strong at age 94.
Rita Moreno.
Man, that woman can do it all. Sing. Dance. Act.
Anything is better with Rita Moreno.
I totally agree. When one leaves a musical today there is no humming or singing a song from the show because the songs are not melodic or memorable like they were in the 40’s-60’s.
I’m sure this post will get tons of comments, as all “lists” do.
My favorites in addition to yours:
Fiddler on the Roof: I think the best integration of song and story, great tunes/singable, and a heartwarming, humorous story, but with seriousness where needed. My family’s story in essence. I saw it on Broadway with Harry Goz as Tevye.
Man of La Mancha: a story within a story (I saw it in its original run too). Again, great integration of song and story, with iconic songs. Joan Diener, the original Aldonza (Dulcinea) gives a performance on the original soundtrack that is unsurpassed by anyone since.
I actually like Spamalot and The Producers too, just because they’re silly, yet tuneful, with some hilarious songwriting.
Finally, South Pacific: again tuneful, with songs that move the story along, but also because Rogers and Hammerstein had the courage to write and keep in the play You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught, a song that said racism was not an inherent character of people, but had to be learned.
There are many others, but these rise to the top.
My criticisms of modern day musicals:
1. No memorable melodies
2. Stiff, mechanical and too athletic dancing. It may be engaging to watch, but occasionally we need flow and grace.
3. Stories that don’t appeal. Sondheim was a master at this. I am not a fan of his. In fact, the only musical he wrote that I liked was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Call me old fashioned – I am.
“Forum…” is great for sure. A few years later Sondheim did an odd tv production starring Anthony Perkins called Evening Primrose that also had more conventionally-structured songs, and they’re very nice. And his lyrics for West Side Story were full of wit and insight. I like his early stuff.
These songs and plays were so a part of my youth I had many of these albums and to me it was as if I was at a broadway musical My mothers family were from The east side of New York ( now that’s an other whole story to tell ) and would take the family to some of these Musicals when we came to visit It was later on these musicals came to Boston but truly there was nothing like the Broadway stage Of course it didn’t cost what it does now But what does !!!
Saw “Maybe Happy Ending” in NYC recently. It won 6 Tony Awards including Best Musical. I was quite disappointed in the music. Each song sounded like a variation of the next, and none of them were interesting or memorable. The set design was fantastic.
The song that popped into my head that is a strong one from a musical is “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” sung by Jennifer Holliday from Dreamgirls, 1982.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DV5XIMWlfFjs&ved=2ahUKEwiZuu3gj6aWAxUEN4YAHdxeFDgQ78AJegQIGxAB&sqi=2&usg=AOvVaw3njZXMAApx3q_2Sv9lvQjZ
I would be a bit more nuanced in that regard. Digital photography has allowed easy, quick and high resolution photography. Digital manipulation of photographs has given us HDR (yechh!) But is “people photography” (portraits, street etc) any better off? The art aspect of it has been diluted compared to when taking photos was more difficult, time-consuming and expensive. I defy anyone to show that there is better work being done now than that done by Avedon, Bailey, Duffy and Donovan when it comes to portraiture.
[stream-of-conciousness]
I have always been a singer whose best work takes place in the shower. Don’t believe me? You are welcome to join me in a duet :). The last two years or so I have been treated for melanoma of the lungs, successfully it seems, but the treatment has changed my singing voice, and I have needed to alter how I sing, in order to sound pleasant, at least to myself. I have become a better singer, but too late in life to make it my career, and I have learned to appreciate better the skills of great singers.
I recently watched on youtube a video by Delta Goodrem. Heavy. It is unforgettable. It brought back memories of Sinead O’Connor singing Nothing Compares 2 U. The singing was done in a single take and both singers stare down the barrel of the camera (do cameras still have barrels? (This is stream of consciousness, right?)).
During a recent stay in hospital , a nurse played for me on her phone a song she said was great. I nodded in agreement, but thought to myself “She has got to be kidding”. It was a song that could be sung by anybody and modern production values would have made it sound the same. I guess when you become a ‘fan’ of someone, everything they sing is great.
It has been a long time since I heard on the radio a song that I anticipate will be played in nursing homes in 30 years, to bring back great memories for the oldies.
As a finale, if you don’t know “The Voice” aka John Farnham, try this Lifted Up By Angels
[/stream-of-conciousness]
My favorite songs from musicals are from South Pacific (some really beautiful tunes there) and The Music Man. Hard to beat the chicken song from the latter!
I totally agree with Dr. Coyne on the best three songs from musicals created after the classic period – those are the very three I would’ve picked if asked. Send in the Clowns is especially haunting when done right (which Sinatra did NOT do IMO).
I blame this decline on two grievously lucrative trends that have come to dominate the form, and actively discourage creativity or at least render it superfluous. One is the so-called “jukebox musical” (Mamma Mia, et al), where the songs are already known and beloved from some other context, and the audience requires only the flimsiest clothesline of a story to hold them up. (This is different from a revival of a classic show, where the songs are already known and beloved from THE SAME context, but can be restaged or interpreted anew by the brightest talents of their day.) The other ruinous trend is the musicalization of movies, TV shows, and comic books, where audiences are flocking to the property itself and it doesn’t matter if the songs are any good, just that they’re there. Cases in point: the Broadway musicals based on Beetlejuice, Back to the Future, and Legally Blonde, to cite a few commercially successful examples.
Once in a great while, one of the latter equals or surpasses its source. To wit, The Band’s Visit, featuring the most beautiful new song to hit Broadway in the last decade. As presenter Rachel Brosnahan explains in the clip below, the show details what happens when an Egyptian police orchestra is diverted, through a logistical error, to a remote Israeli town. A night of cross-cultural bonding and romance ensues, and in this number, “Omar Sharif,” an Israeli cafe owner reminisces to the bandleader about the Arabic films and music she was exposed to in her youth, with Sharif’s charisma transcending national barriers and breaking down preconceptions.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X9FvC5qEMBA&pp=ygUcb21hciBzaGFyaWYgdGhlIGJhbmQncyB2aXNpdA%3D%3D&ra=m
I love the soundtrack from Chess (by the ABBA lads). I can listen to it anytime, it’s inexhaustable. Unfortunately, they never found a script to go along with it! They kept changing the plot, and I don’t think it ever had a successful production.
Here’s music critic David Hurwitz’s interesting list of “16 Operettas and Musicals I Couldn’t Live Without”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sui-g1znDs
I, too, love the old musicals. My personal Favorite of All Time is Sweeney Todd. Love the music and the lyrics. Love the way Sondheim utilized various musical (and lyrical!) styles to keep us in the period: requiem and Gregorian chant in The Ballad of Sweeney Todd, Music Hall and folk tunes popular in Victorian England for several other songs.
And Sondheim’s lyrics for Gypsy and West Side Story are chef’s kiss
Among my other faves are a few not mentioned above: Showboat (pre-Oklahoma!), the aforementioned Gypsy, and The Pajama Game.
I’ve seen few of the newer ones. Cats was unfitting of its source and its subject. I enjoyed seeing Wicked and The Book of Mormon, but the songs were forgettable and I have forgotten them.
Oliver! by Lionel Bart (yet another Jewish composer) has some great songs with memorable tunes and lyrics including Food Glorious Food, Oliver, Where is Love, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, As Long As He Needs Me and more.
South Pacific, a wonderful trove of songs by R&H, 1949 on Broadway, Ezio Pinza’s rendition of ‘One Enchanted Evening’ I think is surpassed by Rossano Brazzi’s version in the original movie, especially if you watch him sing it.
But Brazzi’s rendition of ‘This Nearly Was Mine’ gives me goose bumps.
Then it was re-recorded in 1986 with Jose Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sarah Vaughn and Mandy Patinkin. Patinkin’s version of ‘Younger Than Springtime’ has to be the best I’ve ever heard – what a voice.
A Star Is Born was not on Broadway but Judy Garland’s version of ‘The Man That Got Away’ is another goose bump experience, especially if you watch her sing it.
Shall We Dance, an Astaire/Rogers movie (sadly not on Broadway) contains a song with the most clever lyrics I’ve ever heard – ‘They all Laughed’.
I feel sorry for the kids of today with their head-banging all-sounds-the-same stuff they are so missing out…
Perhaps broadway music is bound to be worse because composing classical music has become a lost art. Look at films!
John Williams and James Horner (both Jewish, of course) have no equals in our time. Instead of beautiful melodies and orchestral colours we get “soundscapes”. A good exemplar of the trend is Hans Zimmer (Jewish, of course), whose cacophonous scores could have been better with a rigorous classical education. In more recent films and documentaries, I scarcely find memorable music.
Nobody has mentioned Porgy and Bess. It is closer to Opera I guess, and it sure moves me every time. Summertime is played widely. I really like Avon Long’s Sporting Life compared to Cab Calloway’s.
I totally agree that those before times produced the best musicals and I managed to perform in many during high school and college. I had the good fortune to work as prop master at Oakdale Musical Theatre in the last 50’s thru early 60’s. So I would see these shows 7 or 8 times each. Management was also connected to the Schubert Theatre in New Haven, so they managed to get many Broadway stars to do these shows. I was Howard Keel’s dresser to Kismet and played with Gordon and Sheila MacRae’s kids, chased Stupefying Jones pig around the parking lot when I accidentally let it go. So much adventure for a late teenager….
One obscure Bernstein work I still listen to and enjoy is Trouble in Tahiti for which he wrote the words and the music.
Enough already……
The economics deserve as much blame as the artistic argument here — when a production needs to run for years simply to recoup, nobody funds anything unfamiliar. That selects for adaptations of things audiences already know, which is precisely the decline being described. The counterexamples that do break through tend to come from outside the usual funding path, which rather proves the point.
I had to smile at “recent times” referring to 1973, 52 years ago. But leaving that aside, among more recent musicals one of my favorites is The Book of Mormon. Hilariously funny, plus the songs are good. Cast recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nD7pXbqUjI