To purchase the original Broadway Cast Recording of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, click on the image above.

4. “Belle” from Beauty and the Beast

Many people resent Disney’s transition from the movies to the Broadway stage. Truth be told, I’m not crazy about many of their adaptations – all of them are flawed in one way or another – nor do I think their attempt at a piece without an feature film precedent, Aida, is fully realised. But it would be remiss of me to leave off a song from Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s fantastic song score for this show, which was augmented on stage using generally less successful songs with lyrics supplied by Tim Rice. My favourite of these is “Belle”, the number that was used to introduce the heroine of the story, as well as the villain and building on the show’s primary theme, as introduced in the “Prologue”. It’s hard to create a number on this scale, one that not only pushes the plot forward in a big way but which introduces many other minor characters in a way that establishes the mindset of an entire community, using as much individual contrapuntal singing as more general choral singing. Also, it’s super catchy.

3. “Ragtime” from Ragtime

Sometimes a number just blows you away with its brilliance, and that is what the opening of Ragtime does for me. There are other songs that are more stirring, perhaps, but the opening number of the show is a tour de force. The way that Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty introduce the three different worlds that collide in this show, showing not only who the people are but how they relate to one another, is just splendid. Part of my love for the song also has to do with its brilliant staging, which still makes my jaw drop when I see it on video today. Frank Galati (who directed) and Graciela Daniele (who choreographed) really created something special in that number. Looking at the derivative and insipid choreography that Marcia Milgrom Dodge foisted onto the number into the 2009 revival of the show hurts.

2. “The Ballad of Booth” from Assassins

Assassins is a fantastic show. It’s better without “Something Just Broke” than with it, but it seems as though the song’s inclusion is a flaw in the show that we’re stuck with for now, and fortunately the rest of the show is excellent enough to compensate. “The Ballad of Booth” is just a mind-blowing number, a dark and subversive take on official history and yet it so clearly doesn’t do what so many people accuse the show of doing: glorify the assassins and would-be assassins of the presidents of the United States of America. The contrasts between the Balladeer and Booth, harmonically and melodically, show that to any thinking audience member. This song is the kind of piece that gives you goosebumps when it is done well. It’s also a great piece to sing, in a very different way to something like “Unsettled Scores” or “Martin Guerre”: it’s so specific and gives you such security as an actor when the words are in your mouth that you can really just play.