Musical Cyberspace

These are the results of a poll that was held earlier this year. I’ve decided to list the Top 20 based on everybody’s Top 10 votes.

THE FINAL TALLY:

1. Avenue Q (4)
2. The Light in the Piazza (4)
3. Grey Gardens (4)
4. The Last Five Years (4)
5. Urinetown (4)
6. Wicked (4)
7. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (4)
8. In the Heights (6)
9. Hairspray (5)
10. Spring Awakening (5)
11. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (5)
12. The Wild Party (Lippa) (5)
13. The Drowsy Chaperone (5)
14. The Producers (5)
15. [title of show] (5)
16. Spamalot (5)
17. The Wild Party (LaChiusa) (3)
18. Thoroughly Modern Millie (5)
19. Caroline, or Change (4)
20. Billy Elliot (3)

The number in brackets is a mean score, basically telling us the average spot it held across the people who named it on their Top 10 lists. This reveals things about the tally to us, for example, LaChiusa’s The Wild Party and Billy Elliot were generally ranked higher up on people’s lists than any of the other shows in the Top 20, but their lower aggregate score means that fewer people voted for the show. This could obviously implies any number of things about any particular show, possibly about how widely known the show is or how highly regarded it is by its fans or how widely it appeals to popular tastes.

The Rest of the List (in order):

Aida, Wise Guys/Bounce/Road Show, The Full Monty, A Man of No Importance, Sweet Smell of Success, Legally Blonde, Bernarda Alba, Seussical, Jersey Boys, Xanadu, Curtains, Bare, Young Frankenstein, Next to Normal, My Life with Albertine, Little Fish, The Wedding Singer, I Love You Because, Amour, 13, Closer to Heaven, The Color Purple, Forward (?), Jane Eyre, Keating! (?), Piece (?), See What I Wanna See, Thou Shalt Not, The Pirate Queen, Little Women, High School Musical, Movin’ Out (?) and Passing Strange.

Question marks indicate shows whose presence on this list can be questioned for some reason or other. Two musicals that were definitely excluded were Enchanted, which is a film and as such did not count for the purposes of this poll and Mamma Mia!, which first appeared in the 1990s.

Thanks to all for participating. It was great fun to see everyone’s choices. So – what are the surprises in the list for everyone? With which places do you agree with or disagree?

I thought it might be fun to do decade-by-decade musical theatre “Top 10” lists and then put everyone’s lists through a points system and see what comes out tops. It’s a bit geeky, I guess, but it seems like it might be fun. We could do each decade over a certain period of time and then move on to the next.

Let’s begin with the decade which draws to a close this year.

Here is what you have to do:

1. List your top ten musicals since 2000. You can use whatever criteria you wish to pick your top ten – your favourites, what you consider to be the best and so on. I don’t think we want to get tied up by semantics at this point. This is meant to be fun!
2. Order your list from 1 to 10: 1 = your top musical of the decade and 10 = your 10th favourite/best musical of the decade. Your top musical will receive 10 points and your 10th favourite/best musical will receive 1 point. If you post an unranked list, your choices will all receive the same number of points in the final tally.
3. You can be as diverse or exclusive in your choices as you wish to be – as long as you remain within the scope of stage musicals. See the list below for further guidelines in this regard.
4. Feel free to discuss your choices if you like!
5. I’ll close off the votes when replies slow down and then complete the tally, after which I’ll post the results in a new blog entry.

What counts and what doesn’t:

• Original stage musicals are valid. This does not include the entire spectrum of theatre with music and the following are excluded: revivals, even ones that are revisals; revues, even if the Tony Awards considered them for musical awards; opera that the Tony Awards considered for musical awards; ballet that the Tony Awards considered for musical awards; modern dance shows that claim to be musicals; concerts; song cycles; special theatrical events; cabaret; and performance art.
• Film musicals don’t count for this poll, but stage adaptations of film musicals that appeared on stage for the first time in this decade do.
• Jukebox musicals that have a narrative thrust – thus separating them from revues – count for the poll.
• If anything else comes up, I’ll handle it on a case by case basis.

Some suggestions for those who might find it useful:

Avenue Q, The Light in the Piazza, Urinetown, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Grey Gardens, In the Heights, The Last Five Years, Wicked, Hairspray, The Drowsy Chaperone, The Wild Party (both versions –  and if you do list this show, please specify LaChiusa or Lippa), [title of show], Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Spring Awakening, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Producers, Caroline, or Change, Aida, Xanadu, Billy Elliot, Seussical, Legally Blonde, Young Frankenstein, Curtains, Jersey Boys, Sweet Smell of Success, The Wedding Singer, The Full Monty, The Color Purple, Thou Shalt Not, See What I Wanna See, Little Fish, A Man of No Importance, Bernarda Alba, Closer to Heaven, The Pirate Queen, Little Women, Wise Guys/Bounce/Road Show, High School Musical.

Shows that do not count for this poll:

Movin’ Out (arguably, it’s a dance show), The Frogs (it’s a “revisal”)  and Elegies (song cycle). I’m sure this list will grow…

Have fun!