r/musicals

City of Angels, Sweet Charity, Barnum, Little Me, 20th Century, The Life, Will Rogers Follies, and more all filled with bangers. He can write pastiche that still passes for Jazz standards. There’s just not enough talk about just how good his scores are.

Obviously any musical is going to be best when you watch them on stage, that's how they were intended to be consumed. Unfortunately, I'm not always able to "watch" a musical, especially when driving.

What musicals do you find "almost complete" by just listening to them. I'm talking about the ones where the plot is driven mostly within the songs- (rather than songs being reactions to plot). Musicals where you can listen to the cast album and feel like you've been told a complete story rather than a collection of songs that tell snapshots of a story. What are your favorite "driving" musicals where you don't need to "see" the stage to get a good picture of what's going on?

I only know of three— The Last Five Years, Rooms: A Rock Romance, and Daddy Long Legs— but I adore 2 person musicals. As a storyteller, I respect and appreciate how difficult it must be to put together a whole show with only two characters. It’s shockingly complicated to do, to keep an audience’s attention with only two characters. The plot needs to be well thought out and the performers have to be outstanding. All the fat has to be trimmed to keep it moving. Because there’s no other characters for the leads to lean on, they need to be able to build a connection directly with the audience. Daddy Long Legs does this by having Jerusha’s letters to Daddy also addressing the audience, like she’s speaking them to us and not just him. Last Five Years does it by having the story go backwards in time for Kathy and forwards for Jamie— if it was staged chronologically for both, I think it would be extremely boring and trite. I’ve never seen Rooms staged so I can’t speak to that part of it, but the music is killer and the leads inject so much personality into their singing, I can’t help but be fond of them. I’d love to hear others thoughts on this! I’m sure there are other 2 person musicals out there that I’m missing. I sometimes also think about what stories could make a good 2-person musical, or if they would need a full cast to make it work. I’m curious to hear if anyone has ideas :)

I plan on going to Tampa Bay Comic Con this September, and I wanna know what people would be more likely to recognize, because I like both ideas equally. I have a guitar for Orpheus.

Saw this musical six times when it first came out.

Does anyone remember the cake flavors? They said it in one of the book scenes, right?

it can be from a show you never seen and you only know that song, it doesn't matter.

For example, mine is "Diva's Lament" from spamalot. I never saw spamalot, i don't even think I know the plot of spamalot but I love the song because it is so funny to me and the vocals are so great too.