I’ve talked before on how much I love listening to musicals. I have always loved many different kinds of musicals, but I have presented myself with a question: what musicals are my top five favorites? Well, here it is: my top five musicals, listed by my person opinions on music and plot. Y’know, the usual.
#5. Phantom of the Opera
“Phantom of the Opera” is probably the first musical I ever listened to. My dad played it in the car when we went on long trips in the car. I watched the movie, and I must say, to this day, it’s still one of my favorite movies to this day. Years later, I saw the musical on theater in Texas. It was an amazing experience. Even so, I find the music to be a little bit repetitive at times. The sanme theme is used over and over again, and honestly, I could go without hearing “Phantom of the opera” repeated about fifty times throughout the whole thing. Overall, if the acting is good, the performance can be amazing.
#4: Les Miserables
Ah yes, Les Mis. One of the best musicals out there. The music is fantasic, and the lyrics are very well written. The plot is interesting, and it keeps my attention for a long time. However, I do have my gripes about the movie production of it, however. Hugh Jackman wasn’t the best singer at this time, and his production is lackluster at best. Anne Hathaway did a very good job, however, and the rest of the cast does well with their performances.
#3: Hamilton
You all knew it was coming. Hamilton was an excellent musical, and it still is. Lin-Manuel Miranda did an excellent job writing the score, and did an excellent performance as Alexander Hamilton. I can proudly say that I learned the entirety of “Guns and Ships,” as well, which is one of the fastest songs on the album. I still listen to it, four years later. Overall, a fantasic musical, and a fantasic soundtrack. However, some of the lyrics are still repetitive, and it being a fatastic production overall doesn’t excuse this. And may I add, I’m still sad the original cast stopped performing after just a year. I wish I could have some day seen Daveed Diggs fly across the stage as Lafyette as Washington chews out Hamilton…. okay I’ll stop gushing now. I’m just very partial to the original actors. And really… don’t get me started on the mixtape. Some may call it a fantasic addition, I personally do not care for it. I don’t find any of the songs to have any of the original impact the songs they were based off of did, espeically the rendition of “Hurricane,” if you can even call it that once it’s said and done.
#2: Be More Chill
Now, if you’ve been around me, you’ve probably heard me gush about Be More Chill before. Be More Chill is a great musical, and you can’t change my mind. I mean, who else would have come up with the concept of a teenager taking a pill that has a super-computer inside that implants itself in his brain and directs him on how to act cool, ultimately leading to him abandoning his best friend in pursuit of the girl of his dreams, while the Squip tries to take over his entire school, and then he has to put an end to the Squip’s deeds? No one. No one would have come up with that. I will admit, though… “The Pants Song” is a little lacking overall, but I can excuse it for an overall great album.
#1: Something Rotten
Now come on. What else did you expect for me to put as #1 on my list? Something Rotten is by far one of the most interesting musicals I have ever listened to. Having listened to several different musicals, I can definitely say that Something Rotten stands out as the most original and most interesting when it comes to it’s songs and overall performance. I could go on for days about the soundtrack, the silliness of the dialogue, the awesome historical accuracy… but I won’t. Becuase I’m about to exceed my word count.
So those are my top five favorite musicals! If you don’t agree, that’s completely fine with me, since these are mostly opinion based. Thank you for taking the time to read over this list!
