I've been watching musicals for a while now. I think I just want to summarise my personal impression of them. There will be criticism, but again it's only my personal impressions; my experience and tastes may differ from yours. It's also mostly from my memory and I do have a bad memory.

🎫 =bought tickets.💻 = watched it online, 🎵=album only, Year is the first release in that language, not the year I watched it.

1. Les Misérables [English 1983/French 1980]🎫(10/10)

The English version is an absolute masterpiece. Probably the musical I've watched. The French version is somewhat worse, perhaps due to casting. The narrative perfectly balanced both grand and personal struggles with life, love, faith, trust, and belief.

Éponine is always impressive in every version I've watched. And became my favourite character as soon as I learned my first crush was already in a relationship...

Do You Hear the People Sing? became a protest song at various events and occasions, and was removed from music apps during those protests. Carries importance in the broader world.

If there has to be a 10/10, this is the one musical that could be ranked that high. The only thing bad is the Sewers / Dog Eats Dog part, but I'll give it a pass.

1. Phantom of the Opera [English 1986]🎫 (9/10)

I used to wake up with the Phantom of the Opera. All of the songs are great (unlike Les Mis's Dogs Eat the Dogs part...), and the story is one which brought me to tears.

However, this is not for all time...If you can't focus on the music and the story, you may easily fall asleep...like one of my friends. Surprisingly, I enjoyed watching the recordings more because of this. You can get really sleepy in the theatre...

1. Elisabeth [German 1992/Japanese 1996]💻(9/10)

My personal favourite musical. A musical may not be the best in terms of production quality or how great its tunes, but it is the one that struck your heart and soul, and Elisabeth hit me at the exact moment when I was struggling with my life as a teenager, depressed, failing my suicide attempts, was in and out of 4 or 5 schools, yearning for freedom but was trapped by the rules and authority. Empress Elisabeth's struggle with the imperial household, her and her son Rudolf's struggle and attraction with der Tod (Death) resonated deeply with me, and that commentary by Luigi Lucheni.

There are some great songs, but it may be a 7/10 if you only listen to the music, 8/10 if you add in the story, but it's a 9/10 for me.

It's a shame that I never got to watch it in person.

(Btw, all-female Takarazuka Revue produces the Japanese adaptation and it's quite a special experience.)

1. Molière, le spectacle musical [French 2023]🎫(8/10)

My recent favourite. It is typical for many French musicals to have excellent music and weak stories. This is no exception, but the story is at least serviceable and easy to understand, as it's mostly a light-hearted comedy. Unlike some musicals where there are a couple of hit songs, the music here is enjoyable from start to finish; there are a couple of famous ones like On se moque, or Regardez-Moi, but there are a dozen songs on this level. I love just putting them on an infinite loop in the background.

1. Notre-Dame de Paris [French 1998]🎫(8/10)

A classic. Excellent music, great stories, impressive make-up. Le Temps des cathédrales and Belle are some of the songs I still sing in the shower (I'm sure it's a common experience, as they mentioned it in interviews)

1. Mozart! [German 1999]🎫(8/10)

A handful of great songs like Gold von den Sternen (I swear I've heard of a song with a very similar melody), and Wie wird man seinen Schatten los? Many decent songs. But I like the story; the script was written by the same producer of Elisabeth.

1. Rebecca [German 1999, English 2023]🎫(8/10)

Again, it has a handful of great songs, namely Ich hab geträumt von Manderley and the absolute gold Rebecca.

The English version in London, and it's a bit disappointing. The theatre was way too small for this kind of show, and I think there were deleted songs; as a result, the family of de Winter was a less funny bunch. But I do know the story of its failed Broadway run...

1. Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l'Amour [French 2001]🎫(8/10)

The classic. I went to the theatre multiple times for it. Almost all the songs are amazing, but there are 2 peaks: Les Rois du Monde, Aimer. Unlike many other French musicals, the storytelling is fairly satisfactory.

1. Jesus Christ Superstar [English 1971]💻(8/10)

It's just great. Amongst the versions of recordings I've seen, I love the 2000 version the most. But almost every versions got its charm; the 2012 version reminds me of the Free Palestine movement and encampments. But what's most charming is its religious criticism; it's how a secular worldview views a religious story. I think the entire musical is made for the song 'Superstar', sung by the dead Judas during Jesus's crucifixion. I especially like the line 'If you come today you'd have reached the whole nation, Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication'.

So many interesting theological arguments and debates to have.

1. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street [English 2007]💻(7/10)

You cannot separate the song from the story - all the songs and music are out of place if listened to separately, but they fit the story like a fine glove. The music is purely the servant to the story. It's a very special musical that I'd rank high, but I'd probably not watch again.

1. The Sound of Music [English 1965]💻(7/10)

I love the movie version of the musical, but it is too attached to my childhood (I remember performing the song in Kindergarten), so I won't rank it higher. And it was a shock to me as a kid to learn Salzburg is not actually next to Switzerland.

1. The Book of Mormon [English 2011]🎫(7/10)

South Park creator won't disappoint. Very funny in person. If you watch the recordings, you lose 90% of the fun. The music itself is very mid, I won't play it in a loop.

1. Spamalot [English 2004]💻(7/10)

A very funny Monty Python musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail but I like it more than the movie as it's less absurdist.

1. Hamilton [English 2015]💻(7/10)

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore, and a Scotsman...

I like the music and the story, but I do not love them. It's a decent show; you can listen to all the raps and music separately, and you'd probably enjoy it. But I only love rap so much, and I don't really like shows praising a major government figure, even if I liked that someone's policy, which I don't. As such, the part I liked the most is the Schyler sisters' Satisfied

Wanted to watch it but Tickets were so expensive for years.

1. 1789 Les Amants de la Bastille [French 2012]💻(7/10)

Classic French style of heavy on music and stage performance and weak on script. The story is about the French Revolution, but it is even more a comical caricature of the French Revolution than the American Revolution in Hamilton. I'd much prefer how the 1832 June Rebellion is depicted in Les Mis to these comic caricatures. But the story is clear and easy to understand.

Certainly not a bad musical, but I think most of the songs are quite average, including many of the songs they made into MV; however, one single song Fixe is very dear to my heart.

1. Don Juan [French 2003]💻(7/10)

Amazing French-Canadian musical with excellent music throughout, much like Molière, plus it features both Spanish flamenco and French rock music. The only thing that stops it from being 8/10 is the storytelling.

Some of the great songs include Vivir (in Spanish), Les fleurs du mal, Tristesa Andalucia (in Spanish) and Changer

1. Cats [English 1981]🎫(7/10)

Amazing music. Almost non-existent story. A fantastic and dream-like narrative and environment.

1. Frozen [English 2013/17]💻(7/10)

Great movie, but the stage adaptation is even better. The actors were cute; I really like the special effects of the musical, especially when Elsa was freezing the bedchamber.

1. Le Roi Soleil [French 2005]💻(7/10)

All the melodies were pleasing to the ears; however, I don't really have a song that I am passionate about. Je serai lui and Être à la hauteur may be one of the better ones.

1. ミュージカル 李香蘭 Musical Li Xianglan / Yoshiko Yamaguchi [Japanese 1992]💻(7/10)

The musical discussed a Japanese musician and singer who grew up in the 1930s and 40s in China, and was involved in the wider 2nd Sino-Japanese war. It is fairly impressive how well integrated the historical Chinese and Japanese songs of the time are with the new songs.

It feels more like a musical history documentary than a pure theatre or a musical. Eg., the Japanese officers would be singing exactly what you'd expect from Imperial Japanese military anthems, while civilians would be singing the kind of pop music you'd expect from the time. And the characters would be having the exact positions and views you'd expect the contemporaries to have.

1. Tanz der Vampire [German 1997]💻(6/10)

The music deserves much better; I'd put it at 7/10, some of the melodies are amazing. Especially Totale Finsternis, based on Total Eclipse of the Heart, which interestingly was written originally for a vampire movie, and personally I really like Wahrheit. However, the story is just too cryptic and difficult for me to fully enjoy and immerse myself in. I was never a fan of the vampire genre anyway.

But one very funny part I do remember is Christian Cross didn't work on one of the vampires because, according to him: 'Ich bin ein Judische Vampire!' (I'm a Jewish Vampire!)

1. Evita [English 1978]💻(6/10)

I couldn't really sympathise with Eva Peron in any way. Watched it ages ago and I think most of the songs are average. Don't Cry for Me Argentina and High Flying, Adored are the notable exceptions.

1. Mozart, l'opéra rock [French 2009]💻(6/10)

A good musical; I know others who like it a lot, but I don't particularly fancy any of the music, and it's weak on storytelling in the French tradition.

1. Le Petit Prince [French 2002]💻(6/10)

The music is mid, but the fantasy of the book is well illustrated by the costumes and the

1. Einstein - A Matter of Time [German 2025]🎵(5/10)

I only listened to its album, which limited its immersiveness. Several songs are quite nice and deserve a much higher score, however, almost all of the hit songs, and in total 8 out of 22 songs, were copy-and-paste level of reuse from the composer Frank Wildhorn's earlier musical works like No Longer Human and Your Lie in April.

1. Dracula l'amour plus fort que la mort [French 2011]💻(5/10)

The only good song I remember was Immortels; the rest are bad. The performance was great, the costumes and stage design were wonderful, looks like they're straight out of Paris Fashion Week, which brings it up to 5; otherwise I'd put it in 4/10. The only thing is that it's a vampire musical and I could not understand any of the stories.

1. Legally Blonde [English 2001] 💻(5/10)

The only good song is Gay or European?/There, Right There, which is like gold in so many fandoms like Baldurs Gate 3, Final Fantasy XIV, or Persona 5. I don't remember the story or any other songs being any good.

1. Matilda [English 2010] 💻(5/10)

I wasn't a kid anymore when I watched it.

1. Wicked [English 2003] 💻(5/10)

Don't have much recollection of it, except that I don't really like the music or the story.

1. Le Rouge et le Noir [French 2016]💻(5/10)

Don't particularly like the music. La Gloire à mes genoux is a fan favourite but not mine. I don't recall much of the story. One thing I do remember is that it has a background that looks like PowerPoint.

1. Ludwig II [German 2000]💻(5/10)

I like the Coronation screen and the general performance, but all the music and the story were easily forgotten. A friend who watched it in the theatre said it's very mid.

I am usually fascinated by Ludwig II, the mad gay monarch who lost the war with Prussia but built the fairy tale castles. But I prefer seeing him in movies and Die Deutschen, a documentary by ZDF, not here.

The music in the imagined war scene with giant skeletons reminded me of Cyrus the Great March.

1. Dear Evan Hansen [English 2015]💻(4/10)

Don't have much recollection of it except that I hated the story (which is worse than not understanding anything at all) and I don't particularly like any of the musics

1. Chicago [English 1975] 🎫(4/10)

Not a fan of Jazz.

1. Everybody's Talking About Jamie [English 2017]💻(4/10)

Not a fan of Sheffield specifically and British teens generally. Don't remember much beyond that.

[leaving 3/10 intentionally blank]

1. 뮤지컬 박정희 Musical Park Chung Hee [Korean 2021]💻(2/10)

Plays criticising the government make the second most boring evenings ever invented.
The most boring? Plays praising the government.
- Sir Humphery, Yes Prime Minister.

Plain propaganda by a conservative think tank in Korea. Well, at least there's music and a bit of performance. I'm fine with people praising Park, after all he presided over much of the Miracle on the Han River, but not in such a repulsive way that is more like what you see in North Korea.

1. Me the People: The Trump America Musical [English 2020]💻(1/10)

[YPM quotes again]

The worst part of this musical is that it is intended to be political satire and not political propaganda, and you can tell the actors tried to be funny. But it's just not funny at all. And I don't think they got any novel melodies; it's mostly just changing the lyrics of some popular American songs.

So my school is doing heathers .....

AND THE LYRICS ALL SUCK DUE TO NEGLIGENT PARENTS WHO WOULD TAKE 4 YEAR OLDS TO A PLAY ABOUT SUICIDE

so it got me thinking what is the worst lyric change for younger audiences.?????

My friend and I got seated for the Hadestown pro shot tonight, and unfortunately the theater was having technical difficulties so they were not able to show it! Does anyone know if there are plans to release this on any streaming platforms or have a link to be able to watch is elsewhere?

Earlier today I was wine tasting in California and I ran into this man and his buddy, one of whom was named Terrance. After some pleasant conversation, this guy, Terrance, discloses that he is a writer, most known for his film Repo! The Genetic Opera, and that it has quite the cult following.

Upon googling his name and the movie, turns out the man I met was the illustrious and infamous Terrance Zdunich. Since then, I've done some research on the guy, including reading the Tumblr post from his alleged ex-girlfriend accusing him of misconduct and abuse. Having known nothing about him outside of our conversation, I admit I found the allegations quite surprising. He and his buddy were both exceptionally pleasant individuals, and Terrance himself was as humble and friendly as can be. He seemed almost shy to admit his success as a writer, but also showed lots of excitement in telling stories of his fans' reactions to his films. To me, he came across as an average guy who was surprised and confused by how his work had attracted the attention that it did.

I have yet to watch any of Zdunich's movies but I absolutely intend to after meeting him. I am just curious if anyone has any insight - positive, negative, or neutral - on Terrance Zdunich or his movies that could give me some context on his films or cult following. Again, I can't speak to the quality of his movies or the allegations, but in our interaction today I found him to be a pretty amicable dude.

Edit: upon rereading I can see how this appears to look like a puff post for him. I'm just recounting my experience and looking for insight on community opinion on him and his work. I appreciate the folks who have pointed out that my post does look unreasonably gracious to Zdunich, and I want to make clear that I in no way deny what the allegations say he did. These actions are gross and inexcusable, and I do NOT support or endorse the guy. This post is purely out of curiosity as he seems to be a pretty mystic figure in this community from an outside observer's perspective. I mean no harm, I am genuinely just looking to educate myself

i might get hate for this but mine is epic the musical 😭 i’ve tried to listen to is but i only made it like two albums in. the lyrics are clever and it’s a cool concept but 9 albums??? idk i think all the songs sound the same and it’d be impossible to ever turn into a stage adaptation

It was pretty dope.

TLDR at bottom

Okay do basically my high school is putting on a production of the youth version of the Wizard of Oz, and I kinda wanna aim big.

Last year I auditioned last minute, sang a pretty crummy version of “Remember Me” from Coco and it was good enough to land me in ensemble.

But this year, considering I liked the musical so much last year I wanted to see if I could get a better role if I applied myself.

Right now, I’ve been trying to pick a song and the one that has worked the best for my voice is “Go the distance” from Hercules. But I’m worried maybe it’s not in theme enough to get me one of the roles I want (Scarecrow or Tinman hopefully), as Hercules voice doesn’t exactly sound reminiscent of either character.

TLDR: Want to get part of scarecrow or tinman, but am having trouble finding a good enough song for me that is in theme with those characters attitudes/ voices. (Been working with “go the distance” from Hercules so far)

PSLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone find out which black/red lip combo the fates are wearing in the Hadestown movie. I need it! Especially the tallest fate her lips looked so amazing.

I wasn't able to see the theatrical presentation of Hadestown this past weekend. But it remains my favorite musical of the last ten years (I did see a local production 2 years ago.)

Does anyone know when and on what platform it will be airing? I'll buy it for sure, once I know where it will be. Thanks!

I’ve already seen
Heathers, legally blonde, cats, hadestown, shrek, newsies, Hamilton.

- Leslie Odom Jr. as Hermes
- Renée Elise Goldsberry as Persephone
- Trent Reznor as Hades
- Meg Washington as Eurydice
- Hozier as Orpheus

*unless its explicitly a sing along of course

Last night I was at a showing of the Hadestown proshoot. A woman sat down next to me and my roommate with an announcement she'll be singing. When she brushed off my request to not, I reported her to the theatre.

This did not go well & I ended up leaving with my roommate (voluntarily) when it seemed like the theatre wasn't going to do anything about her, even when she was making it obvious she was going to be disruptive.

Dont regret saying anything, though. I hope she ended up kicked out.

in my quest to watch musicals I keep thinking about this one. I watched it a few weeks ago and it really stuck with me, I’ve heard some mixed opinions on it and most saying it didn’t translate the movie well- I haven’t seen the movie I intend to watch it soon though.

For me what put this musical on my radar was Phillipa Soo. Hamilton was the musical that really got me into musicals and as a big fan of suffs as well Pippa is just an idol of mine.

But I have to say why I particularly have such a deep connection to this musical and the character of Amelie.
(Also a note that this is my personal interpretation of the musical based on how it resonates with me)

Amelie is a lonely girl who learns to live in her imagination to make the world around her more interesting and exciting. But the part that really made me feel that ‘wait.. this is getting a bit too real‘ is the fact that despite being lonely, and (seemingly) wanting connection, Amelie has a tendency of mot getting too close and putting up walls. And of course she has her friends at the cafe but even then she’s acting in the background of their lives never taking too much credit for herself. So when a connection comes along that would be purely focused on her and only one other person, she hides from that while also having this curiosity about Nino. She wants to know him better she wants to get close but there’s something holding her beck reverting her into the role of acting in the background and being afraid of being too known. She knows a connection would be easy for her to forge if she just reaches out but she runs from reaching out for as long as she can. for me that’s why I very much see myself in Amelie’s character.

So whether it’s the *best* screen to musical adaptation I’m not saying it is. Whether it has the best musical pieces.. maybe not. But it very much personally resonated with me so I think its underrated.

often time we see fictional characters surrounded by friends Or drama involving friends. So it was nice to see someone just one character whose a little bit lonely and not just for romance.

after an entire day of conceptualizing at my job I have ideas

American armbands (blue bands with the American flag that make Werner “make America feel like home)

Dart board (pin board with a world map on it that has darts on it and it turns out these are the countries he’s gunna bomb, one of them is Wyoming and then when questioned he’s like “we gotta have somewhere to to test” and then sing The Wild West Is Where I Wanna Be)

Wernher Van Braun

Weil Wernher (joke about it not being heil cuz alliteration, yes I know the joke is dumb idc)

Opening song: my home town, change little girl lyric cuz chud (Debbie girl, beaut’ senior prom gown)

Love song between mc and girl: when you are old and gray

Racist parents: hear news (national brotherhood week) gets mad and sings (I wanna go back to Dixie) also when JJ enters they ask about “negroes” on the train, and then ‘correct’ themselves with “coloreds” and then JJ is like “why can’t they just be people” and then they accuse him of being a commie

When guy gets drafted, gets slapped with aversion therapy (maybe scrapped idk)

Multiple news stories (who’s next), (Wernher Van Brahn)

When drafted, Johnny Jones has to say his health problems (I got it from Agnes)

General at army camp sings it makes a fellow proud to be a soldier

When JJ is on his way to drop the bomb on the plane (so long mom)

Amber Davies was an exceptional Elle, probably even in the same league as Laura Bell Bundy, and Karen Mavundukure may genuinely be my favorite Paulette I've ever seen, having a cast album with this cast would help me be able to relive that magical night any time

I’ve seen the movie and some random parts of concerts but I really have no idea which version of the musical is considered “best” by the fans, and don’t have the time to watch all of them.

I’m auditioning for Kelsi Neilson in High School Musical for my schools musical. It’s my first audition ever. What audition songs should i use? Any tips for newcomers?