If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
Ragtime and Rags are both included in the poll. There's also a slot to add any musical omitted from the list. (One person has already submitted "Hairspray.")
Curious that Assassins is polling second, behind Ragtime.
I think that listening to 1776, A White House Cantata (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) and Ragtime together, one after the other, creates a good narrative arc about US history and aspiration.
I thought including Floyd Collins was an odd choice-- Bonnie and Clyde seemed much more in keeping with the American History theme if you want a Depression musical, and even Annie has Roosevelt's whole cabinet onstage!
You left out Bloomer Girl by Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen, about a young woman before the Civil War (Barbara Cook) who is an abolitionist and a believer in women's rights who defies her father and wears bloomers and refuses to marry her fiancee until he frees his slave.
Here is a very young Barbara Cook singing two of the duets from the show (with the handsome Keith Andes), "Evalina" and "Right As the Rain":
River, it like to flow. Eagle, it like to fly. Eagle, it like to feel Its wings against the sky.
Possum, it like to run. Ivy, it like to climb. Bird in the tree and bumblebee Want freedom in autumn or summertime.
Ever since that day When the world was an onion, 'Twas natch'ral for the spirit To soar and play... The way the Lawd' a-wanted it!
Free as the sun is free, That's how it's gotta be. Whatever is right For bumblebee and river and eagle Is right for me! We gotta be free, The eagle and me!
I can see why you'd think Bonnie and Clyde is an omission, but why is Floyd Collins an odd choice? It is about a specific historical event that some believe -- because of all the attention it got in the media-- to be a pivotal moment in American history.
It would still take courage to play an abolitionist. I used to be a Yankee Civil War civilian reenactor. Some of the Confederate reenactors insisted the war would have happened without slavery. I don't buy it for one second. Even one of the top honchos in the Museum of the Confederacy agreed with my comment that South Carolina seceded to protect slavery.
Audrey (AKA Mrs. Jacob Levy when I'm reenacting)
Audrey, the Phantom Phanatic, who nonetheless would rather be Jean Valjean, who knew how to make lemonade out of lemons.