Good musicals of the past ten years?

[Mr Roxy]

LB was enjoyable fluff. Not Lord Brantley material but enjoyment for the masses.

[ljay889]

Mjohnson, people have listed shows from 20 years ago. I am basing my opinion on the WTF production, which has many changes from 2001.

[ErinDillyFan]

In The Heights
Bonnie & Clyde
The Drowsy Chaperone
Next to Normal
Spelling Bee
The Light In The Piazza
Spring Awakening
The Pirate Queen
Legally Blonde
Passing Strange
Shrek
Memphis
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Catch Me if You Can
The Book of Mormon
Kinky Boots
Big Fish
Rocky
A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder
Beautiful
Bullets over Broadway
Aladdin

Only broadway?

[DigificWriter]

Based just on their librettos/scores, here are some of my personal favorite musicals to have debuted on Broadway in the past 10 years:
Disney's Tarzan (2006)
The Wedding Singer (2006)
Chaplin (2006)
Legally Blonde (2007)
American Idiot (2010)
Love Never Dies (2010)
Disney's Newsies (2011)

[mjohnson2]

DigificWriter, were those the only musicals you saw in the past ten years?

[DigificWriter]

Most of the stuff I've seen comes from far earlier than the last decade... hence why I included the caveat "just based on their librettos/scores" when I posted my list.

I fell in love with the scores for the musicals I listed and consider them to be favorites just based on that fact alone (and will endeavor to see them at some point if provided with the opportunity).

[Eurotrash]

Good choices Digific, let's not hear any more Blight on the Pizza or Dirges of Madison County, pur-lease...

[Someone in a Tree2]

How has no-one gotten around to mentioning BILLY ELLIOTT yet?
For me the production in the West End (and you can't simply rely on the cast album here) is perhaps the best of the best in the decade.

My runners up are BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, NEXT TO NORMAL, and parts of GREY GARDENS, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS and THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA.

[Jarethan]

I loved some of the shows listed -- particularly Kinky Boots, The Scottsboro Boys and Gentleman's Guide -- but it is not that impressive a list in totality IMHO. When contrasted against other decades, e.g., the 50s, 60s, 70s, etc., it is sorta Tier 2.

Even something like Spring Awakening did not stand up to repeat viewing the way a lot of old shows do. Loved it the first time, restless the second, bored the third.

Same reaction I had with BOM...loved it the first time (in previews), liked it the second time but a lot of the surprise was gone, have had no urge to see it a third time. While it is clearly a monster hit and will still be running a decade from now, I wonder whether it will be viewed years from now as a brilliant musical or as a really well done exercise in shock humor, with some clever ditties.

[Sousaphun]

In the Heights and Legally Blonde are sorely underrated.

[TalkinLoud]

How has no one mentioned BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON?

[Someone in a Tree2]

"When contrasted against other decades, e.g., the 50s, 60s, 70s, etc., it is sorta Tier 2."

Totally agree. Even compared to the 90's, I think the definition of a great musical has shifted (as attested to by those who rave about BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, SPRING AWAKENINGS, KINKY BOOTS and BOOK OF MORMON) which all left us unmoved and unamused, with the scent of amateur hour wafting through most of them.

Threads like this just make me feel like an old fogey-- yuck.

[DigificWriter]

"Good choices Digific"

Thank you.

It will forever bother me that I may have forever missed my chance to see American Idiot staged (although I will endeavor to see it should some local Utah professional theater company decide they want to attempt to stage it), because what Michael Meyer, Billie Joe Armstrong, and Tom Kitt did to the already-great music from American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown is nothing short of phenomenal.

The musical's version of 21 Guns has earned a spot as one of my favorite pieces of theater music EVER (putting it in such company as "Music of the Night", "Do You Hear the People Sing?", "What You Own", and "No One Knows Who I Am", just to name a few), but what Tom Kitt did with the rest of the songs from AI and 2C1B that are featured in the musical's libretto/score is just as awesome.

I also really love the songs from Newsies (especially "Something to Believe", "The World Will Know", and "Watch What Happens"), and am hoping that Disney Theatrical will announce a National Tour and that it will end up coming to Utah if they do.

Chaplin didn't fare too well critically, but I really like the songs, especially the musical's love ballad "What Only Love Can See", and think it'd be neat to see somebody revive it and give it a second shot.

The Wedding Singer is one of my favorite movies EVER, so I was naturally going to dig anything adapted from it, but it's a major plus that the songs created for the musical version of the story are just as iconic and awesome as the songs from the film that Adam Sandler wrote and which are included in the musical adaptation.

For all of the complaints that Love Never Dies 'ruined' Phantom and wasn't all that good, I personally really enjoy the original libretto for it, particularly the songs "The Beauty Underneath", both versions of "Devil Take the Hindmost", and "Beneath a Moonless Sky" (the melody for which, BTW, shows up in the orchestration for the 2004 film version of Phantom, something I find really neat).

One local Utah theater, Tuacahn in St. George, has staged in the past, and I'm hoping they'll eventually bring it back for a second run, but even if they don't, I love the libretto for it and really like the additional material that was added to Phil Collins' original material as seen in the film, particularly "Different", "No Man I've Ever Seen", and "For the First Time".

I've never seen the film version of Legally Blonde, but know enough about its basic plot to appreciate the libretto and score for the stage version, with my favorite songs from it being "Positive", "What You Want", ""Chip on My Shoulder", "There, Right There", and "The Harvard Variations".

[rob_hanson1979]

I am with Someone in a Tree2... I think Billy Elliot is one of the best things to come along in ages. It quickly has become my favorite show, and I've seen it numerous times with numerous casts. I have loved it every time. From the music to the inspirational story to the brilliant acting from the actors(I was still playing with lego when I was 12, certainly not starring in a broadway musical), I think the show is fantastic.
Some other shows I've really enjoyed are Wicked, Newsies, and Thoroughly Modern Millie (I think slightly over 10 years ago). I've seen a bunch of other shows that I have enjoyed, but those are the ones that really stood out in my mind.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

"I also really love the songs from Newsies (especially "Something to Believe", "The World Will Know", and "Watch What Happens"), and am hoping that Disney Theatrical will announce a National Tour and that it will end up coming to Utah if they do."

Apparently, you missed this...http://www.playbill.com/news/article/disney-musical-newsies-will-launch-north-american-tour-in-october-2014

[The Other One]

The Light In The Piazza
Spring Awakening
Billy Elliott
Next to Normal
The Bridges of Madison County

[GavestonPS]

THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA requires no apology from anyone. Its score is breathtaking and its book is adult (as in "grown-up") not dumb.

Living far from NYC, I have to depend on tours and bootlegs, but I would add:

PASSION (if we are indeed going back 20 years; I actually saw it on Broadway)
GREY GARDENS
NEXT TO NORMAL
THE BOY FROM OZ (only for Jackman's performance)
THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS (only for the score; the show was a case of settling for low-hanging fruit; I get it: Jim Crow was very bad)
HAIRSPRAY

And I have to admit I am woefully ignorant of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE.

All in all, not an especially auspicious couple of decades for America's "only original form of theater" (a highly debatable appellation, I'll concede). Of course, there were some lovely revivals, including GYPSY and FOLLIES, each more than once.

But it's hard to resist the conclusion that most (not all) of Broadway has become a marketplace aimed at the demographic with the least arts education. I mean, I'm all for the popular arts, but jeeze!

[Someone in a Tree2]

Oh Gaveston, you're such a delightful cheater-- going back 20 years despite the name of the thread because the last 10 have offered such small pickin's.

Okay, I'll play along, giving more credit to the great shows of the 90's than you did. Namely--

RENT
TITANIC (for the score alone)
RAGTIME
THE LION KING (for the spectacle rather than the play)
PARADE (for Act I only)
THE WILD PARTY (La Chiusa's)
and HAIRSPRAY.

I'll also make one mention for the play-with-music BRIEF ENCOUNTER, and another for the near-musical WARHORSE (again based on the British production, not the American). WARHORSE ties with BILLY ELLIOTT as my favorite nights of musical theater since 2004.

[GavestonPS]

Someone, somebody else listed PASSION, which is where I got the idea.

But thanks for reminding me of RAGTIME, my favorite show of the past 20 years (even though I don't think the second act quite works). I saw it several times in L.A. before the Broadway opening.