Yeah, I mean not sure how you can say Carousel condones spousal abuse. After Billy hits Julie they remind him of it and what a bad person he is over and over and over for the rest of the show...
1)south pacific-song for song strongest of all their shows and powerful story.racism as central toapic in 1950 wow!
2)the king and i-a very close second song for song
loved the revival and tour
3)oklahoma-changed modern musicals forever and fantastic songs. im a fan of hughs london revival
4) sound of music-so much better on film than stage
for some reason...probably the most songs that have become standards due to the films massive success. the recent tour and lindon production broadcast on tvwere treats as were parts if the recent us tv production(go audra)
5) carousel-if i loved you one of the mostbeautiful songs of all time. recent production with kelli ohara really brought this show to an entire new level for me
6) cinderella-it took a long time to get to broadway but they really delivered the goods. the "big 5" rh musicals should be revised to big 6
If you've only seen the film, you might say that Carousel does, in fact, condone spousal abuse, but of course the musical does not in any way (and Molnar did so even less)
Song for song, you can't really beat South Pacific. It's one well known standard after another. However, the book occasionally lags, particularly in the map room scenes.
Carousel might be the most complete show they've written. The score may not contain as many hits, but it's highly effective and probably the most region specific score they ever wrote.
But then it's hard to discount Oklahoma and how it changed the genre.
I think you could make a case for any one of those three shows. If you held a gun to my head I'd probably pick South Pacific.
I think OKLAHOMA! is the most perfectly structured.
I love THE KING AND I, but think I probably shouldn't. For different reasons, the same might be said of THE SOUND OF MUSIC.
I agree that SOUTH PACIFIC drags a bit with the late war scenes, but, God, what a score!
I'd prefer CAROUSEL if something actually happened in Act II, but again, what a score!
I'd be happy to sit through productions of ALLEGRO, PIPE DREAM and CINDERELLA, the latter containing some of Rodgers' best songs. I have no idea what the hell they were thinking with ME AND JULIET. (Actually I do know, but somebody should have slapped them! Rodgers and Hammerstein were never going to become Rodgers and Hart.)
Just one of many things wrong with that adaptation of Carousel...I might be the only one who maintains that Shirley Jones was a mediocre Julie, but I'm very picky about who plays the role...
South Pacific is my favorite of the five indisputable classics. The King and I is my least favorite of those five, because its supporting characters, in spite of their gorgeous songs, never quite register as strongly as the supporting characters in the other shows.
I agree with Galveston. Me & Juliet is the one R&H show I find it impossible to make a case for.
After Eight said: "Cinderella --- the REAL one by R & H, not that horrible "adaptation."
WTF are you talking about? Cinderella by R&H was never on Broadway until the adaptation you refer to, and by "horrible" I assume you are referring to Douglas Carter Beane's book. It was never a "show" It was a TV production
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<--------Curtain call, opening night of A Little Night Music, Dec. 13, 2009
This feels like a topic that has been visited before, but anyway- of the "big five", I have to go along with the composer, who felt Carousel was his greatest achievement. Sondheim has said that when he saw the original with Mary Rodgers, they were both bawling their eyes out. That's good enough for me!
Yay for the shout-out to the Twin Cities! I grew up around Minneapolis, and we have some fantastic theatre out there (Minneapolis likes to brag that it has the second-most theatre seats per capita, only falling short to New York).
Overall, I find "The King and I" and "The Sound of Music" to be the best of R&H's musicals, though I find their overall power and impact to be quite diminished unless they are performed by really good actors. "South Pacific" still holds a special place in my heart, though, as it was one of the first musical scores I fell in love with.
It looks as if I'm in rare company for believing that Oklahoma! is a truly flawed musical. I think it has some beautiful parts to it, but the ending is incredibly rushed and Jud Fry is given such poor treatment as a character at his death. Those two aspects are enough to take me out of the story every time I see the musical.
I still regret missing the Encores! production of "Pipe Dream" a couple of years back. As imperfect as it is, I don't think I'll be able to see a professional production of it anytime soon.
My "big 3" R&H shows are Cinderella, The Sound of Music, and Carousel, although that ranking is based on specific presentations of those shows (Cinderella as presented on Broadway in 2013, The Sound of Music as presented at the London Palladium in 2006, and Carousel as presented on Broadway in 1994).
"Cinderella by R&H was never on Broadway until the adaptation you refer to, and by "horrible" I assume you are referring to Douglas Carter Beane's book. It was never a "show" It was a TV production ."
Oh really, it was a tv show? Who would have ever guessed? Imagine the temerity to consider a tv show a "show." Of course, the fact that that "non-show" was presented on stage before the arrival of that miserable "adaptation" is obviously of no importance to a sage like yourself.
I reiterate. My favorite R & H show is Cinderella--- the REAL one by R & H, not that horrible "adaptation."
It's Carousel for me, for the sublime score and the vivid characters. As others have said, the show obviously doesn't condone abuse, but I do think that Julie's famous line inevitably makes an unhelpful impression on audiences today. But that's going to be the case for a lot of properties from years past. I Love Lucy has a scene where Ricky spanks Lucy, and there are many other references in the series to what we'd have to consider domestic abuse today, yet somehow we can still enjoy it.
Ado Annie D'Ysquith said: "This person who thinks Carousel "condones spousal abuse" does not get the show at all. Thumbs down!
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For serious?? Oi...it's like saying B and the B condones the same thing because Belle has Stockholm Symdrome. I hear that argument one more time, I'm gonna scream.
Now for the topic...my favorite is probably a damn close toss up between King and I and Sound of Music. I guess it's because those are issues that move me the most but also are still relevant as hell today.
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Posted: 2/22/17 at 3:07pm