What is the most well known musical of all time?
What is the most well known musical of all time?
#1What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:46pmI'm sure there are a ton of ways to define this question, but I'll propose it this way: if you asked every single adult in America, "Have you ever heard of (show)? If so, what is it?" and they could answer that it was a stage musical, what show would be known by the most people? Or, perhaps a slightly different question, if you played a popular song from a show, a random, non-theater fan could tell you "Oh, that's from (show)," which show would be most well-known?
#2What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:48pmI'd say WEST SIDE STORY.
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#2What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:51pmProbably one that had an equally successful movie version. My guess would be The Sound of Music.
#3What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:51pmI'd say The Sound of Music.
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sorano916
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/6/08
#4What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:52pmI would say Phantom... maybe even Les Mis. It helps that those were made into movies. Chicago, too, I guess.
#5What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:52pm
My immediate thought was that WEST SIDE STORY is possibly the best-known musical around the world, because of so many international productions over the past 50 years, and of course the film. I suspect most people would identify Tonight or Maria as being from WSS.
(I wonder how many poeple couldn't tell you what musical features the song Oklahoma!!)
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philly03
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/07
#6What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:53pmThe Sound of Music or Phantom of the Opera!
#7What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:53pmWSS is even studied in many high schools in conjunction with Romeo and Juliet.
AwesomeDanny
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/30/09
#8What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:54pmFor the first question, I would say either Oklahoma or Phantom. The second question is a bit harder, because many people have heard of shows without knowing any of their songs. I don't really think that there is a song from a musical that 80% or so of the country could recognize as from a specific show.
#9What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:55pm
Didn't want to include my guess in the original post, but my initial guess was WSS.
And I meant to imply that obviously songs with the title of the show in it wouldn't be included, TSR :). Though I'd bet a very small portion of the public could identify that modern standards, like Oh What a Beautiful Mornin' and People Will Say We're in Love are from Oklahoma. Similarly with South Pacific--I had no idea I already knew half the songs in the show until I actually saw it.
minicko88
Featured Actor Joined: 7/12/07
#10What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:59pmPhantom, but I can see WSS being a good argument too. I'd also say Cats and Les Mis would be up there as well...
PastorErnst
Broadway Star Joined: 4/20/09
#11What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:59pmI second Les Miserables.
#12What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:00pm
The first thing that came to my mind was Phantom of the Opera. I would guess just about everyone could hum a few bars of the overture.
I could also see it being The Sound of Music, given how popular the film is.
#13What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:02pmI'm going to go with The Sound of Music.
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Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#14What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:03pm
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#15What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:04pmSound of Music for sure.
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#16What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:05pmThe Sound of Music grosses adjusted with the inflation makes it the third top grossing film of all time.
alterego
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/03
#17What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:08pmDepends on the age group of the person or people you are asking. Personally I'd have to say MY FAIR LADY or HELLO, DOLLY! However if you are asking anyone under 35 the answer would probably be (sadly) PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
#18What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:12pmWhat about The Wizard of Oz? People think of the movie, but I bet just about anybody could identify "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as being from it.
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#19What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:17pm
Regarding age, I think we just need to net everyone.
Also, I'm tempted to say if you say "What is The Wizard of Oz?" or The Sound of Music, most people will answer "a movie" and will not even know it was ever a stage musical, so I don't really think that counts if what we're trying to measure is the show that's most identifiable as a stage musical.
Updated On: 8/24/10 at 09:17 PM
#20What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:29pm
I think the most well-known are the ones people grew up with, the ones they first saw as a kid and it made that first big impression. I'd say Annie or Sound of Music. SOM is on TV every holiday and when Jay-Z can have a hit rap song from an Annie song, you know it's gotta be popular.
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Updated On: 8/24/10 at 09:29 PM
#21What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:51pm
The Wizard of Oz
As far as Broadway musicals? If you're asking everyone alive today, around the world, including the youngest generations, I'd say West Side Story.
10-15 years ago, I would have said The Sound of Music, largely due to the phenomenal success of the film.
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eatlasagna
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#22What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 10:32pmI'd say Grease... even though most know it as a movie musical... and is there ever a week when this movie isn't played on tv these days?? geez... i think AMC ran it this week... last week was TV Guide Channel... then the week before it was VH1... and then before that TV LAND... AAAAH!
#23What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 10:35pm
I'd bet just about everyone knows Phantom, especially if we're talking JUST in terms of the stage show. Cats would be up there also for anyone over 20 or so, but I think The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music are known far more for their respective movies than the stage shows (play "An Ordinary Couple" or "No Way to Stop It" for most people and see what they say.)
Why can't the answer to this be Sweeney Todd?
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Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#24What is the most well known musical of all time?
Posted: 8/24/10 at 10:41pmIn Japan it would be Oh! Calcutta! It was Japanese tourists that kept it running for so long in New York.
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