Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?- Page 3
Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
#50Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 9:20pm
To me it's:
"I Hate the Bus"-- Caroline or Change
"I Believe and Sal Tlay Ka Siti"-- The Book of Mormon
"There's a Fine, Fine, Line"-- Avenue Q
"Go Back Home"-- The Scottsboro Boys
"Another Winter in a Summer Town"-- Grey Gardens
That's about it.
Jordon, thank god you didn't say that Caroline or Change was better then anything Rodgers and Hammerstein put out or I would've exploded and left a HUGE crater in the United States.
#51Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 9:34pm
This is turning into a Caroline love thread. :) Gonna Pass Me a Law is great too, but I changed my mind from last night. I think Underwater is the best of that score.
I know it's controversial choice because it's new, but I really think Matilda has one of my favorite scores ever. When I Grow Up is the highlight, but the whole thing is just so note perfect. Everyone who should have a song has one, exactly in the right places, saying exactly the right things in exactly the right way.
Considering other British imports, I do like Billy Elliot but not nearly as much as other people here. The score is hit or miss for me, with the major hit being Shine. I don't think anything in it could be considered to be the best of the decade. Next to Normal's score is in fact far superior and deserved to win.
I know you.
I know you.
I know you.
#52Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 9:48pmI have absolutely no problem with Wicked's score, and relatively few with its lyrics. Frankly, the music and perfectly suit each other and suit the book. The show's conception as a Disney style romantic comedy-fantasy rather than a dark political fantasy are the central "problem" with Wicked, but other than that, it is fairly structurally sound as the show that it is.
#53Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 9:49pmMusical Master, thank you! I knew I left a writing team off of that list!
#54Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 9:52pm
Oh god. Just pray that I won't cause a Pandora's Box of apocolyptic disasters coming.
Updated On: 9/3/13 at 09:52 PM
#55Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:04pm
Look, I know it's a hard thing to accept. But the sooner you're able to do that, te happier you'll be.
#56Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:08pmFine. But Rodgers and Hammerstein are STILL the best writing team to ever breathe the air in this planet.
#57Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:11pm
You have no argument here about that. But the fact remains that another writing team happened to write one musical that surpasses all of those written by the other team.
#58Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:14pm
To YOU maybe, but for me no freaking way, I love Caroline or Change for it's story and characters but to me it's not the GREATEST musical to exist.
But hey, different strokes for different folks.
#59Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:16pmWell obviously I'm only talking about me. I don't even know you, how could I speak for you?
#60Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:24pm
I guess it's for the fact that I'm new here, but why would you say that "the fact remains" when it is still your opinion?
Please don't think I'm attacking you. I just want to understand.
#61Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:33pmI was giving my opinion and joking with you at the same time.
#62Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:35pm
Oh okay. Then thanks for joking with me. :)
#63Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 11:17pmWhile I wouldn't call it the best song, especially in competition with some of the other songs on this list, I think that Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' "Nothing Is Too Wonderful To Be True," especially the "jazz version" with some of the topical jokes taken out that was issued as a bonus track, is a gorgeous ballad, and if it were released in any other era would have been a standard.
#64Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/3/13 at 11:52pm
I agree about "He Wanted A Girl." I also would add "Heartbreak Country" from Giant.
I think the best comedic songs in the past ten years are "Great Big Stuff" and "Model Behavior," both by David Yazbeck. That's ironic. Also, "As We Stumble Along."
One of the sweetest love songs in a while is "Accident Waiting To Happen" from Drowsy Chaperone. "The Beauty Is" and "Say It Somehow" are two of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. "Pretty Funny" from Dogfight is one of my more recent favorites. Also, "Princess" from Man Of No Importance is such a great song.
It's had to choose just one from Spring Awakening. I love "Mama Who Bore Me," "Left Behind," and "The Song Of Purple Summer."
Hidden gem: "Stranger In This World" from Taboo. Chills every time.
"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop
#65Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/4/13 at 6:41am
"Lot's Wife" - Caroline, or Change
"Fable" - The Light in the Piazza
"Around the World" - Grey Gardens
"Another Winter in a Summer Town" - Grey Gardens
"I'm Here" - The Color Purple
"Just Another Day" - next to normal
"You Don't Know/I Am The One" - next to normal
"So Anyway"
"Light" - next to normal
"Naughty" - Matilda
"When I Grow Up" - Matilda
"Quiet" - Matilda
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#66Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/4/13 at 7:35am
My favorites in chronological order:
Schadenfreude (Ave Q)
Lot's Wife (Caroline or Change)
The Beauty Is (Light in the Piazza)
Another Winter in a Summer Town (Grey Gardens)
Invisible (Women on the Verge)
Naughty (Matilda)
Quiet (Matilda)
....but the world goes 'round
Updated On: 9/4/13 at 07:35 AM
#67Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/4/13 at 8:09am
I take "best song" to mean a musical composition that remains in your memory after you've seen the show, especially one written in in any of the many kinds of compact forms we have come to think of as a "song."
So not something that necessarily "works outside" the show, but not something that is a musical sequence or recitative. So, if we were discussing Gypsy, the "best song" would not be "Rose's Turn," but more likely "Some People" or "Everything's Coming Up Roses."
Therefore, I'll exclude "Die, Vampire, Die" from [title of show] because that's really a musical sequence, even though I love the number and its message, and I'll pass on Next to Normal. Even though I love the score, I don't think any of the individual numbers make a "best song" list.
As for musicals in the last 10 years, let's start with Wicked, which turns 10 this fall. I would choose "For Good," which I often find myself singing or thinking about in terms of people in my life.
Also turning 10 is Avenue Q, from which I would choose "There's a Fine, Fine Line," which never fails to move me.
I would add "Lot's Wife" from Caroline, or Change and "Another Winter in a Summer Town" from Grey Gardens. Each of those has come back to me many times since seeing those shows. Also, "I Believe" from Book of Mormon, since the combination of a powerful vocal line and surprising and original humor is an important (and much undervalued) component of musical theater.
And I'll add one song written for "the theater" in that it was written for the show-within-the-show on Smash: "Don't Forget Me."
But, Gaveston, you should not find this thread depressing because you haven't seen or listened to the shows. Why not listen to what people who have seen them and listened to them are genuinely enthusiastic about? Maybe their enthusiasm might open a window in your life.
Owen22
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/24/11
#68Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/4/13 at 8:51am
Wow, hard. Especially when I didn't think there were that many worthy musicals in the last decade to choose from.
I'd go with Besty's two choices from Grey Gardens (what happened to those writer's? Every thing since their debut has been sorta awful.)
"Dividing Day" is transcendent musical theatre writing.
I'd also have to go with "Invisible" from Verge. That song's lyrics, music and trajectory are what good song writing is all about.
It missed the cut off by one year, but I have to say "You Can't Stop the Beat" is as good a finale as has ever been written for a musical (again, the music, the lyrics--the metaphor!).
Kind of telling (and sad) that no one is mentioning songs form either Sondheim's one or the couple Lloyd-Weber has written during the specified time period...
Rentaholic2
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/14/04
#69Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/4/13 at 9:50am
My pretentious musical snob list:
"Around the World" - Grey Gardens
"Say It Somehow" - The Light in the Piazza
"I Wish I Could Go Back to College" - Avenue Q
"The I Love You Song" - Spelling Bee
"I Believe" - Spring Awakening
"The Bitch of Living" - Spring Awakening
My guilty pleasure list:
"Here I Am" - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
"It's Your Wedding Day" - The Wedding Singer
"The Life I Never Led" - Sister Act
"Her Voice" - The Little Mermaid
"The Song That Goes Like This" - Spamalot
"Sunday Morning Fever" - Sister Act
#70Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/4/13 at 10:01amRoad Show is hard to evaluate as something done in the past decade, because most of it wasn't.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
TheatreKid3
Broadway Star Joined: 3/25/12
#71Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/4/13 at 10:34amSo many mentions for the MATILDA score! Minchin deserved that Tony, dang it.
#72Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/4/13 at 10:50am
Weirdly I think one of my favorite songs from the past 10 years is "When She Smiles" from Lysistrata Jones. The song always gives me goosebumps when I hear it.
Another one of my favorites is Light from Next to Normal
luvcaroline
Broadway Star Joined: 10/19/05
#73Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/4/13 at 11:06amGosh qolbinau, i forgot about "I'm Here." Excellent choice
#74Best Song Written for the Theatre in a Decade?
Posted: 9/4/13 at 11:33am
While I loved "Caroline or Change" as a whole, I think the weakest part is the music. I've always felt Tesori to be pedestrian. The book/lyrics and performances are what makes it one of the best musicals of the past decade. I know I'm in the minority here...
I'd choose:
"The Dark I Know Well" from SA
"Dont do Sadness/Blue Wind" from SA
"Purple Summer" from SA
"With You" from Ghost
"The Beauty Is" from LItP
"Dividing Day" from LItP
"Another Winter..." from GG
"The I Love You Song" from Spelling Bee
"Go Back Home" from Scottsboro Boys
Also, to be contrary, I've heard alot of Kinky Boots' score, and I'm a big Lauper fan, but I just dont understand how it beat Minchin's score for Matilda.
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