Cheesiest musical theatre songs

[gertiecummings]

Songs you're embarrassed to sing or songs you can't listen to because they're so cheesy.

I Don't Know How to Love Him from JCS (I felt like the biggest dork whenever I sang this in musical theatre class)
Anything from The Music Man

[apdarcey]

suddenly seymour... i love it so much, really, it's one of my favorite songs ever... but it's so cheesy and so overdone... especially sung like ellen greene... ugh.

[RentBoy86]

Anything Rogers & Hammerstein...

[FOAnatic]

Cheesiest and possibly the most oversung audition song:
"Blue Skies"

[neelyohara]

The one from State Fair...well, I guess "our State Fair is a great State Fair" is pretty cheesy, but the one about Iowa..."All I Owe, I Owe Io-way" or something. Geeeeez Louise.

[Whiteguy2088]

Oklahoma.....*quivers*

[apdarcey]

"it's a grand night for singing..."

god help us all.

[frontrowcentre2]

I don't think anything listed yet counts as truly awful. Simplistic, maybe. Overly sentimental, perhaps. I grew up in the 1960s and my family had all the R&H shows on record plus MUSIC MAN and MY FAIR LADY and the rest. I can see them appearing dated to modern audiences. (What would some of you think if they brought back THE DESERT SONG or ROSE MARIE today??)

One of the worst Broadway songs I have ever encountered was "Paris Makes Me Horny" from VICTOR VICTORIA. Just about anything by Frank Wildhorn sends me into convulsions. And SUNSET BLVD still ranks as one of my most miserable experiences in the theatre. These are what I consider the bottom of the barrel amongst the shows that reached Broadway.

[StephanietheStar]

Anything from MT...it's just cheesy! but that's what makes it wonderful.

I mean honestly, can you blast OBCRs from your car stereo with the windows rolled down and look cool??? NO. Is that what I do anyway??? YOU BETCHA.

[Elphaba3]

I don't think R&H is cheesy. Just simple and beautiful. I'll tell you what's cheesy: Once Upon a Time from BKLYN. I have to admit though that that song is one of my guilty pleasures, even though the lyrics are awful.

[apdarcey]

frc! are you kidding... i adore paris makes me horny... it's such a great song!

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Agreed, RentBoy--anything from Rodgers and Hammerstein. Except "Soliloquy" from Carousel--that song rocks.

[phantom_tenor]

basically any ballad by wildhorn.

[mikewood]

songs I skip on the cd player when the windows are open:

castles on the cloud, Les Miz
the song with the Goat and Elphaba from Wicked


I'm sure there are others.

[aspiringactor]

Just about the dumbest song ever: "I had a Dream" from Gypsy - it's like the wrighter decided to throw the lyrics together in 10 minutes - it's so random and cheezy.

[Albin]

all of them?

[Mister Matt]

There is no song in Gypsy called "I Had a Dream". There is "Rose's Turn" which is considered one of the greatest 11 o'clock numbers ever written, if that's what you mean. The random and cheesy lyrics would be by Sondheim.

The two cheesiest songs ever written for musical thatre have to be:

Happiness - You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Do Re Mi - The Sound of Music

[Elphaba]

I agree with Matt....even though I would add the song from SOM when the kids go to bed....
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu.....BLEECH

[LightMyCandle125]

i think people are getting confused w/ worst and cheesiest. just because a song is cheesy, it doesn't mean it's bad.

mistermatt-you're so right, but i think aspiringactor meant "everything's coming up roses"...i could be wrong though. wouldn't be the first time.

[buffyactsing]

I second Elphaba. I don't think most R & H is cheesey, I mean some, sure, but most of I think is lovely.

[keggss23]

Any song from Brooklyn is cheesy. R&H is brilliant.

[Mister Matt]

If it is "Everything Coming Up Roses", then how are the lyrics random and cheesey? It's the anthem of the ultimate stagemother's delusional fantasy. Granted, the song has been used out of context ad nauseum, but in the show, it's rather chilling.

[OnTheAisle]

Maybe aspiringactor means the "All that I need is 88 bucks papa, part of the song... I'm not saying I agree, just that maybe that's where that was going...

For my money, the cheesiest has to be "Happy Talk" - not only the song, but that little movement you do with your fingers - yuk!

[BluCat500]

Young and Healthy from 42nd street...I'm young and healthy and you've got charm it would really be a sin not to have you in my arms.

I dare someone to use it as a pickup line in a bar

[Emilou983]

Um... CHILDREN OF EDEN!

Pretty much anything from it, but especially "The Naming." Which was affectionately called by my friends musical theater garbage.