WEST SIDE STORY best musical ever!?

[dhiraj86]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 12:58am

I have had a lot of conversation with people who participate and are fans of musical theatre and the popular oppinion is that West Side Story is the best musical (in all aspects) overall. Yes, it is one of my favorites but is it truly the best. I wanna know from broadway fans on broadwayworld.com what they think....

YES or NO... Is West Side Story the best musical ever?

If Not... what is?

[Kitzarina]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 1:05am

No. Les Miserables is my personal favorite, but I consider Sweeney Todd to be the best of all time. The original staging was glorious, but the revival has proved that the material is strong enough to flourish in a stripped down setting. It is Sondheim at his very best.

Second best would probably be Gypsy. Nowhere near my favorite, but the book, score, and lyrics are all flawless.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 1:10am

Def. not WSS. I don't think can be a definitive Best Musical because its all done on taste. As for me, I think RENT is. I think it captures realism - its so realistic in its problems and emotions. Also, I think its a great score - with its flaws - but its just a great show that touches everyone who sees it. Though many people are turned off by its subject matter, I think all great things are controversial.

[dhiraj86]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 1:12am

RENT is my all time favorite musical as well. I is timeless to me.

Posted: 2/28/06 at 1:14am

Yes. WSS is the best. Really.

[Dre2387]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 1:17am

i don't like WSS so i have to say no, it isn't the best. and I'm not sure what is. Probably Les Mis. but not sure.

wickedrentq would agree that WSS is the best (or at least, pretty high up there) mainly cause of the orchestration.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 1:23am

I dont know, I just don't think WSS has that good of a score. I saw the movie and fell asleep, it just didn't do much for me. I mean, maybe its because I'm young so its not the sort of music I like (I.e. why i like RENT). I just don't get the whole "dance off" thing with the gangs. I just think it should be more realisitc. I think Les Mis is probably the most well known. Not sure I'd say best either. I'm not sure ther'e a show where I listen to the entire score all the way through.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 1:53am

If nothing else, I think when discussing some of the best musicals ever, you can't leave WSS off the list. I've said this so many times, but there's a big difference between best and favorite. For instance, Gypsy is certainly not one of my favorite musicals, but I can admit it certainly is one of the best.

And Dre of course I love the orchestration(and score is coupled in there...) but that's not just the main reason I think it's...one of the best, if not the best. First, there's the choreography. To have the amazing dancing and steps in the show, but have every bit of it tell the story, some in nonconservative ways. I mean, the entire background information is told in a dance in the first 10 minutes of the show. The rumble and fights are all choreographed. The dream ballet goes further than Oklahoma, and the way the chords perfectly turn into the nightmare sequence and the rumble is recreated..the Mambo demonstrating the fight, Cool demonstrating the tension, etc.

And I'll try to keep my praise of the music brief, but pretty much it works with the dancing to tell the story, some songs...just to quote Arthur Laurents on the DVD, he basically said who the hell would come up with these songs? The duet of A Boy Like That and I Have A Love, with the line of bass clarinets clashing with the flutes and violins when Maria comes in...the Tonight quintet was an incredibly influential piece of music for the kind of song that everyone joins in on and sings their own version(One Day More from Les Miz comes to mind), and while I'm not sure, what I've seen/read credits the quintet for really being the first of its kind--and again just combining Tony and Maria's theme with the gangs' tonight...not to mention the amazing orchestrations for the Rumble, each gang having its own theme, and the music totally shifting gears as soon as they start fighting...everything matching perfectly in the rumble, the slow tension from one clarinet to the whole orchestra playing Riff's death, and then just the chaos developing after...the tension in Cool, etc.

The creative way they played off Romeo & Juliet, where you can see all the tragic mistakes, and how much it mirrors the story if you want to view it that way, but then they took the necessary steps to make it different enough to make it more relevant. Having Anita nearly raped to ruin the message was so much more powerful than the person who was supposed to receive it getting sick. The love story was important, but there was a huge political message emphasized, especially for the time. They really integrated pressing issues with the classic love story.

The material was fairly revolutionary for its time--not too many shows in those days had the first act end with two dead bodies lying on the stage. I mean...The Music Man won the tony over West Side. That's just...I can only think reflective of what people liked seeing in those times.

Appropriately, WSS was this past year chosen as the most influential musical of all time.

Is it perfect? No. The strange placing of the songs was changed for the better in the movie, and yes Maria's English was too advanced in "I Feel Pretty."

Anyway, if there is ONE answer of what show would the greatest amount of BWWers agree on as the best, I think it would be Gypsy. I certainly wouldn't argue with that choice. When you get to the best of the best, I find it more interesting and productive to pick a couple of the best as opposed to one of the best because...you're really getting into nitpicky things when you compare Gypsy to Fiddler on the Roof for example. Anyway, from things I've heard and read, there are 4 shows often brought up most as perhaps the best musicals ever: West Side Story, Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof, and My Fair Lady. All made within 8 years of each other. I certainly love present Broadway, but there are times I wish I could go back in time to the Golden Age.

[Color and Light]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 2:14am

I'm going to say "no" (with difficulty), but Leonard Bernstein's score is one of the most beautiful ever written for the stage, in my opinion. Maybe even the best. How anyone can call it "boring" boggles my mind, but different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

Updated On: 2/28/06 at 02:14 AM

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 2:28am

*falls in love with Color and Light*

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 2:34am

Maybe the original production was as close to perfection as theatre gets, but I didn't see it.

As far as sheer writing, I'll say no, not EVER, but probably in the top twenty.

[Composer9]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 2:52am

Yes, West Side Story, in my opinion, is the greatest musical ever written. I have my reasons, and if I weren't writing a paper that I had to finish tonight I would get into it. For now, I'm going to contribute to the "yes" group and later defend my decision. Have a good night y'all.

Updated On: 2/28/06 at 02:52 AM

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 3:36am

West Side Story is my personal favorite. Does it make it the best musical ever? Not necessarily. It's probably up there, though. Sweeney Todd is probably up there with it. Brilliantly written.

~Steven

[Color and Light]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 4:14am

::makes eyes back at wickedrentq::

[2]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 6:07am

Is WSS THE best? I certainly thought so last year but after getting into more musicals, I don't think it's THE best. It's a three-way tie among WSS, Sweeny Todd and Les Miz.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 9:58am

RENT !

[sanda]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:03am

No. The best is Les Miserables.

[James885]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:09am

Maybe not the BEST musical ever, but it's definatley up there with the greatest musicals of all time, along with Sweeney Todd and Les Miz, in my opinion.

[freeadmission]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:22am

As for me, I think RENT is. I think it captures realism

right, because people come back to life all the time.

WSS may have people dancing at each other, but, overall, it's more real than RENT will ever be.

[children&art]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:40am

WSS is great, but not the best musical - i think Gypsy is #1 with Follies a close #2 and WSS in the top 10 somewhere.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:41am

Isn't that the logo for the film, not the show?

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:54am

"'As for me, I think RENT is. I think it captures realism'

right, because people come back to life all the time."

You're completely missing it. Haven't you not even seen Rent?



As far as WSS, the material itself is great, but I don't think the book would hold up enough to call the show the BEST. However, I agree that it's something that can't be left of when discussing some of the best musicals of all time.

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 12:05pm

I'm not sure if West Side Story is the best musical ever, although I must admit that the recent screenings of the film version on the huge Ziegfeld Theatre screen in second week of February lean me heavily in its favor.


I don't think Rent or Les Miserables could ever be considered the best overall musical of all time, if there is a such a thing. If we're looking at all elements of a musical, there needs to be great dancing. Miserables has no dancing and Rent has very little. Thus, they don't qualify even though the music is great.

[Kitzarina]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 12:06pm

But look at Sondheim. Few people would aruge his genius and there is little dancing in most of his shows.

Posted: 2/28/06 at 12:14pm

Best musical ever:

Hard to describe. I don't think it's Les Mis, or RENT. Perhaps Gypsy. Perhaps Sweeny Todd (My personal favorite).

There's a difference in music, yes, and you may like RENT, but to not appreciate other musicals (I said appreciate, not love) is ignorant and narrow minded.