Top Ten (of the last ten)

I have decided to compile a list of the best musicals of the decade. I will be doing this using several methods. First, I am going to eliminate any jukebox musicals (sorry, Jersey Boys) and revues (this includes Contact, winner of the 2000 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Swing). I have also decided that only musicals nominated for the Tony, Olivier, or Drama Desk awards will be eligible. I know this may leave out some wonderful musicals, but I am trying to keep this down to 10 shows.

	Tony Winners/Nominees	Olivier Winners/Nominees	Drama Desk Winners/Nominees
2000	(Contact won) James Joyce's The Dead The Wild Party	Honk! Spend Spend Spend The Lion King	(Contact won) Saturday Night The Wild Party
2001	The Producers A Class Act The Full Monty Jane Eyre	Merrily We Roll Along+ The Beautiful Game The Witches of Eastwick	The Producers The Full Monty Urinetown
2002	Thoroughly Modern Millie Sweet Smell of Success Urinetown	NO AWARD	Thoroughly Modern Millie The Last Five Years tick, tick... BOOM!
2003	Hairspray Amour A Year with Frog and Toad	(Our House won) Bombay Dreams Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Taboo	Hairspray Avenue Q A Man of No Importance
2004	Avenue Q Caroline, or Change Wicked	Jerry Springer: The Opera Ragtime Thoroughly Modern Millie	Wicked Caroline, or Change Johnny Guitar The Musical of Musicals
2005	Spamalot The Light in the Piazza Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Spelling Bee	The Producers Mary Poppins The Woman in White	Spamalot Altar Boyz Spelling Bee Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
2006	(Jersey Boys won) The Color Purple The Drowsy Chaperone The Wedding Singer	Billy Elliot the Musical Acorn Antiques: The Musical!	The Drowsy Chaperone Grey Gardens See What I Wanna See Thrill Me
2007	Spring Awakening Grey Gardens Mary Poppins	Caroline, or Change Avenue Q Spamalot	Spring Awakening Curtains In the Heights Legally Blonde
2008	In the Heights Cry-Baby Passing Strange	Hairspray The Drowsy Chaperone The Lord of the Rings Parade	Passing Strange Adding Machine A Catered Affair The Glorious Ones
2009	Billy Elliot the Musical Next to Normal* Shrek the Musical	(Jersey Boys won) Zorro	Billy Elliot the Musical Shrek the Musical The Story of My Life
2010	Memphis	Spring Awakening Sister Act	Memphis Everyday Rapture The Addams Family The Scottsboro Boys Yank!

*= Winner of the Pulitzer Prize += Originally Presented, 1981

Statistically speaking, the top ones are:

1. (tie)	The Producers Hairspray Spring Awakening Billy Elliot The Musical
5. (tie)	Thoroughly Modern Millie Memphis Spamalot
9. (tie)	Honk! Merrily We Roll Along Avenue Q Jerry Springer The Opera Wicked Caroline, or Change Passing Strange In The Heights

However, this is probably a flawed way of finding artistic merit. Therefore, I have made my own list of top ten. Comment if you disagree.

1.	Next To Normal
2.	In The Heights
3.	Avenue Q
4.	Merrily We Roll Along
5.	Billy Elliot The Musical
6.	The Last Five Years
7.	Wicked!
8.	Spring Awakening
9.	Hairspray
10.	The Producers

The Juiciest Rumors of The Moment...

The New York Times reported that Patti LuPone may star in a Broadway revival of Hello Dolly! Jerry Herman must be having a great time. First a revival of La Cage, now Hello Dolly!

James Lapine may direct a revival of Annie. But don't get too excited. This rumor has been floating around for a while now, and Lapine has other things on his plate, including a possible West End transfer of Sondheim On Sondheim.

Welcome to my blog...

To preface any further posting:

I am genuinely OBSESSED with Broadway musicals.

I know that there are lots of places on the web about musical theater.

So you ask, " What's so special about this one?"

I say, "It's written by a 14-year-old boy."

Enjoy the blog, everyone!