Thursday, December 30, 2010

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

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for a very helpful chart: seems it was a pretty good decade after all, despite some really dry years.

    Sorry my three musicals (Area 51-2000, Our Wedding-2003, Such Good Friends-2007) didn't make your final selection, but wanted to tell you that I was 14 when I wrote my first musical.

    Very impressive blog.

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  2. Thank you for your wonderful comment! Since you posted, I have purchased the concept CD for Area 51, which I really enjoyed.

    ReplyDelete