I am astonished and therefore have very little to say except; listen to Hans.

My god this is a hard one!

Ich gehör nur mir-Elisabeth
Someone like you-Jekyll and Hyde
On my own- Les Miserables
Let me walk among you-Bat boy
Shadowland-the Lion king
One day more-Les Miserables
So much better-Legally blonde
Glitter and be gay-Candide
My strongest suit-Aida
Wishing you were somehow here again-Phantom of the opera

Would also like to credit the whole score of "Into the woods", there's no particular song that stands out on it's own, but I adore it as a whole !

Can't really decide the order

If where talking specific artists no top list would be complete without the presence off Niklas Andersson and Helen Sjöholm, both sure know how to deliver magic on stage. (And off course Elain Page, but I havent seen her live)

As for Hans example songs, theyre all great songs and may grow with more listening, or better seeing the musicals (in the case off poto, seeing it again). But for me Prima Donna, while its a really good and funny song, find it hard to stand above both Music off the Night and Phantom off the Opera songs. Please Hello was a real good song to. If I would mention a really good company song I have to go to Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats from Cats, but alas Cats had it share off songs taken by Memory. But it doesnt take any credits from any songs, there is after all a lot off really good songs out there and we could well be doing a top 100 list...

Don't take this antagonistically, but it's really beyond my understanding how you can put MOTN and the title song (two endless, generic songs with unspecific and flowery lyrics that have little to no development) above Prima Donna (which musicalises a specific situation satirically and quite brilliantly, with great counterpoint effects and character-specific lyrics).)

It is also very difficult to understand how any Cats song can even be comapred to Please Hello, which has the absolutely best set of lyrics in any possible regard (insanely inventive and tight rhyme scheme, wickedly witty, incredibly intricate five part counterpoint in as many different styles still keeping to the same melodic theme in perfect historic accuracy etc)? It is by any imaginable standard the best song written for musical theatre.

This is getting a little redundant.

Music of the Night is one of the worst Musical Theatre songs ever written. It does nothing for the show, and could be dropped and no one would notice! Everything the song establish has already been established before, and the lyrics are comically bad.

Also, as Hans stated, a list of the BEST Musical Theatre songs should feature the brilliant Please, Hello. It is, without doubt, the greatest Musical Theatre song ever written! In less than 10 minutes it shows how the Americans, English, Dutch, Russian and French arrived in Japan and opened it for commercial trade. Every single syllable fits perfectly with the music, and although rhymes such as "Commodore Perry very merry, President Fillmore still more glad" might seem "overdone" when read, they fit so well with the music that it actually sounds like it was spoken for the first time whenever you hear it!

What does memory have to show for? Bland lyrics that everyone who passed an English Exam could have written. Anyone with some composing and arranging background could write a melodic theme with the same feeling, so what makes it great?

At the risk of creating an air of mass antagonism, I must align myself with Hans and High Baritone in this regard. Even with my comparatively limited pool of knowledge in theatrical matters, many of the songs you have selected are quite generic and the list seems to over-represent the grandiose 'show-stoppers' at the expense of numbers that provide examples of greater creativity. For example, take 'Memory'. I am no theatre elitist (my lack of expertise in this field would make this a rather difficult status to maintain) but I can tell you that it is fundamentally a fairly straightforward ballad of lament. I enjoy listening to the song but only in the same sense that one enjoys listening to a nondescript pop song and often my entertainment factor in regard to this particular song is almost wholly dependent on the singer rather than the music itself. Musical theatre, like any other comparably specialised genre, allows for the production of works that simply would not be succesfully realised in any other art form. Take 'A Little Priest' or 'Waltz for Che and Eva'; I cannot imagine either of these outside of the world of musical theatre. Contrastingly I can easily imagine covers of 'Memory' or 'Music of the Night' on easy listening radio. If one wishes to make a list representative of some of the best output of the genre, surely it would seem most reasonable to capitalise on the creative distinctions the style enjoys from other forms of music rather than the generality it can share with them.

First as I said, there where many things in Please hello that I liked, its a really good song for that musical but first I havent seen pacific overtures and second I havent heard that song enough times to see if it breakes into top ten or not, a good song gains over time.

I ran into the movies for both POTO and ST when I searched for thoose songs and musical movies are generally not my favorite in order to judge if a song is good or bad. But both songs clearly has advantages and Prima donna is a great character introduction, nothing to argue about there.

Take 'A Little Priest' or 'Waltz for Che and Eva'; I cannot imagine either of these outside of the world of musical theatre. Contrastingly I can easily imagine covers of 'Memory' or 'Music of the Night' on easy listening radio.

Maybe why I should be carefull about judging thoose in the shows I havent seen, or havent seen recently. Judging on youre statement I think A Little Priest are one off thoose songs that youll have too see the musical to fully aprophiate. and maybe the same goes for Prima Donna. (I have seen POTO but its some 20 years ago so there is very few songs I actually remember from that show) But I dont rank down a song cause it could easily be sung on a popular radio station, given if the song was still created as a musical songs and isnt a jukebox song.

I agree.



Of course not. But some of us wonder which merits some of these songs feature in addition to being radio friendly, that makes them good representatives of the musical theatre genre.

The title off this thread is best musical songs, not "good representatives of the musical theatre genre." And thats a bit difference, isnt it?

And youre the expert here, you know. Frankly I am not clever enough to tell whats make a song worthy a top rank, obviously it has to be a great song but (and have more than just being a good radio song, like some off the Lady Ga Gas songs.) but what it is that make Defying Gravity a tard better than say Look at me I am Sandra Dee or Youll have to be there a tard better than a tard better than Whats Wrong With Me? Now thats rocket science.

Maybe, so let me rephrase:

Which merits do these songs feature in addition to being radio friendly, that defend their place on a list over the best musical songs?

The lyrics of Memory are based in the poems of T. S. Eliot, one of the most important poets of the 20th century.

It has to be a great musical song I guess. And stand above the rest off the competition, and thats in a world where there is an endless string off great musical songs.

I guess for me the best musical songs are thoose that I want to listen over and over and over again to. They have to have something that wants me to set the controlls on youtube/cd on repeat cause its a song I can listen to endlesly and still be happy with it.

Bah, I wish I was a better teacher...