2016 in Review: Why this year was the most absurd year ever The good, the bad, the ugly, the weird, and everything else. Well, friends, another year’s gone by. The site has officially turned one years old, and I want to thank you all for sticking with me while I post various opinion after opinion. As I sit here writing all this down, and New Year’s Eve being on Saturday, I’m anxiously anticipating the entrance of 2017, and the exit of the year from hell, better known as the subject in question, 2016. And a lot happened this year. In fact, so much happened, that some of us may forget that January 2016 was actually part of 2016. It seems so far away that we might not remember it. But it happened. It all began on New Year’s on 2015, with numerous Facebook posts and tweets about how “2016 is going to be my year!” and the typical “New year, new me,” or “new start.” Boy, how we were sadly mistaken. Because I am a sports guy, I will make a sports reference. I went to the Winter Classic (the NHL’s annual outdoor winter hockey game) at Gillette Stadium on January 1st, 2016. The game was between the hometown Boston Bruins, and their arch rival, the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens beat the Bruins in their own building, in front of 65,000 people, 5-1. I would say that’s about how the year has gone for us, wouldn’t you? In this article (which was going to be a top ten list, but then I thought I would just ramble on), I’m going to be examining the absurd things that made this year possible. It can be anything from music, to sports, to politics (oh, politics), to film, to the most miniscule thing in American culture. If it had something to do with shaping 2016, I will include it. Because 2016 was absurd. The most absurd year ever. First and foremost, to get it out of the way: We decided to elect- Wait. I have to include another event to tie into THAT one in order to make it somewhat humorous. So. First: The United Kingdom decided to exit the EU, or: Brexit.It truly sounds a lot like “breakfast,” “Brexit” does. On June 23, the United Kingdom held a referendum on whether to keep itself in the European Union. In a 51% to 48% vote, the British people voted to leave the EU, with many citing the influx of immigrants from other European nations as a major concern (the EU allows people to move into and out of other countries with minimal customs or paperwork). There was a lot of news circulating about more conservative British politicians deeming Brexit as their “Independence Day,” subtly hinting that they were going to give Britain “back to its people” (do you see where I’m going with this?), and being able to sever immigration travel, many of whom were refugees of different religions (hint, hint to the next point). The morning after the referendum, global stock markets fell. A lot. UK Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, feeling he had let the British people down. And millions of people who voted to leave the EU flocked to Google to search “What is the EU?” And, for a time, Britain was known as the imbecilic laughingstock of the entire world, as they showed they had invented a new kind of stupid. The worst kind of stupid. And America said: “Hold my beer.” The Election of 2016: A Shit Storm in Many Acts.We decided it would be a smart idea to elect Donald Trump as our President. And on January 21st, that’s probably going to become a reality (trust me, uttering the phrase “President Trump” is very, very difficult for me). To backtrack, we had Hillary Clinton, an extremely qualified former First Lady, Secretary of State, and senator from New York (she told you all this, right?), as the Democratic nominee, the first female nominee from a major political party in history. She defeated Bernie Sanders, the outspoken, crazy-haired, socialist, Brooklyn-raised, Jewish grandpa senator from Vermont, in the Democratic primaries. Sanders started a revolution online, gaining a mass amount of attention via social media. Clinton stuck to her roots as a well-qualified, politically seasoned option for the presidency. There were some rumblings of corruption within the voting system. There were emails (there were emails. Did you know that?). And Clinton won. We were all with her. The first female nominee for president from a major political party. A defining moment in our nation's history. And then there was the circus of the Republican race for the presidency. Keep in mind, literally everyone thought it was going to be Jeb Bush before all this crap began. Donald Trump knocked out Marco Rubio, then finally, Ted Cruz. John Kasich also hung around until the very end, I think. Like or dislike Trump, but I will say it again: he correctly gauged the amount of anger that correlates with the lack of education of certain people in this country, and campaigned accordingly. You may hate him, but that tactic is what any politician would do. The dude didn’t make his millions by being an idiot. So, there we were. The election. Clinton vs. Trump. A race no one thought Hillary would lose. At the Republican Convention, Trump entered to “We are the Champions.” Queen was not happy about that. At the Democratic Convention, Obama gave the best speech I personally have ever seen. Remember Vince Carter at that dunk contest one year? THAT’S how good it was. And Hillary was rousing as well. Then, the debates. Things got very interesting. We all thought Trump would implode. And he did, a little. There was one handshake. One. There was “locker room talk,” and “radical Islamic terrorism,” and “nasty woman,” and “you’ll be in jail.” And then there was Hillary’s scathing comment where she complimented Trump’s kids instead of him. Oh, and there was Ken Bone. I wonder who Ken Bone voted for. And then a bunch of other malarkey happened and the election results came in. We all know how that turned out. Please read my election article HERE if you need any kind of comfort in this matter. And here we are now, twenty-some days from having a Cheeto with a bad comb-over as our President. America is the best again- at inventing new kinds of stupid. In conclusion, the last three major elections (2016, 2008, 2000) will be talked about for AGES to come. I promise I’m doing all the bad things first, and we’ll get to the good stuff at the end. It’ll be okay, I promise. I have to address the elephant in the room now, and that’s the amount of bad things that happened to human beings this year. Really quick. The Bad.Flint, Michigan This year, I heard maybe ONE major news network cover Flint, Michigan’s water crisis this year. John Oliver did a masterful segment on it during Last Week Tonight. I encourage you to check it out above. Essentially, Flint had no clean water. The drinking water had been contaminated after the city changed its water source from Detroit (which got its water from Lake Huron) to the Flint River, to which health officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors. This led to a series of problems culminating in lead contamination, as the pipes were not properly treated. 6,000 to 12,000 children in the city have been exposed to contaminated drinking water in the city. There was an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease that killed 10 people and affected an additional 77. President Obama declared a federal state of emergency, and several lawsuits against the city were filed. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder promised to fix the problem, donating millions of dollars to families affected by the medical issues associated with the water. We’re two years into this thing. Let’s get these people some clean water, now. The Orlando Nightclub Shooting A sad, sad event indeed. It does need to be touched on, however. June 12th, at Pulse, a primarily gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, a 29-year old Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured another 53 in what has been deemed a terrorist attack and a hate crime. Many people questioned Mateen’s motive- they thought he could have been gay himself. Others considered a possible allegiance to ISIS; more specifically, a reaction to the killing of ISIS militant Abu Waheeb in an airstrike the week before. Regardless of the motive, the gun control conversation was opened up again and magnified intensely, as was the “radical Islamic terrorist” door. It remains the deadliest mass shooting by a single perpetrator in American history, the second most in American history as an event only to September 11th, 2001. What struck me, however, is what happened after the event. As I will reiterate more, I’m sure: there was more love being spread than I’ve ever seen before, in spite of all the hate. People came out in throngs to show support for those in the LGBT community. There were vigils. There were public showings of support (like the Tony Awards that evening, for example). Even in the dark, love shines the strongest light. Standing Rock, North Dakota The government was trying to build an oil pipeline, known as the Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL. Its purpose was to run from a set of oil fields in North Dakota, underneath the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, to Southern Illinois. The pipeline was supposed to go through a residential, more urban area in North Dakota, but the people there wouldn’t have it. Instead, the builders wanted to go through some lands underneath the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. It would potentially contaminate local water supplies, as well as cross though sacred Native American burial grounds. The people there didn’t like that either. Except this time, we finally broke through as a people, and told the government trying to push us around to go shove it. The grassroots movement lasted into the early winter, as thousands of people (supported by millions on Facebook) endured freezing temperatures, muddy terrains, and cold water being sprayed on them by authorities. Eventually, the hard times paid off. In early December, President Obama’s administration deemed that the Pipeline could not be built through the Standing Rock plantation, and that the engineers developing the project would have to find alternatives. In a year filled with events like Orlando and Flint, it was nice to actually get a victory for human beings for once this year. I don’t mean to make it sound like the fight at Standing Rock is over (because it’s not), but it’s a step in the right direction. I’m going to try to combine death and love into one section here. Bear with me. Too many celebrities died this year.Just for future reference, here’s a list of just a few of the celebrities who died in 2016:
It makes you think about the crazy amount of people who have given so much to this country and to this world in terms of culture, the way we can connect with one another. While it is a terrible thing to see such a long list of awesome people leaving us, we know that: A) they certainly knew when to get out (hint, hint, the next president, hint, hint), and B) David Bowie is obviously creating a new world and is hand picking his perfect society one by one. There are many other events that happened in the rest of the world this year. I don’t mean to leave them out, but there are only so many things I can write before getting too depressed to stop. And, I want to get to the happy things. But first, we get to the really absurd things that happened this year. Everyone lost their shit over a gorilla.Okay, so preface time. Yes, it’s sad that an endangered gorilla was gunned down at a Cincinnati zoo. It’s bizarre that a child was even in the cage to begin with. You can make the argument that the gorilla should or shouldn’t have been shot (hell, people are still fighting about it). You can make the argument that it’s poor parenting, but you can also make the argument that real people don’t have their eyes on everything all the damn time. Harambe is, admittedly, a symbol of 2016. It’s inspired both good, constructive conversation about animal rights and good parenting, but it’s also inspired enough memes to fill even the dankest of tumblrs, twitter feeds, and Facebook pages. All of a sudden, various body parts were being whipped out for Harambe. PEOPLE CAST VOTES. FOR PRESIDENT. FOR HARAMBE. A GORILLA. A DEAD GORILLA. And this event is so bizarre, I’m not sure if we’ll get anything to get us away from Harambe for a while. But give it a rest. We get he’s dead. We don’t need you to remind us how shitty we are as people. Harambe wouldn’t want you shaming people for cursing his name, now would he? Think of Harambe. #RIPHarambe Clowns were a thing.There was a brief time around Halloween where people were dressing up as clowns with knives and other threatening objects and following people around. Because of course there were. As if this year could get any weirder. The Olympics were a mess, and then they weren’t, and then they were again.The Olympics happened this year! Remember the Olympics? This Olympics was just like any other Olympics at the outset. People made a huge deal about some kind of human rights violation (2014 in Sochi) or medical concern (2008 in Beijing), and then it magically disappeared just as the games started and was never heard from again. Of course, the Olympics began with reports that construction crews were months behind in preparation for the athletes’ arrivals. This year’s medical fiesta was the Zika virus. We had many golfers drop out of the games, fearing getting stung by a mosquito. The U.S. basketball team stayed on a private cruise ship for the duration of the games. The only people who spoke the word “Zika” during the games were the Brazilian fans taunting U.S. soccer goalie Hope Solo after she posted a picture on Instagram covered in bug-resistant clothing, stating she was “Ready for Rio.” Other than that, we didn’t hear about it for the rest of the summer. Officials were also complaining about the toxicity in the water for swimmers and sailors, saying that it would actually kill you if you went in the water. Last I checked, nobody died. But then, of course, no summer Olympic shenanigans would ever be complete without Ryan Lochte. Also, watch this video of John Oliver (again). Because he sums it up in a way that I could not. The puppy dog-disguised-as-a-swimmer was caught red-handed lying to Brazilian officials about being held at gunpoint during a robbery at a Rio gas station. The problem was, he wasn’t being robbed. He vandalized a gas station by peeing outside of the restroom area, then tried to bribe two security guys who confronted him about the issue. Not to mention all of this was caught on camera. Idiot. The Olympics were a mess, and then they weren’t, and then they were again. I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble we get into in 2018. They’re in South Korea, and we’ll have a crazy person as our president. Yay! And finally, here are three good, pop culture-y things that happened in 2016. Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar!It finally happened. The man nobody thought would win finally won, for his brilliant (and disgustingly real) performance in the adventure-drama The Revenant. It’s a shame that DiCaprio hadn’t won for performances in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, or The Wolf of Wall Street, but the fact that he can add “Academy Award Winner” to his title now is something fans have been waiting for a long time. A hip-hop musical about Alexander Hamilton became a cultural phenomenon. Every so often, a musical like Rent comes along: Great new musical vibes, interesting characters, compelling storylines- something that’s never been done before. In mid-2015, we got Hamilton, a musical created by Lin-Manuel Miranda about the life and adventures of one of the most underrated founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton. The three-hour long (did I mention it’s entirely sung- or rapped- through?) show finally transferred to Broadway, and really picked up steam heading into 2016, where it finally caught fire. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2016, the first musical since 2009 to win the prize, where it joins such company as Rent and A Chorus Line. At the Tony Awards, it was nominated for a record 14 awards across all categories it was eligible for. It ended up winning 11, just one short of the record held by The Producers, but won awards for Miranda (Best Score and Best Book), Best Actor in a musical (Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr), Best Featured Actor and Actress (Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson and Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, respectively), and the all important Best Musical. It’s kind of absurd that the musical is sold out until late 2017. But it also goes to show that theatre is alive and well. Who knew a show about a founding father set to hip-hop and rap music would become such a cultural phenomenon? The Chicago Cubs finally won the World Series!Okay, one last sports thing. The Cubs haven’t won a World Series in 108 years. They hadn’t made it to the World Series in 68 years before this year. In sports, the term “wait till next year,” is a common phrase for teams that get so close, but never taste the sweet nectar of victory. For the 2016 Cubs, next year is this year. Down three games to one in a best of seven World Series against the Cleveland Indians (a team also searching for its first Championship since 1948), one game from losing it all, the Cubs miraculously came back to tie the series at three games apiece. In one of the greatest World Series games ever played, the Cubs outlasted the Indians, 8-7 in 10 innings to win their first World Series title in 108 years. And believe it or not, there are fans that were alive to see the Cubs win in both 1908 and 2016. Rejoice, Chicago. The Cubbies don’t suck anymore. Okay, so I actually did make this article a 10-item list.
You just went back to check. I know. I’m great. In conclusion, I would give 2016, on an A to F scale, around a D. There were some good things that happened, but it really seemed like there was more bad than good happening every single day. Of the good that I saw, there is one thing we can take from this year and run with for 2017. We can love each other more with our full hearts. I have never seen so much love and support pouring out from all corners of the internet, from the news on my TV, and in real life. The road ahead is tough, we know that. There are fights to be fought and won, and there are lots of hardships that we must face if we are to grow as a society. But we will still love. We can get down on ourselves for a little bit. But after that, we need to stand up and dust ourselves off and say to ourselves that we will not go quietly into the night. We will support one another. We will put the past behind us and release ourselves from it, because holding onto it will only make the bitterness linger. So, we’re now going to wave goodbye to 2016. And, starting Sunday at midnight, the ball will drop. And that’s when we start to make 2017 the best fucking year we can. Have a happy and restful New Year, everyone. -Andrew Up for reading more? Check out According to Andrew's complete "Best of 2016" spread HERE.
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Top 15 Completely Original MusicalsWhen we go to New York, we see all these musicals based on films, books, other plays, etc. It’s not very often we see a show that comes solely from the mind of an individual or individuals. Original musicals are what keep true artistry alive in the theatre. Only a select few are brought to the forefront of the theatre world and can make an appearance on Broadway. Today, we’re taking a look at the best of what completely original theatre has to offer. In celebration of the new musical film La La Land arriving in theatres, Broadway connoisseur Harper Leander and myself have put together a list of the top 15 completely original musicals. This list is part of a three-list series, counting down the best in musical theatre. You can find our list of the top 15 film-to-musical adaptations here, and our list of the top 15 musical-to-film adaptations here. We have determined this list based on the following criteria:
Honorable Mentions: The Music Man When Harold Hill strolls into your town, you know you’ve got trouble. This musical, written in 1957 by Meredith Wilson, tells the story of a con man who sells instruments to schoolchildren in a small Indiana town, promising to start and train a new boys’ band. Obviously, the con man plans to skip town, but ends up falling in love with a local librarian. Hijinks and late 1950s rapping ensue. Originally, the show underwent more than forty draft changes, and 23 song cuts before finally ending up with the product we know today, showing just how long it takes to get a show off the ground. The show ended up captivating the attention of audiences (probably taking away from the grittier and more complex West Side Story, which opened just three months earlier), and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. A revival opened in 2000, and ran for 699 performances. Follies Stephen Sondheim’s 1971 musical Follies concerns four former performers (say that three times fast) of a “Ziegfeld-esque follies” musical revue, holding a reunion inside crumbling Broadway theatre. The four are comprised of two couples: Buddy and Sally, and Ben and Phyllis, who are all deeply unhappy with their marriages. The four circle around each other reminiscing about the old days, while performing old numbers, sometimes with the ghosts of their past younger selves. It’s a simple but fascinating premise. Follies has spawned a number of revivals since its 1971 production, including one most recently in 2011, which featured Broadway heavyweights such as Danny Burstein, Bernadette Peters, Ron Raines, Jan Maxwell, Jayne Houdyshell, and Elaine Paige. Dishonorable Mention: Blood Brothers Why this show is so loved in England is beyond me. The concept is stupid. The songs are dumb. The premise is as follows: A mother (who happens to be obsessed with Marilyn Monroe for some reason) has two twin boys, but realizes that, due to financial constraints, she cannot keep one of them. She gives one of her children to the rich family for whom she nannies. Then, there’s something about a curse, where we discover that if the two ever discover that they’re brothers, they’ll both die. Obviously, there wouldn’t be drama without the two boys meeting. It’s this whole idea of nature vs. nurture, and this whole thing about class difference. I don’t even want to get into the fact that there’s an omnipresent narrator who INVADES PEOPLE’S HOMES TO SPEAK IN RHYME. This show sucks. Also, it was on Broadway for like two years in the early 1980s. But who cares, really? The Top 15: 15. Hedwig and the Angry Inch Hedwig has been flying under the radar as a musical for a long time, developing a cult following when it was first premiered in 1998, until it finally made it to Broadway in 2014. Featuring a David Bowie-esque glam post-punk rock score by Stephen Trask, and a book by the original man in the wig, John Cameron Mitchell, Hedwig follows the titular singer, as she follows her former protégé’s tour, reflecting on her botched sex change operation, her love, her past, and her complex gender identity. Hedwig is a fantastic example of how one small idea can blossom into a cultural phenomenon, as Mitchell watched this little seed of a show grows to become the massive, Tony-winning show it is today. 14. Caroline, or Change Caroline, or Change features one of the best creative teams to ever helm a musical. With music by Jeanine Tesori, and lyrics and a book by famed playwright Tony Kushner, Caroline, or Change opened on Broadway in 2003, after nearly 10 years of workshops. The musical is completely sung-through, and blends elements of spirituals, blues, Motown, folk music, classical, and even Jewish klezmer, as Caroline, an African-American maid to a white Jewish family, debates keeping money found in the clothes of the family’s youngest son to provide for her own family, while some of the most important events of the 1960s are taking place right outside the doors. Caroline, or Change is truly awe-inspiring, and Tonya Pinkins’ turn as Caroline takes your breath away, as she begs God for forgiveness as seen in songs like “Lot’s Wife.” The creative super team really knocks it out of the park with this show. 13. Of Thee I Sing The oldest entry on this list, Of Thee I Sing holds the honor of being the first musical ever awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. With a score by George and Ira Gershwin, and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind (I mean, you wanna talk about super teams, here’s one right here), Of Thee I Sing is a lampoon of American politics. A presidential candidate runs on a platform of just “love” (wouldn’t politics be much simpler if that’s all politicians were about?). His campaign advisors hold a beauty pageant for him to select the most beautiful girl in the country and marry her. When John P. Wintergreen (the candidate in question) falls for a much more sensible woman instead of one he does not know, he gets into a bit of political hot water. The Gershwin’s score is fairly complex, relating very much to the patter style of Gilbert and Sullivan. The book was one of the first musicals to undertake a completely satirical tone, and doing so against the backdrop of the Great Depression that was really happening at the time (it was 1931 after all), was a very daring move on the part of Kaufman and Ryskind. Of Thee I Sing is truly one of a kind as a musical, and it’s a wonder why it hasn’t been revived recently. 12. The Drowsy Chaperone A very unique but familiar concept- a theatre junkie (known only as the “Man in Chair”) takes the audience through one of his favorite Broadway showtune records, “The Drowsy Chaperone.” The musical in question turns out to be your typical love story, with a bit of mistaken identity thrown in, along with some vengeful baker-gangsters for good measure. Drowsy is beloved by many theatregoers, and for good reason. Starring big names like Sutton Foster, Danny Burstein, Beth Leavel (who nabbed a Tony Award for her performance as the Chaperone), and Bob Martin (who co-wrote the book with Don McKellar), Drowsy takes the audience on a back-and-forth journey in and out of fantasy and reality, as the Man in Chair inserts his factoids and footnotes into every song and scene in the show. The songs by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison are so catchy, especially tracks like “Show Off,” “As We Stumble Along,” and “Toledo Surprise.” The Drowsy Chaperone won 5 Tony Awards in 2006, including Best Book and Best Original Score. 11. Avenue Q It’s “Sesame Street” combined with “South Park.” Avenue Q’s unique concept of using puppetry and friendly looking characters to tackle real issues like racism, depression, homelessness, and internet porn addiction is genius. Featuring a witty (honk honk) by book by Jeff Whitty, and a score by Robert Lopez, Avenue Q follows the residents of a block in New York City, as they deal with the adult world, and just how hard it can be to survive in it. It offers crude humor, Gary Coleman from “Diff’rent Strokes,” full-out puppet sex, but Avenue Q also has a big, furry heart way down inside, as characters address things like relationships and commitment, ultimately determining that there’s happiness underneath all that shittiness here on earth, and that everything in life is only “for now.” For all the hype surrounding it when it first came out in 2004, Avenue Q is actually one of the more profound pieces of theatre out there. It took down Wicked to win Best Musical, believe it or not. 10. [title of show] Try to keep up with me here. This is a musical about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical. Based on the real-life story of Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen, [title of show] follows the two aspiring playwrights and their attempt to enter the inaugural New York Musical Festival. Utilizing only an on stage pianist (as if the audience is in a rehearsal studio the entire time), and two other actors (the incomparable Heidi Blickenstaff and Susan Blackwell), the musical essentially happens in accelerated time, and ends back in the present day, where the show was being performed at the Vineyard Theatre off-Broadway at the time (it did later play at the Lyceum Theatre in 2008). The show deals with issues we all face as artists, including self-doubt, artistic integrity vs. marketability, and artistic direction. Overall, the lasting theme of opting to be “nine people’s favorite thing than a hundred people’s ninth favorite thing” is touching and extremely hopeful for anyone trying to make it in the world of theatre. 9. Passing Strange Stew, guitarist and singer of the LA-based group The Negro Problem, had never written a play before Passing Strange, which premiered on Broadway in 2008. But what he did write is an extremely profound and very underrated piece of musical theatre. Passing Strange is a rock musical about a young black man and his journey of self-discovery as he travels from South Central Los Angeles to Amsterdam. The piece offers lots of philosophical existentialism and self-referential humor. Stew, Heidi Rodewald, Daniel Breaker, and De’Andre Aziza were all nominated for Tony Awards for their efforts in book writing, composing, and acting, respectively (although Stew was nominated for all three, winning for best book). Passing Strange’s pulse is so strong, and its rousing anthems of about individuality and selfhood make it a treat for all who witness it. 8. Urinetown Urinetown is a bad place. Urinetown the place is bad, of course, not the musical. Urinetown the musical is actually quite delightful. As a satire on big business, corporate greed, the legal system, and capitalism, this 2001 musical tells the story of a near-future city in America where drinking water has become scarce, and public toilets are the only places for people to relieve themselves. In musical styles that mimic all kinds of musical theatre, including The Threepenny Opera and Les Misèrables, Urinetown offers some of the most campy, the most complex, the most touching, and the most confusing songs ever found in a musical. Starring Hunter Foster, Jennifer Laura Thompson, John Cullum, Jeff McCarthy, and Nancy Opel, the show was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 2002, winning three, including best Book and Original Score for Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis. 7. In the Heights For those of you who are at least generally aware of Hamilton- this show was the step to the high platform for Lin-Manuel Miranda, as his show about finding home danced and rapped its way to Broadway in early 2008. Miranda began writing the show when he was a sophomore in college at Wesleyan University, and it eventually grew become a massive hit in New York. In the Heights is the story of a tight-knit group of people on a street corner in the largely Dominican-American neighborhood of Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, as their lives are changed in different ways by one of them hitting the jackpot on the lottery, and a blackout, over the course of three days in the summertime. It’s safe to say that no one on Broadway had ever seen or heard anything quite like In the Heights before, which may be why it received so much notoriety upon its release. With a powerful score by Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, In the Heights will make you want to get up and dance, and then proceed to rip your heart out, tape it up and put it back together again by the end of the night. The show won four Tony Awards in 2008. 6. Hair This musical, a product of 60s counterculture, as well as American involvement in the Vietnam war, was the first of its kind to appear on Broadway, as it featured a psychedelic rock score by Galt McDermott, with lyrics and a book by James Rado and Gerome Ragni. The musical surrounds a group of individuals known as “the tribe,” and two members, Claude and Berger, as they struggle to balance their young lives as part of the sexual revolution and rebellion against the Vietnam war with their much more conservative parents and the country they live in. While many of the songs in “Hair” leave much to be desired (not all of them- many of them are pretty damn good), the musical was revolutionary in that it broke new ground for establishing what a “rock musical” is, while also featuring a racially integrated cast. Its nude scenes and irreverence for the American flag stirred much controversy as well. It may not be the best or most cohesive musical on this list, but it’s original, and it’s damn revolutionary, and that’s what matters. The original production ran for 1,750 performances in 1968, and the 2009 revival won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. That, friends, is sticking it to the system. 5. The Book of Mormon The world exploded when it was announced that Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of “South Park” were teaming up with Avenue Q composer Robert Lopez to write a musical about Mormons. In 2011, when the show premiered on Broadway, the theatre world was treated to its first cultural phenomenon in a long, long time. The songs in Book of Mormon aren’t the most well-written (Stone and Parker admitted to needing to use a rhyming dictionary to come up with song lyrics), but they are extremely catchy and well-loved. The musical follows two Mormon missionaries, as they attempt to spread the word of God to natives in Uganda. What’s great about Mormon is the way it spoofs just about every trope in musical theatre; every song in the show is a parody of some great Broadway song, whether they’re parodying Bye Bye Birdie’s “The Telephone Hour,” in “Hello,” or Wicked’s “The Wizard and I,” in “You and Me (But Mostly Me),” and Hairspray’s “You Can’t Stop the Beat,” with their finale, “Tomorrow is a Latter Day.” Being able to root for the Mormon version of The Odd Couple in Elders Price and Cunningham (Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, respectively) is something no audience member will forget doing- or maybe you will, it depends on if your head explodes from laughter. Ultimately, The Book of Mormon, while irreverent and certainly unlike anything Broadway has ever seen before, is a show with a lot of heart and soul- something completely unexpected from the creators of “South Park.” 4. Anything Goes Nothing like a good case of mistaken identity on a boat, am I right? This 1934 musical about an array of characters chasing love and each other features some of the best standards by one Cole Porter, including “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “It’s De-Lovely,” “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” and “You’re the Top.” What makes this show so fantastic (aside from the its incredible dance sequences and songs) is its longevity. Even 80 years after it was first produced, companies are still mounting revivals of the show left and right. The 2011 revival starring Sutton Foster and Joel Grey won Foster a second Tony and Best Revival of a Musical. Anything Goes is a classic show, and it set the groundwork for many screwball comedies down the road. 3. Next to Normal Never before has a piece of theatre tackled the subject of mental illness before. This 2008 musical, written by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, stars Alice Ripley as Diana, a woman with bipolar depressive disorder, and explores her and her family’s differences in dealing with the illness, as well as her husband and daughter looking to achieve a sense of normalcy in the house despite . The original cast also included J. Robert Spencer, Jennifer Damiano, Aaron Tveit, and Adam Chanler-Berat. It would become the first musical since Rent in 1996 to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. No musical before has ever tackled mental illness with more accuracy and sympathy. Anchored by a powerhouse rock score, the actors are incredibly brave in taking on such characters on the verge of being ripped apart by the mental illness of one and the subsequent actions of a few. Next to Normal is far and away one of the most important musicals of the 21st Century. 2. Company A series of vignettes in New York revolving around one Bobby and his various married friends is the setting for Stephen Sondheim’s Company. The single Bobby can’t stay in a committed relationship, much less marriage, and struggles to determine exactly what love, commitment and marriage means before he gets too old. Unlike most Broadway musicals of the day, Company is nonlinear, presented in non-chronological order, all tied together by Bobby’s 35th birthday party. Sondheim’s comment of throwing the upper-middle-class’s upper-middle-class problems back in their faces is genius, since most musicals of the day were meant to serve as an escape for these people and their problems. Company also contains another of the greatest finale songs in the history of musical theatre in “Being Alive,” as Bobby makes the arc of his journey complete, and rips our hearts out in the process. It’s a true realization of what it means to live and love in adulthood, and Company was the first one through the wall, tackling these issues head on, and to great effect. When it premiered in 1970, it won six Tony Awards, including best Musical, not to mention Best Book, Original Score, and Direction for the legendary Hal Prince . The 2006 Broadway revival, directed by the great John Doyle, starred Raùl Esparza, and a troupe of actor musicians. This production won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. 1. A Chorus Line A true musical about artists and why they do what they do, the story behind the creation of A Chorus Line is immaculate. Long sessions of taped interviews with actual Broadway chorus dancers were compiled to create the beloved characters of the piece, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1976. Through the actual words spoken by these people (many of whom went on to be in the original cast), we learn how and why these people left their homes without a dollar to their names and became Broadway dancers. It is an extraordinary study of what actors go through to achieve their dreams, and even how fast all of that can be taken away, in a split second. This all goes without saying that Marvin Hamlisch’s score is fantastic, accomplishing appropriate mood and tone in songs like “At The Ballet,” “What I Did For Love,” “The Music and the Mirror,” and the incomparable “One.” Anyone who is an artist, performer or otherwise, needs to see a production of A Chorus Line at some point in their lives. Now, get to it. “A-five, six, seven eight!”
What did we miss? What are your favorite original musicals? Leave a comment down below. La La Land is in theatres beginning December 9th. |