List-O-Rama: Top Five Musicals
Now that things have sort of settled down, even if they aren't necessarily resolved, I can finally start updating again. This is something I wrote before Christmas, but I'm finally getting the chance to post it. It was a response to yet another Top Five podcast, this time counting down the Top Five Musicals. My definition of a musical is pretty simple - it's a work with music that is (a) original to the work itself and (b) integral to the development of the plot & characters. This rules out revue-like shows that are largely plotless (a good example of this would be Cats , which only has brief fits of plot between the poems-turned-songs). This also rules out "jukebox" musicals, where people take existing songs and try to work a plot around them (popular examples include Jersey Boys & Momma Mia! , as well as a show that would make up all entries in a "Top Five Most Obnoxiously Self-Congratulatory Uses of Offensive Stereotypes" list, Glee ). ...