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re: Which was the toughest competitive year for Best Musical?

Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 07:00 pm EST 01/16/14
In reply to: Which was the toughest competitive year for Best Musical? - Chazwaza 06:20 pm EST 01/16/14

1960 was a very competitive year. Fiorello! and Gypsy were highly respected by the critical establishment, but The Sound of Music was incredibly popular with audiences -- any one of the 3 could have won by itself.

Also, 1963 was a very competitive year. While none of the 4 shows were great, they were all very good. A Funny Thing, Oliver!, and Stop the World were big commercial hits, and Little Me would have been a hit if it had won. All 4 shows were strong contenders.


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re: Which was the toughest competitive year for Best Musical?

Posted by: Chazwaza 07:10 pm EST 01/16/14
In reply to: re: Which was the toughest competitive year for Best Musical? - BroadwayTonyJ 07:00 pm EST 01/16/14

Yeah. I left off 1963 from the top competitors because only Forum and Oliver have lasted as huge hit shows. Though popular in that time, Little Me and Stop the World were both star vehicles that have not stood the test of time critically or popularly enough to make one look at that year and say "wow, imagine competing against those shows!" I only even listed it in the longer list because Little Me was revived with Martin Short and is being done at Encores this year, and is by Cy Coleman and Neil Simon. I dunno, it's debatable!


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re: Which was the toughest competitive year for Best Musical?

Posted by: keikekaze 12:37 am EST 01/17/14
In reply to: re: Which was the toughest competitive year for Best Musical? - Chazwaza 07:10 pm EST 01/16/14

I think Little Me is a better musical than meets the eye in revivals. They keep monkeying around with it in revivals--and messing it up in the casting (dividing up Caesar's roles or casting only one Belle Poitrine, or both) or in coarsening the book. But they do keep reviving it, because as it was originally written and staged, it was a very good musical, besides being a very funny show (in that anything-for-a-laugh Producers/Spamalot/BOM manner). If only they'd revive it instead of trying to revise it! And, of course, you need a brilliant comic in the Caesar roles--not merely an actor (or two) who can be amusing.


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re: Which was the toughest competitive year for Best Musical?

Posted by: chrisampm 07:32 pm EST 01/16/14
In reply to: re: Which was the toughest competitive year for Best Musical? - Chazwaza 07:10 pm EST 01/16/14

Aren't you changing the terms of your premise? The issue shouldn't be what we'd now consider leading competitors but which shows that year had a reasonable chance to win.


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re: Which was the toughest competitive year for Best Musical?

Posted by: Chazwaza 07:38 pm EST 01/16/14
In reply to: re: Which was the toughest competitive year for Best Musical? - chrisampm 07:32 pm EST 01/16/14

My terms and premise were a bit foggy from the beginning. Because I'm doing it looking back and thinking "imagine THOSE shows competing in the same year", especially in the larger context of "look how many classic winners won with basically no real competition."

It's not a perfect system though.


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