And as I have and others have said a few times now in this thread, unless you have seen every major musical in nyc since 1973, in its original nyc production, then you cannot claim that ALNM is the last great one, and also if you haven't seen them ALL then you cannot outrightly dismiss the opinions of people who know ALNM well but didn't see the original production in 1973. And as I said before, what is the point of starting a thread here that dismisses or objects to the opinions of anyone born at least after 1960 if not 1957 or 1952 (when a person would be 13, 16, or 21, 13 being the youngest possible age one could even see ALNM and have a valid opinion of it... but I would argue that 16 or 18 are the youngest, and that's assuming they are pretty sophisticated teenagers).
Now I know you're thinking that as (probably) an nyc resident all or most of those years, and as someone who has seen possibly MOST of the notable musicals on Broadway and off (that's quite a lot, as you said "in nyc" no "on broadway"), you're probably thinking that if you didn't see it you heard the cast album and because you have good taste you can tell from the album that the material wasn't going to be in contention for "Last Great Musical" no matter how good the production was (just as I could tell ALNM was a great musical just from hearing the CD before ever seeing it or even reading the script). But I'm afraid that's still short-sighted and unfair, and not in line with the harsh criteria you've set up.
(I mean, I'm sure if I was Tommy Tune's production of NINE with the original cast, I wouldn't harp on some of the less than perfect things I picked out listening to it on CD... but to someone seeing it live it might have been the greatest thing ever or at least that they've seen, or at least better than everything they've seen since)
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