Modern(ish) Musicals

thegoosejuggler:

I’ll list three musicals per “genre” with a short summary of each and three songs per musical to give you a sense of the show. 

Spectacular Musicals:
These are musicals with huge, show-stopping numbers with the same feel as all your classic faves. You’ve probably at least heard of all of these.

• Newsies
• Newsboys strike when the prices of papers are raised
• Songs
• Santa Fe
• Carrying the Banner
• Seize the Day
• Anastasia
• Two charming Russian conmen try to pass off an orphan girl as the lost princess Anastasia
• Songs
• My Petersburg
• Once Upon a December
• In a Crowd of Thousands
• Wicked
• The Wizard of Oz told from the Wicked Witch’s perspective
• Songs
• The Wizard and I
• Popular
• Defying Gravity

Subtly Beautiful Musicals:
These are musicals without much flashy production value that just let their songs and stories simmer beautifully. For all of these, you really need to hear the whole show, but I’ll list three songs as a good starter.

• The Last Five Years
• The story of a doomed relationship told from two perspectives simultaneously, backward and forwards
• Songs
• Still Hurting
• The Next Ten Minutes
• If I Didn’t Believe in You
• The Band’s Visit
• An Egyptian band is sent to a tiny Israeli town by mistake and must spend the night there
• Songs
• Omar Sharif
• Something Different
• Answer Me
• Fun Home
• The story of a woman finding her identity and making sense of her relationship with her father
• Songs
• Ring of Keys
• Maps
• Flying Away (Finale)

Popcorn Musicals:
These are musicals to listen to and turn off your brain–the sort of show you can watch while munching on popcorn.

• Legally Blonde
• A ditzy blonde follows her ex to Harvard (not as sexist as it sounds)
• Songs
• Omigod
• Better than Before
• Take it Like a Man
• Heathers
• Two high schoolers go on a murder-spree
• Songs
• Fight for Me
• Our Love Is God
• Seventeen
• Catch Me if You Can
• A young man leads an FBI agent on a wild goose chase, assuming many fake identities
• Songs
• Live in Living Color
• Don’t Break the Rules
• Goodbye

Super Popular Musicals:
These are the musicals everyone always talks about. You probably know about them, but maybe you were never quite able to get into them, so here are songs do introduce yourself to them.

• Hamilton
• The (fictionalized) story of the life of Alexander Hamilton
• Songs
• Aaron Burr, Sir
• Satisfied
• The Room Where it Happens
• Dear Evan Hansen
• A teenager with anxiety finds himself in an unexpected situation when a classmate commits suicide
• Songs
• Waving Through a Window
• Requiem
• Only Us
• Les Mis
• The musical follows both a group of French revolutionaries and Jean Valjean, a supremely moral convict
• Songs
• Red and Black
• One Day More
• On My Own

Dark Musicals:
These are musicals that do not hit all the peppy beats typically associated with musical theater–have tissues handy.

• Spring Awakening
• Repressed 19th-century German teens try to cope with their burgeoning sexualities and the realities of their worlds
• Songs
• Mama Who Bore Me
• The Bitch of Living
• The Word of Your Body
• Next to Normal
• The story of a mother coping with depression and how it affects her family
• Songs
• Another Day
• My Psychopharmacologist and I
• I’m Alive
• Bare: A Pop Opera
• Two gay boys try to navigate their relationship at Catholic boarding school
• Songs
• You and I
• All Grown Up
• Bare

Unusual Musicals:
These are musicals that don’t quite fit in any other category. 

• Bright Star
• A young, ambitious man crosses paths with a woman, causing her to reminisce about her life
• Songs
• Bright Star
• Woah Mama
• Sun is Gonna Shine
• A New Brain
• A young composer is sent to the hospital after collapsing, causing his family and friends to rally around him
• Songs
• Frogs Have so Much Spring
• Sailing
• And They’re Off
• Great Comet
• A pop-opera version of an excerpt of War and Peace–a young, engaged girl attempts to elope with a married man
• Songs
• Prologue
• The Ball
• Balaga