Top 10 Best Musicals of All Time

The Top Ten
1 Les Misérables

It has a great story of redemption and repentance. And each and every character has their own story to them, so you kind of get attached to every single one of them, and then they die. That's another thing! Instead of just killing off a character and calling it good, they have their own song, either unfinished or completed. The music is just fantastic. Overall great story.

I watched this two weeks ago, and OMG! The music is spectacular, and the redemption and change of character Valjean has. I love how most of my favorite characters have a song while they die, or before they die Eponine, Javert, Fantine, and Valjean all have completed death songs, but Gavroche was cut off. So sad. I may be heartless, but I only cried three times throughout the entire thing. I love this, and I am actually Eponine in real life. Cosette and Eponine are practically related, and my sister had a crush on this guy I liked, he friend-zoned me and started to like my sister. I let it happen. Kind of hard to believe, I know. However, I might be getting my Marius back! MWAHAHAHAHA! I say that because of what happened today.

I grew up with les mis, and every time I listen to this I am in tears. its an utterly amazing musical with a powerful story and themes, the music is aboslouly wonderful and its even better on stage.

Amazing musical, leaves you in tears of bittersweet joy, whether you're watching it live, or watching the 10th Anniversary concert with Colm Wilkinson on youtube, or the 2012 movie starring Hugh Jackman (among other superb actors) it will stay in your mind and heart for ages. If you're like me and had the fortune of being a part of a production of it, it truly leaves a mark on your soul. If you see only a few musicals in your life, this should be one of them.

2 The Phantom of the Opera

The music is beautiful and it makes me so shocked because of how high the talented singers of Christine and Carlotta are. Bravi, Bravi, Bravissimi.

For me, Les Mis and this are tied for first place. Contrary to what people say it has a beautiful score, amazing singers, and the storyline is amazing. I like the score because it's much "calmer" than other musicals, and I really enjoyed seeing the stage version of Phantom live. Deserves to be tied with Les Mis in the number one spot.
It's also the longest running musical with 12,000 shows.

Yes. Very deserving of first place. Away from the classic, all-singing, all-dancing colourful Hollywood musicals (which I adore), this is my favourite "serious" musical. Dark, brooding, romantic and with a touch of humour thrown in. A powerful story with an equally powerful score. The overture and the opening of the duet The Phantom Of The Opera makes my heart thud. Quite simply fantastic.

Of course. The best musical, stunning to watch on stage, on film and to even just listen to the soundtracks.

3 Wicked

I love the backstory and the twist in every life of everyone. Knowing who Dorothy's friends used to be, learning how the witches became who they were, and of course the friendship between Glinda the Good Witch, and Elphaba the WIcked Witch of the West. No one mourns the wicked they say, but what about everyone who's seen the musical, every mourns her "death."

I love the characters and the backstory of the notorious Wicked Witch of the West! And don't forget the music, especially the Galindafied ones!

I cried when I thought Elphaba had died. (I was happy that she was able to run off with her love like she had always wanted.) But then I cried again because she whould never see Glinda again.

Wizard of Oz with an amazing, eye-opening twist. One simply can't help but love all of the characters. The music awakens the deepest part of you, the part that wants to be known, and shows you things you didn't know about yourself.

4 Hamilton

You know, every time I come home from school, I always gotta, WORK! And do chores. I love this and last Halloween me and my friends decided to do a Hamilton group thing. My friend was Eliza, another, was Angelica, my guy friend Carter was Hamilton and had the most realistic Lin beard going on, AKA just sharpied it on there. Me and my sister are twins, so she was Maria, while I was the one and only Peggy Schuyler.

I mean, come on! It's Hamilton! Personally, I did better in history class because of this, at least with the dates, and who doesn't love to put "The Schuyler Sisters" on repeat?"

I call it The King Of Musicals. Though I've never seen the musical yet, Hamilton sure is becoming the #1 musical on the planet. Why isn't it number one here on the list? I don't know, but the musical inspires students from around the globe to learn about one of our founding fathers of America. It won more Tony awards than any other musical in theatre history, and it has unique hip hop edition of the history of America, which I can garauntee it would make everyone sing along to more than any other theatre production in history, and they even preformed at the white house which is a very rare opportunity for a theatre cast ever. It is possible that it may win the world record for the highest box office production sometime in the not too distant future because of that, but the best thing to do is to wait and see. Our founding fathers of America in this musical is more like the founding fathers of a golden musical trophy!

I think Hamilton should be number on here.
Hamilton is one of the main reason I LOVE History right now. It helps students around the world learn while listening to rapping, R&B, Hip-Hop and some other popular genres. I never thought Rapping could be in a Musical until Lin came along and blew us all away (please don't kill me). All beats are very catchy too. History is now taught in the funnest ways possible. No one can not certainly, say no to this King of Musicals

5 Mary Poppins

I grew up on this, so this has a place in my heart! And who doesn't think of "A Spoonful of Sugar" whenever they have to take medicine?

So underrated. I love this and when cooking I always sing, A Spoon full of Sugar. Too bad I don't have a big one for medicine!

Only one word to this; classic!

6 Hairspray

GOOD MORNING BALTIMORE! I love this musical and its music. The hair and songs are so fun, and one of my favorites is Miss Baltimore Crab. I do love this and love to wake up and hum, Good Morning Baltimore.

I just love the music. It puts me in a good mood!

Best musical ever

7 The Wizard of Oz

I remember I used to find it boring, not really paying attention when I saw it was black and white in the movie. I love the movie now, and sadly my friends do not know what The Wizard of Oz is! I love the play as well.

This was my childhood, and I love the story!

8 The Lion King

My very first school play was The Lion King. We had 140 kids in it, making the wild plains of Africa come to life with giant herds of animals bowing to the prince in unison. I love the movie, and I love the Broadway version. So many memories of each and every musical, movie, or stage production I will ever hear see, or preform.

For someone who has been in a production of this, I love it. I also grew up watching this for days straight.

Great costumes, awesome colours, emotional and creative! Best ever!

Haven't seen but really want to see. I hear the puppets are great.

9 West Side Story

Makes me cry for hours after I hear it. The choreography is amazing and gives sad but true insight on how this event would've taken place in real life.

My favorite movie ever. If you voted for anything else, you probably haven't seen this movie, or musical. Pure perfection

I've seen this movie to many times. I don't have positive memories of it, but I don't know why.

This is a great movie!

10 Grease

Grease is my favorite musical, and it would be my favorite movie if not for "American Graffiti". I like the original Broadway performance better than the movie and it irks me when people say Sandy has to be a blonde Australian onstage... When in the original, she's an all-American brunette. :) But, all that aside, Grease is definitely a classic. It might be a bit mature for some audiences though.

Lion King is the greatest movie with an incredible score and great songs. But unless you're talking about the west end show, the film doesn't really count as a musical. Because the story is so great. Grease will always be the greatest musical

Great musical! I know all the song lyrics! Really catchy and a great watch!

Should be higher than this! I love this movie!

The Contenders
11 Cats

I adore this musical. I love the songs they are so catchy. It is so unique in its own way and This a imaginary world brought to the stage.

Absolutely incredible. The score superb (Memory, Macavity: The Mystery Cat... look it up, they're all amazing), the dances are awesome (yay for Gillian Lynn! ), and the costumes and set design simply cannot be beaten (They're cats dancing in an oversized junkyard! It's so cool! ). And although we're talking about the stage show, the movie was absolutely phenomenal- finally, a movie-musical from the last 20 years that casts people because they're actually good instead of famous! Pure brilliance.

Ahh.. I can't even express how much I love Cats. Great songs and characters, and when the cast is on point (like in the 1998 movie), it's phenomenal.

Andrew Lloyd Webber should be ashamed of himself. Has anyone ever heard of Stephen Sondheim? All of his musicals are better than this. Absolute garbage.

12 The Sound of Music

I have not seen this in forever and greatly regret it. I love it and every time I see a deer, a female deer, I can't not sing.

It's a musical that my entire family loved growing up and they showed it in school a lot too.

I just have one thing to say, this helped me in music class in elementary school. "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do."

Emotional and amazing!

13 Rent

Music is amazing

14 Music Man

Do you know the territory?

15 Burlesque
16 Into The Woods

My favorite musical. Great story and well written songs!

I adore fairytales, and all of the great songs in this musical. One of my favourites!

17 Billy Elliot

Absolutely fantastic music, story, characters, everything. This musical literally changed my life - it inspired me to be who I want to be despite how my peers or parents felt about it. It talks about a deep societal issue that is still ongoing and often not spoken about. While gender barriers are much less strict than they used to be, it's still more acceptable for a girl to embrace masculinity than for a boy to embrace femininity and Billy Elliot demonstrates that issue in a way that had me laughing and crying throughout the show.

I love Billy Elliot! Ever since I was in it up until I got to see it on Broadway!

18 Heathers

The storyline is bottom-line AMAZING. It manages to be comedic, dark, relatable, and satirical all at once. Heathers is a depiction of school and society as a whole (exaggerated as it may be), and it makes me laugh and cry at the same time. Great musical!

Heathers is a masterpiece. It's darkly hilarious, but it gets pretty heavy at times, especially during Act 2. But it's definitely not for everyone.

How is this so low on the list? Heathers is the best musical-and one of the best things made-ever.

Amazing vocal melodies and harmonies; should be rated higher.

19 SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical

This musical is absolutely underrated! For a musical. that is supposed to sponsor a franchise, this is amazing! The props and the background are creative and looks entirely the same to the SpongeBob landscape! The characters were also true to the Season 1-6 ! Stephen Hillenberg would be so proud of it!

It's funny, heartfelt, creative and clever. The singing is great, the acting is great (Pearl is meh but she's got an amazing voice), and the sets and costumes are great.

20 My Fair Lady

My favourite musical changes depending on my mood (tomorrow it could be Singin' In The Rain, Guys And Dolls, Oliver! or more serious musicals such as Les Mis or The Phantom of the Opera; it's too difficult to choose an all-out favourite. But my mood at the moment is willing me to give my vote to this pretty, elegant, enchanting and oh-so-charming musical.

21 Seussical
22 Chicago

This was one of my favorite musicals to take part in. I love how tech heavy it is and I enjoy the funny songs like Me and my Baby.

This musical is amazing!
Talks about a really serious subject, but in an enjoyable way.
Sinister yet pleasing, how is this #40?

Watched it for the first time last week and was not disappointed. It's very good and I love the soundtrack so much

23 Mamma Mia!

It's funny og lovely. Makes me and my friends smile and sing along

I really love this movie! It's so amazing!

Songs I can put on repeat anytime!

Super good music!

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