Famous Musicals

Famous Musicals 🎭 Broadway, New York & London’s West End

What makes famous musicals famous? Some run for decades and span generations, others struggle to survive. Some famous musicals are based on movies or stories while others are adapted for the silver screen. Some famous musicals are based around a star performer, composer or director, others thrive on team spirit.

The key to success is certainly elusive but usually includes great costumes (or no costumes), great music, great lighting and inspired composers. Share your thoughts in the comments area below…

Famous musicals was last updated 18 Aug 2024.

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Famous Musicals 🎭	Composer	Premiere	Year	Musical setting, time and storyline
42nd Street	Harry Warren	New York	1980	New York in the early 30s. Casting, rehearsals & premiere of a musical. A newcomer asserts herself and becomes a star.
A Chorus Line	Marvin Hamlisch	New York	1975	Stage on Broadway. The musical describes the tough selection process and the emotions of Dancers.
Anything goes	Cole Porter	New York	1934	Luxury liner in the 30s on a voyage across the Atlantic. Amusing tales and love stories of an illustrious shipping company. One of the eldest of all famous musicals on Broadway.
Beauty and the Beast	Alan Menken	New York	1994	Timeless tale in an enchanted castle. The beautiful Belle falls in love with the prince (who has been transformed into an ugly beast) thereby breaking the curse.
Cabaret	John Kander	New York	1966	Berlin, in the early 30s. An American writer falls in love with a singer from the Kit-Kat Club. Pre-war tragedy without a happy ending.
Can-Can	Cole Porter	New York	1954	Paris in 1893. A judge closes a Cancan establishment for obscenity but later falls in love with the owner and is disbarred.
Cats	Andrew Lloyd Webber	London	1981	A garbage pile in London. Tells the stories of cats who all have the same goal: to ascend to cat heaven.
Elisabeth	Sylvester Levay	Vienna	1992	Story of love and passion of the Austrian empress.
Evita	Andrew Lloyd Webber	London	1978	Buenos Aires between 1934 and 1952. It depicts the life of Che and Eva Peron, dazzling wife of the Argentine president.
Grease	Warren Casey, Jim Jacobs	Chicago	1971	Famous musical set in 70s America about love, disappointment and the jealousy of two high school students.
Hair	Galt MacDermot	New York	1967	America in the late 60s hippy era. The (love) story of a young man who has to decide for or against the army.
Hello, Dolly!	Jerry Herman	New York	1964	1898. Three bachelors from the small town of Yonkers get lost and fall in love with New York City. Dolly, the marriage broker plays a central role in it.
Jesus Christ Superstar	Andrew Lloyd Webber	New York	1971	Legendary rock opera about the life and suffering during the last seven days of Jesus Christ, including Judas’ betrayal, the Lord’s Supper and the Crucifixion.
Kiss me, Kate	Cole Porter	New York	1948	America in the late 40s, before and during a performance. Comedy involving a theater group.
The Book of Mormon	Robert Lopez, Trey Parker and Matt Stone	New York	2011	Fun look at the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). Follows the career of needy nerdy missionary Elder Arnold Cunningham as he travels to Uganda. Cunningham hasn’t read the scripture but is good at making up stories and gets himself into and out of trouble with the locals, and the church, at every turn. Includes profanity.
The Lion King	Sir Elton John, Sir Tim Rice	Minneapolis	1997	A musical journey into the African wildlife with impressive stage sets and costumes
Les Misérables	Claude-Michel Schönberg	Paris	1980	Paris around 1820 to 1835. An ex-prisoner wants to lead an honest life but is not given the chance and ends up fighting against the social system.
Mamma Mia!	Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus	London	1999	On a small Greek island in the early 80. In addition to the success story of ABBA it also tells the story of a single mother and their 20 year-old daughter.
My Fair Lady	Frederick Loewe	New York	1956	London, 1912. Transformation of Eliza, a poor flower girl, to a fine lady. For Prof. Higgins she is initially only a test object, but he later falls in love with her.
Phantom of the Opera	Andrew Lloyd Webber	London	1986	Paris Opera, 1877 and 1905. The disfigured Erik (the Phantom) lives in the cellars of the Paris Opera and helps the simple chorus girl Christine achieve her breakthrough. It’s still running in both London and Broadway three decades after its premier!
Rocky Horror Picture Show	Richard O´Brien	London	1973	Ohio/Transylvania 1970s. A prudish couple (Brad & Janet) have a flat tire and ring the door of transsexual Dr. Frank-N-Furter who introduces them to Rocky – his man-made Adonis.
Show Boat	Jerome Kern	New York	1927	North Carolina, 1880s to 1920s. One of the first famous musicals on Broadway. On the Mississippi river, black Joe falls in love with a white singer thereby introducing the main topic of racial discrimination.
Starlight Express	Andrew Lloyd Webber	London	1984	A race on roller skates in a boy’s dream. The musical tells the story of the world championship of the locomotives. Only the victor can win the heart of the beautiful Pearl.
Dance of the Vampires	Jim Steinman	Vienna	1996	Somewhere in Transylvania. Student Alfred and Professor Abronsius search out and fight vampires. Alfred falls in love with Sarah, who is kidnapped
Tommy	The Who	London	1968	England in the postwar period. The rock opera describes the life of the blind, deaf and mute Tommy Walker. Abused as a child, he turns out to be the pinball world champion and thru a miracle cure becomes the Messiah.d by vampires.
West Side Story	Leonard Bernstein	New York	1957	New York in the 50s. Love story of two teenagers belonging to warring gangs.
We Will Rock You	Ben Elton, Queen	London	2002	In the distant future on the planet e.bay (formerly Earth), self-made music is prohibited. A group of Bohemians rebels against the Queen (Killer Queen).

Famous Musicals

Famous Musicals 🎭 Broadway, New York & London’s West End

See also: Classical Composers A-Z | Music Terminology…

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