So...it turns out that The Phantom of the Opera is pretty cool.

[Ħ]

And so is the sequel Love Never Dies. I have a theater friend who is converting me. This may be the beginning of the end, DTF.

*appreciates*

[Zook]

I thought opera was the next stage after post rock anyway.

[Perpetual Change]

I do enjoy musical theater, occasionally. I did like Phantom, but Love Never Dies is absolute crap.

Spring Awakening has great "rock" music.

[Super Dude]

I never saw the musical version of Spring Awakening. It must be at least marginally less depressing than the play, I imagine.

[Perpetual Change]

I never saw the musical version of Spring Awakening. It must be at least marginally less depressing than the play, I imagine.

Duncan Sheik did the music. It’s really good, if you like Duncan Sheik.
It’s still really depressing.

[Super Dude]

Yeah, I mean I have the song Bitch of the Living in my iTunes library; I'd had it from before I saw Spring Awakening. I love that song and would love to see it performed. Then a friend of mine at college told me he was going to be in the show, and I got all excited because I thought it was the musical. It turned out to be the play and by the end of the night, I felt like hiding in a hole forever.

[theseoafs]

I was never a big fan of Andrew Lloyd Weber.

[Perpetual Change]

He's OK. The original Jesus Christ Superstar (the concept record with Ian Gillian) is great.

[73109]

Les Mis and Rent are my shiz.

They are still the only two forms of artistic media that reduce me to a pile of man-tears e'ery time.

[Super Dude]

He's back!

[73109]

Indeed he is. I couldn't resist the urge to talk about Rent for such a long time.

[bosk1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_DOJU1DY10

[Super Dude]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_DOJU1DY10

Ermagerd I love that cover. It's one of the only Nightwish songs I own.

[masterthes]

Oh yeah, the Nightwish cover is awesomeness (the live version anyway)

Love POTO, although I'm more a fan of Superstar

[theseoafs]

Les Mis and Rent are my shiz.

They are still the only two forms of artistic media that reduce me to a pile of man-tears e'ery time.

You've obviously never seen Up.

[Ħ]

I do enjoy musical theater, occasionally. I did like Phantom, but Love Never Dies is absolute crap.

Love Never Dies was all right. It clearly couldn't hold a candle to the original, and the plot was odd, but it was cool to see the continuation of the story. It had some nice songs, too.

[73109]

Les Mis and Rent are my shiz.

They are still the only two forms of artistic media that reduce me to a pile of man-tears e'ery time.

You've obviously never seen Up.

I have. I just knew what to expect so it didn't rock me as hard. "I Dreamed a Dream" and the "Epilogue" from Les Mis though...dude...waterworks.

[kirksnosehair]

Saw Phantom of the Opera in Vegas.  Fell sound asleep after about 35 minutes.  Not my cuppa.


Best musical I've ever seen, bar none:  "Wicked"  5 stars all the way.   

[jingle.boy]

Wicked was just that. Love the real "rock opera's" - We Will Rock You and Rock of Ages were both excellent.

Phantom was the first musical I ever saw, 23 years ago.  Michael Crawford as the Phantom. Don't get any better than that.

However, Les Mis is the best them.

[dongringo]

I like Phantom, but Billy Elliot the Musical is the best musical on the planet. Les Mis is also good.

[Dr. DTVT]

Spring Awakening has great "rock" music.

Ha!  That's the theater department's Spring production here, so I just saw it last week.  The music was written by Duncan Shiek.  If you don't think you like musicals, give this one a try.

[bosk1]

However, Les Mis is the best them.

Saw it during the last week of its run on Broadway back in...I think it was 2002.  I remember after it got out, my wife and I were walking, and all of a sudden, it started raining.  So as we were walking/running toward the subway station, I decided it was the perfect time to start singing Trial of Tears at the top of my lungs.  That was a really fun time.

[jingle.boy]

However, Les Mis is the best them.

Saw it during the last week of its run on Broadway back in...I think it was 2002.  I remember after it got out, my wife and I were walking, and all of a sudden, it started raining.  So as we were walking/running toward the subway station, I decided it was the perfect time to start singing Trial of Tears at the top of my lungs.  That was a really fun time.

I saw it up here in '98 when Colm Wilkinson returned as Valjean. 3rd row seats. You could see the spit flying from his mouth as he belted out the music.

It was glorious.

We're pretty spoiled up here with the musical scene. 2nd only to New York IMO.

[kirksnosehair]

Wicked was just that. Love the real "rock opera's" - We Will Rock You and Rock of Ages were both excellent.

Phantom was the first musical I ever saw, 23 years ago.  Michael Crawford as the Phantom. Don't get any better than that.

However, Les Mis is the best them.

Rock of Ages was good too.  Sorry, but I hated Les Mis 


Seems I don't really care for the more traditional operas and go more for contemporary stuff

[Shadow2222]

I love Broadway and theater in general. In high school I played Riff in West Side Story, "Nicely-Nicely" Johnson in Guys & Dolls, and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

One of my favorite memories of my entire life so far was going to New York City on a choir trip and seeing Phantom of the Opera on Broadway in the second row center.

Unfortunately, Love Never Dies is pretty awful and completely undermines Phantom of the Opera. Andrew Lloyd Weber pandered to the fans that wanted the Phantom to be the good guy.

[Orbert]

My wife and I saw Phantom of the Opera at the Kennedy Center in D.C.  It was amazing.  Our seats were one row above and slightly to one side of the President's box.  I could've tossed popcorn at him from where we sat (but they weren't there that night, and come on, I'm not that stupid).

I like musicals in general, having grown up playing in the pit orchestras all throughout junior high and high school, but I never liked this one in particular.  My wife loves it, though, so it made a good anniversary present and, as I figured would happen, I did enjoy it quite a bit, seeing it live.  And I did tear up towards the end, when The Phantom was singing his heart out to her, begging her not to choose the lameass prettyboy over him, after all he'd done for her, but she chose the lameass prettyboy anyway.  Bitch.

[pogoowner]

I would love to see Phantom live. Great musical. Les Miserables will always be my favorite, though.

[yeshaberto]

My kids keep begging me to see Les Mis...maybe I should do it!

[73109]

ONE DAY MORE TO REVOLUTION
WE WILL NIP IT IN THE BUD
WE ARE READY FOR THESE SCHOOLBOYS
THEY WILL WET THEMSELVES WITH BLOOD

[theseoafs]

My kids keep begging me to see Les Mis...maybe I should do it!

This idea, I support. Don't worry about Phantom.

[Ħ]

See both.

[El Barto]

He's OK. The original Jesus Christ Superstar (the concept record with Ian Gillian) The movie version (with Carl Fucking Anderson) is great.

I thought Phantom was good when I was a young lad. Hasn't aged well. Moreover, it doesn't really come together until the last act with Point of no Return, and by then it's nearly over. At this stage of the game, I wouldn't want to have to sit through the first 90 minutes to get to the final 20.

Add to that, as others have mentioned, Les Mis really makes the whole thing seem fairly lame.

[theseoafs]

Best musical I've ever seen, bar none:  "Wicked"  5 stars all the way.   

Fucking this.  Wicked is great fun, start to finish.

Also, for theater lovers who haven't seen The Book of Mormon: put it on your list.  You won't regret it.