Favorite show on the big stage?

Saw Little Shop Of Horrors with Ellen Greene and loved it...it's been so long since I saw any really good musicals.

It's such a shame Chicago in London is a celeb-casting nightmare now, as it's a brilliant show.

Used to love the revival of Jesus Christ Superstar around 10 years ago - I think I saw it 5 times.

I've never been to Broadway (yet!) but I'm a huuuuuuuuuuuuge fan of musicals (and to a lesser extent, plays). My favorites that I've seen (so I'm not counting recordings that I've love but haven't seen the show of) are:

Peter Pan (pretty sure Peter is the role I was born to play. Someday...)
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Spamalot
Noises Off
Hello, Dolly!
Hairspray
See How They Run

I feel like such a little fangirl, but I have to say Wicked. The music is amazing, and I found the story more complex and interesting than any of the other musicals I've seen.

Best big stage show? Oh...wow...that's cruel...

Um...let me think.

Patrick Stewart in A Mindsummer Night's Dream was awesome. I saw the original cast of Love! Valour! Compassion! and that was incredible, as was a revival of The Heiress.

I'm not really all the big on musicals, but Into the Woods and The Phantom of the Opera were my all-time on Broadway faves. Miss Saigon, Cats, and Evita were enough to make me want to commit seppuku, but none of them hurt as badly as Oklahoma or *grits teeth* The Ever-Hateful, Ever-Loving Sound of Mother-Farking Music.

Angels in America and Perestroika were my favorite plays. The Mouse Trap was pretty good too. A chorus Line was my favorite musical. Phantom with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman was great

ETA: I forgot Cabaret, damn good before they tinkered with it too much

I forgot Cats. I loved Cats. The musical, not those hairy little buggers

Phantom of the Opera is my favorite.

Les Miserables was good as well and I enjoyed The Lion King - I thought how they made the actors into the animals without making them into actual animals was cool.

I heart Broadway - I just wish I got to go more often...

Jersey Chick said:

Les Miserables was good as well and I enjoyed The Lion King - I thought how they made the actors into the animals without making them into actual animals was cool.

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I'm going to see The Lion King when it comes here in August. I'm super stoked! It'll be my first time seeing a professionally done Disney musical. (Saw Beauty and the Beast done by a community theater group. It was...sad.)

I've never been to Broadway itself, but I've seen many traveling companies over the years.

My favorites have been Les Mis, The Lion King and Wicked--though I really hated the movie version of TLK, I admit. The stage performance was awesome. And Wicked was so much better than the original book--and made tons more sense. The best I've seen has to be Les Mis though.

I didn't get to see Phantom until after the movie came out, and I have to say that I was highly disappointed. I swear, there were only 7 cast members, the staging was minimal and--I hate to say this--the "cheorography" we did at my high school productions was FAR superior to what I saw on that stage. I felt totally ripped off for my main floor center seats.

Unfortunately, the non-musical shows don't travel so I don't get to see them.

For us, Broadway is a pilgrimage that we take very, very seriously.

I don't really have a list of favourite musicals, but if I did it would include:
RENT
Wicked
Nine
Chicago (before it turned into tourist hell)
Cabaret
and our most recent obsession, Next To Normal.

As far as straight plays go, I still can't get over the staging of Long Day's Journey into Night that I saw a few years ago, with Brian Dennehy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert Sean Leonard and Vanessa Redgrave: wow. Just... wow.

And then there was Lincoln Center's Twelfth Night from the late 90's...