Member-only story
My Twelve Favourite Musicals
Also, why ‘musical’ is a treatment, not a genre
Some people can’t abide musicals. I feel sorry for them in much the same way I feel sorry for people who don’t enjoy the escapism of a romantic comedy. At any rate, to celebrate the imminent release of Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story, I thought it an opportune moment to list my twelve favourite musicals.
A treatment, not a genre
To preface this list, I put it to you that the musical is not a genre. As a storytelling type, the musical has no literary equivalent. It is a treatment rather than a genre. Brad Bird constantly reiterates the same thing concerning animation, with evident hair-clutching frustration (though animation does have a literary equivalent whenever an illustrator is deployed).
Although often thought of as romances, musicals in fact exist across a variety of genres. Yes, there are plenty of romances, comedies, and the like, but there are also musical versions of classic novels; Les Miserables, Oliver!, fact-based historic dramas; The Sound of Music, satirical war stories; Oh! What a Lovely War, biblical dramas; The Prince of Egypt, and obviously fantasy; The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, plus The Nightmare Before Christmas, Snow White and the Seven…
