MY TOP MUSICALS - Paul T Davies

Voting for the Top 100 Musicals Poll finishes at 11.50pm on Sunday night. We asked a few of our reviewers to put down their thoughts on their favourite musicals.

Just back from a stint at the Edinburgh Festival, Paul T Davies gave us his thoughts:-

"It took a long time for me to appreciate musicals. My only exposure to them when growing up was my mother’s fondness for the American film versions; we never went to the actual theatre. Some of those films are classics, but I hated them! Saccharine and sugary, the boy always got the girl and it all seemed so fake. Not fashionable to say it, but I can’t stand The Sound of Music- just what do you all see in it? The really annoying thing about The Sound of Music is, even if you hate it, you know every song. There’s one in your head now isn’t it? Damn it, it’s in mine too! Will have to play Led Zeppelin now to exorcise it- Climb Every Stairway to Heaven anyone? It was Blood Brothers that removed the scales from my eyes. Not even the West End version, which I eventually saw at least four times, but a fine production at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff that I was dragged along to see, oh, about thirty years ago?  Here was a working-class musical, which spoke in the language of my upbringing, one that made me laugh out loud and, significantly, didn’t have a happy ending. The piano intro of Tell Me It’s Not True still sends a tingle up my spine. This was swiftly followed by a tremendous amateur production of Sweeny Todd, and when I fell in love with West Side Story, I realised what it was. Corpses. Give me a musical littered with corpses at the end and I’m happy. Les Miz- bring it on, I do want to hear the people sing. Sondheim’s Assassins even has.... assassins. Of course, over the years the 16th part Goth in me has mellowed a little. Hairspray, The Producers, Billy Elliot and many more warm the cockles of my heart and sent me out into the night with a huge grin on my face.  But I still have a fondness for what would be called “challenging” work. The Last Five Years leaves me cold, couldn’t care less about those self-centred protagonists, but The Scottsboro Boys is devastating and unforgettable. I’ll take Spring Awakening over Oklahoma! any day!

Misery loves company, so if you prefer low life to high kicks and cold dead hands rather than jazz hands to finish off your evening, give me a shout! We can weep and wallow together!"

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