Welcome to the Musicals Thread, the Avocado’s space for anything and everything related to musical theatre! Every month I’ll post a discussion prompt, but please feel free to comment on other topics, from new discoveries to old favorites. If you have ideas for future prompts or would like to write a feature for the thread, let me know!
This month’s prompt was inspired by a video from the YouTube channel Dreamsounds, taking on the impressive task of ranking every song from every movie produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGap_qFtJzU&list=LL&index=135 – video wasn’t embedding properly).
There are the generally-agreed-upon classics which are rated unsurprisingly highly and the most fun to gush about, but I appreciate the dedication of weighing and considering every component of multiple scores and how well each does its job (or if its job is even worth doing). As another year winds to a close and various media outlets are choosing the “Best of” all manner of things, it seemed to me a good time for us to get in on the process of taking stock of a work of art, recognizing strengths and weaknesses (or just preferences!), and maybe making some tough decisions. The challenge, then, is to pick a musical and rank all of its songs, either in tiers as in the Dreamsounds video or countdown-style as I’ve done for my favorite show, Les Miserables (in a spoiler box because holy cow I underestimated just how many tracks there are):
[spoiler]47. “Building the Barricade”
46. “Night of Anguish”
45. “At the Barricade”
44. “Beggars at the Feast”
43. “Dawn of Anguish”
42. “Javert’s Arrival”
41. “Little People”
40. “Do You Hear the People Sing?”
39. “Drink with Me”
38. “The Final Battle”
37. “The Runaway Cart”
36. “Every Day”
35. “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”
34. “Lovely Ladies”
33. “Turning”
32. “Valjean’s Confession”
31. “Rue Plumet/In My Life”
30. “Castle on a Cloud”
29. “Look Down”
28. “At the End of the Day”
27. “Eponine’s Errand”
26. “A Heart Full of Love”
25. “The Confrontation”
24. “Fantine’s Arrest”
23. “The Waltz of Treachery”
22. “The Robbery”
21. “The Second Attack (Death of Gavroche)”
20. “Master of the House”
19. “Stars”
18. “The Bargain”
17. “The Wedding Chorale”
16. “Dog Eat Dog”
15. “Bring Him Home”
14. “Javert’s Intervention”
13. “Prologue”
12. “Valjean’s Soliloquy (What Have I Done?)”
11. “The ABC Cafe/Red and Black”
10. “First Attack”
9. “Who Am I?”
8. “I Dreamed a Dream”
7. “On My Own”
6. “The Attack on Rue Plumet”
5. “A Little Fall of Rain”
4. “Fantine’s Death”
3. “Javert’s Suicide”
2. “Finale”
1. “One Day More”[/spoiler]