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!

---

My love of musicals is well-known among my family, so one of my Christmas gifts this year was this cool poster:

Like a lottery ticket, it’s covered with foil squares, each to be scratched off to reveal artwork representing a musical underneath. The idea is to scratch off only the shows one has experienced*, a visual representation of one’s progress through theatre history. 

I’m intrigued by the title, “100 Essential Broadway Classics”, and how the shows included were judged to be such. Here they are, by the way:

1. Ain’t Too Proud
2. Aladdin
3. American Idiot
4. An American in Paris
5. Anastasia
6. Annie
7. Avenue Q
8. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
9. Beauty and the Beast
10. Beetlejuice
11. Billy Elliott
12. The Book of Mormon
13. A Bronx Tale
14. Cabaret
15. Carousel
16. Cats
17. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
18. Chicago
19. Children of Eden
20. A Chorus Line
21. The Color Purple
22. Come From Away
23. Company
24. Dear Evan Hansen
25. Dreamgirls
26. The Drowsy Chaperone
27. Evita
28. Falsettos
29. Fiddler on the Roof
30. Finding Neverland
31. 42nd Street
32. Frozen
33. Fun Home
34. Funny Girl
35. Grease
36. Guys and Dolls
37. [Romani]
38. Hadestown
39. Hair
40. Hairspray
41. Hamilton
42. Hello Dolly!
43. If/Then
44. In the Heights
45. Into the Woods
46. Jersey Boys
47. Jesus Christ Superstar
48. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
49. The King and I
50. Kinky Boots
51. Kiss Me Kate
52. La Cage aux Folles
53. The Last Five Years
54. Legally Blonde
55. Les Miserables
56. The Lion King
57. A Little Night Music
58. Little Shop of Horrors
59. Love Never Dies
60. Mamma Mia!
61. Mary Poppins
62. Matilda
63. Mean Girls
64. Memphis
65. Miss Saigon
66. Monty Python’s Spamalot
67. Moulin Rouge
68. The Music Man
69. My Fair Lady
70. Newsies
71. Next to Normal
72. Oklahoma!
73. Oliver!
74. Once
75. Once on This Island
76. Parade
77. The Phantom of the Opera
78. Pippin
79. The Producers
80. Ragtime
81. Rent
82. Rock of Ages
83. The Rocky Horror Show
84. School of Rock
85. Six
86. Something Rotten!
87. The Sound of Music
88. South Pacific
89. Spring Awakening
90. Starlight Express
91. Sunday in the Park with George
92. Sunset Boulevard
93. Sweeney Todd
94. Sweet Charity
95. Tootsie
96. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
97. Waitress
98. We Will Rock You
99. West Side Story
100. Wicked

Obviously the poster is just supposed to be for fun, but is there such a thing as a musical theatre canon? Is it possible to objectively evaluate a show’s quality or cultural importance? Should objectivity even be a concern? What about “instant classics”? What about a show gives us the feeling it will stand the test of time?