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Tumblr's Top 50 Musicals - Survey

In 2022, I wanted to find out Tumblr's Top 50 Musicals after seeing similar surveys on Reddit and Twitter. Now, three years and lots of new musicals later, I'm excited to see if anything has changed. So here's the 2025 survey!

To participate, please reply to this post / send me a non-anonymous ask / a dm with your Top 10 favourite musicals - ranked from 1 to 10, with 1 being your absolute favourite, until 11th June 2025.

Rules:

Since every show will receive points according to its ranking, I'm asking you to rank exactly 10 musicals, not more, not fewer.

Movie musicals and concept musicals without stage adaptations do not count. The musical MUST have a stage version.

Revivals/rewrites of a show count as the same musical, e.g. Bat Out Of Hell West End vs. Las Vegas.

Please include the composer/lyricist or another distinguishing element if there are at least two different musicals of the same name, e.g. Cinderella (R&H vs. ALW).

It's meant to be a list of your favourite musicals, not those you consider to be the best! There's no need to justify your choice.

The more people participate, the wider the variety of shows & the more representative the survey: please reblog!

Random example (not my favourites):

Into the Woods > gets 10 points

Company > gets 9 points

The King and I > gets 8 points

Beauty and the Beast (Disney) > gets 7 points

Rebecca > gets 6 points

Next to Normal > gets 5 points

Chess > gets 4 points

My Fair Lady > gets 3 points

Cabaret > gets 2 points

Wicked > gets 1 point

Please do not include the points, this is just for you to see how this survey works.

Once I've counted your list, I'll reply with "counted". You cannot change your ranking after this.

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It also is such a clever way to reference his role in the myths and adapt it to a stage production!

Hermes is a psychopomp god, one who straddles the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead. That's why he heralds the train, takes the coins from Eurydice, tells Orpheus how to get to Hadestown: it's all part of its dual nature.

And in the musical, this also means he's both inside and outside both worlds, that of the characters and that of the audience. This is why he's the narrator, why he knows about how the story goes, why he can play with the fourth wall the way he does, why he gently guides Orpheus and Eurydice towards each other, why he does not join the other voices in Why do we build the wall: he can go to both worlds, but he does not fully belong to either. He's more free than others, but still caught in the web of the story, maybe doubly so, because even if he were part of the audience and no longer bound to the plot as one of its character... He'd still want to see how it turns out, this time.

One of my favorite parts of Hadestown is the way Hermes slips so seamlessly between participant and narrator. The fact that he knows from the beginning how the story is going to go, but still plays his part, surrounded by people who don’t know they’re characters in a tragedy. And he plays his part well. Every night, he tells Orpheus, “You want to talk to her? Go on," and every night, he asks, “Just how far would you go for her?” Every night, Orpheus asks him, “ It’s not a trick?” and he tells him, “No, it’s a test.” And every night, when the cycle starts again, when his voice is so broken with grief that he can barely get the words out to tell the audience - the audience that he and no one else has known was there the whole time - “Don’t ask why, brother, don’t ask how he could have come so close. The song was written long ago, and that is how it goes,” when Eurydice appears - fresh-faced and alive, with no memory of what has just happened - to ask, “anybody got a match?” he wordlessly extends his matchbook to her, and lets the story start anew. Someone’s got to tell the tale, whether or not it turns out well.

And still - AND STILL - every night, at the very beginning, he says, “Maybe it will turn out this time, on the road to hell, on the railroad line.”

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Hadestown in west end 2025

Reeve Carney as Orpheus

Eva Noblezada as Eurydice

Philip Boykin as Hades

Andre De shields as Hermes

Amber gray as Persephone

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Performance: February 16 2025 at the Lyric Theatre (West End, London)

Phillip and Amber are sooo good together. Phillip voice records wonderfully, it's of course missing that extra warmth and depth it has in person, but this song turned out surprisingly well all things considered.

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spending these days brainrotting bc I finally after all these years saw the OBC live

bonus: POV you're me watching Chant from this angle

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Ok so, that was definitely An Experience. I was moved, I cried (a couple of times in spots I did not expect to), I even stagedoored (usually I can't because it's late and/or I am with other people). I loved it. Phillip Boykin is amazing as Hades, and he's a perfect gentleman and the nicest of people at stagedoor, so while I understand being bummed if you really wanted to see Patrick Page live, please give Phillip a chance.

You probably heard that André de Shields fell in the first act. He did seem fine afterwards, it was clear he was being a bit more careful whenymoving but overall ok. He stagedoored (is this even a word?) and he seemed to be fine, if a bit tired. I really hope he only needs some rest.

Let's goooooo! 12 years of yearning to see this story live, they finally end today!

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Let's goooooo! 12 years of yearning to see this story live, they finally end today!

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Now that the first show has been done, it is really hitting me... I will see Hadestown on Sunday.

I am so excited to see performers that would otherwise not be accessibile to me (and while I am a bit bummed about Patrick Page being injured, I am so excited to see Phillip Boykin in his place! He sounds amazing!). To be there knowing most of the people surrounding me are other fans. I am sure the energy will be amazing.

I love "special occasions" for this reason, everyone (performers and audience) brings their best game. I love premieres, debuts, closing nights, anniversaries, singalongs. They have that bit more excitement that really makes them special, and I hope this limited run has it too.

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I spent three and a half harrowing hours in the double queue, but I got a ticket to see Hadestown in London with the (partial) OBC. I snatched a lonely and pretty decent stall seat (Q14, slightly back, but central and good overall view from what I see in seatplan) on a Sunday, which is crucial because if I can't get a whole week of vacation I can just jump on a plane on Saturday morning and be back by Monday evening. I have done worse rush vacations for musicals!

I hope to be able to go back later in the year and see it again with the regular West End cast, I love the OBC but all the hype for this run makes me a bit sad because it looks like folks don't care as much when it's other actors :( I love seeing different casts, an unexpected cover or understudy is always a treat! I am very excited to get the chance to see this cast outside the US, but I also really want to see the current London one!

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Round three of sorting Tanz der Vampire’s characters using the Sorting Hat Chats model!

For those unfamiliar, Sorting Hat Chats is a  deeper, more nuanced sorting system using Harry Potter’s one as a basis. Over time it evolved into a handy basic tool for fictional characters’ analysis, since it makes you reason about WHY a character does something (the primary house), and HOW do they do it (the secondary house).

If you’re interested or have trouble understanding the terms I’ll use, here you can find the basics on SHC’s tumblr, and here is a slightly different explanation by wisteria-lodge (I personally find this one easier to understand, but that’s a matter of personal taste).

Please note that, since this is a live musical, the same character can change a bit depending on the actor, the direction, even from one performance to the other.

This is meant to be as much as possible a generic analysis, if your favorite performer gives them a different twist that’s cool and valid and the same is true if you interpret the characters and their actions differently than I do! Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

This turned out way longer than I planned, so l have to split it across multiple posts. You can find the first one, sorting Alfred and Professor Abronsius, here, and the second one with Magda, Sarh, Chagal and Rebecca here.

Now, let’s get to everyone’s favorite vampire family!

Continua a leggere

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Round two of sorting Tanz der Vampire’s characters using the Sorting Hat Chats model!

For those unfamiliar, Sorting Hat Chats is a  deeper, more nuanced sorting system using Harry Potter’s one as a basis. Over time it evolved into a handy basic tool for fictional characters’ analysis, since it makes you reason about WHY a character does something (the primary house), and HOW do they do it (the secondary house).

If you’re interested or have trouble understanding the terms I’ll use, here you can find the basics on SHC’s tumblr, and here is a slightly different explanation by wisteria-lodge (I personally find this one easier to understand, but that’s a matter of personal taste).

Please note that, since this is a live musical, the same character can change a bit depending on the actor, the direction, even from one performance to the other.

This is meant to be as much as possible a generic analysis, if your favorite performer gives them a different twist that’s cool and valid and the same is true if you interpret the characters and their actions differently than I do! Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

This turned out way longer than I planned, so l have to split it across multiple posts. You can find the first one, sorting Alfred and Professor Abronsius, here, and the third and final one featuring Herbert and Graf von Krolock is here.

Now, let’s get to Sarah and her family! (and Magda!)

Continua a leggere

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Let’s see if I can blend two of the main things my brainspace is occupied with lately: sortings with the Sorting Hat Chats model, and Tanz der Vampire.

For those unfamiliar, Sorting Hat Chats is a  deeper, more nuanced sorting system using Harry Potter’s one as a basis. Over time it evolved into a handy basic tool for fictional characters’ analysis, since it makes you reason about WHY a character does something (the primary house), and HOW do they do it (the secondary house).

If you’re interested or have trouble understanding the terms I’ll use, here you can find the basics on SHC’s tumblr, and here is a slightly different explanation by wisteria-lodge (I personally find this one easier to understand, but that’s a matter of personal taste).

Now, let’s get to the sorting!

Please note that, since this is a live musical, the same character can change a bit depending on the actor, the direction, even from one performance to the other.

This is meant to be as much as possible a generic analysis, if your favorite performer gives them a different twist that’s cool and valid and the same is true if you interpret the characters and their actions differently than I do! Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

This turned out way longer than I thought, so l have to split it across multiple posts. You can find the second one, sorting Sarah, her parents, and Magda, here, and the third and final one featuring Herbert and Graf von Krolock is here.

Here are our fearless vampire killers, Professor Abronsious and Alfred!

Continua a leggere

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I was listening to Nowhere Fast again and thinking about what a pity it’s not a Jim Steinman song [ETA: I confused it with Bad Attitude, Nowhere Fast is by Jim Steinman!], because I think it might be the key to make the Bat Out Of Hell obsession with giving Falco a redemption arc palatable.

First thing first, I do NOT like that in more recent stagings removed In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher is King and Tink doesn’t die to make Falco less villainous. The musical lost a very powerful second act opening and diluted the main villain to keep a frankly lukewarm redemption arc. I’d rather have the musical recognize that some hurts can’t be easily forgiven and have Falco be banished or something like that, and thus not being present for the final bit.

But, since the people running the show clearly have different opinions than me, I think the story would benefit from giving Falco more depth and humanity.

In the current version we’re not given an exact time frame of how long The Lost have been frozen, but it’s not impossible for them to be around Falco and Sloane’s age, maybe a bit younger but I can buy them being frozen for 15 or so years. And we know that Falco had that leather jacket with the nice skull on the back (in the current version it was Sloane’s), and Sloane clearly liked bad guys with a nice car… What if they were friends/rivals/acquaintances with The Lost then?

I think it would add a nice layer to why Falco hates them so much (they’re wasted youths, yes, but also a reminder of how time didn’t stop for him and now he’s in his mid thirties and were did his youth go?) and why Sloane seems to know more than she lets on about Strat.

And in this frame, I think using a number like Nowhere Fast would be lovely. You could have some of the Lost mention how Falco used to be the opposite of what he is now, and frame Nowhere fast as them talking about younger Falco and Sloane (which could be show on stage by some of the Lost doing somewhat exagerrated and satyrical acting, or by Falco and Sloane’s actors wearing appropriate clothing).

Have it followed up by how the Lost are confused by Falco changing and have it be a mix of how growing up and getting adult responsabilities was the start, but then he corrupted his need to give his family safety into an obsession for control over everything around him, and have it parallel the Lost’s youthful aimless freedom and lack of future planning and thoughts, and I think it could be a chance to give depth to several characters (Falco, Sloane, Strat, Zahara).

Plus, with the correct timing you could have Falco’s actor just come back in the final number wearing his old clothes and be more poignant and a symbol of him embracing his “wild” side and feel less forced than it is now.

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Reblogging a few posts I made on main before making a musical side blog, sorry if you saw them before but I want to have everything in one place!

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My phone's camera is not great in low lightning so the video is super washed out, but I figured that a mediocre video is better than no video so here you go!

Good girls go to heaven encore from 02/09 Dublin's show!

CAST

Strat: Glenn Adamson

Raven: Martha Kirby

Falco: Rob Fowler

Sloane: Sharon Sexton

Tink: Killian Thomas Lefevre

Zahara: Joelle Moses

Jagwire: James Chisholm

Valkyrie: Kellie Gnauck

Ledoux: Danny Wehlan

Kwaidan: Laura Johnson

Mordema: Stacey Monahan

Spinotti: Beth Woodcock

Markevitch: Jamie Jukes

Denym: James Lowrie

Hoffman: Samuel Pope

Hollander: Luke Street

O'Dessasuite: Leonardo Vieira

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Hey hop, please tell me about a magical theatre experience you've had, or about your favourite song/musical ✨️

(Or: recommend your favourite theatre-related Tumblr blogs! I need more theatre on my dash)