I’ll take “musicals” for $1000, Alex.
Admittedly, I have enjoyed and followed musicals my whole life and I have a daughter who is a professional in the industry.
I don’t think of The Band’s Visit as “obscure.” After all, it won the Tony Award for Best Musical! I can see why perhaps those who don’t follow theater at all may not have heard of it, because it has just been on Broadway and on National Tours and so it hasn’t been seen in regional, community, or school theater productions. I saw it on Broadway. One of my daughter’s closest lifelong friends was in it.
I have never seen this musical staged, but for years, had heard the album. I saw the movie though which I really enjoyed. Also, my kid had a cameo in it. I’ve always loved RENT and my daughter idolized Jonathan Larson as a kid and even wrote a 30 page paper on him when she was 11. I found his story in Tick, Tick, Boom to be fascinating, and it mirrored some of what I have observed in my own daughter’s life/career. He was a genius and gone too soon.
Many many years ago I went to a musical on Broadway called On the Twentieth Century, mostly because we could get cheap tickets. I remember I really liked it. It had a lot of tap dancing and was sort of a ‘Farce on a Train’.
I saw “Working” at City Center as part of their Encores series. It’s based on Studs Terkel’s acclaimed oral history of work. There are songs by Stephen Schwartz, James Taylor, and Mary Rodgers among others. It’s an interesting work.
I love “A Year with Frog and Toad.” I didn’t see it on Broadway but in a revival for kids at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York. The songs are terrific and the show is as sweet and funny as the Frog and Toad books.
We saw A Man of No Importance with Jim Parsons in a small off-Broadway theater last year and really enjoyed it. (Didn’t hurt that we had first row seats.)
And +1 for Something Rotten with Christian Borle and Brian D’Arcy James.
I’m with @sooziet. Not sure that a show that won 3 Tonys, including Best Musical, is that obscure!! With that said, this was one of my favorites. It was so beautiful in its simplicity.
I really enjoyed Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down The Wind. I saw it in 1996 at National Theatre in DC, due to bad reviews it never mage it to broadway.
We went to see Anastasia because a friend was in it. Everyone around us seemed to know the show VERY well, to the point of singing along (softly). My friend asked “was this a movie or something?” Yes! And it had lots of fans!
Not one of my faves, but it was a fun show. And that story will never grow old! (Without dna testing!)
I saw Finding Neverland at the American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, MA) before it went to Broadway. I also saw the show again during a national tour, after it had been on Broadway. My son-in-law’s brother was part of the cast for the national tour. I really enjoyed seeing this musical twice.
Never saw it, but I do remember an episode of “I Love Lucy” where the characters went to see it. Just looked it up, and apparently Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were investors.
