Titles A
The Act
"...a musical with a book by George Furth, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander. It was written to showcase the talents of Kander and Ebb favorite Liza Minnelli, who portrayed Michelle Craig, a fading film star attempting a comeback as a Las Vegas singer. The thin plot was little more than an excuse to present the star in concert
The Addams Family
"...a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. The show is based upon The Addams Family characters created by Charles Addams in his single-panel gag cartoons, which depict a ghoulish American family with an affinity for all things macabre. Numerous film and television adaptations of Addams' cartoons exist, but the musical, which is the first stage show based on the characters, is based upon the cartoons rather than the television and film characters."
Adding Machine
"....a musical adaptation of Elmer Rice's 1923 play The Adding Machine. The original play has been called the 'gimlet-eyed Expressionist classic about the soul rot of conventionality'; it relates the story of an 'antihero', Mr. Zero, who murders his boss after he has been replaced by an adding machine after 25 years on the job.Loewith conceived a musical adaptation after learning of the Kurt Weill musical based on a second Rice play Street Scene. After some years, Loewith was able to attract composer Joshua Schmidt to the project; Schmidt composed the music, and wrote the libretto and book together with Loewith."
After the Fair
"..set in late 1890s England, is the story of the tangled web that is woven when Edith, a bored married woman, begins to write love letters on behalf of her maid, Anna, to a young man with whom Anna has had a brief romance."
Aida
"...is based on Giuseppe Verdi's Italian-language opera of the same name, the libretto of which was written by Antonio Ghislanzoni."
Ain't Misbehavin' (OBC) & (2008 Broadway Revival)
"..a musical revue with a book by Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr., music by Thomas Wright 'Fats' Waller, and lyrics by various writers. It serves as a tribute to the black musicians of the 1920s and '30s who were part of the Harlem Renaissance, an era of growing creativity, cultural awareness, and ethnic pride, and takes its title from the 1929 Waller song 'Ain't Misbehavin'."
Aladdin
"...a musical based on the 1992 Disney animated film of the same name with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin. Beguelin also wrote the book. The musical includes three songs written for the film by Ashman but not used there and four new songs written by Menken and Beguelin. The story follows the familiar tale of how a poor young man discovers a genie in a lamp and uses his wishes to marry the princess that he loves and to thwart the Sultan's evil Grand Vizier."
All American
"Based on the Robert Lewis Taylor novel Professor Fodorski, All American is set on the campus of the fictional Southern Baptist Institute of Technology where the worlds of science and sports collide when the principles of engineering are applied to football strategies and football strategies are used to teach the principles of engineering. Hungarian immigrant Fodorski's techniques prove to be successful, resulting in a winning team, and he finds himself the target of a Madison Avenue ad man who wants to exploit his new-found fame."
All Shook Up
"...a jukebox musical with Elvis Presley music, with a book by Joe DiPietro. The story is based on William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night."
Allegiance
"...is a musical with music and lyrics by Jay Kuo and a book by Marc Acito, Kuo and Lorenzo Thione. The story, set during the Japanese American internment of World War II (with a framing story set in the present day), was inspired by the personal experiences of George Takei. It follows the Kimura family in the years following the attack on Pearl Harbor, as they are forced to leave their farm in Salinas, California and are sent to the Heart Mountain internment camp in the rural plains of Wyoming."
Allegro (OBC) & (2009 Studio Recording)
"...a musical by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics), their third collaboration for the stage. Opening on Broadway on October 10, 1947, the musical centers on the life of Joseph Taylor, Jr.—Joe follows in the footsteps of his father as a doctor, but is tempted by fortune and fame at a big-city hospital."
Altar Boyz
"...a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker and book by Kevin Del Aguila (based on an idea by Ken Davenport and Marc Kessler). Centering on a fictitious Christian boy band from Ohio, the show satirizes, among other things, the phenomenon of boy bands and the popularity of Christian-themed music in contemporary American culture. It began an Off Broadway run on March 1, 2005 and closed on January 10, 2010, having played 16 previews and 2,032 regular performances making it the 9th longest-running Off-Broadway musical of all time."
Amelie
"...is a musical based on the 2001 romantic comedy film with music by Daniel Messé, lyrics by Messé and Nathan Tysen and a book by Craig Lucas."
American Idiot
"...a one-act, through-sung stage musical. The show is an adaptation of punk rock band Green Day's concept album of the same name. The book is by Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong and director Michael Mayer. The music is by Green Day and the lyrics are by Armstrong."
An American in Paris
"...is a musical play inspired by the 1951 Academy Award-winning film of the same name and adapted for the stage by Christopher Wheeldon."
Amour
"...a musical fantasy with an English book by Jeremy Sams, music by Michel Legrand, and lyrics by Didier Van Cauwelaert, who wrote the original French libretto. Adapted from the 1943 short story Le Passe-Muraille by Marcel Aymé, it is set in Paris shortly after World War II and centers on a shy, unassuming clerk who develops the ability to walk through walls, and who challenges himself to stick to his moral center and change others' lives, and his own, as a result."
Ankles Aweigh
"...ia musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Eddie Davis, lyrics by Dan Shapiro, and music by Sammy Fain.The plot centers on Hollywood starlet Wynne, who violates a clause in her contract by marrying Navy flyer Bill while filming a movie in Sicily. With the aid of her sister Elsey and two of her husband's service buddies, Wynne disguises herself as a sailor and stows away on his ship. When they reach Morocco, Bill finds himself accused of participating in an espionage ring, and he and his bride must find a way to absolve him of the charges so they can live happily ever after."
Anna Karenina
"...a musical with a book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg and music by Daniel Levine. Based on the classic Leo Tolstoy novel of the same name, it focuses on the tragic title character, a fashionable but unhappily married woman, and her ill-fated liaison with Count Vronsky, which ultimately leads to her downfall."
Annie (OBC) & (2012 Broadway Revival)
"...a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years, setting a record for the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre). It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical."
Annie Get Your Gun (OBC) & (1963 Studio Cast) & (1999 Broadway Revival)
"...a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), who was a sharpshooter from Ohio, and her husband, Frank Butler."
Anya
"...a musical with a book by George Abbott and Guy Bolton and music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest. As they had done with Song of Norway (1944) and Kismet (1953), Wright and Forrest developed the musical score using themes written by a classical composer, in this case Sergei Rachmaninoff. Based on Bolton's 1954 English adaptation of Marcelle Maurette's play Anastasia and the subsequent 1956 film adaptation of the same name, it focuses on Anya who, when discovered in a Berlin psychiatric facility in 1925 by taxi driver Bounine, a former Cossack general in Czarist Russia, claims to be Anastasia, the supposedly murdered youngest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II."
Anyone Can Whistle (OBC) & (1995 Carnegie Hall Benefit Performance)
"...a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The story concerns a corrupt mayoress, an idealistic nurse, a man who may be a doctor, and various officials, patients and townspeople, all fighting to save a bankrupt town.'
Anything Goes (1989 Studio Recording) & (2011 Broadway Revival)
"...a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London. Billy Crocker is a stowaway in love with heiress Hope Harcourt, who is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and Public Enemy #13 Moonface Martin aid Billy in his quest to win Hope."
Applause
"...a musical with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. [The show]is based on the screenplay for the classic Bette Davis film All About Eve and the original story by Mary Orr upon which the movie was based. At its center is veteran actress Margo Channing, who innocently takes a fledgling actress under her wings, unaware that the ruthless Eve is plotting to steal her career and her man."
The Apple Tree
"...a series of three musical playlets with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a book by Bock and Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith. Each act has its own storyline, but all three are tied together by a common theme (someone who believes that they want something, but once they get what they wanted they realize that it wasn't what they wanted) and common references, such as references to the color brown. The first act is based on Mark Twain's The Diary of Adam and Eve; the second act is based on Frank R. Stockton's The Lady or the Tiger?; the third act is based on Jules Feiffer's Passionella."
Aspects of Love (London Cast)
"...a musical/chamber opera with a book and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart.Based on the novella of the same name by David Garnett, the piece focuses on the romantic entanglements of actress Rose Vibert, her admiring fan Alex Dillingham, his underage cousin Jenny, his uncle George, and George's mistress, sculptress Giulietta Trapani, over a period of 17 years."
Assassins (OBC) & (2004 Broadway Revival)
"...a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman, based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr. It uses the premise of a murderous carnival game to produce a revue-style portrayal of men and women who attempted (successfully or otherwise) to assassinate Presidents of the United States. The music varies to reflect the popular music of the eras depicted."
Avenue Q
"...a musical in two acts, conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics. The book was written by Jeff Whitty and the show was directed by Jason Moore. It is an 'autobiographical and biographical' coming-of-age parable, addressing and satirizing the issues and anxieties associated with entering adulthood. Its characters lament that as children, they were assured by their parents, and by children's television programs such as PBS's Sesame Street, that they were 'special' and "could do anything"; but as adults, they have discovered to their surprise and dismay that in the real world their options are limited, and they are no more 'special' than anyone else."
(ANYONE CAN WHISTLE - Angela Lansbury & cast)
