I’ll meet you on Broadway! — Pillows & Potatoes

Over the years, I have been lucky enough to watch a lot of Broadway shows and I always get asked what I would recommend so I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 and why I love them so much. This list does not include shows like Cirque du Soleil and the Blue Man Group, which I also highly recommend (some Cirque shows are better than others but overall they are great).

1. Wicked

This was one of the first musicals I ever saw on stage, I went in blind and by the time I got out, I was definitely seeing the light. The pure genius of taking a story we all know and love and turning on its head, blew me away. I had the soundtrack on repeat for weeks after the show and For Good remains one of my favorite songs as it is so touching, while What is this Feeling and Popular never fail to make me smile.

The ending of the first act with Elphaba’s presence permeating the stage is so perfect; it is only fitting that the accompanying song is Defying Gravity with notes so high, they could break glass.

2. Lion King the musical

This is a show with gravitas, although it is not my absolute favorite, I would recommend this to beginners as both the story and the music are familiar to most people. A lot of the music is from the Disney movie so I can’t say that I was blown away musically, but the costuming is just beyond anything I have ever seen and the show is more interactive than a lot of other Broadway shows.

The Circle of Life was done beautifully and I regressed into my 7 year-old self when the stampede scene came up which was very creatively handled- making this my most recommended show.

3. The Book of Mormon

Warning: this show is chockfull of blasphemy. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I actually enjoyed the humor and the storytelling. I was given plenty of warning that I would be offended-and I was- but it is really difficult to address important issues in a musical form without discrediting the subject matter and I think they did a good job of addressing serious issues through entertainment.

I would not recommend this show to newbies as it is a little hard to swallow. The style may be favored by those who aren’t into song and dance-style shows, but the subject matter is just downright vile.

4. Aladdin the musical

Similar to the Lion King, this is a good show to start out with as it is based on the Disney cartoon. They basically used the same songs we grew up singing along to and added some previously cut material- some of those songs were definitely cut for a reason but they are good fillers for a 90 minute live show.

Arabs be warned, the cultural stereotypes in the cartoon made it to the stage and somehow it’s a lot more offensive coming from a real person than from a cartoon but in the end fun and familiarity reign supreme and this show was appreciated by both musical lovers and haters.

5. Legally Blonde the musical

For anyone who grew up with Elle Woods, this musical is just a barrel of laughs; in addition, I think upcoming generations would easily to relate to the hard-working blonde with a dream.

Chip on My Shoulder is such a great song as my brain immediately recognizes the opening line: What’s up…doc?. But I think the true highlight of the show is There! Right There! because it is central to the law theme and does a good job of taking the turning one of the funniest parts of the movie into a musical extravaganza.

Honorable mention: Matilda and Singin’ in the Rain.

Matilda was one of my favorite movies growing up and it would have made the top five, if it weren’t for the unfortunate artistic liberty taken with one of the classroom scenes. Naughty is so well written and who can argue with the premise of When I Grow Up that adults eat sweets every day.

Singin’ in the Rain is basically here for being a classic movie with hilarious scenes where Lina tries to sing. The staging is really strong and pulls heavily from the movie. There is a scene where it actually rains so if you’re in the audience and you don’t want to get wet, sit a couple of rows away from the stage. I have to say that it was one of my favorite parts of the show as there are umbrellas, raincoats and splashes aplenty.