The Great Musicals - A Director's View

After 40+ years of directing in the Theatre at every level from high school to Off-Broadway, I've tried to come up with a personal, idiosyncratic, and by no means definitive list of the great musicals. Some are classics, some are popular blockbusters, and some are lesser known gems deserving of a wider audience. I set 50 as the arbitrary number, and then couldn't get it down below 60. I've tried to balance artistic quality, popularity, and historical significance, and tried to limit it to those shows which were specifically created for the stage and were not just recreations of other media( hence " The Lion King" makes the list while "Mary Poppins" doesn't). I have excluded opera ( hence no "Porgy and Bess") and operetta (hence no Gilbert & Sullivan or Victor Herbert). I'm sure I've omitted some popular favorites and included some head scratchers; I had to omit some favorites of my own and include some I personally can't stand in order to create a seemingly balanced list.