Aurelius Prochazka, Ph.D.
home > Musicals

My favorite musicals

  • Hedwig and the Angry Inch
    • This is one of my favorite movies of all time.
  • Once More With Feeling
    • This episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is what got me to stop hating musicals and give the genre a second chance. Joss Whedon amazed me by moving Season 6's plot lines so far along in this one musical episode. It's a masterpiece.
  • Dr. Horrible
    • Act I was fun, Act II was fun, and Act III was brilliance. I place it third behind Once More With Feeling because I felt the music was very similar to that one. OMWF had an advantage because it used characters that were already well known so Dr. Horrible might be an overall better package.
  • Flight of the Conchords
    • These guys have such a wide range of music in their shows. Its a bit different than traditional musicals, so I initially forgot to include it on this list.
  • Team America, World Police
  • South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut
    • Whenever I mention these Trey Parker and Matt Stone movies as some of my favorite musicals, people question whether or not they're really musicals at all. They totally are traditional musicals and the music is hilarious.
  • Once
    • I swear I liked this film before all the Oscar hype!
  • Pink Floyd The Wall
    • What can I say, it's a classic.
  • The Sound of Music
    • I hated this as a kid, but now I really appreciate it, go figure.

Curiosities

These are the musicals that I've heard good things about but I haven't yet seen. Email me if you have a recommendation for me.
  • A Hard Day's Night
  • A Star Is Born
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Cabaret
  • Chicago
  • Grease
  • Hairspray

Bad list

Most musicals are horrible, so I thought I'd lend weight to my recommendations above by listing some bad musicals here.
  • Across The Universe
    • I love the Beatles, and the singers didn't do a bad job in this movie, but the story was contrived and didn't hold my attention.
  • Dreamgirls
    • I wanted to like this but couldn't stand it.
  • Rent
    • It's hard to watch Rent without laughing. Team America's parody of Rent is so dead on. I will concede that there are a few numbers that are good, but not enough to overcome a bad story.
  • Rocky Horror Picture Show
    • The songs and the story sucks - even the audience participation at Midnight showings can't change that fact.
  • Yentl
    • I think this movie made me hate musicals until I saw "Once More With Feeling" about two decades later. I remember begging for the movie to end "Please not another song, please don't start singing."
  • and many, many others