{"id":1390740,"date":"2016-06-21T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T15:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/?p=1390740"},"modified":"2016-06-21T11:35:41","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T15:35:41","slug":"if-you-like-hamilton-and-these-other-shows-then-youll-love-these-lesser-known-musicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/if-you-like-hamilton-and-these-other-shows-then-youll-love-these-lesser-known-musicals\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Like <i>Hamilton<\/i> (And These Other Shows), Then You&#8217;ll LOVE These Lesser Known Musicals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\" http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/youcantseehammysoseethisinstead_LargeWide.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"701\" height=\"394\" \/>Is there any joy greater than sharing the soundtrack to your favorite musical with someone who&#8217;s never heard it before? If your answer to that question was a screeching &#8220;YASSSS!&#8221; then this list is for you. You know every lyric from <em>Hamilton<\/em>. You&#8217;ve choreographed your own version of <em>The Rocky Horror Show<\/em> in your bedroom, by yourself. You know all the cast and score differences between the Broadway and West End productions of <em>Wicked<\/em>. And that&#8217;s why we&#8217;re taking them as inspirations to introduce you to some musicals that you may not be as familiar with. But once you dive in, we think you&#8217;ll be \u00a0just as obsessed!<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you like <em>Hamilton<\/em>&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Then you have to \u00a0check out <strong><em>1776<\/em><\/strong>, a musical about the debating, writing, and signing of the Declaration of Independence. While the musical styles differ between the two shows, most \u00a0of the characters are the same and it&#8217;s always interesting to see different perspectives on the same historical event. Heck, you could make a whole night of it and start with the <em>Hamilton<\/em> soundtrack, watch the film version of <em>1776<\/em>, then binge on the HBO <em>John Adams<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/dvd-john-adams-paul-giamatti\/15069959?ean=0883929335459\" target=\"_blank\">miniseries<\/a>. Cool fact: the original Broadway production of <em>1776<\/em> and <em>Hamilton<\/em> were both performed in the same Broadway theatre!<\/p>\n<p>In this clip, John Adams angrily \u00a0chastises the new congress for not acting faster. Yeesh, this guy&#8217;s kind of annoying. Maybe that&#8217;s why Miranda cut his character from <em>Hamilton<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DqAdlkJDt7k?rel=0\" width=\"701\" height=\"394\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you like <em>Wicked<\/em>&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Then you need to run, not walk, to iTunes or the nearest record store and buy the soundtrack to <strong><em>The Baker&#8217;s Wife<\/em><\/strong>. Story-wise the two don&#8217;t have a whole lot in common, but the music and lyrics are by the same composer, Stephen Schwartz, and if you listen closely you can hear a ton of musical similarities. It&#8217;s hard to imagine that the guy who wrote <em>Pippin<\/em> and <em>Godspell<\/em> ever had a show that was considered a flop, but that&#8217;s exactly what <em>The Baker&#8217;s Wife<\/em> was. Despite having some of the most beautiful songs he ever wrote (and one of the funniest songs in all of musical theatre, IMHO, with &#8220;Proud Lady&#8221;), this show never even made it to Broadway. It&#8217;s a small show that isn&#8217;t about witches or kings, but the Act I closer &#8220;Meadowlark&#8221; packs just as much emotional punch as &#8220;Defying Gravity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0K269vRf3aQ\" width=\"701\" height=\"526\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you like <em>The Rocky Horror Show<\/em>&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Then boy-oh-boy are you in for a delightful surprise: there was a sequel, and it&#8217;s called <strong><em>Shock<\/em><em> Treatment<\/em><\/strong>! \u00a0Well, not exactly a sequel. In fact, Richard O&#8217;Brien, the writer\/composer of the <em>RHS<\/em>, was quoted saying that <em>Shock Treatment<\/em> wasn&#8217;t &#8220;a sequel or a prequel, it&#8217;s an equal.&#8221; The story follows Brad and Janet after the events of <em>Rocky Horror<\/em>. The two are back in their hometown of Denton and are forced into participating in a reality TV show that pits them against each other. The musical, which only exists in movie form, came out in 1980 and predicts a lot of the insanity of current reality television that was still decades away. A blind, German game show host, mind-controlling sibling doctors, switched at birth identical twins&#8230; all this, plus the tunes are just as catchy as anything in <em>Rocky Horror<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SuNRopIJRgo\" width=\"701\" height=\"394\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you like <em>Urinetown: The Musical<\/em>&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Then, my fourth wall breaking friend, you will feel right at home with <em><strong>[title of show]<\/strong><\/em>. The unlikely Broadway hit, <em>Urinetown<\/em>, took its cues from Bertolt Brecht with its blatant calling out of theatrical tropes and addressing the audience straight on. While <em>[title of show]<\/em> doesn&#8217;t have the heavy political themes of a <em>Threepenny Opera<\/em> or <em>Urinetown<\/em>, it&#8217;s plenty meta. Get this: it&#8217;s a musical about the mounting of a Broadway musical that the musical&#8217;s about. Confused? Just listen to the soundtrack and it&#8217;ll all be clear. And by all means start with &#8220;Nine People&#8217;s Favorite Thing&#8221; which has the wonderful lyric that pretty much sums up all of these musicals: &#8220;I&#8217;d rather be nine people&#8217;s favorite thing\/than a hundred people&#8217;s ninth favorite thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q_E0lmqiptY\" width=\"701\" height=\"394\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>What&#8217;s you favorite overlooked musical?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is there any joy greater than sharing the soundtrack to your favorite musical with someone who&#8217;s never heard it before? If your answer to that question was a screeching &#8220;YASSSS!&#8221; then this list is for   <a class=\"continue-reading\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"continue-text\">continue reading<\/span><svg class=\"continue-icon\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" alt=\"\">\n    <path fill=\"#007acd\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\" d=\"M13.442 5.558L19.885 12l-6.443 6.442-.884-.884 4.934-4.934L4 12.625v-1.25l13.492-.001-4.934-4.932.884-.884z\"><\/path>\n  <\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[19725,17964,84],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390740"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1390740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1390740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1390740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1390740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}