A great start! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most iconic openings of musicals that made their stage debut before 1980.
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00:00Come on, babe. Why don't we paint the town I?
00:05Know that
00:06Welcome to Miz mojo and today
00:09We're counting down our picks for the most iconic openings of musicals that made their stage debut before 1980
00:15Instrumental overtures will not be included
00:25Number 10 another opening another show kiss me Kate
00:30To say hello
00:34This Cole Porter musical premiered on Broadway in
00:381948 and its opening number became an indelible showbiz anthem
00:42Another open in another show is a song with a persistent rhythm the number as it's usually staged is pretty meta
00:48Props the backs of sets costume racks and all the seams of the production are exposed to the audience
01:00Oh
01:06What the song really does is illustrate all the excitement
01:10Possibility hijinks and stress that goes into producing a show one of the reasons it's stuck around is that this infectious opening is a high-energy
01:18celebration of theater and showbiz itself
01:30Oh
01:37Number nine magic to do Pippin
01:47As Pippin opens the leading player of a performance troupe entices us like a carnival barker soon an entire number full of magic tricks
01:55And illusions unfolds from the darkness of the stage with their painted faces and slinky movements
02:01They're not just welcoming you into the story. They're drawing you in
02:13Magic to do is a great ensemble number that dazzles and mystifies in equal measure as fun and polished as it is
02:19It starts to feel like a spell
02:21But beware the words of the troop take on a more sinister meaning as the show goes on and their true intentions become clearer
02:35Number eight, I hope I get it a chorus line
02:38Right
02:44Once the longest-running show on Broadway this equal parts funny and sad story of several dancers in a casting call
02:51Appropriately opens with both pizzazz and panic. I hope I get it isn't just the name of the song
02:56It's what the entire show is about
03:09The first song is an explosion of desperation and excitement as several dancers are excused
03:15Whittling down the ensemble to the core few who will actually become characters in the show
03:19It's a song that's as hopeful as it is depressing or perhaps vice versa
03:23But instantly it introduces the stakes of the show for every single character
03:29Number seven, Aquarius, hair
03:37Bringing counterculture and the hippie movement as well as a rock bass sound to the Broadway stage hair opens with a song that would eventually
03:43Land in the pop charts Aquarius became widely popular after it was covered by the group the fifth dimension
03:49In the context of the story
03:50It's an anthem for a new age the hippie tribe at the center of the show sings it to herald the age of Aquarius an
03:57astrological era of spiritual and political revolution
04:00Mysterious and ethereal it sets the stage for the philosophical and metaphysical themes of the story and it's a song that will be remembered for a long time
04:08It's a song that will be remembered for a long time
04:10It's a song that will be remembered for a long time
04:12It's a song that will be remembered for a long time
04:14Ethereal it sets the stage for the philosophical and metaphysical themes of the story and announces that hair is no ordinary broadway musical
04:32Number six tradition fiddler on the roof, but it's a tradition
04:38And because of our traditions
04:40Every
04:42One of us knows who he is
04:46and what god
04:48Expects him to do
04:49There's a lot you need to know about anatevka before you can invest in this story about the clashing of tradition and modern ways
04:55Luckily the incredibly catchy tradition is there to spell it all out as the protagonist
05:00Tevye tells us the people of this jewish shtetl keep their traditions to keep their lives in balance
05:10Traditions
05:11Sung in unison the ensemble lists out the tenets of their shared values
05:16Marriages are arranged the men are the breadwinners and the women are the homemakers
05:20This is what keeps them together
05:22Of course if it were as simple as that fiddler on the roof would be over before it begins
05:27But the opening firmly establishes the context for what comes after traditions
05:32traditions
05:33without our traditions
05:36Our lives would be as shaky as
05:39As
05:41As a fiddler
05:43on the roof
05:44Number five. Oh, what a beautiful morning, oklahoma
05:48Oh, what a beautiful morning was the world's introduction to the duo of rogers and hammerstein
05:52The romantic and soaring sound of this classic is the perfect opener for oklahoma
05:57The corn is as high as an elephant's eye
06:03And it looks like it's climbing clear up to the sky
06:12Sensitive cowboy curly mclean's entire worldview is communicated in this one number as curly sings about the meadow and the trees
06:20You can't help but smile at his wide-eyed wonder for the pastoral beauty around him
06:24All the sounds of the earth are like music
06:28All the sounds of the earth are like music
06:33The breeze is so busy. It don't miss a tree
06:39Oklahoma made history with its attention to story and characters over fantastic spectacles and songs held together by the barest of plots
06:46Songs like this are a perfect example of that. I got a beautiful
06:55Everything's going
06:59Number four
07:00Wilkommen cabaret with his ghostly white face the boisterous
07:04But vaguely threatening master of ceremonies welcomes us to the kit kat club a lover of decadence and double entends
07:11The mc is an unforgettable presence
07:13Wilkommen bienvenue
07:23Given that cabaret takes place in 1930s berlin
07:26Wilkommen serves as a primer for the show's poignant juxtaposition of the hedonism of the nightclub and the growing fascist menace
07:33There are no troubles inside the kit kat club here
07:37Life is beautiful
07:40The girls are beautiful
07:44Even the orchestra is
07:48Outside is a different story later revivals of the show added more explicitly creepy elements to the song
07:53But it's hard to beat the simplicity and the eerie implications of the original
08:03Number three the sound of music the sound of music while her fellow nuns at the abbey are busy singing songs like they're supposed to
08:11Maria's marching to the beat of a different drummer. Her first number the title song has become a standard
08:24Bold lilting and breathtaking the sound of music achieves many things at once
08:29It's beautiful to listen to first off second
08:32It introduces you to the sweeping sound of the entire score third like many of rogers and hammerstein's other openers
08:38It puts you firmly in the protagonist's perspective
08:42My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds that rise from the lake to the trees
08:50My heart wants to sigh like a chime that flies
08:54from a church
08:56on a breeze
08:58First sung on the broadway stage by musical legend. Mary martin
09:02The soaring ballad would become synonymous with the star who played the role on screen. Julie. Andrews
09:09Sing
09:23Number two all that jazz chicago
09:26It's hard to imagine now that the original bob fossey directed musical was overshadowed by other hits of the era
09:32But since its 1975 broadway premiere chicago has found an audience for its tongue-in-cheek humor and 1920s pastiche
09:46All that jazz is homicidal jazz singer velma kelly's first number the song like the show itself
09:51Is a liberal mix of glitzy showmanship and seedy sex and violence
10:02That
10:06Verses of the song are sometimes interrupted or rather punctuated by the scene of roxy heart and her lover's fight
10:12Culminating in roxy shooting him dead. It's as toe-tapping a murder scene as you'll ever see
10:18Oh
10:31Before we unveil our top pick here are a few honorable mentions
10:35I whistle a happy tune the king and I anna the governess sings to her son as they move to siam
10:43And every single time
10:48Convinces me that i'm not afraid
10:53Try to remember the fantastics this pretty opening number became a hit on the pop charts
10:58It's nice to remember the fire of september
11:04that made us
11:07Comedy tonight a funny thing happened on the way to the forum
11:10This song was added out of town and may have saved the show
11:18Goodness and badness man in his madness this time
11:25The ballad of sweeney todd sweeney todd the demon barber of fleet street a shrieking greek chorus of londoners opens this horror comedy
11:41Heaven on their minds jesus christ superstar. It may be a biblical musical, but it absolutely shreds
11:48it
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12:15Number one prologue west side story. Why must they always fight?
12:21Well, you saw how they dance like they got to get rid of something quick
12:25That's how they fight in this modernized romeo and juliet story
12:29The dancing is equally as important as the singing in 1950s
12:32New york two rival gangs meet up to snap twirl and show off their dance skills. Of course. It's all representational
12:45So
12:53Instead of an all-out battle their turf war is reinterpreted as an extended ballet sequence on the stage
12:59It's playful and elegant while still conveying the level of animosity and genuine tension between the jets and the sharks
13:05This elegant and stylish choreography is one of the factors that has made west side story an enduring classic. Hey you get down
13:13But we're having such fun we enjoy the playground, uh, see it keeps us the deprived children off at a foul city street
13:18Which of these opening numbers is your personal favorite? Tell us in the comments
13:31Do you agree with our picks check out this other recent clip from ms
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13:42You