h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have this game I started playing with my friend's English teacher a year or so ago, where one of us would sing or hum a bit of a showtune, and the other would have to figure out what musical it was from. She and I both stumped each other many times, because she is most familiar with the most classic musicals, and I tend to know everything about some composers/lyricists and nothing about others. So anyway, last night I went to see a musical called 110 in the Shade, which was WONDERFUL, and I started playing this game with two of the people I drove home with. But they kept stumping me with really good, ought-to-be obvious ones, while I had to cheat and do a series of Sondheim flops (known only to Sondheim fanatics like me) in order to find anything they didn't know. And then after they left and my friend Danielle and I were alone (same friend with the English teacher, and she was in the car with me last night), we both started to think of good songs that WOULD have stumped those two. So then Danielle gave me this really good idea: to make a list of musicals and good songs from them, so next time I wouldn't forget any good ones. So now I'm starting to take it further: I'm working on listing every musical I've ever heard of and everything I know about it, including good songs and composer/lyricist. That's when I got an even better idea: I'll expand this into an ever-in-progress encyclopedia of musical theater to be posted on this website. I'll start with just the facts, but I'd like to get some more interesting discussions, histories, and other tidbits about each musical as I go farther. This is, of course, related to some things David the SL and I had talked about, as well as one of the goals of SONG & DANCE, so I'm hoping I can get this up and going soon. Once I get some kind of structure, help from all my musical (and even nonmusical) friends would be welcome!

That's certainly ambitious! And how on Earth do you define 'good' songs? Certainly happy to be called on for facts and/or opinions.

I'd love to see 110 in the Shade, as the music I've heard from it is simply marvellous (Old Maid often turns up unannounced on my internal jukebox). The difference between 110 and The Fantasticks by the same team is immense.

David

Well, by "good songs" I don't mean the best ones or the ones I like, but rather the most popular, well-known, or most representative songs from the show. For example, for Oklahoma! I would list "Oh What a Beautiful Morning", "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top", "People Will Say We're in Love", and "Oklahoma". For Chicago it would be "All That Jazz" and "Cellblock Tango". But again, most of these musicals I know very little about, and there's only so much you can look up, which is why I will need lots of help once I get this going.

110 in the Shade was really wonderful, and I'm glad I got to see it. The Fantasticks has always been on my list, but now it's even higher up on the list because this music was so good.

I've seen the Fantasticks, but not 110 in the Shade. I quite enjoyed it.

I love your database idea. I know pretty random selections from musicals, mostly ones that I've seen but I also know a bunch of famous songs that I don't know what show they're from, so that would be incrediably useful.

If there are any that are particularly bugging you, I'm sure MuseSusan or I could help you out! Almost an on-line version of the humming game that started the thread off...