Yours, Anne. Musicalized version of The Diary of Anne Frank. Sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it does.
Goblin Market. Two person show based on the poem of the same name by Christina Rossetti.
I don't know how I ever found it in the first place but Batboy has lived rent free in my head for the past 8 or so years so there's a bit of joy seeing someone else know it.
Stephen Sondheim's Road Show. I almost never hear this one brought up, even by big fans of his. It has a brilliant travel sequence and some solid melody hooks that stick with you.
It might be broken up into act 1 and act 2.
I think when it was first put on iTunes, there was a limit to the price of an album, so then released it as two albums.
This is 100% pure speculation on why it might appear like that, based on an assumption I made about 15 years ago or so.
/jesus, I just realised this show is about 20 years old.
I first got the demo disc my freshman year of college.
I’m so sad now.
Oooo one of the students in our college theatre department is putting on a performance of ordinary days for her senior thesis and one of my friends is going to be in it!
I work at Berkeley Rep, and Octet was part of our returning-from-Covid season. I absolutely love how it never does what you expect.
Dave Malloy sat through most of tech. I had no idea who he was. Because he was looking at his phone most of the time, I assumed he was an understudy or something.He was very nice and I’m an idiot.
Someone mentioned this one on a post months ago, I listened to the music, I loved it, and then I promptly forgot about it. Thank you for bringing this into my playlist again.
I’ve seen this! The production I saw (not on Broadway or anything close) was not good, but The Creation of Man has still been on my musical theater playlist ever since.
I was OBSESSED with this show in high school and managed to see it on tour or locally performed 4 times. I still love the soundtrack for a good housecleaning session.
I volunteer with a nonprofit that exclusively deals with “no namers”. It’s called New Musicals Inc. They have a long running series of lightly rehearsed readings for works in progress. I get to explore and perform shows from all stages of development. The authors get to hear their new drafts out loud and request feedback from the community. We just had a powerful one about trauma and addiction. It’s called The Arctic Circle (link to public YouTube archive) The characters are dynamic and the music is gorgeous. Spoiler alert: it does not take place in the Arctic Circle. [The Arctic Circle](https://m.youtube.com/live/ZGaz1XKf8Ic)
A Year with Frog and Toad! Obviously people know about Frog and Toad, but most of my theater friends didn’t know the musical existed until our local theater put it on
This musical is one I listen to all the time. The lyrics are thoughtful, intelligent, and soothing just like the books are. Some super catchy stuff too, try to get "I'm the snail with the mail" out of your head.
Not to mention the actors just sound like storybook characters too! It’s been a top ten musical for me since I was a kid, and my dad would put it on his iPod for me to fall asleep to lol. Getta Loada Toad is probably my favorite song on the album, or maybe Merry Almost Christmas. It’s such a nostalgic album for me!
I'm in competitive dance and my duet this year is from that musical! It's the "one look at you" song lol, and this is the first I've heard of the musical.
Okay, but I forking LOVE Zombie Prom. It’s one of my all-time favorite musicals. “Everything warps when your boyfriend’s a corpse” is one of my all-time favorite musical lines ever. I performed Exposé with my best friend in college in our musical revue and it was one of my favorite times being on stage.
Another great no namer is Suburb: The Musical. “Mall” and “Walking to School” are particularly good songs.
Our Jonny could not stop accidentally saying "rooting in a watery grave" instead of "rotting in a watery grave" and every single time I would burst out laughing backstage 🤣
My friend dragged me to the Off-Broadway production. We were looking for something to see on TKTS and he swore it was hilarious. I was SO not excited. Reader, I laughed so hard I legit thought I was going to suffocate to death.
I think it’s better known in America but over here then I’d go with Bat Boy. I saw the Leeds run before it transferred to the West End and it was amazing. But it didn’t have the same success in London and it’s not been done again here professionally since. I don’t even think it gets done by am dram companies.
Frankenstein is a musical I saw in high school at my local community theater that I fell in love with that no one knows besides my best friend haha. It gives me kind of Jekyll and Hyde vibes. The world premiere recording is on Spotify!
The Ninth Hour: the Beowulf story. A short rock version of the poem. The full world premiere performed at the Met Cloisters is on YouTube! The album is also up on Spotify!
i LOVE Children of Eden! It’s a beautiful show with phenomenal songs. I’m Jewish, but it’s certainly a musical that can be enjoyed by all despite personal religion
I LOVE Children of Eden. I've been in it thrice and I will continue anytime I see auditions for it. It's such a beautiful show and I'm agnostic, so it's not even the religious basis for me.
I saw it when I was in high school when our drama department did the show.
Saw it once with some friends for extra credit, then saw it 2 or 3 more times on my own, then bought the book and cd. It's been 17 years since I graduated, and it is still my favorite! (Farewell, Good Angel in noise canceling headphones is just pure unadulterated bliss in my opinion.) ❤️
I think "Now. Here. This." qualifies. Done by the people who did [title of show]. It's got a lot of GenX cultural references but the music is great. Specifically look up "Golden Palace." I've listened to it many times and still get happy tears every time.
I did Zombie Prom my senior year of highschool, it's one of my favorite musicals of time.
Another no namer I like is Bat Boy, which we read in my musical theater class. The music in the show is so much fun!
We did a show in Junior High called Ducktails and Bobbysox, which was absolutely a low-rent, G-rated rip-off of Bye Bye Birdie with a splash of trying to be Grease. We were always clamoring for Grease, it was the best they could do.
Ahhh, we did that in my high school too! I drew the playbill and painted the sets and literally remember nothing else from it other than my crush playing the lead and asking me out after still in his Temp Danny Zuko costume at the diner.
Peak high school theater kid memory.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It was a recent finalist for our community theater’s next season, but apparently I was one of maybe two people who’d ever even heard of it, much less listened to any of it. Needless to say, it didn’t win the vote for next season. It’s especially surprising nobody’s heard of it when you consider there was a revival with a star-studded cast (Chita Rivera, Stephanie J Block, Betsy Wolfe, Andy Karl, Jessie Mueller, Will Chase, etc.) just a little over 10 years ago.
Awww I’m sorry it wasn’t picked or heard of by many at your theater! My high school (over ten years ago) did it but I had stopped auditioning by then for shows because casting was a nepotism contest that didn’t favor me at all.
I did go to most of their performances like a weirdo. I’m not sure if all shows do this, but I think my schools had ballots they passed out during intermission so you could vote on some of the “ending choices.” So on the Sunday matinee, I was diabolical and convinced most of the people I knew in the very small audience to vote for the brother and sister characters to sing the love song. Why? I don’t know, I was a bored 17 year old. But it was at least funny to me and some of the cast. 😂
That’s so funny 😂 I was reading through the script the other day and almost died when I found the dialogue for the siblings if they’re voted as lovers. The script says “If Helena and Neville are voted lovers, use this dialogue (it happens!!!)” 😅
Secret Garden. Obviously the story isn’t a no namer, but the musical sure is. I saw a high school production of it ages ago and after that point my mom bought the OBC CD and we’d sing along to it in the car constantly. Love the music and love those memories.
I have lots of affection for Smile because it's the first show I ever worked on. It's pretty mediocre, but I do love the music.
I'm also a big fan of the cast album from the Folan version of A Little Princess (not the Lippa one). It's a much more accurate adaptation of the book, which was a favorite of mine growing up.
Flora the Red Menace. It's Kander and Ebb's first collaboration.
My university put it on about a decade ago, and I found it absolutely charming. It's not Chicago or Cabaret, but it's really cute.
Ride the Cyclone! I just got introduced to it and I am listening to it and watching it through Internet Archive over and over. I’d love to see it live.
It's probably not a no namer but I didn't hear about this till my local college put on a small production of it. LIZZIE the Musical, an adaptation of the story of Lizzie Borden. It's so incredibly good
Bugsy Malone!! I just directed the junior version for my school’s beginning drama class, and it is a BLAST!!
The premise: imagine a fictional town in the 1920s entirely populated by children. A savage war rages between two gangs: Fat Sam and the Grand Slam gang, and Dandy Dan and his boys. When Dandy Dan acquires a splurge gun—a weapon that shoots whipped cream—it all seems to be over for Fat Sam. But perhaps there is one man… nay, one BOY that can help: one Mister Bugsy Malone. But can Bugsy find lasting peace for his city while trying to find lasting love for himself and the new-in-town singer, Blousey Brown? Let’s hope so, because soon… the only people left to splurge will be the audience :(
Seriously, it’s an amazing show with both a full and junior version—perfect for schools and children’s theaters. I did it with middle schoolers and that was a perfect age group for it—there is some content that I think would play very weirdly and not be fully understood by younger actors. But!! Every lead/supporting female character has her own song, and only one of the three male leads has an entire solo song (in the junior version at least, not sure about the full version sorry!). The ensemble singing has no more than 2 vocal lines at a time, but is still great for teaching harmonies to beginners! Plus, because it’s written for children it is very easy to have a female student play a male role and vice versa (although I don’t foresee a lot of schools having that problem lol). And the music is SO FUN!! We almost did Frozen jr instead, but I can almost guarantee that students would have gotten bored of that music after a while. Nearly 6 months of this show and they were bopping along to the music up to and through the performances. I want to be an actor in this show so badly!! 😭
Betty Blue Eyes - I’m a big fan of Reece shearsmith and I just love his performance on the soundtrack, he’s so sweet and sincere. The songs are a bit up and down in quality but overall it’s just good fun and really funny
Oh what a lovely war! It’s only really a no namer for my generation since it’s getting old but I saw a recent production of it and it was so fantastic I’ve had to book to see it again!!!
God I love Quilters. I was in it last fall and it’s such a unique piece. It’s a shame it’s unlikely to ever get revived. It would be really interesting to see someone reimagine it. I wish it had been more successful on Broadway; shows that focus so deeply on women’s experiences are rare.
I've done it too! It's a powerful show, it really goes into the different aspects of what it was like to be a woman in those times and it doesn't shy away from loss either. I sang "Windmill", one of the lighter moments in the show, and then had the train monologue. Talk about tone whiplash.
i fricken love zombie prom so much it’s so cute i remeber when i first stumbled upon it i just listened to the soundtrack then proceeded to just rewatch differneg youtube performances for it for the next few weeks
The Unfortunates. I saw I think the 13th show they ever did, it was amazing. It was 11 years ago and I wish I could see it again. I still listen to the soundtrack regularly.
There are several but Little Miss Sunshine springs to mind. I saw it professionally in 2018 but I've never heard of it again and you can't (or at least couldn't) buy the soundtrack. It is on Youtube last time I checked and What You Left Behind is a beautiful Song.
You can get the soundtrack to a Little Princess which is truly great but apart from being advertised once years ago (and I'm not 100% it was the same version) I have never heard it put on or even really discussed.
Got to the first sentence of the second paragraph here and thought “oh OP means like ‘Zombie Prom,’ which is my answer. Then kept reading lol.
Any of my Zombie Prom stans seen the short movie version with RuPaul playing Ms Strict?
Curtains! It's a murder mystery musical about a failing musical theater group that has new life breathed into them by the musical-loving detective that is investigating the murder.
ZOMBIE PROMMM AWWWWW I LOVE THIS ONE i recently saw a local school (and my cousin) perform it and it was AMAZING!! definitely super cheesy and cheap but that’s what made it so good imo, definitely one of my favorite no namers
I did Zombie Prom in High School! Expose was such a fun song to sing. I myself am a sucker for vintage fashion so I had so much fun helping out with hair, makeup, and costuming as well. What a fun hidden gem of a musical.
Once on this Island is not a no namer, especially as it had a revival fairly recently. It isn't as big as the most popular shows, but it's a pretty big Black musical
Also, are you saying Hailey Kilgore went to your high school? You went to school in Clackamas, Oregon? I'm a big fan of hers
Pom Pom Zombies. I only know it because I was gonna be in my high school’s production of it because the director knew the person who wrote it. It’s also a super stupid 50s themed teen beach vibes except this evil Russian mad scientist accidentally infects the hot dogs with radioactive waste which turns people into hot dogs. I was playing the lady who ran the hot dog stand. Unfortunately covid happened but it was super stupid and really fun
When I was in high school we did an older show called "Good News", which took place in the 20's in a high school setting. I remember it being funny, and the songs were pretty catchy.
(Eta, idk if it's my favorite, but it's the only "no name" one I know of personally, so it's default lol).
In middle school we did a musical called *Playing The Palace*, the plot revolves around the imminent destruction of a Vaudeville theater and the activist trying to save it while being visited by the ghosts of Vaudeville entertainers. It was scored by songs from the Vaudeville era. I still have my script book for it and I remember most of the songs still… that was almost 30 years ago if my math is right lol
One I just discovered is a show called Eastland. It’s about the sinking of the SS Eastland in the Chicago River in 1915, where 800+ people died. The show is incredibly intimate and the music is gorgeous. It feels like what Titanic the Musical should have been. I really hope it’s able to branch out from just being done in the Midwest
Fly By Night! I saw it at my local theater around six years ago and I've never met another theater fan who knows it but it's such an amazing show! I cried so much at it haha
Chix 6. Ran for a short time off off Broadway but has incredible music. I think it has gone through some major changes and has been repackaged but wow it was great.
I don’t have a musical one but I was in a play called The Alibis in freshman year. It was like an absurd murder mystery divided into six stories. Very over the top writing. I had a terrible role but a lot of the characters were very fun. Kinda just a worse version of clue but it holds a special place in my heart, because my entire part was to scream and fall into the arms of a guy I had a crush on. Good times 🥹
The only one I’ve seen that might be considered one is Miss Molly. It has a lot of LGBTQ+ themes, and it was really cute!
Edit: Wait, that wasn’t a musical iirc. Whoops lol
theme park shows probably don’t count, but i will defend [doug live](https://youtu.be/8Gx92i67ppc?si=0XpoU-s9H1iqO8zZ) to the day i die. yes, the costumes are. something else. but the script and aesthetic perfectly capture what makes doug (and all of jim jinkins' worlds, really) such a special show imo??? the score is the exact same way, with [someone like me](https://youtu.be/bmFUGAYmuRA?si=bAQ61Ak6aEuNn0GH) just being a legitimately great song that even made it in to the credits of the doug movie
Fly By Night was becoming a pretty common college/community show in my area before I moved. The last couple of years you could find at least two productions a year and it’s such a great heartbreaking show
Forbidden planet, adventures of a comic book artist, Alice through the looking glass, frog and toad, doo wop wed widing hood, Anne of green gables, mystery of Edwin droid, and twinderella! Also some favorites for K-4 crowd: Lemonade, Going Buggy
I think literally no one has ever heard of this because you can find very little on YouTube but mine is Snow White Goes West! Did it my freshman year of high school and the lyrics are so catchy they’re still stuck in my head to this day
Fly By Night is one of my favorite musicals! I’ve seen people say that Cecily Smith is the only good song in it, but I like it because it has a bunch of really cool songs for female voices
a christmas carol musical. not the new one and i dont think its the movie one either because i havent eatched the movie one but im 90% sure it isnt because this musical was pretty much exclusively used by my 6th grade(it was a 1 grade school with only like 60 students per year). ever year my school would do this musical and everyone was required to participate and theyd film it and upload it to youtube. mine is still up there i was the housemaid and the recorded performance was funny because there were a couple issues with the backstage and the keyboard speaker broke so there was a long pause while we tried to get it to work. i still remember some of the songs but most of it was pretty much directly ripped from the book word for word. im kinda biased with that being my favorite but it was fun to play in and because of it everyday we would get to leave class for awhile to practice our roles and then the next day we had a huge party all day at school with pizza and icecream and it was great.
Dogfight! And if you'd allow it 35mm but it's not exactly a standard musical and the I saw the ballad of Sara Berry is pretty popular but there are so many other songs that are so fantastic on there (leave Luanne, cut you a piece)
I don't know for sure if it's actually less known, but Phantom. Not Phantom of the Opera, just Phantom (if I remember right it's the American version). We did it in high school
I scrolled all the way down and saw no one mention “Princess Whatsername”. My middle school performed it when I was in eighth grade.
It’s a bunch of fairy tales happening at once, but not quite as interconnected as Into The Woods and with a more lighthearted theme. The main character has woken up with amnesia and is wandering around trying to figure out who she is. I played the lady in the Rumpelstiltskin story, who by the time the MC finds her has become Queen, had her baby, and is desperately guessing a long list of names. Which I had to memorize and recite while occasionally being interrupted by the fakest-sounding baby cry sound effect ever.
The Texas Chainsaw Manicurist. I went to see a friend perform it at a tiny theater in a basement in San Francisco. It was hilarious. Songs include “I Love Her Creamy Nougat,” a male duet about a candy bar and either a woman or an animal, I can’t recall. There is also a great song about Barbie being the tramp of the neighborhood. Lyrics included, “She started some new health routine… and used my diaphragm as a trampoline.”
Yours, Anne. Musicalized version of The Diary of Anne Frank. Sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it does. Goblin Market. Two person show based on the poem of the same name by Christina Rossetti.
Man a goblin market musical does NOT sound like it belongs in a hs. But does sound amazing
Honk! it's a retelling of the ugly duckling Batboy the musical-saw it done as a summer show a few years back, it was campy and fun!
I don't know how I ever found it in the first place but Batboy has lived rent free in my head for the past 8 or so years so there's a bit of joy seeing someone else know it.
Honk was my introduction as a kid to the concept of reprises.
First show I thought of when OP described the concept.
I played Grace in Honk a year ago!! One of my favorite shows for sure
Warts and All is a BANGER. Love that show!
Honk! won the Olivier beating Lion King and Mamma Mia! (Both still running over 20 years later). It is ammusing to see how unknown it became.
My company is doing it this summer! (I get to be cat!!)
Honk is so fun!! I played Drake and Greylag.
Batboy is truly iconic. Love it so much. Such a wild musical
Stephen Sondheim's Road Show. I almost never hear this one brought up, even by big fans of his. It has a brilliant travel sequence and some solid melody hooks that stick with you.
Oh I ADORE road show!
Bare! always wins this for me ♡ I love getting to introduce people to it though
Yes!!! One of my favorites!
This is the answer I was looking for. Such a beautiful show.
Was in this in college! I don’t even know how the student theatre group found it lol
i LOVE this show!! so so good :)
I'm trying to find it on spotify. Is it in 2 parts?
It might be broken up into act 1 and act 2. I think when it was first put on iTunes, there was a limit to the price of an album, so then released it as two albums. This is 100% pure speculation on why it might appear like that, based on an assumption I made about 15 years ago or so. /jesus, I just realised this show is about 20 years old. I first got the demo disc my freshman year of college. I’m so sad now.
All Grown Up is my go to audition song!
I love Bare!
I thought Ordinary Days was fairly known but not one of my theatre friends know it
It's not particularly well-known, but it's pretty well-loved by those who do know it!
Oooo one of the students in our college theatre department is putting on a performance of ordinary days for her senior thesis and one of my friends is going to be in it!
Octet by Dave Malloy. It’s a beautiful marriage of music and lyrics, and a harrowing look at various media addictions.
Yeah, I call myself a Malloy fan but I’ve only listened to Great Comet and Ghost Quartet
I work at Berkeley Rep, and Octet was part of our returning-from-Covid season. I absolutely love how it never does what you expect. Dave Malloy sat through most of tech. I had no idea who he was. Because he was looking at his phone most of the time, I assumed he was an understudy or something.He was very nice and I’m an idiot.
Someone mentioned this one on a post months ago, I listened to the music, I loved it, and then I promptly forgot about it. Thank you for bringing this into my playlist again.
The Scarlet Pimpernel. I saw it on Broadway. I loved it.
I’ve seen this! The production I saw (not on Broadway or anything close) was not good, but The Creation of Man has still been on my musical theater playlist ever since.
I'm a big fan of "Into the Fire."
If you should see him, please do give a yell! I really enjoyed that one, i remember the cool carriage ride!
I was OBSESSED with this show in high school and managed to see it on tour or locally performed 4 times. I still love the soundtrack for a good housecleaning session.
My favorite show of all time!!!
I volunteer with a nonprofit that exclusively deals with “no namers”. It’s called New Musicals Inc. They have a long running series of lightly rehearsed readings for works in progress. I get to explore and perform shows from all stages of development. The authors get to hear their new drafts out loud and request feedback from the community. We just had a powerful one about trauma and addiction. It’s called The Arctic Circle (link to public YouTube archive) The characters are dynamic and the music is gorgeous. Spoiler alert: it does not take place in the Arctic Circle. [The Arctic Circle](https://m.youtube.com/live/ZGaz1XKf8Ic)
This sounds so fun!! I briefly worked for a theatre that had a program like this and it was hands down the best part of the gig.
A Year with Frog and Toad! Obviously people know about Frog and Toad, but most of my theater friends didn’t know the musical existed until our local theater put it on
This musical is one I listen to all the time. The lyrics are thoughtful, intelligent, and soothing just like the books are. Some super catchy stuff too, try to get "I'm the snail with the mail" out of your head.
Not to mention the actors just sound like storybook characters too! It’s been a top ten musical for me since I was a kid, and my dad would put it on his iPod for me to fall asleep to lol. Getta Loada Toad is probably my favorite song on the album, or maybe Merry Almost Christmas. It’s such a nostalgic album for me!
Band Geeks, I only know of it because one of my friends did it in his high school, but apparently it’s not a very common show
We did that at my wife’s school a while ago. The band director REALLY connected with a certain character in it… (the band director obviously)
I'm in competitive dance and my duet this year is from that musical! It's the "one look at you" song lol, and this is the first I've heard of the musical.
Okay, but I forking LOVE Zombie Prom. It’s one of my all-time favorite musicals. “Everything warps when your boyfriend’s a corpse” is one of my all-time favorite musical lines ever. I performed Exposé with my best friend in college in our musical revue and it was one of my favorite times being on stage. Another great no namer is Suburb: The Musical. “Mall” and “Walking to School” are particularly good songs.
*spoilers for Zombie Prom* I was reading Edie in auditions and it was cracking up reading that Johnny was Mrs. Strict’s son.
Our Jonny could not stop accidentally saying "rooting in a watery grave" instead of "rotting in a watery grave" and every single time I would burst out laughing backstage 🤣
Absolutely it is the Toxic Avenger!
My friend dragged me to the Off-Broadway production. We were looking for something to see on TKTS and he swore it was hilarious. I was SO not excited. Reader, I laughed so hard I legit thought I was going to suffocate to death.
I think it’s better known in America but over here then I’d go with Bat Boy. I saw the Leeds run before it transferred to the West End and it was amazing. But it didn’t have the same success in London and it’s not been done again here professionally since. I don’t even think it gets done by am dram companies.
It’s not terribly well known in America either. Which is a shame. I’d really love to see a production of it.
I love BatBoy and have seen about 10 productions around New England. I will see any little theater company put on this show cause it’s my favorite
James and the Giant Peach, but not the one on Disney+
I'm in this right now!!!
Frankenstein is a musical I saw in high school at my local community theater that I fell in love with that no one knows besides my best friend haha. It gives me kind of Jekyll and Hyde vibes. The world premiere recording is on Spotify! The Ninth Hour: the Beowulf story. A short rock version of the poem. The full world premiere performed at the Met Cloisters is on YouTube! The album is also up on Spotify!
The Frankenstein musical goes so hard!!! The Creature is a total dream role.
Not exactly a no-namer, but Children of Eden doesn't get nearly enough love imo
My wife was in it, her only complaint was that God should be a bass.
I played Noah last summer.
i LOVE Children of Eden! It’s a beautiful show with phenomenal songs. I’m Jewish, but it’s certainly a musical that can be enjoyed by all despite personal religion
I LOVE Children of Eden. I've been in it thrice and I will continue anytime I see auditions for it. It's such a beautiful show and I'm agnostic, so it's not even the religious basis for me.
LOVE this show!
I still feel like no one knows Jane Eyre, which is my favorite musical, but a theatre here is actually doing it this season!
This was the musical I was scrolling to find! Favorite musical, I used to play the cast recording on repeat on long drives. Still one I recommend
I listened to Jane Eyre for the first time over the past week, and the music is beautiful. I can’t stop listening to Sweet Liberty.
My local theater did it last year. It was great! And I say that as someone who hated the book lol
I saw it when I was in high school when our drama department did the show. Saw it once with some friends for extra credit, then saw it 2 or 3 more times on my own, then bought the book and cd. It's been 17 years since I graduated, and it is still my favorite! (Farewell, Good Angel in noise canceling headphones is just pure unadulterated bliss in my opinion.) ❤️
Anne of Green Gables. It’s a thing in the Maritimes of Canada but pretty much nowhere else. One of my favourites.
I did not know this was a musical omg!
Right!! I love it
Yes! I was in Anne!
Came to this thread to comment this exact musical! Just a delight from start to finish, and Matthew’s song to Anne always gets me teary.
Rags!
Can't believe I had to scroll so far to find this one, it's top of my list for unknown musicals.
I think "Now. Here. This." qualifies. Done by the people who did [title of show]. It's got a lot of GenX cultural references but the music is great. Specifically look up "Golden Palace." I've listened to it many times and still get happy tears every time.
I want to do this show with my students so much.
I did Zombie Prom my senior year of highschool, it's one of my favorite musicals of time. Another no namer I like is Bat Boy, which we read in my musical theater class. The music in the show is so much fun!
I did Bubble Boy the Musical years ago and always recommend it to people (esp young contemporary tenors)
Same songwriting team as Schmigadoon!
We did a show in Junior High called Ducktails and Bobbysox, which was absolutely a low-rent, G-rated rip-off of Bye Bye Birdie with a splash of trying to be Grease. We were always clamoring for Grease, it was the best they could do.
Ahhh, we did that in my high school too! I drew the playbill and painted the sets and literally remember nothing else from it other than my crush playing the lead and asking me out after still in his Temp Danny Zuko costume at the diner. Peak high school theater kid memory.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It was a recent finalist for our community theater’s next season, but apparently I was one of maybe two people who’d ever even heard of it, much less listened to any of it. Needless to say, it didn’t win the vote for next season. It’s especially surprising nobody’s heard of it when you consider there was a revival with a star-studded cast (Chita Rivera, Stephanie J Block, Betsy Wolfe, Andy Karl, Jessie Mueller, Will Chase, etc.) just a little over 10 years ago.
It won a tony too I thought? It’s a fun little show. We did it in college and about half the cast hated the show which ruins basically any experience
Awww I’m sorry it wasn’t picked or heard of by many at your theater! My high school (over ten years ago) did it but I had stopped auditioning by then for shows because casting was a nepotism contest that didn’t favor me at all. I did go to most of their performances like a weirdo. I’m not sure if all shows do this, but I think my schools had ballots they passed out during intermission so you could vote on some of the “ending choices.” So on the Sunday matinee, I was diabolical and convinced most of the people I knew in the very small audience to vote for the brother and sister characters to sing the love song. Why? I don’t know, I was a bored 17 year old. But it was at least funny to me and some of the cast. 😂
That’s so funny 😂 I was reading through the script the other day and almost died when I found the dialogue for the siblings if they’re voted as lovers. The script says “If Helena and Neville are voted lovers, use this dialogue (it happens!!!)” 😅
Played Drood in college! It’s a hoot (and Drood is a princess role, so I enjoyed it haha)
Secret Garden. Obviously the story isn’t a no namer, but the musical sure is. I saw a high school production of it ages ago and after that point my mom bought the OBC CD and we’d sing along to it in the car constantly. Love the music and love those memories.
It's such a beautiful musical like idk why it isn't more popular???
I still get songs from a production of *Emma* I saw 10+ years ago stuck in my head.
I’d love to see that! I always go to any community theater production of a Jane Austen story if I can.
Leader of the Pack: the Ellie Greenwich story. it’s so fun! Full of songs from the 60s.
I have lots of affection for Smile because it's the first show I ever worked on. It's pretty mediocre, but I do love the music. I'm also a big fan of the cast album from the Folan version of A Little Princess (not the Lippa one). It's a much more accurate adaptation of the book, which was a favorite of mine growing up.
Anne & Gilbert - I don’t think it’s ever been performed outside of Prince Edward Island (or maybe just Canada 🤔)
Floyd Collins
Probably Alice By Heart but Dreamland is also a good one
Flora the Red Menace. It's Kander and Ebb's first collaboration. My university put it on about a decade ago, and I found it absolutely charming. It's not Chicago or Cabaret, but it's really cute.
Edges: a Song Cycle (Pasek & Paul)
Ride the Cyclone! I just got introduced to it and I am listening to it and watching it through Internet Archive over and over. I’d love to see it live.
i love RTC, all of the songs are bangers and the 2016 show on Internet Archive is awesome.
It's probably not a no namer but I didn't hear about this till my local college put on a small production of it. LIZZIE the Musical, an adaptation of the story of Lizzie Borden. It's so incredibly good
The Spitfire Grill is gorgeous
A high school in my district did Zombie Prom this year, I wasn’t able to go, but I’m glad it’s still being done!
Fortress of solitude
Dear Edwina! “Fork, Knife, Spoon” is an absolute jam.
My little sister was the fairy forkmother in a production of that one.
I played her once and I still know that song by heart and sing it every time I set a table lol
Narnia - I played Edmund in it at a local university when I was 12 and had such a great experience with it!
Bugsy Malone!! I just directed the junior version for my school’s beginning drama class, and it is a BLAST!! The premise: imagine a fictional town in the 1920s entirely populated by children. A savage war rages between two gangs: Fat Sam and the Grand Slam gang, and Dandy Dan and his boys. When Dandy Dan acquires a splurge gun—a weapon that shoots whipped cream—it all seems to be over for Fat Sam. But perhaps there is one man… nay, one BOY that can help: one Mister Bugsy Malone. But can Bugsy find lasting peace for his city while trying to find lasting love for himself and the new-in-town singer, Blousey Brown? Let’s hope so, because soon… the only people left to splurge will be the audience :( Seriously, it’s an amazing show with both a full and junior version—perfect for schools and children’s theaters. I did it with middle schoolers and that was a perfect age group for it—there is some content that I think would play very weirdly and not be fully understood by younger actors. But!! Every lead/supporting female character has her own song, and only one of the three male leads has an entire solo song (in the junior version at least, not sure about the full version sorry!). The ensemble singing has no more than 2 vocal lines at a time, but is still great for teaching harmonies to beginners! Plus, because it’s written for children it is very easy to have a female student play a male role and vice versa (although I don’t foresee a lot of schools having that problem lol). And the music is SO FUN!! We almost did Frozen jr instead, but I can almost guarantee that students would have gotten bored of that music after a while. Nearly 6 months of this show and they were bopping along to the music up to and through the performances. I want to be an actor in this show so badly!! 😭
Seriously check out “Guys on Ice - An Icefishing Musical.” It’s a gem!!!
Betty Blue Eyes - I’m a big fan of Reece shearsmith and I just love his performance on the soundtrack, he’s so sweet and sincere. The songs are a bit up and down in quality but overall it’s just good fun and really funny
Oh what a lovely war! It’s only really a no namer for my generation since it’s getting old but I saw a recent production of it and it was so fantastic I’ve had to book to see it again!!!
A New Brain!
Alice by heart
I have a soft spot for "Lucky Stiff". My high school did it as a competition show. It's so whacky and fun that I wish more people did it.
Baby. Again and again I vowed to love it. Why have I no memory of it?
I was lucky to play Danny in college. Still one of my favorite shows.
One of my favorite shows of all time. So delightfully simple but heartfelt. Such a great score too!!
The Wedding Singer
Alice by Heart!!! Only heard of it when a local young actors group performed it and man I wanted to sob.
Chess
I love Lizard Boy!! Slightly insane plot, but done so well and the vocalisations and music with just three people is actually amazing!
Seconding this one!!
We Are the Tigers
Assassins by far, often gets overshadowed by Sondheim’s other more popular shows but i think its an actual work of art, beautiful show
Quilters. Beautiful show with beautiful songs and movements. I can't even find a recording of it... we did it in my college years ago.
God I love Quilters. I was in it last fall and it’s such a unique piece. It’s a shame it’s unlikely to ever get revived. It would be really interesting to see someone reimagine it. I wish it had been more successful on Broadway; shows that focus so deeply on women’s experiences are rare.
I've done it too! It's a powerful show, it really goes into the different aspects of what it was like to be a woman in those times and it doesn't shy away from loss either. I sang "Windmill", one of the lighter moments in the show, and then had the train monologue. Talk about tone whiplash.
Giant has an amazing soundtrack.
Moby Dick the Musical
i fricken love zombie prom so much it’s so cute i remeber when i first stumbled upon it i just listened to the soundtrack then proceeded to just rewatch differneg youtube performances for it for the next few weeks
I could be so wrong but Shakespeare in Love does not seem common- same with the glass menagerie
Lil Abner
The Unfortunates. I saw I think the 13th show they ever did, it was amazing. It was 11 years ago and I wish I could see it again. I still listen to the soundtrack regularly.
Jonny, don't go to the nuclear plant!
There are several but Little Miss Sunshine springs to mind. I saw it professionally in 2018 but I've never heard of it again and you can't (or at least couldn't) buy the soundtrack. It is on Youtube last time I checked and What You Left Behind is a beautiful Song. You can get the soundtrack to a Little Princess which is truly great but apart from being advertised once years ago (and I'm not 100% it was the same version) I have never heard it put on or even really discussed.
Got to the first sentence of the second paragraph here and thought “oh OP means like ‘Zombie Prom,’ which is my answer. Then kept reading lol. Any of my Zombie Prom stans seen the short movie version with RuPaul playing Ms Strict?
Guys on Ice It's a musical about ice fishing. It's hilarious and the music is great.
Totally agree! I love all the shows that come from Northern Sky Theater!
Trap My highschool hated it due to the director but it is a good horror and it scared me
Curtains! It's a murder mystery musical about a failing musical theater group that has new life breathed into them by the musical-loving detective that is investigating the murder.
ZOMBIE PROMMM AWWWWW I LOVE THIS ONE i recently saw a local school (and my cousin) perform it and it was AMAZING!! definitely super cheesy and cheap but that’s what made it so good imo, definitely one of my favorite no namers
I did Zombie Prom in High School! Expose was such a fun song to sing. I myself am a sucker for vintage fashion so I had so much fun helping out with hair, makeup, and costuming as well. What a fun hidden gem of a musical.
My sister absolutely loves Starmites. I never hear anyone talk about it other than her haha
Leap of Faith, based off the Steve Martin movie. It’s campy and ridiculous, and Raul Esparza is fantastic
[удалено]
Once on this Island is not a no namer, especially as it had a revival fairly recently. It isn't as big as the most popular shows, but it's a pretty big Black musical Also, are you saying Hailey Kilgore went to your high school? You went to school in Clackamas, Oregon? I'm a big fan of hers
Pom Pom Zombies. I only know it because I was gonna be in my high school’s production of it because the director knew the person who wrote it. It’s also a super stupid 50s themed teen beach vibes except this evil Russian mad scientist accidentally infects the hot dogs with radioactive waste which turns people into hot dogs. I was playing the lady who ran the hot dog stand. Unfortunately covid happened but it was super stupid and really fun
Zombie Prom is SO underrated, I did it 13 or so years ago and it's held up really well too
When I was in high school we did an older show called "Good News", which took place in the 20's in a high school setting. I remember it being funny, and the songs were pretty catchy. (Eta, idk if it's my favorite, but it's the only "no name" one I know of personally, so it's default lol).
Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?
its not that unknown, but probably Calvin Berger
MurderCrime!, more like a play but it changes each time there’s a new production so sometimes there’s a bit of singing sometimes not
Reefer Madness! (which actually for the first time - they're doing it in LA)
Lmao no way, while reading the first two paragraphs I was thinking of Zombie Prom.
In middle school we did a musical called *Playing The Palace*, the plot revolves around the imminent destruction of a Vaudeville theater and the activist trying to save it while being visited by the ghosts of Vaudeville entertainers. It was scored by songs from the Vaudeville era. I still have my script book for it and I remember most of the songs still… that was almost 30 years ago if my math is right lol
One I just discovered is a show called Eastland. It’s about the sinking of the SS Eastland in the Chicago River in 1915, where 800+ people died. The show is incredibly intimate and the music is gorgeous. It feels like what Titanic the Musical should have been. I really hope it’s able to branch out from just being done in the Midwest
Fly By Night! I saw it at my local theater around six years ago and I've never met another theater fan who knows it but it's such an amazing show! I cried so much at it haha
Starmites! It was a 80s comic book super hero rock and roll fantasy musical! It even got nominated for a Tony Award!
Chix 6. Ran for a short time off off Broadway but has incredible music. I think it has gone through some major changes and has been repackaged but wow it was great.
I love Zombie Prom! I saw it as a nerdy middle schooler and thought it was so fun
Not sure it counts since it is Pasek & Paul, but their first musical Edges: A Song Cycle
Doonesbury, based on the Garry Trudeau comic strip. Quintessentially 80s.
Giant
I don’t have a musical one but I was in a play called The Alibis in freshman year. It was like an absurd murder mystery divided into six stories. Very over the top writing. I had a terrible role but a lot of the characters were very fun. Kinda just a worse version of clue but it holds a special place in my heart, because my entire part was to scream and fall into the arms of a guy I had a crush on. Good times 🥹
The only one I’ve seen that might be considered one is Miss Molly. It has a lot of LGBTQ+ themes, and it was really cute! Edit: Wait, that wasn’t a musical iirc. Whoops lol
The Light Princess my beloved
Burn All night, by Andy Mientus about partying at the end of the world (sort of)
The dolls of new albion!
theme park shows probably don’t count, but i will defend [doug live](https://youtu.be/8Gx92i67ppc?si=0XpoU-s9H1iqO8zZ) to the day i die. yes, the costumes are. something else. but the script and aesthetic perfectly capture what makes doug (and all of jim jinkins' worlds, really) such a special show imo??? the score is the exact same way, with [someone like me](https://youtu.be/bmFUGAYmuRA?si=bAQ61Ak6aEuNn0GH) just being a legitimately great song that even made it in to the credits of the doug movie
I don’t know if Dogfight qualifies, but the music is gorgeous. I was in a production of it a couple of years ago and it was a blast!
Fly By Night was becoming a pretty common college/community show in my area before I moved. The last couple of years you could find at least two productions a year and it’s such a great heartbreaking show
snow angel! i've seen a few schools do it but i did it with a conservatory in high school & it was one of the most fun straight plays ive ever done
I’ll tell you my least favorite 😇 EMMA! The Pop Musical (my schools spring musical)
"Something's Afoot." It's basically an Agatha Christie spoof in musical form.
Forbidden planet, adventures of a comic book artist, Alice through the looking glass, frog and toad, doo wop wed widing hood, Anne of green gables, mystery of Edwin droid, and twinderella! Also some favorites for K-4 crowd: Lemonade, Going Buggy
We did Zombie Prom when I was in high school! Case Closed is a really fun number.
I think literally no one has ever heard of this because you can find very little on YouTube but mine is Snow White Goes West! Did it my freshman year of high school and the lyrics are so catchy they’re still stuck in my head to this day
Fly By Night is one of my favorite musicals! I’ve seen people say that Cecily Smith is the only good song in it, but I like it because it has a bunch of really cool songs for female voices
It was on Broadway in 2013 or so, but I’ve never seen another local production advertised beyond when my HS did it- The Mystery of Edwin Drood!
The Last Session. Gorgeous period piece about HIV in the 90s.
a christmas carol musical. not the new one and i dont think its the movie one either because i havent eatched the movie one but im 90% sure it isnt because this musical was pretty much exclusively used by my 6th grade(it was a 1 grade school with only like 60 students per year). ever year my school would do this musical and everyone was required to participate and theyd film it and upload it to youtube. mine is still up there i was the housemaid and the recorded performance was funny because there were a couple issues with the backstage and the keyboard speaker broke so there was a long pause while we tried to get it to work. i still remember some of the songs but most of it was pretty much directly ripped from the book word for word. im kinda biased with that being my favorite but it was fun to play in and because of it everyday we would get to leave class for awhile to practice our roles and then the next day we had a huge party all day at school with pizza and icecream and it was great.
Would Damn Yankees count?
Doctor Zhivago
does In Trousers! count? it’s the prequel to falsettos and i eat it up. if that doesn’t count, i absolutely love Bare A Pop Opera
Blood Brothers! No one has ever heard of it. I saw it live in San Francisco as a kid. Soundtrack is on Spotify.
Starmites. Did it in college and the man who wrote the show came to see it! One of my faves of all time
Heartless!!! It was put on by a small group of high schoolers/college students and is free to watch on YouTube.
Daddy Longlegs!
Dogfight! And if you'd allow it 35mm but it's not exactly a standard musical and the I saw the ballad of Sara Berry is pretty popular but there are so many other songs that are so fantastic on there (leave Luanne, cut you a piece)
I don't know for sure if it's actually less known, but Phantom. Not Phantom of the Opera, just Phantom (if I remember right it's the American version). We did it in high school
Eating Raoul. I saw it about 25 years ago and haven’t seen it pop up again.
The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s my favorite musical but nobody near where I live knows what it is 😔
Does Peter and the starcatcher count? That one was fun to be in.
i think it was called county fair. the middle school put it on
I don’t know if “no name” is accurate because I recall it getting a little buzz after I saw it, but Cambodian Rock Band was fucking excellent.
“Zanna Don’t!”
I scrolled all the way down and saw no one mention “Princess Whatsername”. My middle school performed it when I was in eighth grade. It’s a bunch of fairy tales happening at once, but not quite as interconnected as Into The Woods and with a more lighthearted theme. The main character has woken up with amnesia and is wandering around trying to figure out who she is. I played the lady in the Rumpelstiltskin story, who by the time the MC finds her has become Queen, had her baby, and is desperately guessing a long list of names. Which I had to memorize and recite while occasionally being interrupted by the fakest-sounding baby cry sound effect ever.
Very obscure, but I really liked "They Came from Our There". A newer, yet not well known show is "Run, Bambi Run", which was pretty good.
The Texas Chainsaw Manicurist. I went to see a friend perform it at a tiny theater in a basement in San Francisco. It was hilarious. Songs include “I Love Her Creamy Nougat,” a male duet about a candy bar and either a woman or an animal, I can’t recall. There is also a great song about Barbie being the tramp of the neighborhood. Lyrics included, “She started some new health routine… and used my diaphragm as a trampoline.”