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Story: Set in New York City in the mid-1950s, the musical explores the rivalry between two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds (the Jets from Puerto Rico and the Sharks, a Polish-American working-class group). One of the Jets falls in love with the sister of one of the Sharks.
Characters: Tony, Maria, Bernardo, Office Krupke
Music: Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreography by Jerome Robbins.
Songs: "Maria," "America," "Tonight," "Somewhere"
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. Story: Centers on Tevye, Russian milkman and the father of five daughters and his attempts to maintain his family and Jewish religious traditions while outside influences encroach upon their lives.
Characters: Tevye, Golde, Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Yente
Music: Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein.
Songs: "Tradition," "If I Were a Rich Man," "Matchmaker", "Sunrise, Sunset", "The Bottle Dance" Story: Impoverished young artists and musicians struggle to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side during the AIDS crisis circa 1990. There are drug problems, strippers, transvestites and one of the roommates eventually marries rich and wants to evict his former roommates.
Characters: Mark, Roger, Mimi, Benny, Angel, Tom, Maureen
Music: Jonathan Larson
Songs: "Light My Candle," "I Should Tell You," "Seasons of Love"
Based on Puccini's opera La bohème Story: Frederic, having turned twenty-one, is released from his apprenticeship to the title pirates. Reaching shore for the first time, Frederic falls in love with Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley. Frederic realizes that he was apprenticed until his twenty-first birthday, and, having been born on February 29, he must return to his apprenticeship. Mabel vows to wait for him. The Major-General and the police pursue the pirates, who surrender. The pirates are forgiven, and Mabel and Frederic reunite.
Characters: Frederic, Mabel, Major-General Stanley
Music: W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Songs: "Pour, oh pour, the pirate sherry" and "I am the very model of a modern Major-General." Story: Aboard the title ship, Josephine promises her father, the captain, that she will marry Sir Joseph Porter, but Josephine secretly loves the common sailor Ralph Rackstraw, and the two plan to elope. A peddler named Buttercup reveals that she accidentally switched the captain and Ralph at birth: Ralph is of noble birth and should be captain, while the captain is nothing more than a common sailor. Ralph, now captain, marries Josephine, and the former captain marries Buttercup.
Characters: Josephine, Ralph Raskstraw, Buttercup, the Captain
Music: W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Songs: "We sail the ocean blue," "I'm called Little Buttercup," and "Pretty daughter of mine." (named for their first lines) Story: Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher, travels to Siam (now Thailand) to teach English to the King's many children and wives. Anna's western ways, the looming threat of British rule, and romance between Lun Tha and the concubine Tuptim all weigh heavily on the traditional, chauvinistic King. As the King dies, Anna kneels at his side, and the prince abolishes the practice of kowtowing.
Characters: The King, Anna, Lun Tha, Tuptim
Music: Rogers and Hammerstein
Songs: "I Whistle a Happy Tune," "Getting to Know You," and "Shall We Dance?".
Adapted from Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon .
It was made into an Academy Award-winning 1956 film starring Yul Brynner. Story: During the Pacific Theater of World War II, Nellie, a U.S. Navy nurse, has fallen in love with Emile, a French plantation owner. Emile helps Lt. Cable carry out an espionage mission against the Japanese. The mission is successful, and Emile and Nellie reunite.
Characters: Emile de Becque, Nellie, Bloody Mary
Music: Rogers and Hammerstein
Songs: "Some Enchanted Evening," "There is Nothing Like a Dame," and "I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair," "Happy Talk" Story: Sweeney Todd, a barber, returns to London from Australia, where the evil Judge Turpin, who lusted after his wife, unjustly imprisoned him. Sweeney's daughter, Joanna, escapes Turpin - of whom she had been a ward during her father's incarceration - and falls in love with the sailor Anthony Hope. A vengeful Sweeney begins murdering his customers, and his neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, bakes them into meat pies. Sweeney kills the Judge but, in his fury, accidentally kills a mad beggar woman who was really his long-lost wife. Mrs. Lovett's shop boy, Tobias, grows scared and kills Sweeney.
Characters: Sweeney Todd, Joanna, Turpin, Anthony Hope, Mrs. Lovett, Tobias
Music: Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler
Songs: "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," "The Worst Pies in London," "Johanna," and "God, That's Good,"
The show is nearly sung throughout and it is nontrivial to identify distinct songs within it. Story: Two unlikely friends struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to a corrupt government, and, ultimately, one's public fall from grace.
Characters: Elphaba, Glinda, Nessarose, Madame Morrible
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Songs: "Popular," "For Good," "Defying Gravity"
Based on the book by Gregory Maguire 