What's the Best Live Broadcast Musical? BroadwayWorld Readers Decide Once and For All!
By: Sally Henry Feb. 14, 2016
Broadway in your living room. Sounds like an impossible dream, doesn't it? But for the last few years, we have all had the privilege of just such a reality.
When NBC's live broadcast of THE SOUND OF MUSIC (starring Carrie Underwood) absolutely smashed it in the ratings, they knew this had to be a holiday tradition. So with Annoying Actor Friend's drinking games in hand, we relished live-tweeting NBC's annual musicals together as a theatre fan community, and the other networks couldn't ignore that. So then FOX announced GREASE. Not only were they joining the live musical trend, but FOX finally heard the cries of we the theatre community and promised us a live audience.
No matter how much we omgloved even THE WIZ, the silence after musical numbers proved almost awkward enough to kill the rockin' performances. Enter GREASE's fan-filled bleachers. While the Beatlemania-like screaming from the audience members somewhat detracted from the presentation, there's no doubt those youths added the energy the broadcast needed.
With this in mind, we asked our readers which live musical has been their favorite so far, and here's the maybe not shocking response from over 1,000 readers:
You had to know it was coming... The definitive ruling: What's been the best live musical so far?
- broadwayworld (@broadwayworld) February 3, 2016
What does this mean for future live musicals, like NBC's holiday broadcast of HAIRSPRAY this year? This is for sure: If they're smart, they won't ignore that GREASE did it right.
Videos