Once my students are through venting their respective spleens over The Most Overrated Musicals, they get a chance to get their hominy grits going in the other direction and write about their choices for the most underrated musical.
These papers are usually much more pleasant to read, but not simply because they have a positive tone. At this point in the semester, most of my students have caught on as to what I'm looking for (a coherent thesis, specific examples, etc.) and the papers are typically more well-reasoned and thoughtful.
But the underrated paper is also a chance for me to bond with my students over much-beloved shows that for some reason never caught on, or perhaps did catch on, only to fade from memory.
Here, then, is my own list of musicals that don't quite get the credit that they deserve. Feel free to disagree as well as submit your own candidates.
110 in the Shade
13
Amour
Anyone Can Whistle
Assassins
Baby
The Baker's Wife
Barnum
Bloomer Girl
Bring It On
Carnival
Caroline, or Change
A Catered Affair
City of Angels
A Class Act
Coco
The Cradle Will Rock
Cry-Baby
A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine
Dear World
Dessa Rose
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Drowsy Chaperone
Fanny
Fiorello!
Flora the Red Menace
Flower Drum Song
The Full Monty
The Golden Apple
The Goodbye Girl
The Grand Tour
The Grass Harp
Grey Gardens
High Fidelity
High Spirits
How Now, Dow Jones
The Human Comedy
I Love My Wife
Irma la Douce
Is There Life After High School?
Lady in the Dark
The Life
Little Me
Lost in the Stars
The Last Five Years
Mack and Mabel
A Man of No Importance
My Favorite Year
A New Brain
Once on This Island
One Touch of Venus
On the Twentieth Century
Plain and Fancy
Pump Boys and Dinettes
Rags
The Rink
Romance/Romance
Romantic Poetry
The Secret Garden
Smile
She Loves Me
Steel Pier
The Story of My Life
Sugar
Sunday in the Park With George
Sunset Boulevard
tick, tick...BOOM!
Tintypes
Titanic
Triumph of Love
Violet
The Wedding Singer
Whoop-Up
Wicked
Woman of the Year
Working
Xanadu
