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To this day, musical theater is still one of the most riveting forms of entertainment. There is nothing quite like the magic of sitting in a dark theater and watching people pour their hearts and souls into a performance, all while the world outside is forgotten. However, not everyone has the opportunity to experience this. Many musicals have Broadway-exclusive runs, or the tours only go to larger cities. However, the soundtracks are almost always accessible for everyone to enjoy. SO sit back, relax, and let’s take a look at seven soundtracks that everyone should listen to at least once in their lives.
1. Hadestown
Listen: Spotify, Apple Music
One of the most cohesive soundtracks that’s a tearjerker during every listen, Hadestown reinvents the Greek myth of lovers Orpheus and Eurydice for a modern audience. In the words of Hermes, the show’s narrator, Orpheus is a poor boy with a way with words, and Eurydice is a hungry girl looking for something to eat. When winter strikes, the desperate Eurydice makes a deal with Hades, the king of the Underworld, to work in Hadestown, where she’ll never go hungry. Upon learning this, Orpheus makes the journey to Hadestown to rescue his beloved. Even though we’re told in the beginning that their tale is a tragedy, the underlying hope exuded from the lovers in “Come Home With Me” is one that permeates the entire soundtrack, even when the inevitable tragedy rears its head.
2. Finding Neverland
Listen: Spotify, Apple Music
As we grow up, we’re told to stop focusing on flights of fantasy and instead focus on making a living for ourselves. In this stage adaptation of the 2004 film, Finding Neverland tells the story of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie and his relationship with Llewelyn Davies family, the same which later inspires the story of the boy who never grew up. Finding Neverland shows its listeners that everyone has a child within them, and it only takes a spark to let that child run free. Between fun numbers like “Believe” to the inspiring “Stronger” and even the emotional “When Your Feet Don’t Touch The Ground”, Finding Neverland is one of the most heart-warming musicals to grace the stage.
3. Kinky Boots
Listen: Spotify, Apple Music
Based on the 2005 film of the same name, Kinky Boots is a celebration of being who you truly are and accepting others. When his father’s sudden death leaves their family’s shoe factory in his hands, Charlie Price must find a way to bring the factory that he grew up in back from bankruptcy. His opportunity comes in the form of a London drag queen named Lola and her need for decent boots for her performances. Throughout the show, Charlie and his employees learn the meaning of “Just Be”-ing themselves. The music for the show, written by the iconic Cyndi Lauper, includes songs like “Everybody Say Yeah” where Price and Son’s ‘kinky boots’ are first created and the heart-wrenching “Soul Of A Man” where Charlie struggles with the weight of his father’s legacy.
4. Six
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‘Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived’ is a rhyme that British children are taught to help them remember the fates of the six wives of Henry VIII’s. Six turns that on its head, turning the tragic wives into a girl-power pop group. Now, they’re no longer just ‘the wives’, but people with their own lives and stories that deserve to be told. In the show, the Queens, as they’re known, continuously squabble over who had it the worst with Henry until the survivor, Catherine Parr, puts a stop to it and reminds them that they’re more than their relationship to the king. With showstopping numbers for each Queen, including Anne Boelyn’s “Don’t Lose Ur Head” and Katherine Howard’s “All You Wanna Do”, history becomes her story.
5. Head Over Heels
Listen: Spotify, Apple Music
Jukebox musicals, where non-musical songs are fitted to the show’s plot, are always a classic. Head Over Heels takes the music of The Go-Go’s and transplants it into the medieval kingdom of Arcadia. When the oracle Pythio warns of Arcadia losing the mysterious “Beat” that governs the land, the royal family goes on a journey to prevent Pythio’s four prophecies from coming to fruition. Head Over Heels, while on Broadway for less than a year, is one of the greatest celebrations of inclusivity. Featuring a princess in love with her loyal handmaiden, a genderfluid shepherd, and a non-binary oracle among the cast of colorful characters, Head Over Heels defines love and acceptance to the beat of catchy and iconic music such as “We Got The Beat” and “Vacation”.
6. Be More Chill
Listen: Spotify, Apple Music
If you had the chance to take a pill containing a supercomputer that could make you cool, would you? In Be More Chill, high school sophomore and self-proclaimed “loser” Jeremy Heere does just that. Unfortunately, his decision comes with disastrous consequences, one of which being that the “Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor” or S.Q.U.I.P. that was in the pill wanting to “squip” the entire world. Throughout the show, Jeremy faces the consequences of his actions and learns that being cool isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Bringing more of a techno feel to Broadway, Be More Chill still manages to get its songs stuck in your head. From Jeremy’s best friend Michael having a panic attack in “Michael In The Bathroom” to the S.Q.U.I.P.’s revelation of its plan for world domination in “The Pitiful Children”, Be More Chill keeps listeners tapping their feet and bobbing their heads even after the music ends.
7. The Prom
Listen: Spotify, Apple Music
Everyone should have an equal opportunity to love who they want to love. In The Prom, lesbian teenager Emma just wants to ask the girl she’s in love with to her high school prom, an idea that is shot down when the conservative PTA cancels the prom altogether. When four down-on-their-luck actors hear of Emma’s plight, they pledge to help her have the prom of her dreams with the girl of her dreams. Featuring songs like “Dance With You” and “It’s Time To Dance”, the show is heartwarming while also bringing attention to a similar dilemma to the one that LGBTQ+ high schoolers face every year. Prom should be for everyone, and that is what The Prom advocates for.
