This is a relatively simple list of albums, but here goes.
5. Songs for a New World by Jason Robert Brown
I don’t love Songs as much as I love The Last 5 Years (which isn’t on this list because I did see a regional production of it once) but I do really enjoy it. It’s a nice collection of songs, though because it is more a collection of songs than anything, I don’t exactly regret not having seen it yet.
4. tick, tick… BOOM! by Jonathan Larson
I could play “Come to Your Senses” on the piano for a while, for whatever that counts. I am fairly familiar with these songs, though not in the same way that I am with Rent.
3. Bernarda Alba by Michael John LaChiusa
I would actually absolutely love to see this staged. I love that it is a strictly lady cast. And so. Many. Spanish. Guitars. It’s a super-depressing album, and I’m sure the show would be super-depressing as well, but it’s very very good.
2. The Wild Party by Michael John LaChiusa
(At this point you’re probably asking yourself, why isn’t See What I Wanna See on this list? The odds that I would have seen it are slim to none. Well, this is a story for a different day, kids. This is a story called How I Got A New York City Library Card.) I don’t like the LaChiusa Wild Party as well as the Lippa, though it’s closer to the original poem probably; I like it quite a lot, but. I think the difference is that this one takes more time to focus on the peripheral characters, while the Lippa develops the sex square in the middle (calling it a love square feels generous) and focuses on it more.
1. The Wild Party by Andrew Lippa
But holy sweet god, this is my favorite never-seen-the-show-staged score of all time. Back when I was still kidding myself, “The Life of the Party” was one of my shower mainstays. And as I’ve before mentioned, I was actually Lippa!Kate for Halloween one year. Nobody got it. If it would be possible for a negative amount of people to get it, that would be the situation that took place. But lord, it was awesome anyway. This is just. This score is delicious, and the album has so so many of my favorite people on it.
–your fangirl heroine.
