The great opening dance in "West Side Story," performed in a tour at the Fox

If you’re like a lot of St. Louisans, you’re way more up on musical theater than your friends and relations in other cities are. We can thank the Muny for that, the big outdoor theater that turned us into a city of musical-theater goers and paved the way for everybody from the Fabulous Fox to offbeat New Line Theatre.

And, of course, for Stages St. Louis.

During the run of its hilarious production of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” Stages presented a little program about the history and the future of musical theater. The panelists were Peter Filichia, a critic for the Newark Star-Ledger and TheaterMania; theater historian Ken Bloom, author of “Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time”; and me. Stages executive producer Jack Lane was the moderator.

Jack opened with a terrific question: If you could put five musical theater productions in a time capsule to explain to future people what made musical theater great, what five would they be?

Here are our lists – and then, let’s see about yours!

From Peter:

1. “The Grass Harp” — for its glorious score 

2. “In Trousers” – introduces the talents of composer/lyricist William Finn  

3. “1776″ – so American!

4. “Me and My Girl” – love triumphs over money

5. “My Fair Lady” – just so good

From Ken:

1. “The Ziegfeld Follies” – we’ll never see anything like it again 

2. “Follies” (the Sondheim show inspired by Ziegfeld’s)

3. “Fiddler on the Roof” – another truly American story 

4. “The Fantasticks” – the triumph of the small

5. “Show Boat” – a historic breakthough, integrating songs into the story

My five:

1. “Anything Goes” (I really wanted to choose one of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies, like “Top Hat,” but we were talking about the stage, and this stage musical shares the movies’ giddy spirit.)

2.  ”South Pacific” – because it’s perfect

3. “West Side Story” – ditto

4. “My Fair Lady” – ditto

5. “Hair” – a real turning point

From Jack:

1. “Follies” – it made him love musical theater

2. “The Most Happy Fella” – gorgeous music 

3. “Show Boat” – Ken is right

4. “My Fair Lady” – Judy is right

5. ”The Drowsy Chaperone” – guess why

From our favorites, which five are your favorites? If we left your favorite(s) off, add it (or them) in the comments below. Want to tell us why you love your favorites? Please share!

You can select up to five shows in this poll. We’ll let you know how it turns out.

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