Through powerful dialogue, heartwarming lyrics, and captivating choreography, musicals have a unique way of portraying the many facets of love. Whether you’re a hopeless romantic or just a fan of a good cry, these five must-see musicals beautifully capture the essence of love in all its forms.
Photo by Joan Marcus, 2018 Broadway production
Head Over Heels Songs by The Go-Go’s, Based on ‘The Arcadia’ by Sir Philip Sidney, Concept & Original Book by Jeff Whitty, Adapted by James Magruder
Head Over Heels is the bold new musical comedy from the visionaries that rocked Broadway with Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Avenue Q and Spring Awakening. This laugh-out-loud love story is set to the music of the iconic 1980’s all-female rock band the Go-Go’s, including the hit songs, “We Got the Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Vacation,” Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth,” and “Mad About You.” A hilarious, exuberant celebration of love, Head Over Heels follows the escapades of a royal family on an outrageous journey to save their beloved kingdom from extinction—only to discover the key to their realm’s survival lies within each of their own hearts.
A High School Edition of this show is also available.
Interlochen Center for the Arts production
String Book by Sarah Hammond, Music & Lyrics by Adam Gwon
After angering Zeus, the Fates, the goddess sisters who spin, measure, and snip the strings of life for every human on Earth, find themselves banished to a modern office building in the mortal world, where they continue their work hidden among the mortals whose destinies they weave into one giant, glorious tapestry. When eldest sister Atropos accidentally loses her pair of scissors in the building, she meets Mickey, the building’s overnight security guard. Soon love gets the better of her, and she finds herself falling for him, stealing his string to keep him immortal and defying all of the rules she has to follow as a goddess. This exception to the rules begins to disrupt the natural order—can the tapestry of the Universe and her sisters stand this flaw? Fall for this original, uplifting, and belty musical about fate, love, and the imperfections that make us human.
2023 Actors’ Playhouse production
Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville Book by Greg Garcia & Mike O’Malley, Music & Lyrics by Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville is a musical comedy featuring the most-loved Jimmy Buffett classics, including “Cheeseburger in Paradise”, “Margaritaville,” “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” “Fins,” “Volcano,” and many more. With a book by Emmy Award winner Greg Garcia (My Name is Earl, Raising Hope) and Emmy nominee Mike O’Malley (Survivor’s Remorse, Shameless), this hilarious, heartwarming musical is the party you’ve been waiting for! A High School Edition of this show is also available.
Photo by Sara Krulwich, 2011 production
Hello Again Book, Music & Lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa
A riff on La Ronde (also adapted as plays by Steven Dietz [American La Ronde] and Joe DiPietro [F**king Men]), ten nameless characters pair up in ten different scenes of sexual pleasure and/or despair. One character from each scene moves on to the next, seemingly dumping his old partner in favor of new prey. The play begins in 1900 with a Prostitute soliciting an unwilling Soldier. The next scene takes place in the 1940s, and the Soldier, afraid of dying in the war, tussles with a sympathetic Nurse. Next, the Nurse becomes a 1960s dominatrix over her patient, an upper-crust College Boy with wild leanings. In the 1930s, the College Boy reappears as the impotent partner of an adulterous Young Wife who can only have relations with him in seedy, out-of-the-way places. Meeting the woman’s Husband in the next scene, we see why she’s been driven to such moral turpitude. In her loneliness, the Wife dances a haunting pas-de-deux with the mirror image of her repressed, sensual self. Experiencing the Wife’s scene from a totally different perspective, we then meet the Husband as a closet homosexual (and on the Titanic, no less), using the ship’s imminent demise to steal a tango with a gorgeous boy hustler called the Young Thing. Shifting to a 1970s disco, a bisexual Writer lures the Young Thing home only to feel the creeping certainty of a morning-after desertion. Finally, the circle of lovers closes where it all began. A Senator quits his relationship with an Actress because of political liabilities, then seeks the Prostitute from the first scene, whom he desperately wishes he could love. A tableau begins forming in the background, with all the couples singing “Hello Again” over and over in a moody recognition of love’s inescapable pull.
Photo by Carol Rosegg, 2022 York Theater Company production
Penelope, or How The Odyssey Was Really Written Book & Lyrics by Peter Kellogg, Music by Stephen Weiner
It’s funny, it’s fierce and, above all, it’s epic! For the last twenty years, Penelope has been waiting for her husband Odysseus to return from the Trojan War. Meanwhile, a bevy of suitors have gathered, each wanting to marry her and take over the kingdom. Since they have little else to do but eat and drink, they decide to form an a capella group. To stall them, Penelope writes letters to herself and pretends they’re from Odysseus saying he’s on his way. Little does she know, her letters gathered together are creating the story of The Odyssey.
Photo by Sara Krulwich, 2017 New York Theater Workshop production
Hundred Days Book by The Bengsons & Sarah Gancher, Music & Lyrics by The Bengsons
Hundred Days is an uncensored, exhilarating and heartrending true story about embracing uncertainty, taking a leap, and loving as if you only had 100 days to live. With magnetic chemistry and anthemic folk-punk music, creators Abigail and Shaun Bengson explore a fundamental question: how do we make the most of the time that we have?
