The best Broadway musicals of all time
The top 3 according to 63 votes from people: Les Misérables · Hamilton · A Chorus Line. (Updated Jan 28, 2025.)
The shows that top every ranking of Broadway's greatest, from West Side Story and Fiddler to Hamilton and Hadestown.
Top 21
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1
Les Misérables
1987 on Broadway. Victor Hugo's novel sung from start to finish.
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2
Hamilton
2015. Lin-Manuel Miranda tells the founding fathers' story through hip-hop.
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3
A Chorus Line
1975. The lives of dancers at an audition.
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4
Wicked
2003. The untold story of the witches of Oz.
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5
Chicago
1975, revived in 1996. Murder, jazz and celebrity; the longest-running American musical.
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6
Rent
1996. Young artists in New York in the time of AIDS.
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7
My Fair Lady
1956. Eliza Doolittle and Professor Higgins.
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8
Into the Woods
1987. Fairy tales after "happily ever after".
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9
Guys and Dolls
1950. Gamblers and missionaries on Broadway.
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10
The Phantom of the Opera
1988. Andrew Lloyd Webber; Broadway's longest-running show.
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11
The Lion King
1997. Julie Taymor's puppets and the highest-grossing show ever.
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12
West Side Story
1957. Romeo and Juliet in New York, by Bernstein and Sondheim.
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13
Cabaret
1966. Berlin's Kit Kat Club as the Nazis rise.
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14
The Book of Mormon
2011. The South Park creators' irreverent hit.
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15
Oklahoma!
1943. Rodgers and Hammerstein's first, which changed the musical.
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16
Fiddler on the Roof
1964. Tevye, tradition and "If I Were a Rich Man".
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17
The Sound of Music
1959. The von Trapp family and "Do-Re-Mi".
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18
Hadestown
2019. Orpheus and Eurydice in a folk-jazz underworld; Tony for best musical.
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19
Sweeney Todd
1979. Sondheim's demon barber of Fleet Street.
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20
Hairspray
2002. Tracy Turnblad and 1960s Baltimore.
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21
Cats
1982. T. S. Eliot's cats and "Memory".
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
Is something missing?
Comments (1)
A Chorus Line above West Side Story is a bold choice but I kind of agree