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They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky! Join us as we count down our picks for the most beloved and successful stage musicals featuring monstrous characters. Our countdown includes "The Phantom of the Opera," "Little Shop of Horrors," "The Rocky Horror Show," and more! Which monster musical made you sing and scream along?
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00:00Sing for me!
00:04Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:06And today, we're counting down our picks for the most beloved and successful stage musicals that feature the extra thrill of monsters.
00:13You'll soon complete it.
00:15Ah! Wait! Don't eat it.
00:18Number 10, King Kong.
00:21Historically, presenting the eighth wonder of the world on a New York stage has not ended well.
00:26A timeless story brought to life in a groundbreaking new musical production.
00:33The results weren't much better when American playwrights Craig Lucas and Michael Mitnick debuted a King Kong musical in Melbourne.
00:40Opera director Daniel Kramer conducted spectacular production values and special effects that swept the Helpman Awards.
00:47But the music polarized critics.
00:50Reviews were even worse when Jack Thorne and Eddie Perfect reworked the play for Broadway in 2018.
00:54Ladies and gentlemen, I give you King Kong!
01:07Still, everyone agreed that Sonny Tilders' groundbreaking animatronics eclipsed the flawed writing.
01:13With some comparing the visceral experience to the Giant Ape's cinematic debut in 1933,
01:18there's otherwise nothing to compare to the roaring adventure of seeing King Kong on the stage.
01:23I can change you forever!
01:29Number 9, Young Frankenstein.
01:32After his triumphant return to musical theater with the producers,
01:36Mel Brooks brought another one of his classic films to the stage.
01:39You must be Igor.
01:41No, it's pronounced I-Gol.
01:44He once considered scrapping the iconic Put-in-on-the-Ritz sequence in 1974's Young Frankenstein because it was too silly.
01:51He clearly changed his mind when he adapted the misadventures of Victor Von Frankenstein, or Frankenstein, with more than 20 original songs.
02:06Unfortunately, reviews were mixed when the show opened on Broadway with an all-star cast,
02:11highlighted by Shuler Hensley as the monster, but the hysterically excessive production thrilled audiences,
02:18earning many award nominations for its riotous acting and songwriting.
02:21The 2017 West End revival was met with unanimous praise.
02:25Whether Young Frankenstein is an acquired taste, it's ultimately a real scream.
02:29Number 8, Jekyll and Hyde.
02:39Steve Kudin and composer Frank Wildhorn found an ambitious theatrical debut
02:43in Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of a Doctor Who Changes Himself into a Behemoth.
02:49I do not know what I seek, yet I'll seek it alone.
02:54After winning rave reviews on the Houston stage in 1990,
02:59Jekyll and Hyde was workshopped and toured until it finally reached Broadway in 97.
03:03There, the show received a mixed reception and financially underperformed.
03:08Somehow I have to hang on to the vision that first inspired me.
03:13But conviction and cult following led to long-running international, multilingual, and frequently experimental productions.
03:20The lead dual role has been played by stage legend Anthony Warlow,
03:24TV icon David Hasselhoff, and rock stars Chuck Wagner, Sebastian Bach, and Konstantin Maroulis.
03:31Jekyll and Hyde has gone through many changes over the years,
03:34but that same exhilarating soul has endured.
03:37You cannot choose but to lose control.
03:40You can't control me, I live deep inside you.
03:42Number 7, The Addams Family.
03:45Creepy, kooky, and altogether groovy.
03:47Andrew Lippa's take on The Addams Family comic strip was highly anticipated after a 2009 preview in Chicago.
03:54The final production hit Broadway with Nathan Lane,
03:57B.B. Neuwirth, Krista Rodriguez, Kevin Chamberlain, and Terrence Mann.
04:01But not much plot.
04:03The at best mixed reviews didn't stop the Lund Fontan Theatre from regularly selling out.
04:08I feel good saying that is just around the corner, swiftly on its way.
04:14And after a strong reception at the Drama Desk Awards,
04:18reviews warmed over the course of an extensive tour that culminated in an acclaimed return to Chicago.
04:24Before long, The Addams Family became a global phenomenon.
04:27Perhaps the critics are just dead wrong,
04:29because the audience says that this musical is fun for the whole family to snap along to.
04:34Lloyd Kaufman's sadistic superhero splatter series is supposed to be hilariously cheap.
04:47So why does Melvin Furred III's mutation into a homicidal vigilante work so well as a musical spectacular?
04:54Melvin, you're looking more and more like your father every day.
04:58New Jerseyites certainly had their biases when The Toxic Avenger debuted its empowering state satire in New Brunswick.
05:05But the acclaim persisted as the chaotic comedy hit the road.
05:08I will save New Jersey. I melvin furred and furred.
05:12From Toronto to the West End,
05:16Toxie has enjoyed and disgusted audiences with his crackdown on status quo, politics, and pollution.
05:21Such gritty commentary could be undermined by showcases in the most expensive and gaudy theaters in New York.
05:27I thought you saw my truth within.
05:34Despite somehow subverting Broadway,
05:36The Toxic Avenger's success shows that it has much more going for it than another pretty face.
05:41The Toxic Avenger, now on Broadway HD.
05:45Number 5. Bat Boy the Musical.
05:47The satirical tabloid Weekly World News is best known for a series of stories about a human-bat hybrid repeatedly escaping a government lab.
05:56In a cave many miles to the south.
06:01Five years into his run in print,
06:03The Actors Gang Theater in Los Angeles brought Bat Boy to life on Halloween 1997.
06:08It took another four years to mount an off-Broadway production of Lawrence O'Keefe's tragicomic rock opera.
06:13Here is a cat.
06:15Tate the cat.
06:16There is a goose.
06:17This is a rat.
06:19Tate the what?
06:19And that is a moose.
06:20Ba-ba-ba-ba-poosh.
06:21It wound up winning a number of accolades on the circuit,
06:24including the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical.
06:27A cult following larger than anything Weekly World News ever saw
06:31has since followed Bat Boy the Musical around the world.
06:34Love me, Bat Boy.
06:35Love me, Bat Boy.
06:36Save me, Bat Boy.
06:38Save me, Bat Boy.
06:39After all, the beautifully bizarre show is something you have to see to believe.
06:43Tell me, children, don't be scared.
06:48The moon is up and we're all prepared.
06:51Number 4.
06:52The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
06:54Following the poor reception for Beauty and the Beast on Broadway,
06:58Disney staged another animated hit in Berlin.
07:00James Lapine surprisingly wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame
07:10closer to the dark tone of Victor Hugo's classic novel.
07:13This sinister, tragic interpretation of the deformed and lovelorned Quasimodo
07:17still didn't take away from the Disney-fied spectacle, humor, and musical numbers.
07:21The successful three-year run of Der Glockner von Notre Dame
07:31was rivaled by a separate musical directly based on Hugo's book in France.
07:35Both shows would become international sensations,
07:38with a revision of Disney's original English version premiering in 2014.
07:42It still holds a special place in Germany,
07:53where a 2017 revival furthered its distinction
07:56as one of the country's longest-running musicals.
08:05Number 3.
08:06The Rocky Horror Show.
08:08Struggling West End actor and playwright Lawrence O'Brien
08:10bet everything on a glam rock musical
08:13about a mad scientist developing the perfect man.
08:16Michael Rennie was ill
08:18A day the earth stood still
08:20But he told us where we stand
08:23Despite this subversive premise
08:25and the campy B-horror homages,
08:28The Rocky Horror Show claimed the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical.
08:31It then scored a Drama Desk nomination for Tim Curry
08:34when he brought the role of Dr. Frankenfurter to Broadway.
08:37And yet, moviegoers weren't immediately captivated
08:40by the Rocky Horror Picture Show the following year.
08:42Oh, if you won something visceral
08:45that's not too abysmal
08:47we could take in an old Steve Reeves movie.
08:51Even with the film achieving cult status,
08:54many still prefer the play for its more nuanced themes and parody.
08:58When I be standing there, I be standing there,
09:01he was an older kid.
09:02At least everyone agrees that the music rocks.
09:06If the picture is considered a must-have experience,
09:08the original is definitely worth coming out for.
09:12Let's do the time of the end
09:15Number 2.
09:18The Phantom of the Opera
09:20It's not exactly a monster story
09:22in the way established by Universal Pictures in 1925.
09:25Now as I see, I can sense you
09:30Richard Stilgo and Andrew Lloyd Webber's
09:32The Phantom of the Opera
09:33was closer to Gaston Leroux's novel,
09:35rivaling its suspense with romance.
09:38The sung-through saga
09:39of a scarred composer
09:40scheming to lethally advance his innocent muse
09:42combines 80s pop rock with legitimate opera.
09:46The epic dazzled the West End
09:47and won big at the Laurence Olivier Awards.
09:50Turn your thoughts away
09:52from cold and feeling light
09:57After sweeping the Tony and Drama Desk Awards
09:59the following year,
10:00it went on to become
10:01the longest-running show in Broadway history.
10:04That man and mystery
10:07We're both in you
10:10Along the way,
10:13Webber's Phantom has been adapted
10:14into a blockbuster film
10:15and shrouded all other adaptations
10:17of Leroux as a pop-culture beast.
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10:43Number 1.
10:44Little Shop of Horrors
10:45How did a Roger Corman horror comedy
10:47become a monster in the musical world?
10:58Before scoring the Disney renaissance,
11:01Howard Ashman and Alan Menken
11:02loosely adapted Little Shop of Horrors
11:04as a tribute to the doo-wop
11:06and rock and roll of the early 1960s.
11:08From modest off-off-Broadway roots,
11:18the story of Seymour Krelborn's
11:19man-eating plant sprouted
11:21into an acclaimed hit
11:21that won the Drama Desk Award
11:23for Outstanding Musical.
11:24It took 20 years
11:25for the show to hit Broadway proper.
11:27By then,
11:28it had been adapted
11:29by a number of theaters
11:30around the world
11:31and into an equally beloved movie.
11:38The ferocious Audrey 2
11:39has come in all sizes,
11:41but it's the thrilling wit,
11:43charm,
11:43and tunes
11:44that audiences
11:44are always hungry for.
11:55What other monster musicals
11:56made you sing and scream along?
11:58Creep into the comments below.
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