The 15 best musical theatre songs of all time

There is no better style of music than show tunes. It's objective fact and it’s not worth trying to argue with me on this.

You can’t match that swell of emotion that comes from the opening song, or the suspense as the curtain falls on Act I and you exhale for the first time in an hour.

That’s not even taking into account the fact that musical theatre actors are impressive as hell in their ability to simultaneously sing, dance, act and not audibly weep at what they’re performing.

By all means, sing along to every song in the privacy of your own home or car, but on stage let the professionals have the moment - don’t be that guy.

Some of the songs are so fantastic that they warrant special recognition. Yes, there are many and no, this isn’t an exhaustive list. But if you know all the lyrics to these bangers, you’re well on your way to being a musical theatre supernerd.

15. Tell Me It’s Not True, Blood Brothers

Tell Me It’s Not True is a real heartwrencher. Two twin boys are separated at birth by poverty, with their mother unable to raise both babies. We know from the start what the outcome will be, as a superstition predicts that, if they find out about their true identities, they will die. But when the song finally comes, it’s no less heartbreaking. Hearing a mother grieving in disbelief about the loss of her two sons at the same time - it couldn’t be more harrowing.

14. On The Street Where You Live, My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady boasts a bookful of memorable songs about the young woman roped into an upper class man’s social experiment. Yes, the feeling behind the song might be a little stalkerish - she told a young man to leave her alone and he’s threatening to sit on her doorstep until she sees him - but if you ignore that it’s a beautiful song. While Henry Higgins just keeps shouting at her to fetch his slippers, Freddy sings that he loves Eliza Doolittle for being herself. Now wouldn’t that be loverly? It’s also an ode to the gorgeous tree lined streets of London.

13. There’s No Business Like Show Business, Annie Get Your Gun

This one is great because it nimbly and cynically sums up how theatre people feel about their job: “The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk, are secretly unhappy men because, the butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk get paid for what they do but no applause.” In Annie Get Your Gun, the company of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show sing as an attempt to draw her into their group. The team behind it is killer (Dorothy Fields, Irving Berlin and Rodgers and Hammerstein) and ensured the success of this tune far beyond the boundaries of the musical.

12. Cell Block Tango, Chicago

Cell Block Tango has the six (or is it five?) murderesses of Cook County Jail tell the stories of how they made their kills. These monologues have some fantastic punchlines (“you know some guys just can’t hold their arsenic”) and the potential for really creative choreography. Couple that with the driving chorus and you’ve got one powerful number. And if nothing else, this is a genius way of telling the audience a huge amount of information in a very short space of time.

11. The Music of the Night, The Phantom of the Opera

Spine-tingling, melodious and chilling, this is undoubtedly the best song in the musical. The Phantom has brought Christine into his lair and he sings this ballad willing her to love him. It’s the pinnacle of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart’s compelling songwriting, and you find yourself enchanted by this mysterious man in a mask.

10. Defying Gravity, Wicked

Meaningful and complex duets between two women aren’t too easy to come by, so when they do you’ve got to pay attention. Wicked’s Act I closer starts with the two witches locked in an argument, but through the course of the song they beg each other to reconsider and finally conclude by wishing the best for each other as they part ways. It’s also a really satisfying tune to belt out in the kitchen.

9. The Sound of Music, The Sound of Music

No one will be shocked to hear that this is one of the most successful soundtrack albums of all time. This song sums up that emotional swell. We love it because of Julie Andrews - and rightly so - but it’s more about the combination of orchestral surge and climbing melodies that paint a vivid picture of Austrian mountains in the spring. It’s now almost impossible to stand on the top of a hill and not try to channel Maria.

8. Electricity, Billy Elliot

Electricity is a young boy’s feelings about the thing he loves to do more than anything in the world bursting out. The son of a miner in 1985 Newcastle, Billy had been hiding his passion and raw talent for dance from the world. This song - from Elton John - speaks to the dreamers with love for what they do. And to top it off, he goes into a dance break mid-way through with more energy than most of us could muster in a month, then carries on singing. Pretty impressive.

7. Maria, West Side Story

It’s a simple one and definitely not as flashy as others in West Side Story, but that’s the beauty of it. Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics are perfection: “Say it loud and there’s music playing, say it soft and it’s almost like praying.” The song perfectly captures Tony’s teenage infatuation with a girl who only spoke one word to him at a dance and then ran away.

6. Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat, Guys and Dolls

Nearing the end of the musical, we’ve seen the group of gambling cads being unruly and despicable throughout the whole show - charmingly so, of course. But this huge set piece is a real showstopper and the moment Nicely Nicely Johnson has been waiting for. Heavy on the sarcasm, he recounts a dream that lets us see the sinners angelically and sycophantically begging to have their souls saved. It’s perfectly divine.

5. Seasons of Love, Rent

Everything from Rent is a tearjerker. Just the subject matter alone is heartbreaking: a group of young people struggling to make ends meet in New York under the shadow of HIV. At the opening of Act II, the cast sing this moving ballad asking how we measure our lives: “In truths that she learned, or in times that he cried. In bridges he burned, or the way that she died?” It’s impossible not to be stirred.

4. Don’t Rain On My Parade, Funny Girl

Many have tried and failed to match the majesty of musical royalty Barbra Streisand in singing this. But don’t give up trying because she would be very disappointed in you if you did. Don’t Rain On My Parade is the ultimate comeback to anyone telling you you can’t achieve something (we’ll put aside the fact she’s singing it about marrying a gambler). She’ll do what she wants.

3. Alexander Hamilton, Hamilton

It’s almost impossible to pick one song from Hamilton to hold above the rest, especially as this soundtrack is best enjoyed played from start to finish on repeat every day. But, as the opening song, it dives straight into storytelling with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s deft words. One of the greatest successes of Hamilton, particularly in London where the story of the USA’s founding fathers isn’t as well known, is educating us in detail on the history of these events. Right from the opening song.

2. And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going, Dreamgirls

It’s no wonder that everyone ever on the X Factor has auditioned with this song (and most not managed to live up to the original). Effie has been rejected by both her singing group and her lover, but she is absolutely not giving up. Jennifer Holliday’s version is, of course, paramount and Jennifer Hudson’s rendition in the film turned everyone who listened into a giant goosebump. It’s earth-shatteringly powerful and really exposes the vocal and acting talent of the performer.

1. One Day More, Les Miserables

Let’s put Russell Crowe out of our minds before we talk about this one. This is a true epic masterpiece of musical theatre. It knits together melodies from Who Am I?, I Dreamed a Dream and Master of the House, and Jean Valjean’s opening lines build towards a rousing climax, with full choir and everybody singing like their lives depend on it, which, spoiler alert, they do. The volume and passion of the voices leave you breathless just as the curtain falls on Act I.