Tony Award-Winning Best Musicals: A Stroll Down Memory Lane
With the end of 2017 almost upon us, I thought it would be fun to reminisce. I thought it would be fun to look up Tony Award-winning musicals and watch clips from these celebrated shows. As I was doing that, I started thinking: wouldn’t it be fun to share these clips with everyone. I did my best to find a clip from each original production. For certain years, I just couldn’t find anything from the actual show, so I stole from movies, video montages, and/or the original performers singing a song from the show outside of the context of the original performance. For better or for worse, here are the Tony-winning Best Musicals in chronological order. I hope you enjoy what I’ve put together.
Kiss Me, Kate (1949)
South Pacific (1950)
Guys and Dolls (1951)
The King and I (1952)
Wonderful Town (1953)
Kismet (1954)
The Pajama Game (1955)
Damn Yankees (1956)
My Fair Lady (1957)
The Music Man (1958)
Redhead (1959)
The Sound of Music and Fiorello! (1960)
Bye Bye Birdie (1961)
How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1962)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1963)
Hello, Dolly! (1964)
Fiddler on the Roof (1965)
Man of La Mancha (1966)
Cabaret (1967)
Hallelujah, Baby! (1968)
1776 (1969)
Applause (1970)
Company (1971)
Two Gentlemen of Verona (1972) – [this clip is from a 2005 revival]
A Little Night Music (1973)
Raisin (1974)
The Wiz (1975)
A Chorus Line (1976)
Annie (1977)
Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1978)
Sweeney Todd (1979)
Evita (1980)
42nd Street (1981)
Nine (1982)
Cats (1983)
La Cage aux Folles (1984)
Big River (1985)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1986)
Les Misérables (1987)
The Phantom of the Opera (1988)
Jerome Robbins’ Broadway (1989)
City of Angels (1990)
The Will Rogers Follies (1991)
Crazy for You (1992)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993)
Passion (1994)
Sunset Boulevard (1995)
Rent (1996)
Titanic (1997)
The Lion King (1998)
Fosse (1999)
Contact (2000)
The Producers (2001)
Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002)
Hairspray (2003)
Avenue Q (2004)
Spamalot (2005)
Jersey Boys (2006)
Spring Awakening (2007)
In the Heights (2008)
Billy Elliott (2009)
Memphis (2010)
The Book of Mormon (2011)
Once (2012)
Kinky Boots (2013)
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (2014)
Fun Home (2015)
Hamilton (2016)
Dear Evan Hansen (2017)
