There is nothing better than settling into your seat for a piece of musical theatre and drifting away into the expertly arranged collage of melodies that will indoctrinate you into the score.  I miss the Broadway overture and often wonder why this technique of familiarizing the audience with the music (BEFORE the story starts) is so underutilized nowadays. So much is said about contemporary scores being unmemorable and that you just don't walk away from the theatre humming the tunes anymore. 

This is nonsense. 

In the "old" days, the overture made the music familiar to you. When you heard a melody later in the show, it was already recognizable. Reprises and scene change music reinforced these melodies so that, by the time you walked out into Times Square, you were humming the melodies. A simple trick that is highly effective. When executed well, the overture becomes a startling piece of music unto itself. Through the efforts of a clever orchestrator, the overture becomes an event, an electrified quasi-symphony that ignites the musical that it precedes.  

In today's installment of "The Music That Makes Me Dance", I will discuss my ten favorite overtures and explore why I find them so mesmerizing and infectious