Musicals to listen to in the car with the kids

March 24, 2017 6:22 AM

We've had to ban Hamilton from our lives, temporarily, because it was starting to make us all crazy. So, I'm looking to find some new musicals we can listen to in the car. One of the things that really worked with the Hamilton soundtrack was that the kids could follow the plot. It wasn't just a series of songs that only made sense if you already knew the story. What other Broadway soundtracks share that quality and might be appealing to kids ages 5 to 11?
posted by Alluring Mouthbreather to Media & Arts (41 answers total)

I might get some tomatoes thrown at me, but, well, Cats? It's less of a story per se (the story is basically a frame tale to tell the individual stories) which might actually make it easier to listen to in the car because you don't have to remember the plot over short car trips. The songs are adapted from T.S. Eliot poems and are delightfully quirky. Each cat has a distinct personality and I think kids that age would really like it.
posted by Liesl at 6:45 AM on March 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Little Shop of Horrors. So much so that all of the many other musicals I can think of pale in comparison for car-kid-singalongs.

But coming in second:
The Secret Garden
Into the Woods
West Side Story

Younger kids may not find these interesting enough:
Les Miserables
Evita (teach your kids about fascism dressed up in stylish clothes! topical!)
Phantom of the Opera
posted by desuetude at 6:49 AM on March 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Matilda!
posted by whoiam at 6:49 AM on March 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Younger kids may not find these interesting enough: Evita (teach your kids about fascism dressed up in stylish clothes! topical!)

My mother bought the original Broadway album when it first came out - I was six. I LOVED IT and it's still a cornerstone part of my life today.
posted by Lucinda at 6:58 AM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

My nephew is 5 and obsessed with Hamilton too. My sister was looking for a little variety so she put Wicked and Shrek the Musical in the mix and he loved both.

Secret Garden is amazing too
posted by elvissa at 7:02 AM on March 24, 2017

Other good car-listening musical soundtracks. The plot isn't really directly conveyed through the songs the way you're looking for, but you've got such classic movie adaptations...
Annie
Grease
The Sound of Music
Fiddler on the Roof
posted by desuetude at 7:03 AM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

My grandkids love Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which is also completely sung through.

When I was a child, I really loved My Fair Lady. I also used to listen endlessly to the soundtrack from Mary Poppins.
posted by FencingGal at 7:34 AM on March 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

If they love Hamilton they will probably get a kick out of 1776
Seconding Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
posted by Mchelly at 7:36 AM on March 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Hairspray!
posted by Sweetie Darling at 7:40 AM on March 24, 2017

JOSEPH JOSEPH JOSEPH JOSEPH

Brigadoon
Hello, Dolly
posted by Melismata at 7:45 AM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Big River!! Loved the soundtrack as a kid, and when I finally saw the musical it was exactly what I'd been picturing.
posted by masquesoporfavor at 7:47 AM on March 24, 2017

Mamma mia. But you of course have to be OK with Abba. My kids love it and it is so fun to listen to.
posted by gryphonlover at 7:49 AM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

The Music Man has a lot of great kid-friendly songs.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:56 AM on March 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Joseph for sure! I saw that when I was a young kid and love it to this day.
posted by notjustthefish at 8:04 AM on March 24, 2017

Nthing Hairspray and Wicked. You'll have to explain the general plot to the kids but once they get the idea they're super easy to follow.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:22 AM on March 24, 2017

Joseph all the way. Every song is in a different style, all of them are completely over the top cheesy and delightful, and there's a narrator who ties it all together. The cast album with Donny Osmond (shut up, he was born to do this) is my favorite version and if they want more there is a very good filmed version.
posted by Flannery Culp at 8:23 AM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific, Pajama Game, Wizard of Oz are all albums I listened to as a kid, and loved without seeing the show/movie.
posted by mmf at 8:24 AM on March 24, 2017

My kids adored Annie Get Your Gun, Pirates of Penzance, and Joseph. Any Gilbert & Sullivan is fun for kids.
posted by primate moon at 8:31 AM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Seconding The Sound of Music and Fiddler on the Roof.

Jesus Christ Super Star is fun, in a very dramatic sort of way. Rocky Horror Picture Show is also fun, but needs to be pruned for kid-friendly content.

If you want to look in a more pop direction, Disney musicals aren't bad, and the Moana soundtrack is currently a favorite in our house.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:40 AM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

When I was that age, we listened to 'The King and I' quite a bit. I'm still a fan of anything by Rodgers & Hammerstein.
posted by ovvl at 8:44 AM on March 24, 2017

Lucinda, I hear ya, my best childhood birthday present ever was when my parents took me to a local production of Evita. I think I was 11. I loved Threepenny Opera and Cabaret from a young age too. "Weird and dark" has always kind of been my jam.
posted by desuetude at 8:54 AM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

We also loved Joseph in my family when I was that age.
posted by radioamy at 9:01 AM on March 24, 2017

Into the Woods seems like a good possibility. Comprehension aided by the fact that the story is based on familiar fairy tales.
posted by praemunire at 9:05 AM on March 24, 2017

It's not a Broadway musical (yet!), but what about Moana?
posted by mogget at 9:41 AM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

This may be the oddball suggestion of the week, but...

Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America
posted by SemiSalt at 9:43 AM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I came in to sneak in a rec for Joseph, glad to see I'm Nthing said rec. Oh, and yes yes yes to the Donny Osmond version.

I find medley albums of Disney stuff to be better than say, only Moana (which is great! But I end up hearing only Thank You and Shiny, 10 times in a row).
posted by freezer cake at 10:42 AM on March 24, 2017

YMMV on appropriateness for your kids, but when I was a young teen my family car rides were essentially 100% singing Rent.

Nthing Matilda, Into the Woods, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Wicked. They're not entirely sung-through, but they're pretty easy to follow. They're also based on pre-existing stories that your kids probably have some familiarity with already.

Assuming your kids aren't anti-Disney, you can also try out the Disney musicals. They vary a lot in quality (and in most cases I think the original movie songs are still the best ones), but they also just have more music, so you can beef out the playlist and aren't listening to the same five songs over and over.

(Also, have you checked out LMM's other musicals, In the Heights and Bring it On? I don't think they're quite as easy to follow without seeing the shows, but they might be a nice gateway into the bigger world of not-sung-through Broadway...)
posted by CtrlAltDelete at 11:42 AM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

This isn't a specific recommendation, but - if you have the DVD of a movie/musical that y'all like, it can be fun to record just the audio and play it back in the car. It's a somewhat different experience than just the soundtrack - you'll get the songs along with the spoken dialog and other "incidental" audio (which is sometimes quite interesting - if you're focused on listening, you may notice audio details you missed while watching the movies).
posted by doctor tough love at 12:03 PM on March 24, 2017

I was obsessed with "Godspell" as a kid. So obsessed, in fact, that I went on to study both religion and musical theater.

"Bye Bye Birdie" and "Annie," too.
posted by Charity Garfein at 12:23 PM on March 24, 2017

Highly nthing Matilda and The Secret Garden. Little Women hasn't been mentioned yet and is very tuneful and fun (generally, except when Beth dies [sob!]).
posted by apcmwh at 12:24 PM on March 24, 2017

I might not normally recommend Les Misérables for children that young, but if they can follow Hamilton, they can follow Les Mis. Plus there are some parallels between the two. (And a real-life historical connection, although it doesn't come up in the shows: Lafayette spoke at the funeral of General Lamarque.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:55 PM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was brought up on Oklahoma!, as was my mother before me. I defy any kid to not fall in love with "Pore Jud is Daid," especially the part about his fingernails never having been so clean.

Nthing Joseph and Mary Poppins. The Sherman Brothers should have been called the Earworm Brothers. We wore those cast albums out.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:56 PM on March 24, 2017

My kids love Cats, The Fantastics, The Music Man, Annie, and Mary Poppins. Actually, they love almost any soundtrack from a musical I put on, but those are the most commonly requested. They also love the Best of Broadway CD I bought. Made my son a huge fan of Annie Get Your Gun!
posted by Happydaz at 6:40 PM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

When I was a kid I absolutely Loved My Fair Lady

"The rain in Spain stays mainly in the Plain..." :)
posted by bearam at 9:49 PM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

When I was 7 I loved Les Miz. It was the first musical I heard that I could remember and like. When I was 10 my best friend and I were obsessed with Miss Saigon. To the point of memorizing the entire libretto, and writing out (bit by bit, every day) the complete lyrics to the whole musical at school.

Like Hamilton, Les Miz is also a "sung-through" musical, so it's easy to follow in that sense. (This all led to me reading the Victor Hugo book at the age of 7, too. I stuck with the book because I liked the musical.)
posted by aielen at 1:43 AM on March 25, 2017

Not a staged production, but Harry Nilsson's "The Point!" is a musical story album that I loved as a child. Very easy to follow.
posted by AliceBlue at 6:17 AM on March 25, 2017

I loved Les Mis as a kid! I think I was 10 when I saw it and subsequently became obsessed.
posted by lunasol at 7:36 AM on March 25, 2017

In high school, my friends and I would just hang out on a Saturday afternoon singing along to the Les Miserables soundtrack. We'd each take a couple of parts, based on who tended to be in scenes together. I usually sang Javert, Cosette, and Enjolras, and sometimes Mme. Thenardier. It was a good workout for range, anyway.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:22 AM on March 25, 2017

It's not so plot-heavy, but how about Free To Be You and Me? Concurring with all the Joseph recs!
posted by Neely O'Hara at 11:52 AM on March 25, 2017

I cannot say enough about any Andrew Lloyd Webber production. They are all sung through and work perfectly for what you want. Same with Gilbert and Sullivan, especially the Pirates of Penzance (the Kevin Kline/Linda Ronstadt version is delightful).

It took me years to discover Joseph. I actually prefer what i believe is the London Palladium production (with Jason Donovan as Joseph). There's nothing at all wrong the the Donny Osmond version, the first I ever heard, but I just love the overall Britishness of this one.

I, too, grew up with Rogers & Hammerstein and Lerner & Lowe, love Menken/Ashman/Rice/John/the Shermans and whoever is, was or will be doing Disney musicals, and La La Land is out of this world, but their soundtracks don't convey story the way a good, old fashioned sung-through does.
posted by lhauser at 7:02 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was completely obsessed with Phantom of the Opera as a child, then moved on to Cats and Evita.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:34 AM on March 27, 2017