For me it's:
The Wiz
Grease Live
Hairspray Live
The Sound of Music
Peter Pan (which was really awful)
Luckily I caught them all, so I shall say...
Hairspray Live
Grease Live
The Sound of Music
The Wiz (close to TSoM)
Peter Pan (Oy...sorry to say that one had a difficult time sustaining my attention, which is rare for a musical to do. Yeah, pretty bad, I agree.)
Oh, I also watched Rocky Horror Picture Show for Halloween--which I thought was advertised as another live show, but apparently had been recorded? Well, it was good. Nowhere near the movie, but good.
Hairspray and Grease were both brilliantly done, and I put Hairspray ahead by a hair...;p The energy was just infectious; it was a blast. I couldn't resist dancing and singing along whilst decorating my Christmas tree and watching. Great time. That said, it wasn't *perfect.*
Who I liked most:
-Harvey Fierstein as Edna (again) & Martin Short as Wilbur! Oh, those two were just adorable together. Say what you will about Harvey's voice, but I find it amusing and rather endearing. Even if it was a little difficult to hear on certain lines. And thanks to The Pebble & the Penguin, I knew Martin was a good choice for a musical. :D
-Kristin Chenoweth--of course. Beautiful voice, awesome moves, looked wonderful, always fab. She's almost too lovable to be a mean girl, but likely talented enough to pull off just about anything. ;p
The casting choices that confused me:
-Ariana Grande as Penny. I'm not a FAN of her; she's all right. Her impressions on SNL did, well, impress me. And she was a passable Penny. Neither her singing nor her acting really stood out to me, though. The running around on her tiptoes was a cute little touch. From what I understand, she very much wanted to play Penny and requested the role. And wouldn't it be hard to turn down one of the biggest music stars, who's sure to get all the younger fans tuning in who might not watch otherwise? I get that. It's just that, although she IS white (Italian), many of us hadn't known that. I thought she might be mixed or Latina or something. So she seemed an odd choice for someone whose mother is racist and whose skin is explicitly called "white as winter's snow." (So how white does Seaweed consider all the other Caucasians? XD) Amanda Bynes was an ideal Penny to me. Ah, well.
-Jennifer Hudson as Motormouth Maybelle. Oh, she sang powerfully and played the part well...save for one not-so-little aspect of it: She was definitely not a large woman! It'd be one thing if the role had traditionally been played by big ladies and people complained simply due to that, but no--her size is a significant factor that's directly addressed. It was very weird to hear her singing about being big and proud without, y'know, actually being big, and I thought that wrecked her message of fat-positivity to Edna. :/ I hadn't been very familiar with Hudson, but evidently she's known for her weight loss? Oh, the irony. I'm glad for her if that's what she wanted/needed to do, but...surely there had to be other options for this role, then...?
Hairspray Live
Grease Live
The Sound of Music
The Wiz
Peter Pan
I can't include The Wiz because I didn't watch it. The cast looked fantastic, but I can't stand that show. So here's my shortened list.
The Sound of Music (I know this is an unpopular choice, but I loved this production. Was it perfect? No, but for me it worked in all the right places. Audra McDonald as Mother Abbess was a revelation! But I enjoyed the supporting cast as well, yes, even Carrie Underwood. Sure, she's no Julie Andrews, but then who is? I appreciated her giving the part her all, and I thought she had great chemistry with Stephen Moyer. And can we talk about Stephen Moyer's performance of Edelweiss? So, yeah, this was my favorite.)
Hairspray (Despite a few truly awful casting choices, I'm looking at you Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande but mostly Jennifer Hudson, Hairspray had a lot going for it. It was truly delightful seeing Harvey Fierstein bring Edna to life on my tv screen. It washed that bad taste left by John Travolta right out of my mouth. Kristin Chenoweth killed in the role she was born to play. And can we talk about Ephraim Sykes as Seaweed? So, so good! The rest of the cast was good to fair (again, excluding Hudson and Grande) but what really put Hairspray over the top for me was the show itself. It's just an overall great show.)
Grease (This had strong direction, choreography, and casting, but Grease overall isn't a great show. Seeing it live reminded me of that fact. Also, while the cast was talented, their ages were super distracting. I know that the movie used adults to play the teenagers too, but something about the show being live made their ages that much more noticeable to me.)
Peter Pan (This was just unbelievably bad. I grew up watching the Mary Martin version. If my parents had bothered to by a video camera when I was a kid, I'd have footage of my 7 year old self performing "I Won't Grow Up" with my stuffed animals. So, I have a lot of love for this show. Which is why it was painful to watch it be so badly butchered. From all the ridiculous PC script changes, to the grown men playing the lost boys, to the bizarre sexual tension between Peter and Wendy, to Christopher Walken taking a few ambien before coming to set that day, this was just really, really bad.)