Broken Legs Blog

The latest contest that has been fiercely fought on my Instagram page has been over opening numbers to musicals. Beginning with 40 musical songs, followers have gradually narrowed it down to their favourites. But how did your favourite perform?

Early casualties in the heats threw up some surprising results, including the opening song of “Six” (Ex-Wives) and the opening number to “Little Shop of Horrors”. Less surprising were some lesser known musicals which lost out in the heats, including “Beetlejuice” (yet to have its UK premiere, although it has an excellent soundtrack) and “Babies” (which doesn’t have a full cast recording, although there is a version of opening song “Baby Baby Baby” on Spotify). I personally thought it was a shame to see Evita’s “Oh What A Circus” knocked out this early, as well as the opening to “Ragtime”, although they were pitted against more contemporary musicals which appear to be favoured by Instagram followers. “The Avenue Q Theme” didn’t perform particularly well (although it is only a short opening number), and neither did Be More Chill’s “More Than Survive” (although that is perhaps too long). There were some closely fought contests between “Hamilton” and “The Lion King” (Circle of Life losing out with 47% of the vote) and “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Book of Mormon” (Hello took the victory with 54% of the vote). Elsewhere, Les Miserables’ “Look Down” stormed to victory with 87% of the vote against Kiss Me Kate’s “Another Openin’, Another Show”.

Perhaps the most surprising result of Round Two was Two Strangers’ “New York” beating Legally Blonde’s “Omigod You Guys” (especially since the latter is currently enjoying a successful UK tour), and Operation Mincemeat’s “Born to Lead” beating West End stalwart Phantom of the Opera’s “Think of Me” (although the latter is a ballad and so would probably have struggled amidst the more uplifting numbers featured here). No competition for Wicked’s “No One Mourns the Wicked” which beat “Seasons of Love” with 70% of the vote. Similarly, “Hamilton” smashed “Grease” with 85% of the vote.

The Quarter Finals saw our closest match yet, with Chicago’s “All That Jazz” narrowly missing out to Heathers’ “Beautiful”. Other casualties at this late stage includes Waitress’s “What’s Inside” (again a short number that acts more as a prologue than an opening), and Les Miserables’ particularly dramatic “Look Down”. We said goodbye to “The Book of Mormon”s “Hello”, and “In the Heights” particularly struggled against “Two Strangers”.

Before the semi finals, there was the small business of whittling our final five down to just four with a knock-out round. Receiving most votes so far, “No One Mourns the Wicked” automatically qualified, whilst followers were asked to vote out their least favourite, making for a surprising result as “Alexander Hamilton” failed to beat more recent musicals “Two Strangers” and “Operation Mincemeat”.

Semi-finals saw Operation Mincemeat’s “Born to Lead” knocked out to Wicked’s “No One Mourns The Wicked”. It is perhaps not too surprising – Operation Mincemeat’s opening number is fairly long and combines several different styles, making for a slightly disjointed listening experience – but one cannot help but wonder if the success of Wicked here is down to the recent hit film. Elsewhere, a closely fought contest saw Heathers’ “Beautiful” narrowly miss out on the final to Two Strangers’ “New York”. Again, “Beautiful” is a very long opening song that features lots of different narrative beats, whereas Two Strangers’ opening is more compact and tightly focused.

We were in for a nail-biting finale as both “No One Mourns The Wicked” and “New York” kept swapping places throughout the 24 hour period in which the vote was live, before “New York”, from ‘Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)’ took the top spot. It is nice to see a new-ish musical take first place, especially one that had a relatively short UK run, and hasn’t played here in almost two years. The musical is currently running on Broadway, and has picked up 8 Tony Award nominations – although I’m sure it will be more fondly remembered for taking the crown in our small but hotly contested Instagram competition.

The results in full:

Heats:
Heat 1: Miracle (Matilda) 42% vs. Seasons of Love (Rent) 58%
Heat 2: Born to lead (Operation Mincemeat) 60% vs. Welcome to the Renaissance (Something Rotten) 40%
Heat 3: Beautiful (Heathers) 83% vs. It’s Your Wedding Day (The Wedding Singer) 17%
Heat 4: Oh what a beautiful mornin’ (Oklahoma) 31% vs. New York (Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York) 69%
Heat 5: Alexander Hamilton (Hamilton) 53% vs. Circle of Life (The Lion King) 47%
Heat 6: What’s Inside (Waitress) 63% vs. Tradition (Fiddler on the Roof) 37%
Heat 7: Road to Hell (Hadestown) 56% vs. Marilyn Monroe (Blood Brothers) 44%
Heat 8: Wilkommen (Cabaret) 56% vs. The Whole “Being Dead” Thing (Beetlejuice) 44%
Heat 9: More Than Survive (Be More Chill) 44% vs. I Hope I Get It (A Chorus Line) 56%
Heat 10: Another Openin’, Another Show (Kiss Me, Kate) 13% vs. Look Down (Les Miserables) 87%
Heat 11: No One Mourns The Wicked (Wicked) 75% vs. Ex-Wives (Six) 25%
Heat 12: Think of Me (Phantom of the Opera) 52% vs. A Cautionary Tale (Mean Girls) 48%
Heat 13: The Ballad of Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd) 26% vs. Anybody Have A Map? (Dean Evan Hansen) 74%
Heat 14: Little Shop of Horrors (Little Shop of Horrors) 48% vs. Omigod You Guys (Legally Blonde) 52%
Heat 15: Grease (Grease) 73% vs. Oh What A Circus (Evita) 27%
Heat 16: Ragtime (Ragtime) 44% vs. Good Morning Baltimore (Hairspray) 56%
Heat 17: Heaven on their minds (Jesus Christ Superstar) 46% vs. Hello (The Book of Mormon) 54%
Heat 18: All That Jazz (Chicago) 81% vs. The Avenue Q Theme (Avenue Q) 19%
Heat 19: In the Heights (In the Heights) 68% vs. Baby Baby Baby (Babies) 32%
Heat 20: When I Climb to the top of Mount Rock (School of Rock) 24% vs. And you don’t even know it (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) 76%

Round 2:
Heat 1: Seasons of Love (Rent) 30% vs. No One Mourns The Wicked (Wicked) 70%
Heat 2: Born to lead (Operation Mincemeat) 55% vs. Think of Me (Phantom of the Opera) 45%
Heat 3: Anybody have a map? (Dear Evan Hansen) 42% vs. Beautiful (Heathers) 58%
Heat 4: Omigod you guys (Legally Blonde) 45% vs. New York (Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York) 55%
Heat 5: Grease (Grease) 15% vs. Alexander Hamilton (Hamilton) 85%
Heat 6: Good Morning Baltimore (Hairspray) 44% vs. What’s Inside? (Waitress) 56%
Heat 7: Hello (The Book of Mormon) 60% vs. Road to Hell (Hadestown) 40%
Heat 8: Wilkommen (Cabaret) 42% vs. All That Jazz (Chicago) 58%
Heat 9: I hope I get it (A Chorus Line) 48% vs. In the Heights (In the Heights) 52%
Heat 10: And you don’t even know it (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) 40% vs. Look Down (Les Miserables) 60%

Quarter Finals:
Quarter Final 1: What’s Inside? (Waitress) 32% vs. No One Mourns The Wicked (Wicked) 68%
Quarter Final 2: Hello (The Book of Mormon) 40% vs. Born to Lead (Operation Mincemeat) 60%
Quarter Final 3: All That Jazz (Chicago) 48% vs. Beautiful (Heathers) 52%
Quarter Final 4: In the Heights (In the Heights) 39% vs. New York (Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York) 61%
Quarter Final 5: Alexander Hamilton (Hamilton) 64% vs. Look Down (Les Miserables) 36%

Knock Out Round: (Vote for least favourite)
No One Mourns The Wicked (Wicked) Auto-qualification
Born to Lead (Operation Mincemeat) 26%
Beautiful (Heathers) 19%
New York (Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York) 23%
Alexander Hamilton (Hamilton) 32%

Semi Finals:
Semi Final 1: Born to Lead (Operation Mincemeat) 43% vs. No One Mourns The Wicked (Wicked) 57%
Semi Final 2: Beautiful (Heathers) 48% vs. New York (Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York) 52%

Final: No One Mourns The Wicked (Wicked) 44% vs. 56% New York (Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York)

For more polls, follow @BrokenLegsBlog on Instagram!

Tom Morley, May 2026