Summary

• Grease (1978) is one of the most popular musicals of all time, with a beloved soundtrack and a story of high school love overcoming obstacles.
• Enchanted (2007) is a Disney movie that combines animation and live-action, with Amy Adams portraying a fairy tale princess in real-world New York City.
• Dreamgirls (2006), based on the rise of Motown and the Supremes, features a star-studded cast including Beyoncé, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Hudson, and received eight Oscar nominations.

What are the best musicals of all time? The movie musical is an entertainment staple that has transcended generations. While not every film in the genre becomes a classic, there are many musicals with legacies that continue to live on in the hearts of viewers. There have been acclaimed musicals since the start of the movie industry, as the first actual "talkie" (a movie with actual talking and dialogue instead of words printed on the screen) was a musical called The Jazz Singer. While this movie remains problematic in today's society, it was a monster success at the time and set the stage for the world of musicals that followed.

Over the years, the best movie musicals included names like Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Julie Andrews, Catherine Deneuve, James Cagney, and Judy Garland. These featured fantastical stories, romantic comedies, movies with dramatic social issues at the forefront, and even historical epics. While live-action musicals took a bit of a hiatus after a series of award-contenders in the 1990s and 2000s, they saw a slight resurrection in the 2010s and an even bigger one in the 2020s. With everyone from icons like Steven Spielberg and newcomers like Damien Chazelle pushing the genre, the best musicals of all time have plenty of new contenders to the crown.

35 Grease (1978)

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One of the most popular of the best musicals in movie history arrived in 1976 with Grease. There might not be a musical movie that has more songs sung in karaoke bars than this John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John release. The movie has Travolta starring as high school bad boy Danny Zuko who falls for good girl Sandy Olsson but they struggle to keep their love intact with obstacles in their way. "Hopelessly Devoted to You" picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Song and the soundtrack is one of the best-selling of all time. Despite the weird Grease ending, it also entered the National Film Registry in 2020 and had a sequel in 1982 and a prequel TV series in 2023.

34 Enchanted (2007)

• Stream now on Disney+

Enchanted was a Disney movie that deconstructed its own animated movie history. After starting out as an animated movie, a ruthless queen wanting to protect her throne uses magic to prevent her stepson from taking the throne when he marries by banishing the woman he loves, Giselle, to the real world. Becoming a live-action musical, Amy Adams stars as Giselle, as she struggles to keep her fairy tale aspirations alive in the mean and cruel New York City. The movie had an impressive three tracjs nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars. It also spawned a Disney+ sequel called Disenchanted in 2022.

33 Dreamgirls (2006)

• Release Date: December 15, 2006
• Director: Bill Condon
• Runtime: 130 minutes
• Cast: Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Danny Glover, Anika Noni Rose
• Stream now on DirecTV

Four years after he wrote the Oscar-winning musical movie Chicago, Bill Condon wrote and directed the musical Dreamgirls. Like Chicago, the movie was based on a Broadway musical, in this case, a fictional retelling of the actual history of the rise of Motown and the Supremes. It also tracks the rise of R&B music in America in the 1960s and 1970s through the story of a fictional group called The Dreams. The cast was spectacular, with Beyoncé Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, and an Oscar-winning Jennifer Hudson at the forefront. The movie picked up eight total Oscar nominations.

32 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007)

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The original Sweeney Todd was a stage musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler originally released in 1970. There was a 1982 television release of the stage play, but in 2007, Tim Burton directed a musical movie version of the story. Johnny Depp starred as Sweeney Todd, an English serial killer who wants revenge on a crooked judge (Alan Rickman) who falsely convicted him, so he could steal his wife. With the help of Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), Todd became a barber and set up his plan of vengeance. The movie was a box office success, making $153 million on a $50 million budget.

31 All That Jazz (1979)

• Release Date: December 20, 1979
• Director: Bob Fosse
• Runtime: 123 minutes
• Cast: Roy Schneider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer
• Stream on Tubi

All That Jazz arrived in theaters in 1979, directed by Bob Fosse and telling the story of his life as a dancer, choreographer, and dancer. The basis for the story came from Fosse's days trying to edit Lenny, while also staging the Broadway musical Chicago. Roy Scheider played the fictional version of Fosse, named here as Joe Gideon, who was editing a Hollywood movie and staging a musical called NY/LA. The movie ended up winning the Palme d'Or when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and then picked up nine Oscar nominations. It ended up reaching its biggest success when it entered the Library of Congress in 2001.

30 Little Shop Of Horrors (1986)

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Released in 1986, Little Shop of Horrors was a musical comedy based on a 1982 off-Broadway musical of the same name that itself was based on a Roger Corman movie from 1960. Frank Oz (the voice of Yoda) directed the movie, which focused on a floral shop worker (Honey I Shrunk the Kids star Rick Moranis) who ends up with a carnivorous plant that needs human blood. The movie also had several cameos from Bill Murray, John Candy, Jim Belushi, and Christopher Guest. The movie has ended up as a cult classic, and it even got a director's cut re-release in 2012.

29 Funny Girl (1968)

• Release Date: September 18, 1968
• Director: William Wyler
• Runtime: 149 minutes
• Cast: Barbara Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford, Anne Francis
• Stream on Prime Video

Funny Girl was a 1968 musical that starred Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice, a real-life Broadway and film star, and it focused on her relationship with Nicky Arnstein (played by Omar Sharif). Streisand played the same character in the Broadway musical of the same name, and this was actually her film debut. It was a huge debut for the star, as she picked up an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance. The movie itself ended up as the highest-grossing movie of 1968 and ended up added to the Library of Congress in 2016 as one of the best musicals of all time.

28 Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India (2001)

• Release Date: June 15, 2001
• Director: Ashutosh Gowariker
• Runtime: 224 minutes
• Cast: Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley, Paul Blackthorne
• Stream on Netflix

In 2001, the Indian Hindi-language musical sports drama with Aamir Khan in the lead role. On top of being one of the best musicals of all time, it is also a historical epic taking place in 1893 in a village in Central India. The people of the village suffered through years of drought when a British Indian Army officer offered to play them in cricket as a wager to pay the taxes they owed. They have to learn the game and win to get out of debt. It had one of the highest budgets of any Indian movie but also enjoyed a massive box-office success. It picked up eight awards at the 47th Filmfare Awards and also picked up an Oscar nomination.

27 Once (2007)

• Release Date: March 23, 2007
• Director: John Carney
• Runtime: 86 minutes
• Cast: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová
• Rent on Apple TV & Prime Video

One of the more surprising musicals released this century arrived in 2007 with John Carney's Once. The Irish romantic musical drama is about two struggling musicians living in Dublin. The movie was shot on a very small budget, at only $150,000, and then ended up making a big profit with $23.3 million at the box office (via Box Office Mojo). Once cast professional musicians as the leads, with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, and then filled the movie with original songs. It won an Oscar for Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly" and was adapted into a stage musical after the movie's success.

26 White Christmas (1954)

• Release Date: October 14, 154
• Director: Michael Curtiz
• Runtime: 120 minutes
• Cast: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Jagger
• Stream on Netflix

One of the best musicals of all time is also one of the best Christmas movies ever made. Released in 1954, White Christmas is a Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye movie directed by Michael Curitz, who also directed the Golden Era musical Yankee Doodle Dandy as well as one of the greatest movies in cinema history, Casablanca. In this movie, Crosby stars as a former Broadway star and Kaye as an aspiring performer who becomes a popular duo after they served together during World War II. The musical features songs by Irving Berlin and a new version of "White Christmas." A stage musical was adapted from the movie 50 years later.