Top 10 Musical Plots That Feel Like a Fever Dream

Despite being one of the most beloved shows of all time, this science fiction comedy musical about an extraterrestrial plant who eats people is not your typical Broadway fare. In it, bumbling flower shop employee Seymour Krelborn makes a Faustian bargain with a plant. He starts to feed unworthy and unsavory people into its jaws. Seymour gets rich and wins the woman of his dreams. But as he finds out, when you hitch your wagon to a plant with a bloodlust, things can turn out very, very wrong for you. Rife with satire, the show sometimes feels like it’s trying to find ways to top itself with outlandish plot points.

Tommy Walker’s traumatic childhood sets the stage for a very trippy rock musical courtesy of the legendary English rock band, The Who. As a child, Tommy loses his sight, hearing and ability to speak after witnessing a murder. His parents send him on a journey of tests and treatments in search of a cure. Meanwhile, Tommy rises to fame for his prodigious pinball prowess and becomes the inadvertent leader of a cult. This show throws us from one insane number to the next. With its themes of spirituality, celebrity, and self-actualization, “Tommy” is not afraid to go to some extraordinary places to make its points.

In this cult musical, several Canadian teenagers meet their end at the hands of a rickety old rollercoaster. A creepy carnival fortune teller machine promises to grant one of them the chance to return to life. But who should it be? One by one, they make their case through song as to why they should be given another chance to live. It’s kind of like “Final Destination” set to music. “Ride the Cyclone” is a gruesome, funny, and tragic story that’s constantly shifting between tones and blows right past realism and lands squarely in the surreal.

No, it’s not a sci-fi horror story about a bunch of killer toads, although that also sounds awesome. This obscure musical was written by “Sweeney Todd” and “Into the Woods” composer Stephen Sondheim. “The Frogs” was first performed in the Yale gymnasium swimming pool, which should give you some idea of how odd it is already. “The Frogs” follows Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, festivities, and theater, who ventures into the Underworld to save the arts. He is then besieged by a group of frogs who detest intellectualism and social progress. It may not be one of Sondheim’s classics, but it’s for sure one of his weirdest.

There’s really nothing about how weird this show is that hasn’t been said already. Yet, it would feel crazy to leave it off a list like this. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s megahit show is surprisingly off the wall given its widespread popularity. Essentially, the cats are singing and dancing to earn their spot in the Heaviside Layer, a sort of paradise-like second life that only a few select cats gain entry to. What plot there is is pretty thin, stretched across agile dance numbers and filled with songs full of feline facts and even a few nonsensical words.

Brad and Janet are a square couple who happen upon an old, dark house where they meet Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a seductive, androgynous extraterrestrial. The ominous doctor invites them into his lab where he’s built himself a muscle-toned lover. Then, things really start to go crazy. The opening number really sets the tone, as “Science Fiction Double Feature” throws a bunch of references to classic science fiction b-movies at you. “The Rocky Horror Show” is a Frankenstein’s Monster of bits and pieces from a bunch of other movies, stitched together to form a lurid and boundary-breaking musical horror comedy.

Half-concept musical, half history lesson, this Stephen Sondheim show is a revue style comedy about a cast of successful and attempted presidential assassins. A Proprietor goads them into a carnival shooting range, and sets the stage for a carnival ride through different attempts on a U.S. president’s life. “Assassins” is a funhouse mirror of American history, an exploration of the promises and failures of the American Dream as told by the misfits who feel cheated by it. The musical boasts very dark humor, incisive social commentary, and one of the most twisted romantic duets ever.

Marcella is the unluckiest girl in the world. She comes from a broken home, her pet dog died after eating her pet bird, and her alcoholic father gives her the creepiest little doll ever. “Raggedy Ann” is exactly as described: raggedy. Marcella and her living doll go on a cross-country road trip where they encounter horrors such as a wolf, a witch, and reanimated skeletons. At the climax, Marcella eats her friend Raggedy Ann’s heart in order to survive. Critics described the plot, if you can even call it that, as incoherent. The show closed on Broadway after 20 performances.

Andrew Lloyd Webber strikes again. This time, he decided to take on the exciting, romantic, drama-filled world of locomotives. Fitting its actors in bulky, metallic costumes and roller skates, “Starlight Express” is as hard to pull off as it is confusing to follow. Inspired in a roundabout way by Thomas the Tank Engine, it tells of Rusty, a steam engine who enters into a race to win the heart of a railway coach named Pearl. What all of this has to do with them being actual trains is anyone’s guess. “Starlight Express” is a convoluted musical extravaganza on wheels that you kinda have to turn your brain off to fully enjoy.

Vulgar and blasphemous in tone and subject matter, this three act epic scandalized audiences from the moment it debuted in the early 2000s. “Jerry Springer: The Opera” sees the notorious TV presenter hosting what starts out as a normal episode of his show. Well, normal except for the showtunes. But at the end of the first act, Springer is shot, and his spirit sent to Purgatory, then to Hell itself, to atone for his exploitation of his guests. At first, the ensemble cast includes the usual suspects: poor people, exotic dancers, people with eccentric hobbies. Then the Ku Klux Klan members and irreverent reimaginings of figures in Christianity show up. Let’s just say it’s as elaborate as it is controversial.


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