In 1905 Paris, the Opéra Populaire hosts an auction of old theatrical memorabilia. Among the attendees is the elderly Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, who purchases a papier-mâché music box with a monkey figurine that has sentimental value to him. The auctioneer then presents a shattered chandelier that has been renovated with electrical wiring, alluding to a connection with "the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained."

Shuffle Along premiered on Broadway in 1921 and marked the first full-fledged Broadway musical with an all-black cast, playwright, composer and lyricist. The show was a hit, running for a then-record 484 nights on Broadway. It launched the careers of Josephine Baker, Adelaide Hall, Florence Mills, Fredi Washington and Paul Robeson, and became such a hit that it caused "curtain time traffic jams" on West 63rd Street.

Beauty and the Beast premiered on Broadway on April 18, 1994. A massive commercial success, it ran on Broadway for thirteen years (1994-2007) and became Broadway's tenth longest-running production in history.

Tevye has five daughters to support on a milkman's salary: Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze, and Bielka.

Con man Harold Hill poses as a boys' band organizer and leader, selling band instruments and uniforms to naïve Midwestern townsfolk and promising to train the new band, then skipping town before the instruments arrive.

Chicago is based on a play of the same name by reporter and playwright Maurine Dallas Watkins, who was assigned to cover the 1924 trials of Annan and Gaertner for the Chicago Tribune. In the early 1920s, Chicago's press and public became riveted by the subject of homicides committed by women. Several high-profile cases arose, which generally involved women killing their lovers or husbands. These cases were tried against a backdrop of changing views of women in the jazz age, and a long string of acquittals by Cook County juries of female murderers (juries at the time were all male). A lore arose that, in Chicago, feminine or attractive women could not be convicted.

Wicked tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (whose name later changes to Glinda the Good Witch), who struggle through conflicting personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's private fall from grace.

When they encounter members of a Puerto Rican street gang called the Sharks, the Jets, a local white gang, decide to challenge the Sharks to a rumble for undisputed control of the neighborhood.

After faking her own death, Elphaba, also known as the "Wicked Witch of the West," runs of with Fiyero, her lover who was transformed into the scarecrow by a spell she cast to save him from the Wizard's guards.

Mamma Mia! is a jukebox musical based on the songs of ABBA composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The title of the musical is taken from the group's 1975 chart-topper "Mamma Mia".