Originally published December 30, 2013; updated September 2026.
The opening minutes of a Broadway musical have an enormous job to do. A strong opening number can introduce the world of the show, establish its tone, present its characters and conflicts, and tell the audience how to watch what follows.
These are Tom Williams’ original selections for memorable Broadway opening numbers. They are not meant as a definitive ranking; together, they show how very different musicals use their first songs to set the stage.
What Makes a Great Broadway Opening Number?
A great opening does more than start the music. It can establish place and period, introduce central characters, reveal the rules of the theatrical world, set up the story’s conflict or simply establish the mood. The best openings make an audience understand what kind of show it has entered without feeling like exposition.
1. “Tradition” — Fiddler on the Roof
Few opening numbers explain a musical’s world as efficiently as “Tradition.” Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s song introduces Tevye, the community of Anatevka and the roles everyone is expected to play. Just as importantly, it establishes the idea that will drive the musical: what happens when long-held traditions meet a changing world. By the time the number ends, the audience understands both the community and the pressure that will test it.
2. Prologue — Ragtime
The prologue to Ragtime introduces the social groups whose lives will intersect throughout the musical. With music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, the number moves among families and communities with sharply different experiences of America at the beginning of the 20th century. The opening works almost like a musical map: characters, social divisions and competing ideas of the country are placed onstage before the story begins bringing those worlds together.
3. “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” — Kiss Me, Kate
Cole Porter’s “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” immediately puts the audience backstage with a company preparing to perform. It captures the excitement, nerves and repetition of theatrical life while establishing the show-within-a-show structure of Kiss Me, Kate. Few songs celebrate the ritual of putting on a musical as directly, making it a natural opening for a story in which backstage relationships are every bit as important as what happens onstage.
4. “Comedy Tonight” — A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Stephen Sondheim’s “Comedy Tonight” makes a promise to the audience and then spends the evening delivering on it. The song announces that this will be a fast, irreverent comedy rather than a solemn trip to ancient Rome. Its direct address is part of the joke: instead of disguising the musical’s intentions, the opening explains the rules and invites the audience to join the fun.
5. “Try to Remember” — The Fantasticks
“Try to Remember” takes a quieter approach. Sung by El Gallo, the narrator and participant in The Fantasticks, the song establishes the musical’s wistful, storybook atmosphere. Rather than introducing a huge cast or launching a plot at full speed, it asks the audience to enter a world shaped by memory, romance and theatrical imagination. That storytelling tone becomes essential to everything that follows.
6. “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” — Oklahoma!
Rodgers and Hammerstein famously begin Oklahoma! not with a conventional chorus line but with a single voice entering the world of the story. “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” establishes landscape, mood and character with remarkable simplicity. The relaxed entrance helps make the setting feel lived-in rather than presented to the audience as spectacle, while Curly’s optimism immediately gives the musical an emotional point of view.
7. “I Hope I Get It” — A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line begins with an audition, and “I Hope I Get It” makes the stakes instantly understandable. The dancers need work, the director needs to make cuts, and every performer is being judged. The number also introduces the tension between a group that must eventually move as one and the individual personalities behind the line. The audition structure becomes the framework through which the musical reveals those lives.
8. “Fugue for Tinhorns” — Guys and Dolls
“Fugue for Tinhorns” drops the audience into Damon Runyon’s stylized New York through three gamblers debating their horse-racing picks. Frank Loesser turns racing talk into overlapping musical lines, introducing both the language and rhythms of this particular Broadway world. Before the central story has developed, the audience already understands that gambling, colorful characters and fast talk are going to be part of the evening.
9. “We Are What We Are” — La Cage aux Folles
“We Are What We Are” welcomes the audience into the nightclub world of La Cage aux Folles. Jerry Herman’s score and the club setting establish a theatrical environment built around performance, identity and exuberance. The opening is entertaining on its own, but it also introduces ideas about public presentation and private identity that become increasingly important as the story develops.
10. “Willkommen” — Cabaret
“Willkommen” is both a welcome and a warning. The Emcee addresses the audience directly and introduces the Kit Kat Klub as the theatrical lens through which Cabaret will view Berlin. John Kander and Fred Ebb’s number is seductive, funny and slightly unsettling at the same time. That mixture establishes the show’s distinctive relationship between entertainment onstage and the darker world developing outside the club.
More Great Broadway Openings
Broadway has continued to produce opening numbers that quickly establish a musical’s voice and theatrical rules. Among later examples worth considering are “No One Mourns the Wicked” from Wicked, “Hello!” from The Book of Mormon, “Alexander Hamilton” from Hamilton and “Road to Hell” from Hadestown. Each takes a different approach, but all give audiences essential information about the world they have just entered.
Why Broadway Openings Matter
These ten selections use very different strategies. Some introduce an entire community, some begin with a narrator or master of ceremonies, and others focus on a single character or situation. What they share is purpose: before the musical has traveled very far, the audience understands the theatrical world and wants to see where it leads.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a good musical opening number?
A strong opening number establishes the musical’s tone and world while giving the audience useful information about characters, setting or conflict. It should feel entertaining rather than purely explanatory and prepare the audience for the style of storytelling that follows.
What are some famous Broadway opening songs?
Well-known examples include “Tradition” from Fiddler on the Roof, “Comedy Tonight” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, “Willkommen” from Cabaret, “I Hope I Get It” from A Chorus Line, “No One Mourns the Wicked” from Wicked and “Alexander Hamilton” from Hamilton.