New poll! "Memory" vs. "I Dreamed a Dream"
Added 2024-09-09 14:59:56 +0000 UTCNOW we're on vacation, for September. But for when we get back in October, one for the theater nerds!! What is your favorite heartbreaking showstopping showtune of the '80s, "Memory" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats" or "I Dreamed a Dream" from Claude-Michel Schonberg's "Les Miserables"?
Comments
There's a reason why the best Memory is by Barbara Streisand, while the best I Dreamt A Dream is arguably by Ruthie Henshall. One is an amazing pop song, while the other is high art, on par with the best opera arias.
Lazurit
2024-10-13 08:36:13 +0000 UTCOh wow, huge memory loss.
Albert Farkas
2024-10-10 08:43:50 +0000 UTCvoting for Memory both because i really like it and because it gives me the opportunity to say "i wish i had no Memory of cats the musical"
Austin F
2024-10-07 20:04:14 +0000 UTCVoting for I Dreamed a Dream - I've hated Memory since I was a child. I'm not keen on I Dreamed a Dream, but I much prefer it, even if I'm actually thinking of ABBA's I Have a Dream.
Steve Harper
2024-10-01 20:29:43 +0000 UTCI (Gen Z) saw this and immediately thought "oh god anything but 'I Dreamed a Dream.'" I asked my mom (Gen X) and she immediately said "oh god anything but 'Memories'"
SammiSamSam
2024-10-01 02:19:28 +0000 UTCAlso I apologize for being the 667th vote
Cole Cox
2024-10-01 02:07:15 +0000 UTCA friend of mine in fifth grade wanted to plan a revolution in our elementary school and printed me out the lyrics to "Do You Hear the People Sing" so that when the spontaneous musical number kicked in, signaling the revolt, I would be ready to sing and pile desks to block the hallways.
Cole Cox
2024-10-01 02:06:45 +0000 UTCIf you listen to their Cats episode, Todd and Lina sign off on this.
David Yurch
2024-09-28 16:26:13 +0000 UTCOoh good question. Well since they seem to be going with bombastic diva ballads as the theme, Send in the Clowns or Ladies Who Lunch would be great. I could also see Losing My Mind
Ben
2024-09-24 15:44:25 +0000 UTCIt's A Chorus Line with cats. It's A Chorus Feline.
House Chaos
2024-09-24 07:26:41 +0000 UTCWe can still hope for "Chant" from Hadestown vs. "The Duel" from Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812!
House Chaos
2024-09-24 07:26:10 +0000 UTCAnd how right he was!
House Chaos
2024-09-24 07:24:45 +0000 UTCWhich would it be - Send in the clowns? Ladies who lunch? No-one is alone?
Max Urai
2024-09-24 06:59:18 +0000 UTCGen X for Babs "Memory."
Eric Lane
2024-09-22 20:43:48 +0000 UTCGenZ will vote for "I Dreamed A Dream"; Millennials, for "Memory"
Juliana Fernandez Casas
2024-09-22 11:53:52 +0000 UTCI've never seen a live performance of Les Mis or Cats, but a cat let me pet him on my way home this evening, so my vote is for Memory...Just kidding. Anne Hathaway's singing in the 2012 film version of Les Misérables moved me to tears, and I doubt that a troupe of anthropomorphic cats could affect me the same, so I Dreamed a Dream gets my vote.
Josh Beatty
2024-09-20 03:11:55 +0000 UTCI was thinking maybe The Dead Heart since there's an Alexisonfire cover of that that still gets some radio play here lol. For the Hip I was thinking maybe Wheat Kings?
Angela
2024-09-19 22:09:12 +0000 UTCI’d have trouble choosing a Hip song. My heart belongs to Bobcaygeon, but if it was against Midnight Oil (presumably Beds are Burning), I’d go for New Orleans is Sinking or Courage.
Mara Copland
2024-09-19 10:22:31 +0000 UTCI would love to see The Hip matched up against Midnight Oil actually(colony vs colony XD)
Angela
2024-09-19 10:19:58 +0000 UTCResulting in the immortal Roger Waters quote: "But I think that life's too long to bother with suing Andrew fucking Lloyd Webber."
Dan Hogg
2024-09-18 14:45:07 +0000 UTCAs someone who was on edibles watching Cats (I do not recommend watching Cats, sober or not) I’m going to vehemently vote for I Dreamed a Dream. As a musical theater nerd - Fuck Andrew Lloyd Webber. (As a Canadian, I think you should make up your shade against us with a Canadian themed episode.)
Mara Copland
2024-09-18 14:42:48 +0000 UTCI dreamed a dream is less central to Les Mis, you could take that song out and it would still be a good show. Cats doesn’t work without Memory (I could say it still doesn’t work even with Memory). However I’m still going for I Dreamed a Dream because it’s just a better song and Les Mis is a better show.
Alex Weir
2024-09-18 03:29:41 +0000 UTCDo I dislike ALW both as a person and often as an artist? Yes. Do I prefer Les Mis as a musical? Absolutely. Is Memory a better song? Of course. Don’t get me wrong, I like I Dreamed a Dream. It’s a good ballad. But Memory is so much more interesting musically and it’s the literal climax of the show. For all his faults (and he has many), ALW in his heyday can right a hell of a musical theater ballad.
Mallory W
2024-09-16 20:56:51 +0000 UTCOk, if we have to go super depressing Broadway bangers, then I'm voting 3rd party for the end theme to Sweeney Todd. Now, THAT'S dark.
Michael Murphy
2024-09-15 12:46:00 +0000 UTCalso I have to say that you're pitting the 11 o'clock number with a mid-Act One I Want song so they functionally hit different too
pearlgreylatte
2024-09-14 11:24:19 +0000 UTCvoted Les Mis on reflex, then thought about it and reluctantly transferred my vote to Memory because it's song vs song, not show vs show (although I find Cats the show Quite Satisfactory)
pearlgreylatte
2024-09-14 11:20:43 +0000 UTCListening to the cast recordings of “Memory” followed by “I Dreamed A Dream” and it’s crazy how well that order blends so well that if you’ve never listened to Dream like I hadn’t, you’d think it wasn’t a new song.
A Good Brent - BlueSky Bitch for Let’s Talk About Snacks Podcast
2024-09-14 02:27:46 +0000 UTCWhat about a third party vote for “La Resistance” from “South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut”?
A Good Brent - BlueSky Bitch for Let’s Talk About Snacks Podcast
2024-09-13 22:12:52 +0000 UTCGah I have too many thoughts on this one XD Anyway I was watching Mister Golightly's "Who did it better" compilation of the Memory climax and wow, performances of that song really did peak with Elaine Paige and Betty Buckley XD Also that really, really unfortunate clip of Celine Dion trying to perform that song...yikes 😬
Angela
2024-09-13 11:49:49 +0000 UTCAs good as I Dreamed a Dreamed is, Memory is one of the few songs whose melody alone moves me to tears. So it gets my vote, because how many songs do that?
wjZephyr
2024-09-12 20:34:00 +0000 UTCI Dreamed a Dream is one of many great songs in Les Mis. Memory is the only good song in Cats.
Evan Z.
2024-09-12 19:44:18 +0000 UTCYou can't get me to vote for Cats over Les Miserables even if it was Elaine Paige version of Memories vs I Dreamed a Dream by Russell Crow
Nir revel
2024-09-12 13:13:37 +0000 UTCFirst of all, if you're judging this based on the performances in the movies you're doing it wrong. Go watch the musicals on YouTube. This was the first time in a while a song vs. song has stumped me for a good while. Picking between the performances of Elaine Page and Ruthie Henshall is practically impossible, so my pick is mainly focused on the context of each performance in their respective musical. Both songs are emotional high points. The reprise of Memory, however, has the gut punch that makes every single song previously in the musical feel completely pointless. Grizabella's story completely overshadows everything that came before with it's impact. I can't say the same for I Dreamed a Dream. The tone is also quite different between the songs. These are not just "sad" songs (though some performers would lead you to believe that way...): I Dreamed a Dream is hopeful yet at the same time utterly defeated. Memory meanwhile is sorrowful and incredibly desperate, and the hope found deep in that desperation is what ultimately gives it the ability to succeed in its role in the plot of redeeming Grizabella. Both for the emotional impact, and for the fact I love a desperate musical hail-mary by the underdog-, or I suppose the "undercat", my vote goes to Memory. (I will add that Cats has a huge advantage in that I Dreamed a Dream is not at all the emotional peak of its muscial. If it was between Memory and Do You Hear the People Sing I bet the result would be significantly one-sided in Les Mis' favour)
Flag
2024-09-12 08:24:40 +0000 UTCWhich is worse: Tom Hooper's Cats or the performance that inspired Tom Hooper to *think* he could do Cats?
FunFawn21
2024-09-11 23:22:46 +0000 UTCMaybe I was always turned off by Cats, but for this wack-ass musical to have such a slow song as its centerpiece feels wrong for me. At least I Dreamed a Dream's sadness matches the sadness of the rest of it.
Cameron Wiggins
2024-09-11 23:00:03 +0000 UTCLe Miz is the better show, Memory is the better song
Tori Schmidt
2024-09-11 21:29:49 +0000 UTCI feel like the Philomena Cunk account must be kicking themselves for not saving that 3rd party vote for this week.
Joel Thomas
2024-09-11 16:20:55 +0000 UTCI’d like to take this opportunity, several days in advance, to welcome guest host Lindsey Ellis who, if she’s not on the microphone, is definitely screaming her musical theater thoughts in the car.
Zero
2024-09-11 04:05:57 +0000 UTCI'm gonna need Susan Boyle to cover the other one just to really cement my decision.
Shiny Skunk
2024-09-11 03:38:03 +0000 UTCNow I'm imaging the cast of Cats singing "Sexy Bitch."
Shiny Skunk
2024-09-11 03:36:00 +0000 UTCI Dreamed a Dream is asking me to feel empathy for a fellow human being in a tragic situation. Memory is about a sad cat. I like cats (the animal), but like how is this even a question?
Katie Gunn
2024-09-10 21:42:49 +0000 UTCIt rules OVER Les Mis? Well ... maybe ... comparing them as shows feels like being asked if I like a steak sandwich or a cupcake better, it's kind of a wrong question. Still BOGGLING that one man directed their movie adaptations one right after the other; goes to show CEOs can't see details. "Hey, you did a profitable musically thingy,🇫🇷 🔫🧱😭!!! So here you go, another one!" 🐈⬛🐈😇🐱🥺🥹
Crescent Minor
2024-09-10 20:15:27 +0000 UTCCan I vote for the third option of "oh dear gods no please make it stop"?
Taryn
2024-09-10 20:14:15 +0000 UTCThat is a question: what versions are we thinking of? I instinctively weighed London version 'Memory' with 10th Anniversary Concert 'I Dreamed a Dream' because they're my favourites. Sounds like you weighed the Hooper movie versions, and that's a different conversation. Think I still come out 'Memory', and it still hurts, but still a bit different of a question.
Crescent Minor
2024-09-10 20:07:17 +0000 UTCYou're trying to hurt me. It's Memory even though it should be Dreamed
Crescent Minor
2024-09-10 20:01:38 +0000 UTC3rd Party vote for I'm Going Home from the Rocky Horror Picture Show
Bruxistentialist
2024-09-10 19:59:57 +0000 UTCI am not voting for Memory... I'm voting for Cats, which rules
Lee Basil
2024-09-10 18:58:04 +0000 UTCI saw the tour several years back where Ted Neeley reprised the Jesus role and he still had it. Truly he was the King of Sings.
Joe G
2024-09-10 18:23:49 +0000 UTCAlso, in terms of Tom Hooper adaptations, Cats >>>>>> Les Mis because 1) there are few comedies I get more laughs from, and 2) it killed Tom Hooper's career
A Bucket of Water
2024-09-10 16:24:21 +0000 UTCI've voluntarily watched Cats (2019) 4 times and would've voted for pretty much any one of its other songs except for the most boring track chosen here, third-party vote for The Rum-Tum-Tugger (Jason Derulo's Version)
A Bucket of Water
2024-09-10 16:22:44 +0000 UTCBoth survive as indistinct memories in my brain, but I find on relistening that I Dreamed a Dream hits more. However I either can't make out or don't remember the lyrics without looking them up, so this is mostly musical vibes.
Allan Olley
2024-09-10 16:17:50 +0000 UTCI Dreamed a Dream was sung by Lea Salonga (stage actress who played Fantine). Salonga is a hugely important figure in our country being the most internationally-recognized performer to have been raised in the Philippines until that one guy from the Black Eyed Peas and Bella Poarch from TikTok. Anyway, I’m voting Memory.
Franco del Rosario
2024-09-10 14:28:22 +0000 UTCat least memory imitates good music, i dreamed a dream kind of reminds me that i actually really dont have it in me to like musicals (also memory makes me think of those memri tv memes)
no
2024-09-10 13:54:26 +0000 UTCmy 3rd party vote is nestor the long-eared christmas donkey because it's from a better mulesical jk, it's actually nessun dorma, from nessun the long-eared christmas dorma
Kite
2024-09-10 12:21:26 +0000 UTCLes Mis is the better show, but thanks to my 2nd grade teacher's obsession with Andrew Lloyd Webber, an unfortunate number of my core memories are related to Cats. So my admittedly-deeply-biased vote goes to "Memory."
panpolypuff
2024-09-10 11:17:36 +0000 UTCEven though that podcast is over this better be a Musicalsplaining crossover episode! Also, after careful consideration and research, I have determined that Memory is the better song to belt in the kitchen at 9:30 at night while preparing tomorrow’s lunch, though my roommate may disagree.
Lizzord
2024-09-10 11:15:31 +0000 UTCI was going to say the same thing! I adore Cats but since the “plot” is so obtuse most people probably barely understand what’s going on by the time Memory comes around, while with I Dreamed a Dream you know exactly who the character is and where they’re at.
Lizzord
2024-09-10 11:12:01 +0000 UTCVoting for Miserable Les, because at least Schönberg came up with their own catchy hooks instead of taking notes from Ravel and blatantly copypasting Pink Floyd, but if I'd had a say it would've been "On My Own" instead of "Dream", since that's a far more interesting song.
House Chaos
2024-09-10 07:28:54 +0000 UTCYou finally do a Musical Theatre Episode and you pick songs from two of my least favourite overrated musicals of all time?! My god the Monkey Paw closed hard for me huh?
Mr Spaghett
2024-09-10 07:24:26 +0000 UTCIf you don’t get full body shivers and turn into a weeping granny, complete with oversized spectacles and knitting needles in hand, when you hear the money note of “TOUUUCH MEEEEE!” I just can’t trust your emotional judgment on anything. Also, Cats is good actually, it’s my favorite musical of all time. I would rather it just remain in obscurity forever than have had that 2019 movie adaptation…
Cory Putnam
2024-09-10 02:40:24 +0000 UTCSeasons of Love is why my 6 year old knows how many minutes are in a year. Educational!
Lanth
2024-09-10 02:21:12 +0000 UTCYes but Cats' cultural impact is _Cats_ so I think it's a wash.
Lanth
2024-09-10 02:20:36 +0000 UTCI mean I'd watch that.
Lanth
2024-09-10 02:18:58 +0000 UTCThird party vote for pretty much any musical that's not these two. I love so many musicals, why did it have to be these two.
Lanth
2024-09-10 02:18:17 +0000 UTCJust let Todd and Lena have the episode off and invite all 3!
Lanth
2024-09-10 02:13:10 +0000 UTCSo true on both points!
Tiffany
2024-09-10 02:04:53 +0000 UTCOr "I Don't Know How To Love Him".
Tiffany
2024-09-10 02:04:00 +0000 UTCI graduated with a BA in theatre (my college didn’t have a musical theatre major) and Cats is my #1 guilty pleasure in any medium.
David Yurch
2024-09-10 01:27:42 +0000 UTCLes Mis has always bored me to tears. It sounds like one extremely dull three hour song to me. At least Memory is a great song in a hilariously bad shorter show.
Max Liotta
2024-09-10 01:27:24 +0000 UTCI Dreamed a Dream is a better song in the context of the (superior) musical. Memory is better when excluding context. So therefore for the purposes of this poll I'm choosing Memory
drd
2024-09-10 01:27:16 +0000 UTC"I Dreamed A Dream" just nails the mournful longing way better, and the fact that it's from a much better musical certainly helps.
sammy aurora
2024-09-10 01:03:39 +0000 UTCThird party vote for "Seasons of Love" from Rent
Blinky
2024-09-10 00:21:55 +0000 UTCFor a fever dream, Cats has some decent songs.
Theodora
2024-09-10 00:13:15 +0000 UTCMemory is incredible, it's the sole reason Cats continues to exist. Therefore, I'm voting for I Dreamed a Dream.
giascle
2024-09-09 23:39:10 +0000 UTCMemory is the best song in Cats. I Dreamed a Dream doesn’t even crack the top 3 in Les Mis. I still voted I Dreamed a Dream.
Meredith B
2024-09-09 23:23:55 +0000 UTCYeah, I guess someone would have to be soulless to not cry at Les Miz
Lucy Daughter of None
2024-09-09 22:27:11 +0000 UTCI am straight, and I cried through the first performance I saw of Les Miz. And the 2nd, and 3rd. (The last of which was two summers ago on the West End with my teenage daughters.)
Clay Peterson
2024-09-09 22:25:43 +0000 UTCThis is the most difficult Song vs Song I've voted for. While I enjoy both songs, I'm voting for Memory because it made a woman cry during the movie (and almost made me cry while relistening to these).
Jennifer Y
2024-09-09 22:25:12 +0000 UTCI’m also really hoping I Dreamed A Dream wins cause my friend keeps saying “this will be a bloodbath as Les Mis has no cultural impact outside of the world of theatre”
Lee Breezy
2024-09-09 21:04:58 +0000 UTCI’m so happy! Finally a musical theatre episode!!! It doesn’t even matter that they’re from two musicals I could give less of a shit about :D
Lee Breezy
2024-09-09 21:04:10 +0000 UTCWriting in the obligatory third-party Sondheim vote
Ben
2024-09-09 20:33:44 +0000 UTCLOL
Violet Esposito
2024-09-09 19:50:52 +0000 UTCDon’t forget the T.S. Eliot lyrics! (‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’)
Violet Esposito
2024-09-09 19:44:39 +0000 UTC‘Cats’ really isn’t it as far as musicals go (BA in Musical Theater Performance, here!) while ‘Les Miserables’ is better structured, and a much easier watch. Both songs are fantastic in terms of lyrics & music composition, and the raw emotions those songs invoke are what makes them both very popular standards for auditions. But T.S. Eliot was one of my favorite poets as a brooding high schooler, and I hated reading ‘Les Miserables’ my senior year. Which is why I am choosing ’Memory.’ (Aka- ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’ by T.S. Eliot) “I should have been a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.” -The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
Violet Esposito
2024-09-09 19:42:48 +0000 UTC"Memory" is so good that it tricks the audience into thinking that Cats! isn't just two hours of nonsense and absurdity -- that it has a *story*.
Nigel G
2024-09-09 19:34:50 +0000 UTCHal... it's about cats.
Vince Whitacre
2024-09-09 19:21:15 +0000 UTCThis is the first matchup you've done where I wish I could vote for "both mangled and killed." Todd gets it.
Maxine - RaccoonRevolution
2024-09-09 19:06:02 +0000 UTCCats comes into existence at a time when Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice were each pissed off enough at each other to create a musical seperate from one another. ALW creates Cats, Tim Rice makes Chess, which is much better than Cats and gave the world One Night in Bangkok. I voted for 'I dreamed a dream' because my dream is that someone will one day run a production of Chess, but everyone is dressed like the Cats
Charlie L
2024-09-09 18:51:27 +0000 UTCLes Mis is exactly as bad of a trainwreck as Cats but people don't notice because a 2-sentence description of each makes Les Mis seem respectable by comparison.
Bunker King
2024-09-09 18:43:18 +0000 UTCI’ll be damned if I vote for anything Cats related
Connor Rankin
2024-09-09 18:37:18 +0000 UTCMy best Memory of Memory is Miranda Cosgrove singing it in School of Rock for two seconds
Eric J
2024-09-09 17:47:35 +0000 UTCOr both! Or Kaveh. Just for the torture factor 🤣
Taryn
2024-09-09 17:27:26 +0000 UTCMy third party vote goes to “Up There” from South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.
J.D. Laney
2024-09-09 17:14:15 +0000 UTCThat screams out for a OHW episode
Albert Farkas
2024-09-09 17:06:12 +0000 UTCJust what we need: more extra extra depressing shit.
Michael Murphy
2024-09-09 17:03:38 +0000 UTCSeconded
Graeme
2024-09-09 16:55:17 +0000 UTCCats is a war crime. I cannot vote for its least repulsive pustule.
Benjamin Perry
2024-09-09 16:53:23 +0000 UTCThis is the first poll that's polarizing to me because of how much I despise both of these songs. Third party vote for "One Night in Bangkok".
EmperorTigerstar
2024-09-09 16:51:27 +0000 UTCHal...it's about Cats
Angela
2024-09-09 16:48:18 +0000 UTCFirst things first, pour one out for Musicalsplaining. Also if you poor bastards had to revisit the Tom Hooper movies, I'm so sorry.
Nico Niconi
2024-09-09 16:46:10 +0000 UTCFun fact: Judi Dench was originally supposed to play Grizabella in the original London Production, but she tore her Achilles tendon during rehearsal and had to drop out. So in another universe we could have had a Judi Dench version of Memory instead of whatever the hell she did in the movie XD
Angela
2024-09-09 16:38:27 +0000 UTCHer or Angelina please God
Angela
2024-09-09 16:29:00 +0000 UTCIsn't usually just called Gesthamane? Anywho Now you have me digging up Lindsay Ellis's WHYYYY compilation video XD
Angela
2024-09-09 16:27:07 +0000 UTCBut "I Dreamed a Dream" /sounds/ sell-out-y to me.
Jon Heiman
2024-09-09 16:24:49 +0000 UTCThe melody of "Memory" is specifically patterned after Puccini, while "I Dreamed a Dream" is just generic power-ballad blandness to me.
Jon Heiman
2024-09-09 16:21:26 +0000 UTCI have a special place in my heart for "Les Miserables" given it was the first movie I took my granddaughter to when she got her first pair of glasses. We still laugh at "On My Own" as the "fatal friendzone" song. While both songs do a wonderful job of longing for a world that doesn't exist, this positive memory gives the edge to "Dreamed A Dream."
Michael Russell
2024-09-09 16:18:38 +0000 UTCIt's genuinely horrifying to me how in 2012 Tom Hooper forced Anne Hathaway, who isn't a trained vocalist, to sing I Dreamed A Dream live while sitting down for 8 whole hours over and over again only to use the very first take that still doesn't sound that good, but at least it won her an Oscar. For that I'm picking Memory, the Elaine Paige version, not the shitty movie version
Nathan M
2024-09-09 16:05:53 +0000 UTCThird party vote for I Only Want To Say from Jesus Christ Superstar. Why? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!
Alex Georganas
2024-09-09 16:02:30 +0000 UTCAs much as I've grown tired of Les Mis getting longer and longer with each revival, "I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living" hits just as hard today as it did when I first heard it over 20 years ago. Also, the show is hilarious when you realize just how bad Jean Valjean is at crime.
ThatShaggyMatt
2024-09-09 15:53:39 +0000 UTCUntil they release the Butthole Cut of the Cats movie, I'm voting for Les Mis.
Dork Mode
2024-09-09 15:49:18 +0000 UTCIt’s crazy how much Taylor Swift’s career has had a come back after acting in Cats. I can’t imagine where she would be in the 2020s if it wasn’t for Tom Hooper.
JazzySpF
2024-09-09 15:47:20 +0000 UTCI think Memory is better relative to the fever dream that is Cats than I Dreamed is to Les Mis as a whole, but I think even on its own merits I Dreamed is a better song.
Kevin Kline
2024-09-09 15:46:44 +0000 UTCI Dreamed a Dream is one of those classic show tunes that manages to work even better in the show’s context. I would argue that NONE of the songs in Cats work better in that show’s context.
Staghorn
2024-09-09 15:44:50 +0000 UTCWow! Two songs so powerful that even Tom Hooper couldn’t fully ruin them!
Gene Younkin
2024-09-09 15:43:24 +0000 UTCI'm going Memory, considering we're voting songs and not the shows they're from. Also, the older Betty Buckley or Elaine Page performances are the ones you want. If you've only seen the movie, look up some of the old live recordings.
John R
2024-09-09 15:40:57 +0000 UTCI'm in my mid-40s now, and I relate more to the gloomy realisation that my past is now so far away and that I miss my childish innocence, more than, "He knocked me up and ruined my life."
The Omega Geek
2024-09-09 15:39:25 +0000 UTCsee, Lay Miz is a more correct pronounciation, but then when they say the full name, it all falls apart
Tristan
2024-09-09 15:31:14 +0000 UTCvery tricky poll for someone who has seen cats (2019) (dir. tom hooper) (the bad one) no fewer than 9 times (on purpose) (dont ask about irony nothing is ironic after the 5th time) but also genuinely just really truly adores les mis enough that I can't watch the hooper movie bc I get too upset. 3rd party vote for ending Tom's career?
Sarah
2024-09-09 15:29:00 +0000 UTCI have never heard anyone pronounce it like italian lmao, pretty much always just "lay mizz"
Zety Scouse
2024-09-09 15:28:49 +0000 UTCOut of protest, I refuse to vote for “Memory” until Universal releases the butthole cut
Griffin
2024-09-09 15:27:41 +0000 UTCDOES he?
Sarah
2024-09-09 15:25:23 +0000 UTCI'm just here to say Ian McKellen gives a legitimately great performance in Cats
Why We Watch
2024-09-09 15:22:49 +0000 UTCIs this vote going to be decided by which is more a saving grace in an otherwise despised adaptation? If that is the case I guess I'll go with Memory, just because I'd be hard pressed by something in Cats2019 that reaches that level in a good way. I Dream a Dream has the same staging as the rest of the movie that drags the energy down. Also just in general, I think Memory is a song I'd be willing to listen to casually. I Dream a Dream would feel weird off a stage or without a bunch of your friends in a living room tipsy enough to want to listen to the whole album.
Nawf4
2024-09-09 15:22:49 +0000 UTCvoting Memory solely cuz i hate how Americans pronounces Les Misérables, as a french person: why do you guys say it like you're speaking Italian
Tristan
2024-09-09 15:22:29 +0000 UTCEven if I weren't a lifelong Les Mis girlie, I would pick I Dreamed a Dream as I do not think ALW should have rights.
Candice Maplestreet
2024-09-09 15:20:54 +0000 UTCI first heard Elaine Page’s rendition of “Memory,” and I couldn’t begin to imagine the epic story that such a beautiful, sweeping, pathos-ridden song must be a part of. Little did I know that neither could the makers of Cats.
David Yurch
2024-09-09 15:19:48 +0000 UTCPart of accepting that I wasn't straight was crying through the first performance of Les Mis I saw. It would always win any poll of this nature
Lucy Daughter of None
2024-09-09 15:18:48 +0000 UTCLook, if we're voting on 80's Broadway showstoppers then let's give La Cage aux Folles the respect it deserves. Third party vote for I Am What I Am!
Joshua C
2024-09-09 15:15:37 +0000 UTCDay 18 of requesting a Halloween episode on Mama by Genesis vs Mama by My Chemical Romance.
Timothy Holmes
2024-09-09 15:15:32 +0000 UTCI will always vote against Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber is the Akon of musical theatre.
Vince Whitacre
2024-09-09 15:13:48 +0000 UTCIs Lindsay guest starting on this one?
Ben
2024-09-09 15:13:46 +0000 UTC3rd party vote for Stupid Bitch from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
lemon ade
2024-09-09 15:11:46 +0000 UTCTo be clear though, the 10th Anniversary version of I Dreamed a Dream clears any version of Memory
Brandon Hay
2024-09-09 15:09:40 +0000 UTCOne of these songs won an actress an Oscar. The other came dangerously close to making people demand an actress give her Oscar back.
Rich Kee
2024-09-09 15:08:07 +0000 UTCAndrew Lloyd Webber wrote a lot of wonderful music. Then "Les Mis" came out and he spent the rest of his career trying, and failing, to rewrite "Les Mis." I guess the one saving grace we have is, he wasn't a contemporary of Lin Manuel Miranda so we never had squirrels or Dr. Frankenstein breaking into stilted raps.
Ben Cook-Feltz
2024-09-09 15:08:02 +0000 UTCAs someone who only knows these from the movie adaptations it's not even close. One of these won its singer an Oscar and the other one is a complete embarrassment.
MJS
2024-09-09 15:07:16 +0000 UTCMy answer very much depends on which version of I Dreamed a Dream we're talking about here. Maybe Memory wins by default just because even the movie couldn't ruin that song.
Brandon Hay
2024-09-09 15:07:03 +0000 UTCI hope we get a brief Musical Splaining reunion with Angie and Kaveh as guest stars.
DK Jones
2024-09-09 15:06:35 +0000 UTC"Memory" is a classic Broadway sellout anthem, compared to "I dreamed a dream" which was in Les Miserables as early as the French version in 1980. Les Miserables' actual sell out anthem in "Bring Him Home," which now that I mention it is my third party vote.
lukas
2024-09-09 15:06:28 +0000 UTCI find Memory a lot whinier melodicly if not lyricly. At least I Dreamed a Dream has some punch to it.
Alina
2024-09-09 15:06:23 +0000 UTC"I Dreamed a Dream" is one great song in a show full of great songs; "Memory" in THE great song in Cats. When I saw the Cats movie in theaters (yes, I'm one of those people), the theater was totally empty until the end, when a bunch of old people showed up JUST to see "Memory."
Lucy Val
2024-09-09 15:05:27 +0000 UTCI'm not voting for Les Mis, I'm voting against Cats.
Keirik
2024-09-09 15:05:11 +0000 UTCLes Mis is the better musical, but Memory is the better song. Though I Dreamed a Dreamed gets a nudge from its viral and borderline meme status thanks to Susan Boyle's BGT audition.
Angela
2024-09-09 15:04:40 +0000 UTCI don't know who I want to have as a guest more... Angie, Lindsay, or Kaveh.
BuckTurner
2024-09-09 15:04:13 +0000 UTCNo matter who wins, anyone in my car while these play loses
UrgotFantasy
2024-09-09 15:02:40 +0000 UTC
