Yes, "Side Show" is criminally underrated. I'm hoping for a revival some time in the next ten years. Hopefully, they will do some work on the book, though. And Emily and Alice will have to reprise their roles. Nothing less will do...
I also was going to say Side Show and Amour, but melissa errico fan beat me to it. Nonetheless, I wanted to get another vote in for them.
I also thought Triumph of Love was underrated.
I actually really liked enough things about The Capeman to go back and see it a few times. But I don't think it was underrated. It was a fascinating failure, but a failure nonetheless.
Not only underrated, but arguably the two best new American musicals of recent years:
SIDE SHOW KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN
2016 These Paper Bullets (1/02) Our Mother's Brief Affair (1/06), Dragon Boat Racing (1/08), Howard - reading (1/28), Shear Madness (2/10), Fun Home (2/17), Women Without Men (2/18), Trip Of Love (2/21), The First Gentleman -reading (2/22), Southern Comfort (2/23), The Robber Bridegroom (2/24), She Loves Me (3/11), Shuffle Along (4/12), Shear Madness (4/14), Dear Evan Hansen (4/16), American Psycho (4/23), Tuck Everlasting (5/10), Indian Summer (5/15), Peer Gynt (5/18), Broadway's Rising Stars (7/11), Trip of Love (7/27), CATS (7/31), The Layover (8/17), An Act Of God (8/31), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (8/24), Heisenberg (10/12), Fiddler On The Roof (11/02), Othello (11/23), Dear Evan Hansen (11/26), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (12/21) 2017 In Transit (2/01), Groundhog Day (4/04), Ring Twice For Miranda (4/07), Church And State (4/10), The Lucky One (4/19), Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (5/16), Building The Wall (5/19), Indecent (6/01), Six Degrees of Separation (6/09), Marvin's Room (6/28), A Doll's House Pt 2 (7/25) Curvy Widow (8/01)
I think it is, personally. Most people-and those are the key words-only remember it as Kristin Chenoweth's Broadway debut. They probably wouldn't be able to give you a single lyric from "Willing to Ride" or "Somebody Older". In my book, that constitutes underrated.
omg i LOVE steel pier. willing to ride, somebody older and running in place are FANTASTIC songs! i hope debra monk is it a hit sometime soon...she's had a bunch of flops. MEF, you have good taste in shows.
You didn't sit there scratching your head at the inconsistencies, and thinking, Poor Karen - how the hell can she keep up that grueling physical role 8 shows a week??
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
There were definite whole in the book, which would have to be rewritten for this show to ever back it back to New York. But the score was ravishing. I was so in awe of Karen, who gave such an incredible performance. I loved the whole cast.