And for good reason. Not only are they a feat of vocal talent, the purpose of a musical theatre song is to move the plot forward, meaning that the performer has to inform the audience, as well as inspire emotion.
We've put together a list of the most difficult musical theatre songs of all time, judged and ranked by a selection of West End experts – and they might not be the choices you'd expect.
How we judged the most difficult musical theatre songs
When it comes to the difficulty of songs, personal preferences and individual capabilities heavily influence ranking. So, we aimed to make the process as unbiased as possible by developing a matrix to rank different scores according to different criteria.
Breath control – length of phrases, sustained notes, breath recovery, limited breathing opportunitiesVocal range – very high notes, very low notes, how long a song sits in a demanding part of the rangeTempo and rhythmic difficulties – speed, syncopation, rapid passagesEmotional range – intensity, emotional shifts, climactic buildsPhonetic challenges – challenging vowels and consonants, articulation, tongue-twistersVocal agility – wide intervals, melisma, vocal flips, runs, ornamentation
We then added up the scores to get a final score out of 30 for each song.
Claire Greenaway
Claire Greenaway is an actress and vocal coach who trained at the Royal Academy of Music. She originated the role of Mary Patrick in the original cast of Sister Act at the London Palladium, and have recently toured the UK and internationally with tours of Beautiful, Mamma Mia, Calamity Jane and Jane Eyre.
David Ashley (Dash)
David Ashley, known professionally as Dash, is a theatre creative, singing teacher and director who trained at the Royal School of Church Music and the Tanwood Theatre School. He has appeared in over 11 West End plays and musicals, including Cats, Les Misérables, Blood Brothers and Starlight Express, as well as 14 pantomimes.
The 12 most difficult musical theatre songs of all time
12. No One Else (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812)
Score: 26Written by: Dave MalloyNo One Else is sung by Natasha towards the beginning of Great Comet as she dreams of her fiancé, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who has gone to war.
While most of Great Comet is a unique blend of indie, electropop and Russian folk elements, No One Else is more of a traditional Broadway aria requiring a strong head voice and carefully planned breathing due to its conversational tone.
11. Rose's Turn (Gypsy)
Score: 26Written by: Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim"Emotionally you’re taking wild swings between honesty, brash and brassy determination, bitterness and hurt. Vocally, you’re not reaching the wild heights or vocal gymnastics of some newer answers, but you’re using every ounce of your speech quality of every volume, being asked to let some of your prettier tones go in favour of vulnerability and brokenness, and then switching back to bold, old-school Broadway belting."
"This is all within the difficulties of negotiating the musical and mental difficulties of a complex Styne and Sondheim score, while trying to make it sound like it’s soaring out totally naturally. You’re pouring your heart out every night and leaving yourself bleeding."
10. Pity the Child (Chess)
Score: 27Written by: Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Tim Rice"A heart-breaking arena-rock crossover ballad with no place to hide, both vocally and emotionally. It climbs and climbs, pulls back and then explodes a whole octave and a half higher to end! The most difficult musical theatre songs to sing are those that see the character undertake a huge emotional journey or psychological unravelling as the song progresses.
"Technically, the challenge is to find a solid technique that matches the intensity of the music without carrying so much weight up with you in the voice that you find yourself reaching."
9. Defying Gravity (Wicked)
Score: 27Written by: Stephen Schwartz"An underrated challenge of this song is how high the pressure is as the whole audience is waiting on the edge of their seats for the last notes of the song while you are soaring above the rest of the cast who are all directly looking up at you, it literally is all eyes on you."
8. And I'm Telling You (Dreamgirls)
Score: 27Written by: Henry Krieger, Tom Eyen"Just like Rose’s Turn, this is a full emotional gamut from devastation to almost manic determination. This one, however, is filtered through the vocal gymnastics and full-throated passion of R&B, using gospel riffs and ad libs, tailored to the individual artist’s range and skills to show a woman on the verge of every high and low, emotionally and vocally.
"To watch Jennifer Holliday’s Effie folded over in half, growling, screaming and sobbing through incredible vocal feats is to understand how the voice’s technicalities can be used to show you pure emotion and well as just being blown away with the prowess. It’s a true showstopper, every time."
7. Getting Married Today (Company)
Score: 27Written by: Stephen Sondheim"The character Amy (or Jamie) is having a breakdown on their wedding day. The speed, detail in the lyrics, length of phrases, lack of places to breathe, the number of verses and heightened emotion make this song a real marathon of technique for even the most seasoned musical theatre actors.
"Guns and Ships in Hamilton (2015) has now narrowly overtaken the speed of this song with an incredible 6.3 words a second, where as this one only squeezes in 6.2!"
6. Your Daddy's Son (Ragtime)
Score: 27.5Written by: Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens"The explosive middle section is bookended by a gentle and light vocal quality, making this a glorious monster of a song!"
This solo for Sarah in Ragtime sheds light on the character's backstory, as well as providing more context for her emotional breakdown. Your Daddy's Son requires the performer to perform a delicate tightrope walk between technical vocal control and raw anguished emotion.
5. Gethsemane (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Score: 27.5Written by: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice"It has a large vocal range as well as long sustained notes, followed by emotionally charged rock falsetto, making it a real formidable song to perform. Hitting the same notes with different vocal qualities and volumes is a big technical battle in this song as they sit right on the male Passaggio where the voice wants to break (thank you Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber!).
"In the score, 'Ad lib hysterical sobbing' is one of the directions which gives each Jesus a bit of freedom to put their own stamp on the song while hysterically sobbing on pitch!"
4. I'm Here (The Color Purple)
Score: 28Written by: Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, Stephen Bray"Like Pity the Child, we have an emotional and musical journey that share the pattern of swelling and receding throughout, as opposed to the gradual climb. The most powerful declaration of resilience and self-love that must sound and feel like it’s being dug deep from the soul.
"If you’re learning any skill and feeling disheartened at how the focus on technique can sometimes feel limiting to your expression… remember, with a solid technical grounding and practise, your accessing vocal qualities slowly becomes second nature, within your muscle memory and you soon have fifty colours to paint with, rather than one!"
3. Soliloquy (Carousel)
Score: 28Written by: Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II"There is a lot of storytelling detail which needs technical supporting, plus the air flow and pressure balances that work alongside all of these elements."
2. I'm Breaking Down (Falsettos)
Score: 28Written by: William Finn"The technical work in preparation really needs to be in both the physical and the psychological. We can often make singing much easier than we think, and we need to choose our moments in epic songs like this. With this song, we have to honour so many corners of thought and changes in emotional direction.
"The intervals are forever straddling the Passaggio, the climax of ‘the only thing that’s breaking up is my family’ jumping a whole octave. It is, at that point, after all that prep, that we can be free, tell the story and enter ‘the zone’ or flow state-that joyous, total immersion in the present moment as you are performing."
1. Glitter and Be Gay (Candide)
Score: 29Written by: Leonard Bernstein, Richard Wilbur"Cue Kristin Chenoweth. Watch her New York Philharmonic semi-staged concert performance, her Cunégonde throwing herself sobbing on a chaise lounge, and then swiftly hula-hooping her string of pearls while delivering a Queen of the Night-worthy run of sparkling notes without missing a musical or comic beat.
For more theatre content check out our Going Out section with the best West End shows.
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