This is the closest place I could find for this...

Now, the nominees for the best musical soundtrack ever:

"Man of La Mancha". With the original 1965 Broadway cast. Richard Kiley *IS* Don Quixote!

I think that one will face some stiff competition from "Phantom of the Opera."

But not from me, because I'm going with "Hair."

(I would actually nominate "Once on This Island" or "RENT," but there's always an absurd anti-90s bias in these "best thing ever" comparisons.)

The Producers.

I have the Broadway Cast Recording, and it is funny as all get out!

Gotta go with RENT. The Producers is funny, and my girlfriend will swat me one, as she's a Phantom nut, but... it's all about the RENT.

I'm now throwing in a vote for 1776 (which, in its most recent incarnation, starred Brent Spiner as John Adams), because I've just been hired to play in the pit orchestra of a local production of it. And it's bizarre enough for my taste. I think the American Revolution actually would have worked better as a musical.

I was in the pit for Kiss Me Kate. While eminently watchable and listenable ("Brush Up Your Shakespeare", anyone?), it's not in the class of some others already mentioned.

Oh, and Matt (and everyone else), I highly recommend you read McCullough's bio of John Adams.

Scott, I've got a bit of a soft spot for the music from "Kiss Me, Kate" by Cole Porter (the one who didn't do "Anything Goes"... that one's different ) - I once took part in a production of that musical many years ago, playing one of the gangsters who got the crowd-pleasing opportunity to stick a "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" as it were.