Musicals That Celebrate Friendship as the Main Act

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Friendship is at the center of Beaches, which is running on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre.

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In the musical theatre canon, musicals without romantic love as their centerpiece are the exception rather than the rule. From the lighthearted ( The Music Man ) to the darker toned ( The Phantom of the Opera ), from the mature ( The Bridges of Madison County ) to the youthful ( Footloose ), romantic relationships are a key element of the majority of musicals. Even when love is not the point ( Funny Girl ) although it may heavily impact the plot ( Sweeney Todd ), it provides shows with key moments in their score and a tentpole element of their story.

Friendship is nearly always a side element in musicals. From the comic sidekick of the leading character to the backup pals who provide background vocals, friends are part of the fabric of many shows—but rarely are they the main event.

Throughout the 20th century, as the conventions of musical comedy were challenged and evolved, more unlikely topics devoid of romance were musicalized. Musicals no longer largely featured a standard boy meets girl plot. This left room for experimentation and a variety of subjects to be explored. As such, friendship has grown to be a key component of many musicals—and even sometimes the point of the story! With Beaches recently opened on Broadway, it brings up the question: how often is friendship at the heart of a musical?

One of the most beloved films about friendship of all time, Beaches hit the screen in 1988 starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey . With Midler as outrageous show business star C.C. and Hershey as soft-spoken, privileged lawyer Hillary, Beaches attained a place as one of the most beloved films ever about female friendship. Beaches ’ screenplay was co-written by Iris Rainer Dart . Dart also penned the novel that the movie was based on, and she is the co-writer of the Broadway musical version’s book. (In the novel and the musical, Hillary is named Roberta—or Bertie for short.)

The show follows Cee Cee (the musical spells out her name) as she drops everything—including her own television variety show—to be there for Bertie who is dying of cancer. Simultaneously, we flash back to experience the lifelong friendship that has led the two to this moment. Starting with the serendipitous meeting of two very different little girls at a beachside resort and continuing as the two experiences the ups and downs of love and career, Beaches pays tribute to women’s friendships of the 1950s-1980s.

With such a large amount of the Broadway ticket-buying demographic consisting of women seeing shows with friends, one might be surprised that stories in this wheelhouse are so rarely seen.

Of course, friendship among women is at the core of Wicked (2003), one of the biggest hits on Broadway. The relationship between Elphaba and Galinda drives the story of the musical phenomenon, which is now a major motion picture as well. While Elphaba’s romance with Fiyero, the battle between good and evil, and each individual woman’s journey to discover herself are also major tenets of the plot, the unlikely friendship between the witches gives the musical its heart. Given Wicked ’s major success, it’s somewhat surprising that more musicals haven’t succeeded in following in its footsteps in centering women’s friendship in the two decades since.

Another of the most successful Broadway juggernauts of the 21st century is Mamma Mia! (2001), which definitely centers female friendship, although it is not the main reason for the story in the way that it is in Beaches or Wicked . The ABBA-tuned Greek island-set tale of a young woman seeking out her father on the eve of her wedding features a major subplot of female friendship between the bride’s mother and her former bandmates as well as a less major plot line about the female friendship between the bride and her pals. The former trio of friendship enables the musical to dramatize ABBA classics like “Dancing Queen”, “Chiquitita”, and “Super Trouper”.

Similarly, Waitress (2016) counts the friendship between Jenna, Dawn, and Becky as one of the tentpoles of its story, giving each of the women their own journey to chart and exploring their friendship as well. As in Mamma Mia! , female friendship is essential in Waitress , but it’s not the main plot line. Jenna’s path of self discovery, including becoming a mother and finding her own worth are the center of the story—but these wouldn’t be possible without the support and presence of her friends.

Mean Girls centers a younger experience of female friendship. The 2018 Broadway musical based on the beloved teen movie depicts a new girl in high school who navigates the ins and outs of a clique of popular teens. Currently off-Broadway, also based on a teen movie and also portraying the challenges faced by a girl on the outs with the popular crew, Heathers originally opened off-Broadway in 2014. These two shows didn’t invent friendship between teen girls in a musical; earlier shows like Bye Bye Birdie (1960) and Smile (1986) also include this element, and so do musicals that stretch back as far as musicals have been performed for.

Rewinding to earlier eras of Broadway musicals, both Mame (1966) and Chicago (1975) count female friendship as a major part of the plot. Auntie Mame’s frenemy Vera provides endless amusement, from getting Mame a job alongside her in the theatre—resulting in farcical disaster—to duetting with our title character on the lovingly acerbic “Bosom Buddies”. Chicago follows two accused murders, Roxie and Velma, who pursue the fame and celebrity possible based on their crimes of passion. The show’s 1996 revival is currently running on Broadway and is the second longest- running production in Broadway history. While Roxie and Velma spend much of the show as adversaries, even singing “My Own Best Friend ” about how much they don’t need one another, they do eventually come together in a sister act, acceding to the fact that their friendship is necessary and meant-to-be. Friendship might appear to be more in the background in Sweet Charity (1966) but the support of Nickie, Helene, and the other Fan-Dango Ballroom Girls is a valuable part of Charity’s life.

One can look off-Broadway to find more musicals where female friendship is the main point of the story. Vanities , which premiered off-Broadway in 2009 at Second Stage and received a revisal off-Broadway in 2023 at the York Theatre Company , is based on the popular 1976 play and book by Jack Heifner . The three-hander follows a group of women as they grow from high school cheerleaders to adult women with disparate struggles. Like Beaches , Vanities is a period piece that puts specific female friendships in the spotlight—with a background of women’s rights during certain eras.

In the groundbreaking feminist musical I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road (1978), writers Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford explored many elements of being a woman in the 1970s. The protagonist of the show, Heather, is a singer-songwriter who has just gotten divorced and is reclaiming her own voice. The show’s hit song, “Old Friend” became one of the most beloved musical theatre songs about friendship in the canon.

All of that considered, women hardly have a monopoly on friendship plot lines in musicals. One of Broadway’s best shows about male friendship is returning next season: The Full Monty (2000). The six out of work men who come together to bare it all become unlikely friends, leaning on and learning from the others. The Full Monty was overshadowed when it originally opened on Broadway by the major musical of that season: the record-breaking The Producers (2001). The Producers also centers the male friendship between two men with very different personalities, to great comedic effect. Bialystock and Bloom even receive an 11 o’clock love ballad, “’Til Him”, even though their relationship is not romantic.

The Full Monty and The Producers were the first of several male friendship-featuring Broadway musicals of the first decade of the 21st century. Much less adult in tone was the 2003 Broadway musical A Year With Frog and Toad, based on the beloved children’s book series. The intended audience age for the show didn’t make the friendship between the title characters any less moving. In 2005, Broadway welcomed Dirty Rotten Scoundrels . Like The Full Monty , this tribute to male friendship had a score by David Yazbek , and also like the earlier show, the men depicted were complex creatures who unexpectedly came together for a common goal—this time, scamming in the French Riviera. 2008 brought one of Broadway’s most earnest celebrations of young male friendship with Glory Days and 2009 brought the emotional two-hander, The Story of My Life , also about childhood friendship and its challenges.

Since many musicals depict the journey of music groups, both real and fictional, it would follow that friendship comes into play in these stories. Friendship combined with the challenges of collaboration is a key element of shows including Dreamgirls (1981), Nunsense (1985), Jersey Boys (2005), Altar Boyz (2005), Ain’t Too Proud (2019), and Harmony (2023). In these stories, friends strive for goals together, navigate a rise to the top, and display the musical wares that come as a result of close friendship.

And then there are the shows depicting friendships of mixed genders. A prominent example is Merrily We Roll Along (1981) which returned to Broadway in 2023 and recently had a pro-shot released. The friendship between Frank, Charley, and Mary and its dissolution over time, which we see happen backward, is the core of this story about personal ideals and the pursuit of life as an artist in the mid-20th century. Frank and Charley make musicals together, as do the characters in [title of show] (2008), Shuffle Along… (2016), and Gutenberg! (2023), and all have to navigate the intersection of friendship and art.

Friendship between men is central to the plots of off-Broadway musicals like tick, tick… BOOM! (2001) and Fortress of Solitude (2014) with the former depicting a lifelong friendship that is challenged by diverging roads concerning money, art, and health and the latter addressing issues of racial disparity and music.

Many musical ensembles could be categorized as groups of friends, but the importance of friendship among larger groups is a click up in importance from that in musicals like Hair (1968), Company (1970), Grease , (1972), Rent (1996), 13 (2008), Sister Act (2011), Newsies (2012), Bring It On (2012), SpongeBob SquarePants (2017), How To Dance in Ohio (2023), and Suffs (2024). In all of these shows, the connection of a large community of friends is a major point of the story.

Meanwhile, smaller groups of friends are the backbone of shows like Applause (1970), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (1971), The Wiz (1975), Snoopy (1982), Avenue Q (2003), Priscilla (2011), The Prom (2018), Be More Chill (2019), and The Outsiders (2024). Applause includes a show biz-y ode to the double-sided nature of friendship called “Good Friends” while Snoopy boasts a more playful and sweet tribute to friendship called simply “Friend” and Be More Chill uses video games as a metaphor in the ebullient “Two-Player Game”.

Of course, those are far fr

_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/The-Best-Musicals-About-Friendship-20260510)._