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New poll! "Memory" vs. "I Dreamed a Dream" (Patreon)

Published:
2024-09-09 14:59:56
Imported:
2026-06

Poll

New poll! "Memory" vs. "I Dreamed a Dream"

  • Memory 410
  • I Dreamed a Dream 549
  • 2024-09-09
  • 959 votes
{'title': 'New poll! "Memory" vs. "I Dreamed a Dream"', 'choices': [{'text': 'Memory', 'votes': 410}, {'text': 'I Dreamed a Dream', 'votes': 549}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2024, 9, 9, 14, 58, 47, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allow_multiple': False, 'total_votes': 959}

Content

NOW 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

UrgotFantasy

No matter who wins, anyone in my car while these play loses

BuckTurner

I don't know who I want to have as a guest more... Angie, Lindsay, or Kaveh.

Angela

Les 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.

Keirik

I'm not voting for Les Mis, I'm voting against Cats.

Lucy Val

"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."

Alina

I find Memory a lot whinier melodicly if not lyricly. At least I Dreamed a Dream has some punch to it.

lukas

"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.

DK Jones

I hope we get a brief Musical Splaining reunion with Angie and Kaveh as guest stars.

Brandon Hay

My 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.

MJS

As 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.

Ben Cook-Feltz

Andrew 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.

Rich Kee

One of these songs won an actress an Oscar. The other came dangerously close to making people demand an actress give her Oscar back.

Brandon Hay
>>148943230

To be clear though, the 10th Anniversary version of I Dreamed a Dream clears any version of Memory

lemon ade

3rd party vote for Stupid Bitch from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Ben

Is Lindsay guest starting on this one?

Vince Whitacre

I will always vote against Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber is the Akon of musical theatre.

Timothy Holmes

Day 18 of requesting a Halloween episode on Mama by Genesis vs Mama by My Chemical Romance.

Joshua C

Look, 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!

Lucy Daughter of None

Part 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

David Yurch

I 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.

Candice Maplestreet

Even 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.

Tristan

voting 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

Nawf4

Is 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.

Why We Watch

I'm just here to say Ian McKellen gives a legitimately great performance in Cats

Griffin

Out of protest, I refuse to vote for “Memory” until Universal releases the butthole cut

Zety Scouse
>>148944860

I have never heard anyone pronounce it like italian lmao, pretty much always just "lay mizz"

Sarah

very 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?

Tristan
>>148944860

see, Lay Miz is a more correct pronounciation, but then when they say the full name, it all falls apart

The Omega Geek

I'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."

John R

I'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.

Gene Younkin

Wow! Two songs so powerful that even Tom Hooper couldn’t fully ruin them!

Staghorn

I 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.

Kevin Kline

I 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.

JazzySpF

It’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.

Dork Mode

Until they release the Butthole Cut of the Cats movie, I'm voting for Les Mis.

ThatShaggyMatt

As 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.

Alex Georganas

Third party vote for I Only Want To Say from Jesus Christ Superstar. Why? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

Nathan M

It'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

Michael Russell

I 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."

Jon Heiman

The melody of "Memory" is specifically patterned after Puccini, while "I Dreamed a Dream" is just generic power-ballad blandness to me.

Angela
>>148948695

Isn't usually just called Gesthamane? Anywho Now you have me digging up Lindsay Ellis's WHYYYY compilation video XD

Angela

Fun 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

Nico Niconi

First things first, pour one out for Musicalsplaining. Also if you poor bastards had to revisit the Tom Hooper movies, I'm so sorry.

Angela

Hal...it's about Cats

EmperorTigerstar

This 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".

Benjamin Perry

Cats is a war crime. I cannot vote for its least repulsive pustule.

Michael Murphy

Just what we need: more extra extra depressing shit.

J.D. Laney

My third party vote goes to “Up There” from South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.

Eric J

My best Memory of Memory is Miranda Cosgrove singing it in School of Rock for two seconds

Connor Rankin

I’ll be damned if I vote for anything Cats related

Bunker King

Les 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.

Charlie L

Cats 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

Maxine - RaccoonRevolution

This is the first matchup you've done where I wish I could vote for "both mangled and killed." Todd gets it.

Nigel G

"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*.

Violet Esposito

‘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

Ben

Writing in the obligatory third-party Sondheim vote

Lee Breezy

I’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
>>148978178

I’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”

Jennifer Y

This 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).

Clay Peterson
>>148944519

I 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.)

Meredith B

Memory 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.

giascle

Memory is incredible, it's the sole reason Cats continues to exist. Therefore, I'm voting for I Dreamed a Dream.

Theodora

For a fever dream, Cats has some decent songs.

Blinky

Third party vote for "Seasons of Love" from Rent

sammy aurora

"I Dreamed A Dream" just nails the mournful longing way better, and the fact that it's from a much better musical certainly helps.

drd

I 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

Max Liotta

Les 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.

David Yurch
>>148970551

I 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.

Lanth
>>148942930

Just let Todd and Lena have the episode off and invite all 3!

Lanth
>>148953718

Third 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
>>148978178

Yes but Cats' cultural impact is _Cats_ so I think it's a wash.

Lanth
>>148994077

Seasons of Love is why my 6 year old knows how many minutes are in a year. Educational!

Cory Putnam

If 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…

Mr Spaghett

You 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?

House Chaos

Voting 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.

Lizzord
>>148998833

I 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

Even 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.

panpolypuff

Les 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."

Kite

my 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

no

at 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)

Franco del Rosario

I 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.

Allan Olley

Both 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.

A Bucket of Water

I'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
>>149048865

Also, 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

Joe G
>>148948695

I 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.

Lee Basil

I am not voting for Memory... I'm voting for Cats, which rules

Bruxistentialist

3rd Party vote for I'm Going Home from the Rocky Horror Picture Show

Crescent Minor

You're trying to hurt me. It's Memory even though it should be Dreamed

Crescent Minor
>>149048865

That 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.

Taryn

Can I vote for the third option of "oh dear gods no please make it stop"?

Crescent Minor
>>149063240

It 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!" 🐈‍⬛🐈😇🐱🥺🥹

Katie Gunn

I 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?

Shiny Skunk

I'm gonna need Susan Boyle to cover the other one just to really cement my decision.

Zero

I’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.

Joel Thomas

I feel like the Philomena Cunk account must be kicking themselves for not saving that 3rd party vote for this week.

Tori Schmidt

Le Miz is the better show, Memory is the better song

Cameron Wiggins

Maybe 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.

FunFawn21

Which is worse: Tom Hooper's Cats or the performance that inspired Tom Hooper to *think* he could do Cats?

Flag

First 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)

Nir revel

You 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

Evan Z.

I Dreamed a Dream is one of many great songs in Les Mis. Memory is the only good song in Cats.

wjZephyr

As 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?

Angela

Gah 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 😬

pearlgreylatte

voted 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

also 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

Michael Murphy

Ok, 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.

Mallory W

Do 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.

Alex Weir

I 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.

Mara Copland

As 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.)

Dan Hogg
>>149017493

Resulting in the immortal Roger Waters quote: "But I think that life's too long to bother with suing Andrew fucking Lloyd Webber."

Angela
>>149792729

I would love to see The Hip matched up against Midnight Oil actually(colony vs colony XD)

Mara Copland
>>149792729

I’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.

Angela
>>149792729

I 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?

Josh Beatty

I'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.

Max Urai
>>148975453

Which would it be - Send in the clowns? Ladies who lunch? No-one is alone?

House Chaos
>>149017350

We can still hope for "Chant" from Hadestown vs. "The Duel" from Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812!

Ben
>>148975453

Ooh 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

Cole Cox

A 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.

SammiSamSam

I (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'"

Steve Harper

Voting 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.

Austin F

voting 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"

Lazurit

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.