I updated my "shows I've seen" database today and realized that I have ALMOST seen a show in every single Broadway house.
While I have been inside the theater before, I haven't seen a show there: the Majestic.
Perhaps it's time to finally bite the bullet and go see PHANTOM?
It's kind of hysterical that in my 20+ years of theatre-going, PHANTOM has always been there, in that same theater, and I have *still* yet to go see that damn show.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
All but one. I have never seen Phantom, which has been playing since before I was born, so I've never been to a show at the Majestic.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I actually have quite a few that I've never been in (yes, the Majestic is among them), but I've also realized that for a while I happened to just be going back to the same theatre for a different show.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
I have been in every theatre that is currently on Broadway and a lot of theatres that have either been taken down for the Marriott Marquis or have been turned into churches. This is in my yikes 37yrs of theatre going. I started at 10.
"I hope your Fanny is bigger than my Peter."
Mary Martin to Ezio Pinza opening night of Fanny.
Sometimes, if I am having trouble deciding which of two shows to see, I'll pick based on a theatre I have yet to see a show in. I'm about halfway as well, though I've been in some of the bigger musical houses multiple times. And I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that the Majestic will probably be the last one I see a show in...I refuse to go until I see another show there other than Phantom.
"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."-Stephen Sondheim
I'm at about the halfway point (I've been to 18 theatres over 22 shows), but for what it's worth, it took 16 shows before I doubled a theatre for the first time.
I've only doubled 4 theatres: BOOTH (Next To Normal and HIGH) PALACE (Beauty And The Beast and PRISCILLA) JACOBS (God Of Carnage and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) HELEN HAYES (Next Fall and Colin Quinn: Long Story Short)
Check out my eBay page for sales on Playbills!!
www.ebay.com/usr/missvirginiahamm
Booth Brooks Atkinson Ethel Barrymore Gerald Schoenfeld Lunt-Fontanne Belasco Circle in the Square Lyceum Minskoff Stephen Sondheim American Airlines Bernard B. Jacobs Cort Helen Hayes Majestic (someday) Music Box Samuel J. Friedman Walter Kerr
I don't live in New York so...yeah. Seems like I've found myself in the Imperial and the Palace more than once.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
--Cartman: South Park
ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
I've been in many, but not all of the Broadway theatres, and like others have said, some that are no longer used. I miss the Mark Hellinger.
I saw RENT in a touring production and have never been to that theatre, although I think I've been to all of the other theatres that usually house musicals.
Ray is the author of the Brad Frame mystery series, and two suspense novels. He is also the author of a one man play based on Ben Franklin. http://www.rayflynt.com
Interesting idea. Looking through my own list, I've seen shows in every Broadway theater except the Minskoff. Can't bear the thought of seeing The Lion King. Updated On: 4/3/11 at 06:06 PM
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
I'm pretty sure the only ones currently operating I haven't been in are the Brooks Atkinson and the August Wilson...not too bad considering how young I am, haha.
^^ There IS a good show in the MINSKOFF: it's called THE LION KING.
And please GO SEE THE PHANTOM!!! You won't crumble and die and turn into a Phan Gurl... You will have completed your list of theatres and seen an amazing show.
That said, I have yet to get into the Nederlander.
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
^ So you recommend the worst show on Broadway, The Lion King, but you haven't seen a show in the Nederlander which have had shows a lot better than the crap at the Minskoff.
Wow - you all make me feel so new to theater. I've only been in 13 of the "actual" Broadway theaters.
I don't understand all of this Anti-Phantom. I understand many don't love ALW (I sort of agree), and the show isn't incredible (certainly too touristy), but there are plenty of cheap discount seats. Is the boycott of Phantom based on principle? I've seen it 3 times, and find myself liking it less with each time, but still, it's made musical theater history and when it finally closes, wouldn't a lover/worshipper of theater want to have least said they saw it?
Scratch and claw for every day you're worth!
Make them drag you screaming from life, keep dreaming
You'll live forever here on earth.