What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Mary_Ethel
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#0What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:21pm
Mine was when my Mother took me to see Ethel Merman in a revival of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN.
Merm, the score, Bruce Yarnell [what a hunk!]--it all seemed so MAGICAL!
I knew right then and there I was destined to be a member of a Theater Message Board someday.
What was YOUR first exposure to Professional Theater?
"I say YOU'RE the CUTEST one. No, I say YOU'RE the CUTEST One. And we go on like that from dawn to three."
#1re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:22pmI went and saw the touring group of POTO in 2000 and that started my love of the theatre.
"They're eating her and then they're going to eat me. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!" -Troll 2
GovernorSlaton
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/14/04
#2re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:23pmPeter Pan, I believe.
#3re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:24pmOBC A Chorus Line
"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
Conan O'Brien
#4re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:30pm
Professional - a dinner theatre production of Man of La Mancha (did absolutely nothing for me).
First Broadway show - Annie, January 15, 1978.
Hey Dottie!
Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany
broadwayguy2
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/03
#5re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:30pm
Cathy Rigby's tour of Peter Pan back in the 80s.
The Grovers Corners Yenta
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/3/04
#6re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:30pmI was first exposed in Hair. But then the audience kept screaming......." PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON!"
"Friends are the people you chose as family."....Me.
#7re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:32pm
Oh yenta, you are a hoot! 
"They're eating her and then they're going to eat me. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!" -Troll 2
gettinhep
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/9/04
#8re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:40pm
I had a very generous Great Aunt who took me to the theatre from the time I was about five. The first night at the theatre that I can recall in any detail was actually G&S. 'HMS Pinafore'
I believe that everyone on stage was fully clothed that night!
'Try not to have a good time...this is supposed to be educational.' - Lucy Van Pelt
#9re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:42pmA production of "Taming of the Shrew" at our local Shakespeare festival. My first Broadway show was RENT, though.
"A little humility wouldn't hurt."
--Ellie, Constantine-Hellblazer, "Dangerous Habits"
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#10re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:44pmOriginal Broadway production of OLIVER - 1964. I was 4 years old.
#11re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:48pmBeauty and the Beast when I was six!
I get lost, unless, of course, I'm getting found.
Broadway Star Joined: 12/31/69
#12re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:48pm
Dinner at Sardi's and A CHORUS LINE at the Shubert....Magical!
EVIE
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/12/04
#13re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 7:58pmLes Miz, 1997 in London.
#14re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 8:11pmThe first time I went to our local theater (which I now work at)
David walked into the valley
With a stone clutched in his hand
He was only a boy
But he knew someone must take a stand
There will always be a valley
Always mountains one must scale
There will always be perilous waters
Which someone must sail
-Into the Fire
Scarlet Pimpernel
Corine2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/14/03
#15re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 8:18pm
Childrens Theater:
The Paper Bag Players
I don't remember what my first Broadway show was.
I thought it was A Chorus Line but actually think it was Peter Pan.
Updated On: 11/10/04 at 08:18 PM
#16re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 8:22pmGuys & Dolls on Broadway when I was really young.
I have my books and my poetry to protect me...
MaTakeALookAtMe
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/13/04
#17re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/10/04 at 8:25pmLocal theater production of Annie
#18re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/11/04 at 4:55amcats... and yes, on broadway.
#19re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/11/04 at 8:50am
First show I remember seeing: CAROUSEL, Hartsville, SC, 1969. No, I take that back. It was PETER PAN, Junior League of Champaign, IL, 1965.
First professional show I remember seeing: I don't remember.
First Broadway show: PIPPIN, 1976.
#20re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/11/04 at 9:05am
Professional...a regional production of Pirates of Penzance
Broadway... Beauty and the Beast in August 1995
And hang on, when did you win the discus?
#21re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/11/04 at 9:08amMy earliest recollection (as I've stated somewhere on these boards before) was a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe..which mesmerized me ( I must have been somewhere between 6 and 10 years old) The sight of the faerie rising from the swamp covered in moss and dripping wet when the Queen of the Faeries pardon's her will stay with me my entire life. I fell in love with the magic of the stage at that moment and have never lost my love for it.
"I don't really get the ending,all i can go with is when after several months,Judith saw Pat sang,and later she kissed him on the toilet,after that the story back to where Pat went down from the stage after he'd sung,and he went to the italian lady.I just don't get it,what Judith exatcly meant when he kissed Pat that she had seen,and did Pat end up together with The Italian Lady?Please help me,thank u very much!"
Quote from someone on IMDB in reference to a movie he/she didn't understand. Such grammar!
#22re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/11/04 at 9:16am
professional theater - A Winter's Tale at ACT in San Francisco
musical - a touring production of The Music Man with Dick van Dyke at the Golden Gate theater in San Francisco
Broadway - Beauty and the Beast in May 1994
my own credits???
Mr. Paravicini in The Mousetrap - October 1979
Tony Brockhurst in The Boyfriend - May 1980
Valere in Tartuffe - October 1980 (cancelled due to death of director)
Updated On: 11/11/04 at 09:16 AM
#23re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/11/04 at 9:17amA high school chorus trip to Boston to see A CHORUS LINE.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#24re: What Was Your First Exposure to Professional Theater?
Posted: 11/11/04 at 10:54am
First local theatre production: Fiddler (I don't even know how old I was, but I remember seeing several local productions of Fiddler w/ my mom and grandmother. My grandmother used to be the house mother in a boarding house for young women who were going to college in NH, and one of the women that lived there was playing Fruma Sarah in one of the productions we saw. She scared the CRAP out of me when I saw her still in her costume and make-up after the show!
My first touring show was Cats in Lowell, Mass. I must have been 6 or so, and I remember being really pissed that we were in the balcony at the beginning when all the cats were running up and down the aisles! Funny, I don't remember anything else about the show...hmmm...
And my first Broadway show was Les Miz when I was 13. That was what really hooked me. After that first trip we started coming to NY to see Broadway shows more often then we'd go to Boston to see touring shows (even though that was only an hour away from good ole Beantown).
But when did New Hampshire become--Such a backward wasteland of seatbelt hating crazies?...I mean, only 40 people actually live there. The others are just visitors who come for the tax-free liquor and three inches of novelty coastline. John Hodgeman on The Daily Show (1-30-07)
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