What started your love of the theater?
What started your love of the theater?
What started your love of the theater?#0
Posted: 10/18/04 at 6:40pmI have been on this board about three months now and I wonder how evryone's interest in the theater started. I see so much love and dedication here. For me, my parents always played records from musicals since I was a little baby. My mother used to sing " I'm Getting Married in The Morning" to me when I was a toddler. I saw my first live performance when I was about 4 years old when our high did Annie Get Your Gun. I had to be carried out crying every time a character shot a gun. It was the music that always influenced me. My first Broadway performance was seeing Ethel Merman in Hello Dolly when I was about 12. I WAS HOOKED. It was simply magic to me and I have loved the theater ever since. What makes it even more special is sharing that passion with my niece and nephew.
re: What started your love of the theater?#1
Posted: 10/18/04 at 6:43pmSince I was a baby, my parents have always played showtunes. When I was 2, I knew most of Guys & Dolls. By 4, I knew every word of JCS, and could act/choreograph it out. I started performing when I was 3, and have been doing so ever since. I really didn't love Broadway shows and such until I was in 6th grade. I always went to shows, but I didn't become obsessed until a friend lent me the RENT OBCR. I became literally obsessed with it, and found many new recordings. So, one thing led to another, and here I am, spending all the time I can on a Broadway message board. But, to answer the question in one sentence, my parents' love for it sparked my love for it.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/4/03
re: What started your love of the theater?#2
Posted: 10/18/04 at 6:44pmok now don't laugh!! when i was a baby, i would watch sesame street and i would try to sing and dance along. i'm not sure if that's considered 'theatre', but yeah. after i saw 'grease' it was all over.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/14/04
re: What started your love of the theater?#3
Posted: 10/18/04 at 6:44pm
I always liked to act (First role; Russian Soldier #2 in Fiddler 
), but I just recently began my love affair with the theater probably a year ago. I believe my first cast recordings were RENT and Wicked.
My taste has matured rapidly.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/16/04
re: What started your love of the theater?#4
Posted: 10/18/04 at 6:47pmI want to say CATS, but that didn't get me into theatre, it just got me into CATS. Um...probably the National Tour of Phantom of the Opera. That was incredible. I was so scared before the show started, because it sounded scary. It was fabulous.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
re: What started your love of the theater?#5
Posted: 10/18/04 at 6:49pmIn high school, in the mid 60's , unsold tickets were given away to students @ public schools in NYC. This was prior to TKTS. I got some & the rest, as they say, is history
re: What started your love of the theater?#6
Posted: 10/18/04 at 6:50pm
I think it started when I was a very little boy and I saw Mary Martin fly into the home of the Darlings. Next I watched Julie Andrews powder her nose while sitting on a cloud. Not long after that my mother bought me the OBC recording of CAMELOT.
Need I say more?
re: What started your love of the theater?#7
Posted: 10/18/04 at 6:51pmI forgot to add that my very first play was in kindergarten and I played an old woman who churned butter in a boot. I really can't remember the play. However, when it came time for curtain calls, I refused to leave the stage when I heard the applause.
re: What started your love of the theater?#8
Posted: 10/18/04 at 6:54pm
Well, my parents always borrowed musicals from Blockbuster, so I grew up with Sound of Music and jazz like that. I wanted to be "The Other Von Trapp (sp?) Kid" at age three. Heheh.
Then, when I was six and we moved to Queens, I saw Beauty and the Beast with my mom. That pretty much made me love musical theater.
re: What started your love of the theater?#9
Posted: 10/18/04 at 7:02pmI went to this place for my birthday where they put on shows, when I was 5 or 6, and I was Belle in "Beauty and the Beast" which made me realize how much fun I had performing, and then I saw Rebecca Luker in "The Music Man" when I was 13, and Rebecca became my idol, as well as the show looking like so much fun and Rebecca's voice inspiring me to give performing a shot.
Leading Actor Joined: 2/20/04
re: What started your love of the theater?#10
Posted: 10/18/04 at 8:02pmMy dad always used to play Les Miserables in his car for me when I was little. I loved Cosette, and felt sorry for Gavroche, and didn't care about Javert when I was about 5. And then it sort of represented my growing up as I learned to sing Eponine's parts, and later, Fantines. It was always important to me. I saw a lot of shows with my family, and loved them. I knew most of ALW's work by 5th grade, type obsession. Every school bio project: ALW.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
re: What started your love of the theater?#11
Posted: 10/18/04 at 9:42pmI was born with "theater in my blood"--and for many years my physician thought it was merely slow circulation.
re: What started your love of the theater?#12
Posted: 10/18/04 at 10:02pm
To make a long story semi-short:
The first show I saw was Les Miserables. I didn't really understand the story, just the fact that I wanted to play Young Cosette and eventually Eponine. I loved the music but I was young and it wasn't exactly the most entertaining thing ever. Then I saw Grease, which sort of showed me that musical theatre can also be fun and interesting. I was testing out some recordings I bought and fell deeply in love with the highlughts of Rent, I went and saw it, loved it even more, and have since been 'following' the OBC to the other shows they are/were in. I was searching online for news of the movie casting when I stumbled upon BWW, which over time has prompted me to absolutely love shows I never would have even thought of seeing/listening to 
re: What started your love of the theater?#13
Posted: 10/18/04 at 10:06pm
I've always loved show tunes and have always owned cast recordings, but just a couple years ago my interest in Les Mis was rejuvenated through the performance of one of it's touring actors (although I've been a LM fan for as long as I can remember). I found out more about his/her career, which led me to RENT. I bought RENT, loved it, came here and to other Broadway websites, and I was hooked. Simple as that.
re: What started your love of the theater?#14
Posted: 10/18/04 at 10:08pm
My mom. She exposed me to all of the amazing cultural opportunities in New York City when I was really, really young. She took my brother and I to see a lot of theatre as kids.... the rest is history, I suppose!
re: What started your love of the theater?#15
Posted: 10/18/04 at 10:21pmMy mom watched The Sound of Music with me over and over when I was little. I loved it, but I didn't really get into broadway until I saw RENT last fall. Before that, I just thought all musicals were quaint and cute. I didn't realize what kind of a variety was out there.
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/28/04
re: What started your love of the theater?#16
Posted: 10/18/04 at 10:29pm
Combination of family members when I was little
My dad used to sing Dreamgirls to me and my Mom and Grandma are *HUGE* ALW fans and they used to play those recordings all the time.
The three of them took me to see Cats when I was 7 and the rest is history
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/14/03
re: What started your love of the theater?#17
Posted: 10/18/04 at 10:31pm
It was because of my Dad.
My Dad was very gifted as a musician. He had a great ear and a natural voice. He loved Muscials, Operas and took me at a very young age.
His passion was The Met. He started taking me to childrens opera at age 4.
The first thing he took me to was Puppet theater and I adored it.
I kept asking when we could go again. My favorite at age three was the Paper Bag Players and Free To Be You And Me.
I was really in love from that day on.
My Dad would take me to shows at least twice a month. It was our special time together. My Mother also loves theater, but I always preferred that time with my Dad.
He sang Opera to me and made me want to sing.
My Dad was very special.
He took me to the First Forbidden Broadway and twice a year we continued going. My Dad passed away in 2001, to this day I continue our tradition at Forbidden Broadway.
If my Dad knew I interviewed Gerard Alessandrini, he would be really moved.
Updated On: 10/18/04 at 10:31 PM
re: What started your love of the theater?#18
Posted: 10/18/04 at 10:34pm
Four Words:
1) Phantom
2) of
3) the
4) Opera
It was the first musical that I heard (that was not from a movie) and fell instantly in love with it. It was also the first show I saw. It was in 2000 and my parents took me for my High School graduation present. I had a smile on my face the whole time. I loved every minute of it.
re: What started your love of the theater?#19
Posted: 10/19/04 at 12:03amMy dad heard about auditions for a play at a local community theatre when I was about 8. I don't know why he thought I would like it but he did so I auditioned and I was hooked, I don't know by what, but I was hooked. And 11 years later here I still am. Also now that I look back on it I can clearly remember Annie, Cats, Phantom, Les Mis, and Miss Saigon being played (along with lots of Motown,James Taylor, and Earth,Wind,and Fire) on Saturday mornings when the t.v. was not allowed to be on while we cleaned when I was little. So I guess the love of musicals has been programmed into me in a sublime way as a child.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/1/04
re: What started your love of the theater?#20
Posted: 10/19/04 at 12:11am
My junior high school drama teacher. He cast me as Conrad Birdie in our production of "Bye Bye Birdie". He then took our drama class to see "Dreamgirls" when it opened on Broadway, not once but twice. I was also exposed to the movie version of "West Side Story", and that's how my love for musical theatre began.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/26/04
re: What started your love of the theater?#21
Posted: 10/19/04 at 12:20amWhen I was in third grade I won a school lottery to go see a play in downtown Washington DC. Me and one other student from the elementary school got to go. It was a double production: Edgar Allan Poe's The Telltale Heart, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Telltale Heart was a monologue with one actor and a couple of silent extra players. The actor was so incredible and moving and passionate that I decided that theatre was where I should be. That short story still holds immense meaning for me. I have one of the early prints of it framed in my apartment.
re: What started your love of the theater?#22
Posted: 10/19/04 at 1:48am
My parents always took me to shows in the city as a kid. I got to see most of the famous ones...
but Taboo really jump kicked my love for Broadway.
I finally saw that not all of Broadway was conventional and "family"-ish like that show...about the 2 witches... hmm..
I found productions that challenge the mind, mock society, make a statement and I fell in love! :)
re: What started your love of the theater?#23
Posted: 10/19/04 at 3:11am
what fun thread! the first professional show i saw was "a secret garden" n'tl tour with audra mcdonald. unfortunatly, i was six, and i fell asleep. when i was seven i saw the n'tl tour of camelot, and thought the score was pretty rockin. so my mom bought be the cast recording (on cassette! doesn't that date me?). she and my pop were interested in theatre, as in they had a few cast recordings, which they played a lot, but it was more incedental. my eldest sister digged shows so she would ask my mom to take us to dallas to fair park to see the touring shows. i thought that was just fine except for the part where i had to dress in itchy clothes. my attitude became more positive when i was nine and saw caroulsel with patrick wilson. the score intranced me, patrick was hot, and the show blew me away. this was the show that made me want to be involved in theatre. when i was 11 i began my streisand obsession, which helped the broadway obsession grow in a way. i went through an andrew lloyd webber phase, a gerswin phase, a sondheim phase (still in it a bit, but after four biographies and all the cast recordings, there's only so much to learn). my tastes matured after the alw time, i have to say, but 12 year olds aren't known for having great taste anyway. i like big production shows, then i got real. the first broadway show i saw actually *on* broadway was annie get your gun w/ bernadette (who i was majorly crushing on) in 8th grade. i begged my dad to send us to ny (where he went all the time but never thought *I* might like to go). i was such a nerd though, i gotta tell you. i cried when i met bernadette. the show was great, of course, but by then the album was one of hundreds in my collection. no one asked for this detailed story but you get to hear it anyway. i'm just conceited enough to think you care.
latah playahs
Joined: 12/31/69
re: What started your love of the theater?#24
Posted: 10/19/04 at 10:34am
My brothers are 18 and 17 years older than me. They were theater people in high school and I guess I figured I would be too.
Then I discovered that sometimes you get to see boobies back stage and I was hooked.
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