I'm closing my eyes now.
I'm six years old and already a big musical theater fan. My parents decided to take me to see a real Broadway show when we were in New York (having seen the opening night of Camelot at the world premiere in Toronto just weeks before.) My folks, who were professional show folks were thrilled I was taking interest in the stage.
So we saw "Gypsy."
I can still hear the overture. It changed, well, probably shaped my entire life. (My parents used to say I called Merman "the loud lady.")
There is no possible way that anything can top the original cast recording for me. This was the original musicians, playing the music exactly as they did every night at the Broadway Theater. And damn, were they good.
Imagine what opening night must have been like. Seventeen hundred people hearing those song, those amazing melodis for the very first time. Nobody had ever heard "Everything's Coming Up Roses" before. It was totally fresh and new. What must that have been like?
I wonder which song people hummed on the way out. Probably "Everything's Coming Up Roses" or maybe "Funny."
I know what I remembered as we left. What would you have remembered
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