Best way to get to know a show??

[thesinger]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 1:02pm

Which do you think is the best way to get to know a show that you don't know anything about (if it is not on broadway anymore)? For example, listening to cast recordings, etc.

thanks!

[Weez]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 1:18pm

I start with a cast recording. If there are several available and there's no real price advantage to one, I'll ask here for a recommendation. I'll listen to it a couple of times, then put it away for a while. After a few weeks, I'll get one or two of the songs in my head and decide to get it out again. Then I'll listen obsessively and repeatedly. (Some shows I click with right away; most take a few weeks, some a few months, I still have yet to click with 'Into The Woods'.)

After listening to the cast recording enough times, I'll actually give the booklet a bit of a read. I might see what the Wikipedia has to say, and if there's an official site, I'll give that a read as well. If a libretto is available through normal bookshops and I still really like the cast recording by this stage, I'll order the lib through work. Around this point, I might consider buying a couple different cast recordings so I can get a fuller idea of how it could sound. Also if it's based on a novel, I might see if that's readily available at my bookshop too. Also I *might* look around for more dubious ways of observing the production as it was. *ahem*

And short of finding a production to go and see (or going crazy and ordering a ton of merchandise off eBay), that's pretty much everything I do when getting into a show. I just read my 'Grey Gardens' OOBCR booklet two nights ago, and I think I'm a month away from getting the OBCR. I think I've come about as far as I'm going to get with 'Assassins', short of actually being in the show itself (which I desperately want). It's fun. ^_^

Updated On: 6/19/07 at 01:18 PM

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 1:29pm

Cast recordings and a synopsis are always the way to go.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 1:32pm

Shake his or her hand and strike up a conversation.

Basically I just listen to the cast recording and read through the synopsis. I also read other people's reviews of the show.

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 1:36pm

If it is a show I'm not familar with, I will put the cast recording on in the background if I'm doing something else, like cooking dinner. I have patience issues and if I sit down and put it on my mp3 player, I will constantly be flipping between songs, and will not be able to get a sense of the show.

Updated On: 6/19/07 at 01:36 PM

[popular_elphie]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 1:43pm

Ask it out to dinner and a movie.

But really, listening to the cast recording, reading the libretto, looking it up on Wikipedia (including any actual truth there might be to it, like I did with Assassins), reading the synopsis and casting info on MTI.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 2:20pm

jump in bed and have your dirty way with it.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/19/07 at 2:24pm

Get the cast recording; locate a full synopsis; seek out a bootleg video if one exists; seek out a full show audio if a video doesn't exist; locate people who've seen the show.

Eat some pie afterwards. Preferrably blueberry.

[me2]

Posted: 6/20/07 at 7:47pm

I put the CD in, listen to a good number of the first songs, then go back and listen to them again. When I have a CD of a show I know very little about, I do that, sometimes waiting a few days to get to the last part of the CD. If needed, I then read over the synopsis to figure out what's going on before proceeding.
Broadway Blog: Confessions of a (Former) Stage Door Johnny

[bwaygal1]

Posted: 6/20/07 at 8:18pm

I actually did nothing before I went to see Grey Gardens-the first of many times. And it was quite effective. I did know a little because there had been a special on AMC right before I went-with the documentary and comments from the cast. (I didn't see the whole documentary-just a few quick bits in between doing other stuff.)
Then, I saw the show, let it wash over me...and well...the rest is history (I honestly didn't think I was going to like it that much, oddly enough-didn't quite know what to expect.). I did read the section in the playbill about the Edies when I went. That was it, though.

[thesinger]

Posted: 6/20/07 at 8:47pm

Thank you so much for your responses! I really appreciate your help.

[Broadwayboy2631]

Posted: 6/20/07 at 9:16pm

Take the show out on a couple of dates. If after that you feel completely comfortable, feel free to have rough nasty sex with the show. F**K the show's brains out, and have fun!

But seriously look at production photos online. It helps to have a visual when you're listening to the cast recording.