Can a show be your favorite if you have not seen it?

i.e. Just listened to the cast recording a million times?

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I suppose it would mean that the music is your favorite...not the show. I guess if you know enough about the show. Still, I wouldn't call a show my favorite unless I'd seen it.

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It can, but you still don't really know what you're talking about if you haven't seen it.

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Sure, I mean look at "Man in Chair."

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I agree with TheaterFrenzy, especially reading the libretto. That's really important most of the time to understand the context of the songs.

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well before i really actually SAW Sweeney Todd I was obsessed with the music and it became my favorite and then when i finally saw it, it blew me away and i loved it even more

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Yes of course you can!

For many of us less-fortunate who do not live at/near Broadway, our first exposure to musical theatre is by listening to the cast album.

And, with the magic of theatre, the music and story can carry us away. Others can find online media (songs, videos, photos) of the production to learn more. Or may frequent their library or bookstore to read up on the show, creative team, and other information.

I entered the world of loving musical theatre thanks to PBS Great Performances broadcasts. I saw "Sweeney Todd," "Contact," "Oklahoma!," and "Candide" on television before I'd ever seen a major Broadway production (or tour) in a theatre. It is because of the broadcasts that opened to the door to dozens of original cast recordings and I lived and loved through my iPod.

I knew what I loved and I new my favorites. And it was beautiful. So, by all means, find a devotion.

Updated On: 4/21/06 at 03:03 AM

Sometimes actually seeing a show on stage can either really improve your opinions of it (a lackluster score or a bad movie that comes across much better on stage) or be really disappointing. After all, you spend years imagining the show a certain way and then when you actually see it and it's not nearly up to what you saw in your mind's eye, well, that's disappointing. I can think of a few shows off hand where the ideal experience is just sitting in your room with the lights off listening to the cast recording.

So sure, I don't see why a show can't be your favorite if you haven't actually seen it, particularly if it is a show that relies on its score to tell the story. They change the books of shows all the time, and are always doing their own interpretation anyway. The music is pretty much the thing that stays the same.

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NYC, you just majorly contradicted yourself. First you said:
For the people that said no, you are wrong (but I'm glad you are so open minded...)
and then you said
A production of a show CANT be your favorite if you have not seen it.
Those two statements are opposites.

I don't think a show can be your favorite without seeing it. I know most people disagree, but I think you can say the music is your favorite, but not she show. You don't know until you see it all staged and everything.

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I think that the term "favorite show" is going to have different criteria for different people. And that's okay. It's unfair to tell someone in Kansas (or where ever...) that s/he can't have a favorite show because her circumstances don't allow for having seen a live production. Different life situations are going to have different parameters.

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I don't think that any one should not be allowed to love a show, especially in situations involving location or finances. If someone lives in Middle of Nowhere, USA and doesn't have the money to buy a ticket to see a show, what is so wrong with them falling in love with a cast recording?

I live outside of Detroit, I when it comes to seeing shows I have to rely on travel, tours and the internet. When someone asks, "What is your favorite show?" I usually answer with something I've already seen, and something that I haven't had the opportunity to see yet, but love the recording and such.

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Well I just tend to specify. "Cabaret" is my favorite show I haven't seen live..."Into the Woods" is my favorite show that I *have* seen live (although the 2 times I saw it live I was dissapointed at aspects of it, and to me the DVD is perfection.)

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I think that it can be. There are so many resources available online nowadways that you can know pretty much anything you'd want to know about a show. If you've memorized the cast recording, read the libretto and all of the reviews, etc., I think that you can get a pretty good idea of what a show is based on that stuff.