First Broadway Show? — Page 4

The Lion King
I was four years-old

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National Tour of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown in the 68 or 69 in New Haven

First on-Broadway show - APPLAUSE with Anne Baxter (Bacall had left the week earlier), Penny Fuller, Lee Roy Reams, Bonnie Frankline

Two weeks after that -- COMPANY with Larry Kert's understudy, Jane Russell and Barbara Barrie

Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (starring David Cassidy of all people) in the early 80's.

I don't remember much about it except for the fact that I expected the theater to be huge and it wasn't that big at all. (The Royale Theater, maybe?)

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Crazy For You - 1993

They're Playing Our Song. In my defense, I arrived in New York City on a Monday, and that was the only musical playing Mondays at that time.

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1973: Pippin.

I could try that old chestnut about being a babe in arms: - )

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First show -- I'm not sure, but I think it was a dinner-theater "Singin' in the Rain."
First show not in a dinner theater: "Les Miserables."
First Broadway show: "Crazy for You," January 1993. My dad took me. It was my first New York trip, and we had the best time. I'll never forget it.

CATS 1st national tour (in Chicago, 1985 or 86) saw it 3X

On Broadway:
Starlight Express (1987)
Les Miz (1987) original cast!

Hey, why defend THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG? I think it's a hilariously good show with really fun music.

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Les Miz - I hardly understood the lyrics then, but the music is good enough.

Updated On: 5/25/06 at 12:26 PM

The very first work of musical theatre is generally credited as being "The Black Crook" in 1866 (though MANY debate this). "The Black Crook" initially was simply a rather mediocre melodrama which didn't look to be anything special. As it was about to open, the Academy of Music which was to house a French ballet troupe burned down, stranding the company and their sets. Somebody got the bright idea to add the ballet and sets to the melodrama (along with music for the troupe to dance to) and voila, musical theatre was born. "The Black Crook" proved to be a huge hit with audiences running over a year (totally unheard of in those days) and resulted in lots of imitators.

There is no way to determine the first Broadway show, by the way. There were vaudeville, burlesque, pantomime and minstrel shows as well as productions of non-musical melodrama and comedies going back to the early 1700s.

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I always thought it was silly crediting "The Black Crook" as the "first" musical. The Magic Flute is as much of a "musical" as The Black Crook is.

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First Broadway Show: Show Boat Revival July 1996 But I was 10 and didn't know the importance of the show and musical theatre...I think I fell asleep sometime but I do distinctly remember "Ol' Man River" and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." I'd love to see a production of it and watch the entire thing. :-P

Cheers,

Christopher

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