How did you interest in musical theater start?

[mormonsandglindas]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 9:20pm

I've been liking musicals sing those little Disney sing along videos I had on vhs from the 90's. Guessing my love for musicals started from Disney?! Haha.

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 9:42pm

First, mom and her best friend took me, and her best friend's daughter...who I had a little crush on...to a matinee of "Hello, Dolly!" At the Shubert in Boston. Pearl Bailey was Dolly...still my favorite cast album of the show!

Second, as a birthday present, I went to see "Follies" at the Colonial in Boston with my father when Yvonne De Carlo was still singing "Boy, Can That Boy Foxtrot"...right before "I'm Still Here" replaced it.

My father was mortified by the language and subject matter of "Follies," but I was hooked. I got to tell Sondheim this story many, many years later when I was working with him on a project.

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 9:49pm

When I first heard operas and operettas way back when.

[BOM]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 9:52pm

Mom took me to see a college production of Oklahoma when I was 6. The rest is history.

Updated On: 4/25/16 at 09:52 PM

[Fantod]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 10:18pm

I am curious to know what some of the older members of the board saw for their first professional stage production. As cliche as it is, mine was Wicked. Still enjoy the show for what it is, but Next to Normal probably lit the fire for me.

Updated On: 4/25/16 at 10:18 PM

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 10:21pm

Hello, Fantod... I think my post qualifies me as older... Ha ha. God knows at least I was there, but I'm here... I'm still here!

Updated On: 4/25/16 at 10:21 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 10:25pm

In High School, pre tdf or tkts or maybe even twofers , tickets were distributed to the school system to fill seats and foster interest in theater. They were distributed free of charge to students. First show was either Oliver or Here's Love

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 10:31pm

Roxy, I'm just discovering Here's Love through Apple Music. Those were the days, but I still think the best is yet to come...

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 10:40pm

Fantod said: "I am curious to know what some of the older members of the board saw for their first professional stage production. As cliche as it is, mine was Wicked. Still enjoy the show for what it is, but Next to Normal probably lit the fire for me.

 

"

Who you calling "older"?!

My interest in musical theater began with the films of THE KING AND I (in revival; I'm not THAT old!) and THE MUSIC MAN. My hometown didn't have a professional theater until I was 12.

The first professional show I saw was a pre-Broadway tryout of MARY, a musical version of MARY OF SCOTLAND (i.e., following Anderson more than Schiller). It starred Inga Swenson and John Callum. They were great, but there was a distinct disconnect between the "royal drama" dialogue and bursting into song.

The first professional show I saw that anyone here would know was Ethel Merman's 1967 tour of CALL ME, MADAM. I skipped lunch for several weeks to save up for 2 tix (somebody had to drive me) at $1.95 each. Sat on the very side of the very back row. Heard every word Merman sang.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 11:11pm

Here's Love had Craig Stevens who played Peter Gunn on tv. Unless he had a number not recorded,I do not remember him being in any musical number. In  a supporting role was  Fred Gwyne of The Munsters. A member of the chorus was a very young unknown  named Michael Bennett.

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 11:20pm

My family is a huge family of athletes, so theater was just not part of my world as a kid. But, one of the earliest memories I have of watching a movie is West Side Story. The overture with all of the colors over the outline of the cityscape. I just never forgot it. Then, when I was in 8th grade,and had danced intermittently up to that point, my dad played Officer Krupke in the production at the high school he coached and taught at. Looking back now, it was a terrible production. But I was completely enthralled and knew I needed to be up there. Musical Theater had been my passion ever since. 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 11:28pm

Mr. R, since we are talking about memories from more than a half-century ago, I hope you will believe I am merely correcting the history, not playing "gotcha" with your post.

According to the original cast recording of HERE'S LOVE (at least as now available for download at iTunes), Mr. Stevens sang "My Wisb" with Valerie Lee, "Look, Little Girl" (his only identified solo), and "She Hadda Go Back", a quartet. He has pitch problems (despite the recourse to retakes) and talk sings through his up tempo numbers (which only makes his pitch worse). But he croons "My Wish" in a nice baritone.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 11:30pm

My mom used to dance ballet, so since before I can remember I've been to the theater and backstage, as well as inundated with generally theatrical classical music, but I can't remember exactly when that transitioned to musicals. One of the first albums I remember actively listening to was a set of very cheaply recorded Broadway standards, and I was sunk from there. Sometimes I feel like I grew up in a house that spoke two languages at once - English, and music.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 11:41pm

I am almost THAT old and I became addicted to musicals because between about the ages of seven and eleven my mother had OBC albums from "Golden Era" shows constantly playing on the mono. My father was a sales manager in Manhattan and often entertained customers with "dinner and a show."

But I was not one-dimensional. I was probably the only nine year old in the country whose two favorite pieces of music were "The Carousel Waltz" and "Hound Dog."

[JoseLee_]

Posted: 4/25/16 at 11:54pm

I had the Wicked cast recording not a big deal but then I cried my ass off seeing Idina at the Tony awards on youtube. Defying Gravity was something I needed to hear as a closeted gay. Another major spark was when I saw youtube videos like "my playbill collection" then I thought wow that a really cool thing to collect because not only you have experience but its also a keepsake. I've gone to the theatre over 200 times since 2013. I own every single tony winning best musical, score, revival cast recording and same for the west end, same for grammy best musical theatre album and in total i own over 5k cast recordings. I'm obsessed. I mean casually obsessed because I still have a life.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 4:15am

My earliest memories of musical in any form was the late '90s TV versions of ANNIE and CINDERELLA. My family would also rent VHS tapes of musical films like MY FAIR LADY, FIDDLER, SINGIN IN THE RAIN etc. from the library.

I then discovered the Cast Album CD section of the Library, which included such albums as OKLAHOMA, A CHORUS LINE, MISS SAIGON and SUNSET BOULEVARD. From there my knowledge of cast albums expanded into the obsession that continues to today.

I wouldn't actually see my first professional production until the tour of IN THE HEIGHTS came through Pittsburgh in 2010. Six years and it feels like a lifetime ago.

[jo]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 5:01am

Long, long before I had a chance to go to America ( NYC) and England ( London), I remember being so pleased watching the old movie musicals from Rodgers and Hammerstein.  Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, King and I, State Fair, and Sound of Music.    When I was finally introduced to the legit stage on both sides of the pond,  I realized there was even more excitement and pleasure watching musicals on stage, although I never lost the fondness ( and admiration!) for those early movie musicals. Of those original movie musicals,  I had actually been able to see a stage version of a few (Oklahoma! with Hugh Jackman in London, South Pacific in two separate productions at Lincoln Center, King and I in London with Elaine Paige). 

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 5:15am

Perhaps it was when I saw the Lincoln Center production of "Carousel" with John Raitt in 1965 (We went on vacation to see the NY World's Fair - I was 9). Or it may have been the cast recordings and soundtracks I listened to continuously. (Carousel, The Music Man, Hans Christian Anderson). Yet, my family seldom went to stage productions. I loved being in shows in High School, yet since it wasn't popular amongst my friends thereafter, I never caught on to attending in my 20s and 30s. 

In 1996, I went to NY and my first show was "Rent." That year we had lost about four people, including our closest friend, to AIDS. It was perhaps the most moving experience I had encountered in a theatre. Between that show and the others (Nathan Lane "Forum" and "A Delicate Balance" with Stritch & Grizzard) I was hooked. In a few weeks we'll be in NY for the 16th time in the 20 years since.

Updated On: 4/26/16 at 05:15 AM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 6:31am

My chorus instructor and my drama teacher in junior high school instilled in me a love for musical theater. I recently found my chorus teacher through Facebook, she is currently working at NYU and I sent her a message letting her know the impact she and my drama teacher made in my life. She rememberd me and said she would forward my message to my drama teacher. 

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 7:13am

The first show that I ever saw was a tour of Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby when I was 4 or 5 years old. I went with my grandparents (if I remember correctly, the tickets were a gift of some sort - whether it was a birthday, Christmas, etc, I have no idea) and I was completely enthralled with the whole thing. I loved the idea of people getting up on a stage and singing and dancing and telling a story in such a way. And of course, being so young, the flying around the stage in this particular show seemed like real magic to me. 

 

In second grade, my mom and stepdad took me to see a family friend's daughter in a community theatre production of Annie - she was in the ensemble of orphans. Until this point, I never realized that regular people could be a part of theatre as well, and it didn't have to be a big, expensive production to be good (although, this production of Annie was not. I didn't care at the time). As soon as the show was over, I got my mom to get audition information for this theatre's upcoming shows, and I got cast as the Prince's Royal Grand Duke in an all-children's production of Cinderella that they put on. This sparked my love of performing, and I've been doing it ever since. 

Over time, performing in shows led me to become aware of other shows that were playing on Broadway (mostly from the savvy theatre folk talking about them) and I started purchasing cast albums and watching movie adaptions of musicals, and from there, my love of this art grew and grew and put me where I am today, and it even still continues to grow. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 7:36am

Wicked in Chicago did it for me.

[StephieElise]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 8:08am

Well, I attended Les Mis in the womb, so probably from there...

I auditioned for my first school musical in year 8 because I was the enthusiastic kid who was into everything and some of my friends had been in the musical the year before (which made it a bit awkward when I got in and they all didn't). I then really enjoyed it so continued doing theatre through high school including theatre studies in year 11 & 12. When I was 17 my class saw Wicked and I became crazy obsessed with it, saw it a couple more times over the next year and then a few months later saw Hairspray and realised that there was this whole amazing world of musicals out there for me to explore and I haven't stopped since!

[StephieElise]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 8:08am

Well, I attended Les Mis in the womb, so probably from there...

I auditioned for my first school musical in year 8 because I was the enthusiastic kid who was into everything and some of my friends had been in the musical the year before (which made it a bit awkward when I got in and they all didn't). I then really enjoyed it so continued doing theatre through high school including theatre studies in year 11 & 12. When I was 17 my class saw Wicked and I became crazy obsessed with it, saw it a couple more times over the next year and then a few months later saw Hairspray and realised that there was this whole amazing world of musicals out there for me to explore and I haven't stopped since!

[sarahb22]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 8:17am

When I was 10 years old our grade school had all the classes do selections from musicals and such.  My class did "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", which I found kinda meh, but they let us watch the other classes rehearse and one of them did selections from "H.M.S. Pinafore".  The  moment they started up with "We sail the ocean blue..." I was hooked.  I never knew you could tell a story through music like that.  Thanks to my early obsession with Gilbert and Sullivan I was probably the only fourth grader with a vocabulary that included six-syllable words.

Updated On: 4/26/16 at 08:17 AM

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 8:58am

Evita in high school in 1984 , it was something that we listened too in English class. Been in love ever since .