How did you interest in musical theater start? — Page 2

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

I grew up in the mid sixties. My mom constantly played soundtracks of My Fair Lady, South Pacific, the King and I and we would sing and dance together to those songs in the kitchen from when i was several years old(my mom was a great singer) Anytime a musical film wa to be on network tv it was a major event i my house.

Mom took us to see sound of music, mary poppins, dr doolittle, chitty chitty bang bang, the jungle book,and other musicals when they were first shown in movie theatres. We had all those records and played them constantly on our mini player (i still love the mary poppins and sound of music film recordings)

Mom and Dad had season tickets to the SF Civic Light Opera, which was shorenstein, so they saw all the national tours back when stars still toured. My dad loved Mary Martin. They had four tickets and when the other couple couldn't come we kids got to go. I think my first musical live was A Chorus Line.

I went to Pippin with my date instead of my junior prom. I diverted musically more into rock, soul, blues, and fell back in love with musicals when I started having work trips to new york in the 90s and got to see Phantom, How to Succeed, Aida, Chicago, and many others on Broadway....

Im hooked and happy to be hooked on musicals.....

Back in the 70s, I was lucky enough to go to the best high school in the country, a progressive Catholic high school in Manhattan. Rather than typical class trips, we had a couple days each year when students could sign up for activities around the city. In the fall of 1975, when the freshman got to choose, all that was left when they got to the names starting with "S" was some show called A Chorus Line.

Growing up in NY was something I've always been grateful for. The first musical my parents took me to see was THE MUSIC MAN with the original cast. We can see Preston in the film version but Barbara Cook was glorious on stage and I clearly remember her to this day. My teachers in elementary school felt it necessary to take theatre field trips thus making it possible to see SOUND OF MUSIC, HALF A SIXPENCE and OLIVER. For my birthdays and Christmas I got to pick the shows. For some reason I was always more interested in the flops and less successful shows than the blockbuster hits like DOLLY and FIDDLER. Thus I got to see BAJOUR, HIGH SPIRITS (my favorite), FLORA THE RED MENACE, HENRY SWEET HENRY and others. I still attend the theatre regularly but I'm a bit more selective now on what I choose to see.

Mid 1960s. It started with my parents' records. Fiddler, Funny Girl, Mame, Man of La Mancha, etc. When I finally saw one of these shows, Mame, in a local college production, when I was six, it was very exciting. A little later the records started getting even more intriguing, pushing boundaries and reinforcing the hook: Hair, Company, Applause, Jacques Brel, Follies, A Little Night Music, Two Gentlemen of Verona. These were a window on adulthood. An imperfect one, of course, but a fascinating one.

Updated On: 4/26/16 at 11:32 AM

My answer is two-fold. First, my grandmother took me to see all kinds of performances - ballet, concerts, theatre - and as a result, I have an appreciation for all of that. But, when I was in high school, I was hopelessly introverted, and my parents told me flat out that I had to get involved in school activities, so I thought I'd try working backstage with the drama department. I got cast in Man of La Mancha when they were short on boys (I played Sancho Panza's donkey in one scene.) I was hooked, and my introverted ways melted away. The thing that "sealed the deal," though, was when my drama teacher took me to see my first Broadway show - the 1983 revival of Mame starring Angela Lansbury. It changed my life forever.



Side note: Many years later, when she was in Deuce, I had the privilege of meeting Ms. Lansbury in her dressing room, and I got to tell her how much she changed my life. She was so gracious and seemed sincerely touched. I will never forget it.

When I was still a toddler, I was fascinated by a lot of programs on PBS (operas, etc.) and the annual broadcast of "The Sound of Music" on network TV.

By the time I was in grade school, I saw the touring productions of "Annie" and "Peter Pan" when they played locally (ca. 1980-1). As I got older, I just kept going to national tours of musicals whenever possible ("Brigadoon," "Camelot," "Les Miserables," etc.) along with summer productions in local parts. Then I moved on to seeing shows on Broadway.

As a clueless 11 year old, I went with the parents to a 'show' at my sister's high school. I expected cheerleaders and stupid skits. Instead I got SOUTH PACIFIC. I was rocked to the core.

I wonder if I'll be the only one or one of few respondents who discovered the love of musical theater as a fully grown adult with no prior exposure in youth?

Honestly, I thought drama kids in high school and Sing! etc. were lame and I did not have a good impression of musicals for years and years. What with strange commercials like Cats ad nauseum and terrible musical movies like Phantom when I was growing up.... *shudder*.

Four years ago, a friend sent me a Les Miserables song featuring Lea Salonga. I fell in love with Les Mis through that but still wasn't exposed to theater much.

Last year I made a goal to see one show a month, as a replacement for not living/working abroad and weekend traveling anymore. ~30 shows in one year (incl. plays)... So, yeah, THAT'S really how all that started. Kind of random, actually.

It's not like my family could have afforded us luxuries like live theater or even understood how it all worked as non-English speaking immigrants. But it would have been nice to have been able to take advantage of the student rush (and free time) during my college years. I'm making up for lost time now, I guess. :)