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

[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 .

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 10:23am

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.....

[Kad]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 10:29am

My father was the executive chef for a time at the nearby performing arts center when I was much younger, and my parents used that as a way to take me to see the national tours. My first show was Phantom, when I was 10 or so.

[madbrian]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 10:33am

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.

[promisespromises2]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 10:45am

My sister used to play Chicago all of the time.  And then one day she made me go see Sweeney Todd in theaters without telling me it was a movie musical and I fell head over heals with musicals and Helena Bonham Carter.  It wasn't until Helena was cast as Madam Thenardier in the Les Mis movie until I picked up the actual brick (novel) and then once I finished with that I started listening to the cast recording.  That led me to put Les Mis into Pandora and that led me to Wicked.  And then to all of the other musicals that I absolutely adore now.

I've always LOVED theatre.  I watched all of the plays my high school put on and such and loved reading them.  But it really wasn't until 2-3 years ago that I started to actually spend money to go to see them on Broadway and regionally. 

[Demitri2]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 11:01am

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.

[DWalk]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 11:09am

Of course, I loved The Sound of Music (movie) as a kid.  My parents took me to a show called Dream Street at the Muny in Saint Louis. That combined with the 42nd Street performance of Lullaby of Broadway on the Tony Awards really stoked my interest.  I moved to New Jersey in the early 90s and finally got to attend Broadway...first show being the Grease revival.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 11:32am

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

[Broadway Forever2]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 1:11pm

mormonsandglindas said: "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.

 

"

From Disney for sure. I loved the disney movies from the 90's and saw The Lion King on broadway and adored it as a kid. That's why the people here who hate on Disney and stuff make me roll my eyes. Disney has done a lot to get young people interested in theatre. 

[jkstheatrescene]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 1:33pm

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.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 4:46pm

Girl I dated in the 70's loved Broadway and I wanted to impress  her so I took her on our 2nd date to Broadway show and I loved it from then on.

[Gingersnap2]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 7:32pm

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.

[non-stop26]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 10:48pm

Summer camps and regional shows

[noradesmond]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 11:14pm

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. 

[oncemorewithfeeling2]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 11:16pm

It feels like it's always been there, truly. I started dancing at age 3 or 4, so it just seems the two went together. I'm also blessed with parents who exposed me to the performing arts at a young age and took me to different kid-themed orchestra, dance, and theater as soon as they felt I could sit through an act and make it to intermission without causing a disturbance.

The first show I saw that was a major production was a tour of Les Mis. Truthfully, I remember next to nothing   about it, other then I thought it would be rad to be little Eponine. And sleeping through a lot if the second act. I was probably 6? Maybe? I know I asked to read the "book" (souvenir program) about it many times before my parents told me the real book was beyond the abilities of first grade, even for good readers. I saw Cats on Broadway that summer and thought the premise was weird (dancing house pets going on a UFO to heaven. I told my grandmother that was the plot), but was won over by Mr. Mistofolees and Rum Tum Tugger and became yet another girl who wished that boys who danced in spandex would marry her.

I was the token crying, mourning child in Evita when I was 7. I did it as a favor to my mom's friend. That was my theater debut. I continued on but placed more emphasis on dance, but was good enough and reliable enough to get a minor in it in college, work with a handful of great regional theaters in ensemble roles, and be told about 6 years ago that my left knee had taken too much abuse and too many surgeries. Retirement from dance was taken at 25, but with PT and time, I'm very slowly working my way back in. 

My grandmother tells stories about how she had just moved to the US and saw the second or third preview of  Oklahoma as a young woman. She's 93 now. It's in my bones.

And perhaps the biggest draw? POTO, Joseph..., Les Mis, and hits of '80s theater scene and beyond received heavy rotation on the mini van's cassette player on road trips.

[mpkie]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 11:43pm

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. :)

[gypsy101]

Posted: 4/26/16 at 11:45pm

I was in school musicals in middle and high school and had always loved choir, but I really became interested in musicals when I lived with my grandma in the summer of 2008 and got a few recordings from the "cast album" section, one of which happened to be the original Gypsy. I was stunned. I listened repeatedly. The library was one of the best in the state so the music selection was wonderful, basically all Tony-Award winners. I can't believe it's only been 8 years! The first professional show I saw was the tour of Spring Awakening starring Christy Altomare and Jake Epstein the next year. I now also have a rather large collection of cast albums (but only about a third the size of JoseLee's).

Updated On: 4/26/16 at 11:45 PM