I may be old, but I was able to see.... — Page 2

Merman in Happy Hunting (oy) and Gypsy
Judy Holliday in Bells are Ringing
Lena Horne in Jamaica
and yes, i remember them all, and proud of it!

"I Love My Wife" with the Smothers Brothers!~

Lauren Bacall in WOMAN OF THE YEAR at The Palace.

Barbara Cook in SHE LOVES ME
Bea Lillie in HIGH SPIRITS
That Streisand Woman in FUNNY GIRL
Zero Mostel in FIDDLER
Julie Harris in SKYSCRAPER
Ethel Merman in ANNIE GET YOUR BUN (revival) and HELLO DOLLY! (closing cast)
Mary Martin in HELLO DOLLY! (tour) and DO YOU TURN SOMERSAULTS?
Richard Kiley and Joan Deiner in MAN OF LA MANCHA
Virginia Capers in RAISIN
Angela Lansbury in MAME and DEAR WORLD
Bernadette Peters and Robert Preston in MACK AND MABEL
Angela Lansbury in GYPSY
Patti luPone in EVITA and ANYTHING GOES
Pearl Bailey in HELLO DOLLY!
Lauren Bacall in CACTUS FLOWER and APPLAUSE
and... Carol Channing in HELLO DOLLY and LORELEI

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Oh yes, Gwen Verdon in SWEET CHARITY and CHICAGO

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"I saw Merman in the Annie Get Your Gun revival, at the National in D.C. I was seven. What I remember most of all is "Old Fashioned Wedding." She and Yarnell kept encoring it, and every time, she did it bigger. The audience couldn't get enough."

She and Russell Nype did the same thing with "You're Just in Love" when they played CALL ME, MADAM on tour the following year. (You may recall that Merman was supposed to take ANNIE on tour, but changed her mind when the NY reviews said she was too old for the part.)

They did 7--count 'em, 7--encores of "You're Just in Love" for a Saturday matinee audience of Fort Lauderdale senior citizens (most of whom stood for all the encores). And damn, if Merman and Nype didn't earn each and every repetition!

Carol Channing, First National Tour of HELLO,DOLLY 1966-ish
Lauren Bacall, APPLAUSE
Yul Brynner, THE KING & I (one of the many tours)
William Daniels, Howard da Silva, Ken Howard and many other members of the original cast, 1776
John Raitt, CAROUSEL (okay it was Summer Stock and he was waaay too old, but . . . )
Pat Suzuki, FLOWER DRUM SONG (remember her? she was fabulous)
Angela Lansbury, GYPSY

Mary K. Lombardi, Norwood Smith and Ruth Kobart in ANNIE (1st National Tour)
Valerie Perri in EVITA (1st National Tour)
Anita Gillette and Dick Latessa in THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG (1st National Tour)
Andrea McArdle in GREASE (City Line Dinner Theatre)

I too saw Sylvia Sidney in Auntie Mame at the old Lambervtille Music Circus. Apparently, she was a real bitch all the way down and every year thereafter, at the end of each season, the company awarded a "Sylvia Sidney" award for the person who was most difficult to deal with.

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Born 1n 1943; first musical, 1948 (Brigadoon) Some memories;

December 1951; at a matinee of the original King and I; the second balcony entrance was then located at a small door slightly west of the main entrance of the Saint James. My dad and I walked up what seemed like an interminable flight of stairs, right out of a tenement, until we reached a small room which lead to the second balcony. On a chalkboard was a sign; "Gertrude Lawrence is ill this afternoon. The role of Anna Leonowens will be played by Constance Carpenter." It was my first experience with a major understudy---we all rooted for her, and she was excellent, worked very well with Yul Brynner. After Ms. Lawrence's untimely death she assumed the role.
November 1958: the fledgling New York Shakepeare Festival presented a production of Richard III, at the Hecksher theater, with an unknown actor playing Richard:
and intense, bulky man named George C. Scott. It was amazing!
June 1961: Off Broadway The Connection is just finishing up its run at the Living Theater. At the end of the first act, Ernie, one of the junkies, has a break down. I watched an actor I had never seen before explode on stage. I could not believe it. After the act was over I looked at the program. His name; Martin Sheen.

This is pitiful, but all I got (since I grew up in Ft Lauderdale and we were more likely to go to a Miami Dolphins game) is a vague recollection of seeing Lorna Luft in a tour of "They're Playing Our Song" at the Parker Playhouse on Federal Highway. I think I went by myself or took my 8th grade "girlfriend." I was 26 before I ever saw a show that was actually playing on Broadway.

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On a similar note, what productions do you think we'll all be bragging about seeing in fifty years?


Mamma Mia!- with the orginal cast one of the first shows to open post 9/11 and I saw when the it was the Cadillac Winter Garden before it back to just Winter Garden

Les Mis when it was at the Imperial- Alice Ripley was Fantine, Megan Lawrence was Eponine

Wicked- Kerry and Kendra

Chicago revival when it was at the shubert- Sharon Lawrence was velma and charlotte was supposed to play roxie, but she was out so we got Belle Callaway instead.

Annie Get Your Gun- Saw Reba (enough said)

My parents saw Chicago- Gwen, Jerry and Lenora Nemetz

A Chorus Line

The orginal grease

and a play they hated called Da