Sorry if there's already an existing thread on this (and please point me in that direction if there is one) but my friend and I were just discussing this so I felt like I had to ask here. If you could go back in time to one theater performance (one show, an opening or closing night, whatever) which would you choose?
I personally said that I would go back in time to see the original cast of Hair sing "Flesh of Failures/Let the Sun Shine In".
Maggie Smith in "Lettice and Lovage." I had the chance to see it a second time but passed because I didn't want to sully the memory of the first performance.
My answer always changes but I’ve been thinking about The Fantasticks lately and how delightful it must have been to see the original cast at the Sullivan Street Playhouse back before anyone could have imagined what the show would go on to accomplish.
Much more recent, but I’d go back to the 2015 King and I’s final performance.
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Here I Am said: " Do you mean a performance that you’ve seen that you want to see again? Or any performance ever, even ones that you couldn’t possibly have seen?
Good question, as I was a little confused, as well. So my two answers:
WHAT I'VE SEEN: I would want to go back to the performance of Tyne Daly singing "Rose's Turn" in GYPSY (May, 1991).
WHAT I HAVEN'T SEEN: I would want to see the Jean Simmons-led cast of "A Little Night Music" in the 1970s - one of my all-time favorite cast recordings.
The first performance of COMPANY in Boston, 1970. (I'm not sure if it played the Shubert or Colonial... someone help me?) The old fogies must have been baffled and outraged. The smarter set must have been baffled, intrigued and thrilled. Oh to eavesdrop on that intermission talk!
A second choice would be Rex and Julie in the original MY FAIR LADY-- not necessarily a specific performance. A third choice... there are too many. Let's leave it at that.
the opening night of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG...i moved to NYC in the spring of 1982 so missed this by 6 months...i would have given anything to see this original production warts and all because i love the OBC so much!!
"WHAT I HAVEN'T SEEN: I would want to see the Jean Simmons-led cast of "A Little Night Music" in the 1970s - one of my all-time favorite cast recordings".
David10086 i was lucking enough to have seen the sublime Jean Simmons in the touring company of ALNM here at the long gone Shubert Theatre in Century City...i had seen Glynis Johns in the OBC in New York, and i loved her, but i was such a Jean Simmons fan of all her movie roles that to see her sing "Send In The Clowns" was pure heaven!!...to this day i will say ALNM is the most perfect musical Sondheim wrote!
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