If you could travel back in time and see ONE show...- Page 3

[sondheimfan2]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 12:20pm

Thanks to all who responded. Indeed, it is very hard to choose just one.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 12:34pm

I also said "Show Boat" because of the era. Not just the shock of the story line, but to see New York society dressed up in tuxes and evening gowns. A Ziegfeld show, in its heyday.

Mix that with the curtain going up, and in the very first lyric you hear, "N*ggers all work on the Mississippi, N*ggers all work while the white folks play..."

I'm thinking it probably looked like that audience shot from The Producers while they're watching Springtime for Hitler.

Oh, to be a fly on that wall. Now, granted, the "N" word was used quite a bit back then... but it was still considered vulgar and derogatory. Not "Ziegfeld" material. Then to get a misogination story, where you care about all the people involved... and to hear that score! To hear Helen Morgan sing Bill and Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man. To see Charles Winninger and Edna May Oliver live on stage.

[KrissySim]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 12:45pm

The opening night of Show Boat at the Washington DC National Theatre on Tuesday, November 15, 1927.

This was the only performance with every song and scene. Cuts were subsequently made in accord with the audience's response of that evening. This first performance opened at 8:30 pm and the final curtain fell at 12:40 am.

[ahmelie]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 1:18pm

The original Broadway production of Follies.

It's a no-brainer.

[HoshiForever]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 1:38pm

Assassins, Last Five Years, Ragtime, or Show Boat.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 2:01pm

If we can add something to one of mine:
OBC of Phantom without the knowledge that any technology would ever be updated

Original Chicago
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Original South Pacific

[mormonophobic]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 2:49pm

Would love to have seen Gleason in Into The Woods back in the day. Same goes (more recently) with the original cast of Hairspray. I've seen so many of them in other production since (Legally Blonde, Xanadu, etc.) but would have loved to see the original lineup.

[DefyGravity777]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 6:41pm

The final performance of Miss Saigon on Broadway

[philcrosby]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 6:46pm

So many choices:
Opening night of MY FAIR LADY
The first night Liza stepped in for Gwen in CHICAGO
The original production of FOLLIES
Streisand in FUNNY GIRL (before she got bored)

but the winner is ...

Merman in GYPSY

[jennamajig]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 6:52pm

For me, it is the Broadway flop Smile. I stumbled upon a demo recording of it and have been intrigued to see it ever since.

[dlass727]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 6:55pm

There are so many...But I think I would have to go with Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters. If we are talking off Broadway or off-off Broadway- then it would be See What I Wanna See @ The Public with Mary Testa and Marc Kudisch.

[Hest882]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 8:36pm

Follies, totally.

Part of me wanted to say SITPWG, but that's at least been preserved on video. The orginal Follies, though, is lost to both video AND complete OBC audio.

[Jamie Pierce]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 8:40pm

CHICAGO with Gwen & Chita

[trav08]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 8:43pm

so many to chose from...

Grey Gardens
Assassins
Caroline or Change
Kiss Me Kate OBC

[OBESSION4_notu]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 8:48pm

GOLDEN BOY. Seeing Sammy Davis and Paula Wayne together on a broadway stage would have made the trip of over 40 years worth while (:

[hermionejuliet]

Posted: 8/3/08 at 8:51pm

Camelot with Julie, of course. There are plenty more, but if I had to pick ONE, it would be this one.

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 12:34am

TOSS UP:

OBC The Secret Garden
OBC Peter Pan

[Kasie]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 5:03am

Definitely Angels in America.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 7:48am

There are a lot I would have loved to have seen, but the one that haunts me still is Side Show. I'm still kicking myself for not taking a weekend to come up here from school and see it.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 9:03am

I feel like "old man river" myself, since I've actually seen several of the choices people have posted here!

[justafan2]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 9:16am

Gypsy--the Merm
Guys & Dolls w Nathan & Faith.

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 9:39am

My immediate reaction was OBC of Follies. But reading the responses, I'm now torn between that and opening night of Showboat in 1927.

I was lucky enough to see Les Miserables at the Barbican before it moved to the West End. Ever since I've wished I could experience that sense of discovery without exposure to previous hype for something major.

[SgtDonut]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 10:33am

Dance of the Vampires or The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 11:28am

Three things, not one but three:

--Opening night of "Jesus Christ Superstar," 1971 (to hear Ben Vereen's full performance as Judas, and to be convinced that yes Tom O'Horgan did direct such an outlandish production)
--"Hair," 1969 (note that I don't want opening night, but the first night in '69 that the latter day version of the script was, for the most part, frozen...or to see Ben Vereen as Berger, which was a VERY brief run)
--"Dance of the Vampires" (only to be convinced that it really happened)

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 8/4/08 at 11:33am

ME JACK, YOU JILL in March 1976.