Sorry Em, I know this argument always goes in circles, but...I can't not respond.
"Aren't there numerous other new and interesting shows to see and things to do?"
Of course. Took me a little while to figure out, but since the very first time I saw DRS in late February, not including that, I have seen 45 different shows. At least 12 concerts/benefits/special events, I'm in a bowling league on Thursday nights, I'm a member of the Museum of TV and Radio, I go karoaking when I'm lucky to find another brave soul to join me, see a couple of movies, might go more but there hasn't been that many that have interested me, and spend many nights in good old suburbia spending hours on the phones w/ friends asking what do you wanna do. Here, our options pretty much are...the mall...the mall, or perhaps the mall. I don't like malls.
Going back w/o getting bored...I really can't explain it. There are many shows/movies I enjoy seeing multiple times, and some I can't see more than once. My sister wanted to see Ave Q a couple months after I first saw it so I went again and realized I didn't laugh as much expecting each joke. But somehow I still laugh really hard at DRS. I really enjoy watching that cast as a whole, it makes each experience worthwhile. and I mean of all things I think that repeat visits wouldn't be boring it's live theater. I mean, just today I saw 42nd Street tour in Connecticut, and I had the same reaction when I saw Evita in NJ a couple of weeks ago...just wow, so thankful I got to see these productions I missed on broadway. A New Argentina in Evita and Lullaby of Broadway in 42nd Street were just 2 scenes that I felt so lucky to be able to see live--the way so many wonderful aspects, voices, dancing, scenery, music, visuals, words, everything--I just stare at smile and keep those images in my head, and I would love to see those magic moments again live. There's just so much involved..trying to catch all the jokes in comedies, really grasping and understanding the themes in more dramatic/metaphoric shows, truly understanding the satire, then so much to focus on particularly in musicals...scenery, being captivated perhaps by a different character each time, the orchestra, the book, the voices, the dancing...I love it all. So I keep going back, to many different shows, and the same shows.
And for the record in those 45 different shows I've seen there was only one time I paid for a full price $100ish ticket--Spamalot.
Round and round and round we go...
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli