Please Tell Me That Not All Younger Musical Theatre Fans...

I'm 18 and most of my favorite shows are Sondheim shows, mostly the shows which opened and closed long before I was born. I also love me some R&H and Gershwin.

They can only talk about the shows they know...if they've never seen Brigadoon, for example, what could they possibly add to the discussion?

AND...since it seems like a large portion of these boards is under 25...and getting younger all the time...what can we expect?

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I will be 20 in october and most of my favorite shows are all from the Golden Age...My favorite composer is still Cole Porter. Just something about his music....it is just magical!!!

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I'm 15 and my favorite composer is Sondheim.

Carousel is one of my faves... i am 13. I also love South Pacific, and the Sound of Music. I like alot that is before my time.

A lot of my favorite musicals were written before I was born and I was only nine months old when my favorite musical opened on Broadway.

I'm 17 and I collect old flops cast recordings, my favorite composers are Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim. I have no interest whatsoever in Rent, Wicked, etc.

I'm 21 and love everything from American Idiot to Gypsy to Company to Sunday in the park with George.

I think a good revival can make anyone love a show. Everyone may have seen South Pacific done and done again in schools, but I don't see how anyone who goes to see the current revival couldn't be swept away completely. I may not have had a chance to have seen every show that is deemed a must see, but I certainly don't discriminate just because it isn't a new show like "Wicked" or "Spring Awakening".

I have seen A Little Night Music three times (Twice with the original cast and once with the new one), and while I am not the biggest fan of the production, I am really starting to love the actual show itself more and more.

I'm definitely interested in the Golden Age. Unfortunately, it's hard to find theatre fans my age who share my appreciation! They have no problem listening to In the Heights (which I also love!), but sometimes I just want to listen to Kiss Me Kate.

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Case in point of one of our younger theater buffs who know their history.

The main reason why SOME younger fans are only interested in newer shows, is because that's all they've been exposed too. They're younger, obviously, so they've just had less time to be introduced to a wide variety of shows. Plus you have to have to take into account that not all of them live in New York. If you're only exposure to live musical theatre is constant community productions of Rent, Beauty and the Beast, and Thoroughly Modern Mille (and maybe the occasional tour of Wicked or Legally Blonde), then that's what you're going to like. But for the record, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with liking those shows.

I myself am a young theatre fan (17, for those keeping score.) I've been always mildly interested in musical theatre, but the one show that really grabbed me and got me interested in the medium, was Rent. It was my gateway show, and it led me to so many brilliant pieces of theatre from the past and present. Which is something that I think happens with a lot, if not most, young fans of newer shows. It just takes time.

But, on the other hand, I do think that older shows get discussed on this board more than you seem to think. A Little Night Music, for example, gets a lot of buzz around here as does Funny Girl and, to some extent, My Fair Lady and West Side Story. Granted, the reason these shows get talked about tends to be because of newer incarnations, but it's unfair to state that they don't get discussed at all.

Updated On: 7/26/10 at 05:55 PM

"I see threads on here about Golden Age theatre or even pre-Rent musicals die quickly too often."

Maybe people don't have anything to say about them at that time? I tend to think of this board as a series of different conversations, sometimes revisiting old topics and sometimes brand new ones.

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