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#1

Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 10:21pm

What playbills do you own that are valuable or really rare? Or what do you have that you think is really cool? Broadway, off Broadway, or regional.

I don't actually have any. My favorite one is the OBC of Little Women because it has Sutton. Otherwise, I don't really have any cool playbills.
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
#2

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 10:30pm

Light in the Piazza...mainly because it was signed by the entire cast, and it was given to me by Kelli O'Hara.

I think my Spamalot (pre-broadway) playbill is valuable since it is pre-broadway and it's signed by all the stars.
"Chicago is it's own incredible theater town right there smack down in the middle of the heartland. What a great city! I can see why Oprah likes to live there!" - Dee Hoty :-D
#3

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 10:41pm

Here are the ones that might be worth money:

"The Blue Room" signed by Nicole Kidman
"Annie" signed by Andrea McArdle and Sarah Jessica Parker
"Evita" signed by Patti LuPone
"Waiting in the Wings" signed by Lauren Bacall
"Miss Saigon" signed by Lea Salonga
"Annie Get Your Gun" signed by Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat
"Gypsy" signed by Bernadette Peters

I got a playbill at the flea market this year for $2 for a show called "A Matter of Gravity" starring Katharine Hepburn and Christopher Reeve. Thought that one was pretty cool.

Updated On: 10/2/05 at 10:41 PM

#5

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 10:45pm

The only signed Playbills I have are Avenue Q (current cast), Rent (signed by Cary Shields, Karmine Alers, Matt Caplan and Kelly Karbacz), and Wicked (signed by Idina, JLT and Joey Mac)... so, nothing too valuable. My "rarest" Playbill is probably Sweet Charity with Christina on the cover in color. Otherwise, nothing too rare.
#6

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 10:49pm

I don't really have very many, but I do have Wicked playbills signed by every Elphaba and Galinda, a Little Women signed by Sutton Foster and Maureen McGovern, and really old Grease playbill that Hunter and Sutton Foster both signed. One of my older sisters has a Hairspray playbill signed by most of the original cast (she saw it a bunch of times and kept taking the same playbill) and another one of my older sisters (I'm the fourth of 12 children... we collectively have a lot of junk) has one signed by Marissa Jaret Winkour while she was in a Nat'l tour of Grease.

Anywho... sorry for making that long and boring!
#7

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 10:54pm

*M. Butterfly
*Death of a Salesman (1999 revival) in color

Autographed:

*Assassins
*Little Shop (B'way)
*Avenue Q (original cast)
*Hairspray (signed by Marissa & Mary Bond Davis)
*Light in the Piazza
*DRS
"The cynicism you refer to, I acquired the day I discovered I was different from little boys!~All About Eve
#8

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 10:59pm

Sweeney Todd (obc signed by lansbury, I got it off ebay)
Wicked tour signed by entire cast (second performance in chicago)
<------ Me and my friends with patti Lupone at my friends afterparty for her concert with audra mcdonald during the summer of 2007.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado
#9

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 11:00pm

I have a color playbill of Sweet Charity from Boston. I don't really have RARE playbills but I have a LOT of signed ones.
#10

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 11:04pm

The only one I have that might fetch some cash is a Playbill from the closing night of CATS. But I bought that one, and ain't NO way I'd part with it!
http://community.livejournal.com/ltd_brands_suck/
#11

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 11:04pm

Im the same way many signed but not many rare.
<------ Me and my friends with patti Lupone at my friends afterparty for her concert with audra mcdonald during the summer of 2007.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado
#13

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 11:09pm

My most valuable are: (to me)
rent- signed by entire orginal broadway cast
hughie- signed by al pacino
waiting in the wings- signed by lauren becall
the blue room - signed by nicole kidman
amy's view- signed by judi dench
jelly's last jam- signed by gregory haines
#14

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 11:11pm

My dad has a playbill from the OBC of Jesus Christ Superstar buried somewhere.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
#15

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 11:22pm

I don't know about value, but I have some really old ones:

Judy Garland at the Palace
Bye Bye Birdie (signed by Charles Strauss)
It's a Bird, it's a Plane, it's Superman (signed by C. Strauss)
Golden Boy (signed by C. Strauss)
Applause (signed by C. Strauss)
Annie Get Your Gun w/ Ethel Merman
Carousel OBC
Brigadoon OBC
Gypsy OBC
The Music Man OBC
The Sound of Music OBC
South Pacific OBC
How to Succeed OBC

and tons others...that's just what comes to mind
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy." -Charlie Manson
#16

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 11:34pm

i have a rent playbill signed by adam pascal. umm some other signed ones but nothing that rare.
"At the opening night party, they had clowns on stilts, jugglers, a chocolate fountain, popcorn, hot dogs. [My son] looked at me like I had been holding back. Like, 'This is what you do?' I had to tell him, 'No, no, darling. Opening nights don't usually look like this.' It's usually a dark bar with a bottle of vodka." ?Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Jan Maxwell plus i proudly share the title of the shortest member over the age of 10 with wickedrentq!
#18

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 11:40pm

When I was growing up I was a serious Playbill collector. I bought lots of old ones on eBay, and also had someone who worked in the business send me the Playbills from almost every new show for several years. God, I must have like, 400 Playbills at least.

Some of my most treasured ones are the Playbills for the original productions of "Cabaret" (including the out-of-town tryout), "Carousel" (although it's with the first replacement Julie), and of course "Sweeney Todd," although the cover got a little ripped, so I've always been meaning to get a new one.
#19

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 11:43pm

Oh, and the Coral Gables' Little Shop of Horrors signed by the complete cast (Hunter Foster, Alice Ripley, Billy Porter, etc.)
#20

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/2/05 at 11:45pm

Gypsy - Merman
Gypsy - Lansbury
Gypsy - Daly
Gyspy - Peters (signed) *favorite*
You either got it or you ain't, and boys I got it!
#21

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/3/05 at 12:01am

How about Playbills signed by Mae West, stars of the 30s, 40s and rare unsigned ones like Wildcat with Lucille Ball.
#22

re: Rarest/most valuable playbills

Posted: 10/3/05 at 1:23am

the rarest playbills are moose murders and Carrie the Musical opening night color cover. THese are the ones that are worth the most overall on their own. without being signed.

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