Show that had the greatest impact on your life

Les Miz. It's such a beautiful show that encompassed the whole spectrum of humanity, and I appreciated its idealism. The show makes me more forgiving of my fellow man.

The themes in Les Miz are potent: redemption, injustice, forgiveness, and above all (forgive the corniness), love. Every type of love is expressed in the show - romantic love, familial love, unrequited love, patriotic love, love of one's principles, love of one's friends, and religious/spiritual love - and how hard we will fight to honour that love. I find the show an extremely moving and cathartic experience.

Les Miz' universal messages can't be denied. "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" has been used to assuage people's pain in losing their friends to AIDS. When the Tiennemen Square massacre happened, many in the media (including the New York Times) drew chilling parrellels between that event and the events in Les Miz. It's a show that deals with all human beings in difficult times, as we look "beyond the barricade" with hope.

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Updated On: 9/4/04 at 08:53 PM

rent, because i love the whole 'no day but today' idea... i love its edgy content, and larsons material really got me hooked. i was 13 when i saw it for the first time.. and i still love it now. there was something about the OBC that really got to me... everyone was just soooo increadibly passionate about what they are singing. I LOVE the songs will i?, seasons of love, and what you own. those songs can basically sum up how i felt after i finished school. Jonathan larson reminds me of so many people i know-struggling artists who stay true to their work even if that means living in conditions that arent the greatest. i respect larson very much and because i love rent so much, i have branched off to other musicals. example i love tick tick boom because larson wrote it. I love wicked because it has idina menzel. I love little shop of horors because the first time i saw it, it was touring with anthony rapp as seymore, and Adam pascal got me hooked to Aida. so in a sense rent really fueled my love for broadway...

enough said

Well, it didn't make me want to help the world- but it made me realize what I wanted to do.

It was the freaking cheesiest, most awful show that ever existed. And it made me cry.



(If you haven't guessed "Fame" by now, you need a smack. )

I saw myself in so many of the characters...Serena, Mabel, Iris, Nick, Carmen...and when Carmen sang "In L.A.", I cried. I'm serious. I felt like such a dope in the theater, but it was because the show was triggering so many memories of how I tried to pursue my career and I dropped it out of sheer frustration. It brought me back to the theater, because I realized what was missing in my life.

Heres mine:
Wicked because I was not accepted with open arms while in the Middle School. Idinas Elphaba spoke to me on so many different levels as did the show. It is also a hugely entertaining, wonderfully staged production that really drew me into Broadway, its history, and the theater all together.

Hairspray. It was the first show that I fell in love with. It's not really about the plot of the shows, it's more about the energy in the show. And after Hairspray I started to like LSOH, Wicked, Thoroughly Modern Millie, among others. It opened up another "chapter", if you will, to my life.

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It doesn't have to be a musical, right?

I'm going with "The Normal Heart". I've seen a lot of shows that I enjoyed, and several I was amazed by, but I've never been stopped in my tracks before the latest incarnation of TNH with Raul Esparza. It honestly made me re-evaluate a lot of what I was doing in my life.

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DREAMGIRLS

Why "DREAMGIRLS"? Because before this show I thought all broadway musicals were corny. This show was hip and it moved at the speed of light and it had all the elements that grabbed my attention and held it for the duration. In short: it impressed the sh*t out of me and really led me to explore what else theatre had to offer.

I still think some musicals are "corny" but I'm more open to the world of musical theatre and theatre in general because of "DREAMGIRLS".

"DREAMGIRLS" changed me by bringing theatre into my life.

PIPPIN (end of it's original Broadway run) because before that, I had never seen anything other than an old fashioned book musical.

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if you mean influential, both West Side Story and Les Mis were my favorites growing up and I will always have a special place for them in my heart. I was always one to like the more depressing shows as a kid - it still rings true.

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You're very welcome Margo!

The first show that had an impact on me was Phantom. It was the first Broadway show that I ever heard music from and it really got me into theatre and Broadway. But lately, the one musical that's really affected me would have to be Taboo. It really made me accept other people no matter what they look like or how they dress. Before Taboo, if I would see some "freaks" walking down the street I would probably have rolled my eyes at them, and nowadays, I want to know where they got their outfit!! :)

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HELLO, DOLLY! starring Pearl Baily, because it was my first and it was amazing...............there was no turning back on the world of theater after seeing Dolly on Broadway.

the show that had at least equal overall impact on my life for many reasons was the original Broadway production of A CHORUS LINE.

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