Show that had the greatest impact on your life

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 8:48pm

What show changed your life and made you essentially want to become a better person, want to make a change in the world and so on?

And just dont say 'Wicked', 'RENT', etc. Give reasons, please.

:)

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 8:53pm

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.

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

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 8:56pm

Phantom of the Opera.

When I was in High School we did a medly from Phantom in my choir and I fell in love with the songs. I went out and bought the highlights (My first ever musical recording), fell in love with that, bought the full recording and after I saw the show for my graduation, it started my obsession with musicals and cast recordings. To date, I have 120 cast recordings and still growing.

Updated On: 9/4/04 at 08:56 PM

[NoDayButToday2]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 8:58pm

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

[Crazy4MattMorrison52]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 8:59pm

hairspray! it got me back into theatre

[LadyGuenevere]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 8:59pm

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.

[Delphine]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 9:01pm

Both the book and the musical Les Miz have been a huge part of my life. I've been at fan for 9+ years now, and I can still turn to that show.

BlueWiz, beat me to it, so if you want my reasons read his post. I'm too lazy right now.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 9:02pm

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.

[Millie42]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 9:08pm

Millie.

I know its not the deepest of musicals, but it made me rethink theatre. I had stayed away from it after I had a horrible time in a musical my senior year of hs, and after I saw Millie... I fell back in love with performing. I actually could see myself as Millie, so that was big.

Also, Assassins. It makes you think a lot when you realize you just had sympathy for someone you were taught to think of as "crazy" and just a horrible human being. Seeing the humanity restored to people that you have always looked down upon makes you rethink a lot about sanity, convictions, and decisions.

[Winokur_fan]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 10:00pm

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.

[amasis]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 10:03pm

I haven't had a show that "changed my life". That kind of insight or motivation is something I often get from books.

But as far as works that have had a big impact on me:

Pippin, because it was how I got introduced to theatre.
Sunday in the Park with George -- this is a bit harder to explain without getting too personal. But it was how the musical portrayed this difficulty to connect, especially if you've chosen a path that isn't quite in sync with everyone else's. I've said this before, too, but I think anyone who has chosen a solitary, creative profession must be able to relate to it on some level. In any case, the song 'Finishing the Hat' made me weep the first time I heard it.

And for plays: 'Love Letters' (AR Gurney) and 'Children of a Lesser God'. Updated On: 9/4/04 at 10:03 PM

[TheGaIsSilent]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 10:06pm

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.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 10:07pm

Ahem,

PETER PAN!

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 10:26pm

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.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 10:57pm

Thank you, Marquise. My sentiments, exactly!

[Glebb]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 11:06pm

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

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 11:44pm

I saw the latest tour of RENT when it came to Atlanta, and it was AMAZING!!!!! I had seen it on Broadway a few months before, but some of the cast on tour were MUCH better. I was teary eyed through most of the show. "Seasons of Love" made me cry because, for some reason, the song REALLY made sence to me and how really ture it was. The soloest was AMAZING!!!!! I dont know if it changed my life, but it did something.

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 11:51pm

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.

[BWayBoy88]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 11:55pm

I would say Beauty and the Beast because it was my first show. Recently Bare has really spoke to me. I havent seen it but the lyrics remind me of so many things that I either went through or are going through now.

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/4/04 at 11:55pm

You're very welcome Margo!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 12:19am

Phantom--because it was the first show I saw ever when it went to Boston in 94. I was 9 years old and the minute the first chords played *shudder*. It's why I'm in New York.

And The Muppet Show. I know it's not a Broadway show, but I have to shout out to them. I first saw Bernadette on that show. When I was 5 I wanted to be an actor so I could go on the Muppet Show and sing with Kermit (I did not know the true meaning of the word 'reruns' at the time).

[krolockskid]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 12:45am

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!! :)

[OhSoWicked]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 12:54am

The Wiz-

Because it was the first show I did that I had a 100% AMAZING time doing it. Great cast, great director, great producer, great costumes, great everything. I had an awesome time doing it and knew I wanted to do more shows.

[TEACHEROFTHEATER]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 7:27pm

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.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 7:41pm

The Elephant Man, by Bernard Pomerance.

I saw the Broadway production in 1981, and was more moved than I had ever been in a theatre. I knew then that I would someday have to do that piece.

In 1988, I finally got to play John Merrick. Having the opportunity to slip into the skin of that amazing person, and truly feel and process the ability he had to overcome the obstacles placed before him was staggering. His innate goodness was similar to Anne Frank, who famously said, "Despite everything, I believe people are really good at heart." It literally opened my eyes to new possibilities within myself and how I interacted with the rest of society.