What Got u Hooked on Broadway — Page 2

I grew up in a rather artsy family -- we always had cast albums and movie musicals, etc (I watched West Side Story, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Grease, The Wiz, Jesus Christ Superstar, The King and I, Oklahoma, etc from birth, essentially). My parents actually started dating in high school while working on their production of Hello Dolly in the early 70s (playing Irene and Cornelius)... that's just always kinda' played through in life, really. I think what kinda' RE-introduced me to Broadway wasn't really a Broadway show itself, but seeing my mother direct the high school musicals when I was a kid in small-town South Dakota. Even though I'd grown up on musicals, I didn't really connect them to Broadway. Seeing the staged musicals suddenly made it click in and I was hooked... Then I went to see Phantom and Les Mis...

My obsession with Broadway didn't really kick in until the revival of Guys and Dolls... then it all came crashin' in -- Miss Saigon, Chess, Hair, Tommy, Secret Garden, etc...

the first musical i ever saw was les mis. then the next year i got that cats video, and learned all the songs/choreography. then i wanted to be a broadway star. i give myself... 3 years.

I saw local productions of Les Miserables & Fame, and from there I became interested in musical theatre. It was when I heard the soundtrack from The Wild Party (which I realise was Off-Broadway lol) that I became really into the Broadway scene.

Coke.

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I remember seeing Big when I was six. I actually remember the whole day as if it were yesterday. I think it was that whole moment and the show itself that turned me onto theatre and musical theatre. I think that if I didn't live right outside NYC I wouldn't have been into theatre at all. And that is one of many reasons why I love my city.

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Seeing the Lion King at the Pantages is LA when I was 9.

Well my first encounter with musicals in general was the film version of The King and I, which I saw when I was about 6. My first show was The Wizard of Oz at Radio City Music Hall and my first true Broadway show was Les Miserables. But before that I'd loved theater in general. I went to children's theater productions all the time at the local high school (I was only 3 or so) and played dress up (what little girl doesn't?) so it seemed only natural that I'd get hooked on Broadway.

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A certain performer...a certain show... ;]

Oddly enough it was Lea Salonga performing A Whole New World on the Oscars. I found out she was in Miss Saigon and I was hooked on musical theatre since. I saw Miss Saigon in '93(one week after Lea left) and I never seen a show since until last year when Lea was in the Les Mis revival. Now I'm hooked on Wicked and Legally Blonde but I love all shows and basically go to NYC to see shows just about every weekend.

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My mother and father were both in theatre, and I was introduced to it at a very early age. Growing up in Kansas, Mom's cast album to Guys and Dolls was probably the biggest influence for me as a child, plus seeing scrapbook photos, telegrams and Playbills from when Mom was on Broadway herself.

Other cast albums I listened to as a kid were Music Man, Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. And when I was in my early teens, I bought the OBCRs for The Wiz and A Chorus Line, and those, probably more than anything else, got me "hooked."

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"Then Les Miserables made me lose hope in BW for a while."

Um, why?

My first musical was Mary Poppins. Then I got hooked on Jesus Christ Superstar. Finally, Les Mis was the show that really made me a die-hard Broadway musical fan.

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RENT.