What Got u Hooked on Broadway- Page 4

[lowercaseletter]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 12:23pm

Well, what got me hooked on theater was seeing a college production of West Side Story when I was 8 or 9. My parents took me to see it and everything about it blew my mind (particularly the Somewhere ballet. I had no idea you could make something like that happen on stage). I'm sure if I saw that production now, I'd barf . . . but at 8 it was magical.

3 or 4 years later I discovered JC Superstar and Evita and then in my desire to learn more about musicals, I checked out the cast albums of Company and Sweeney Todd from my local library and I fell in love with Stephen Sondheim BIG TIME. I even wrote him a fan letter when Into the Woods opened on Broadway and he was kind enough to write me back. I still have the letter. :)

My love of musicals has diminished somewhat. I pretty much love a lot of stuff pre mid 80s. Not so big on the Phantoms and Rents and Wickeds and such. I am, however, a huge theater fan and after I attended performing arts high school and theater school in New York, I became interested in writing plays and more experimental/downtown stuff.

[viola13]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 12:56pm

I became interested in musical theatre when I played in pits for Crazy For You and Bye Bye Birdie, but Rent's what caused me to see multiple productions per week , to join message boards, and to start collecting cast recordings.

[antonijan]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 4:02pm

When Lea Salonga and Monique Wilson got cast in the original Miss Saigon.

I started listening to cast recordings and then I got hooked into Les Miserables.

Then came...

My first animated disney movie Little Mermaid followed by Beauty and the Beast and the rest of the other animation musicals followed.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 4:16pm

The 1987 Tony Awards. When I saw the cast of Les Miserables perform One Day More, my obsession began.

[EVIE]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 4:46pm

Les Miserables in London back in 1997. My first show! memories....

[Kass983]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 5:15pm

Back in the 70's there used to be lots of old movie musicals shown on the weekends, and sometimes ballets and various Broadway performances on PBS that I would watch whenever I could. I loved My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, South Pacific, The King and I, and my favorite was Carousel.

My family never saw shows or bought cast records...we were really poor, lived in Utah, and no one in my family had really been exposed to theater. The only black movie musical I had ever seen was Carmen Jones, which I loved. And through PBS, I knew that Ben Vereen, Nell Carter, Pearl Bailey, Leslie Uggams (et al) and black theater did exist. I saw Jennifer Holliday on some show in 1980 or so when I was 10, and I was blown away but still, I didn't get to join in the theatre experience and didn't quite realize what collecting cast recording was all about.

Flash forward to approximately the year 2001 and the tour for AIDA came to my little backward city. The music on the commercial caught me off guard and I left my dishes in the kitchen sink to go see about it. Well, to make a long story a little shorter, I went to see AIDA, twice, and fell in love forever. While I still cannot see shows very often AT ALL, I do research and buy recordings often. My children have an appreciation for it and don't feel like it is some elitist thing to be part of even if accessibility is difficult for those without the means or proximity. Just be part of it to the best of your ability because it is an exhilarating form of art that I believe adds to the soul.

My middle daughter had a bit part in her junior high's production of Beauty & The Beast this past year. I bought her a dozen roses at the end to encourage her blossoming love for theater in a way I never had.

[newyorkrbust]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 7:51am

When I was really young I used to listen to the Phantom of the Opera on my mom's tape player as I went to sleep. When I was 13 I saw the show on Broadway. I liked it, but I was still what my parents and people in my hometown called "normal" I saw the Rent movie and heard the music in November of 2005. ever since then I've been hooked. Over 400 broadway songs on my ipod, no "normal" music.

[iluvcioffiiluvtea23]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 11:19am

Annie Get Your Gun

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 2:51pm

In this order:

1. Seeing Andrea Macardle on the Mike Douglas Show (or maybe Merv).

2. Discovering After Dark magazine (got me hooked on other things as well)

3. My first Broadway show: Evita, with LuPone.

[Elphie4ever]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 4:32pm

wicked

[mrmcfeely]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 4:48pm

Hairspray. February 2003.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 4:54pm

A little obscure Bob Fosse musical titled PIPPIN. The year was 1972. The theatre was the Imperial on W. 45th Street. I was 7 years old.

[broadwaycat3113]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 9:04pm

beauty and the beast was my first broadway show. i was kind of hooked, but not really. then i saw cats and that sealed the deal for me. i was officially hooked.

[delucad15]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 12:22am

Cathy Rigby in Peter Pan

[MovieGuy1031]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 1:23am

Seussical.

[strelimyn]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 1:35am

The first time I heard the overture from the OBC recording of Once Upon a Mattress. I think I was hooked on the performance aspect of Broadway when I was cast in my first show, Hello Dolly!

[jeniferrenepatricia]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 1:40am

In 1976, my mother bought tickets for "The Wiz"- I was only six years old at the time, but I loved it!! In 1979, we saw "Evita" together- my first "LuPone" experience. I've loved Broadway/off-Broadway ever since; Mom and I still see all the shows togther.

[BWayJunkie]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 6:51am

First show was Cats at age 7. I hated it; it scared me half to death. Second show was Show Boat at 12. I was confused and terribly bored. I'd sworn off Broadway until I turned 19 and started an internship at an actors agency and say Wicked on the same day. Combined, those two got me addicted to Bway, particularly musical theater. I'd only known stage through being in at least one play a year since fourth grade but that was only on the elementary - high school level but once Wicked showed me the joys and wonder of Broadway I made the switch from wanting to be just a film actor to taking advantage of what NYC has to offer.

Ever since Wicked in March of 2007 I've fallen in love with life theater.

[practically_perfect]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 10:00am

I saw Beauty and the Beast when I was three....I remember watching Belle sing "Home" and thinking, "Wow, I wish I could do that". I kind of chilled on Broadway through elementary school, but in middle school I discovered Wicked, closely followed by RENT. I now have an obsession with all things Broadway. I would like to say though, that on these boards everyone always rips RENT apart, and attacks anyone who likes it. Yet, many of the people that posted here said RENT was what got them hooked....interesting....

[NDR]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 11:36am

Miss Saigon and RENT

[dramagirl487]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 11:38am

RENT and Phantom. (soundtracks first, but now of course, OBC recording)

i'd have to chalk it up to Adam Pascal. if i were to pinpoint it.

i think RENT is responsible for a great deal of the extreme addiction, not just for me.

[singalongsong2]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 1:34pm

Rent...it was my first Broadway show. I've loved Broadway ever since.

[Hest882]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 3:03pm

For me it started with childhood movie musicals. Sound of Music, old Haley Mills Disney movies, etc. Then, gee, discovering that there was this live theatre thing, where people acted and danced and sang ON STAGE! I think the first musical I was taken to was Sound of Music, but during my teenage years I also discovered cast recordings (Hair was a huge favorite) and continued to watch many filmed and movie musicals.

Broadway really became Mecca for me, for, as is the case for many of us who live away from NYC, cast recordings, PBS, movies, and local productions stave off the hunger.

[MikeMagbaleta]

Posted: 6/20/08 at 1:09pm

Having my son act in Honk!, Once Upon a Mattress and Guys & Dolls..... It led to watching Grease, Legally Blonde, the Jersey Boys National Tour in 2006, as well as their San Francisco, Las Vegas preview, Chicago and Broadway casts about 29 times now.

Also, lasting friendships were started with cast members of the Chicago Jersey Boys and Tony Award Winner John Lloyd Young.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 6/20/08 at 1:39pm

I loved theatre my whole life and my first Broadway show was Beauty and the Beast. My first true obsession was Sunset Boulevard.


Followed my Wicked (which exploded my obsession), RENT, Sweeney Todd and See What I Wanna See.