I've seen LES MIS 39 times - but that's in NYC and London, the tour maybe 3 times, and so many different casts over so many years
So that was like seeing a different show every time
For shows where the cast didn't change (or maybe only a little) --
THE SEAFARER - 9 URINETOWN - 5
And by the time JERUSALEM closes, I'll have seen it 7 times
Some of my VERY favourite theatre memories are the 3 times I've seen all 3 performances of a show on the same weekend, which is LES MIS, SEAFARER and JERUSALEM (coming up)
When you really love a show, there's something so wonderful about leaving the matinee and knowing you'll be back again in 2 or 3 hours to see it all over again
You don't go to the dragon without a present - Mark Rylance
Some of my VERY favourite theatre memories are the 3 times I've seen all 3 performances of a show on the same weekend, which is LES MIS, SEAFARER and JERUSALEM (coming up)
I did that once, and it was a wonderful experience. I caught the Saturday matinee of the Encores production of Pardon My English a few years back. I immediately fell in love with it. Reasoning that I'd probably never be able to hear the score performed live again--let alone with such a fantastic cast (Brian d'Arcy James, Emily Skinner, Jennifer Laura Thompson)--I immediately booked tickets for the remaining two performances.
I did almost the same thing with the Encores Follies a few years later: Saturday matinee, Sunday evening, Monday evening (couldn't get into the Saturday night performance).
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
These aren't mine, but I always seem to encounter a person who has seen a show for what seems likes an obscene amount of times.
When I went to see 9 TO 5, I encountered a woman who had seen it 30 times between L.A and Broadway. Also, at AMERICAN IDIOT, I encountered a 70-year old man who had seem AI over 50 times...
Check out my eBay page for sales on Playbills!!
www.ebay.com/usr/missvirginiahamm
A) I have a very good memory and seeing a show where I already know the plot/twists/songs would be a bore.
Because theatre is static and never, ever changes. By this logic do you also only listen to cast recordings once or only watch movies once?
I love seeing a production I'm fond of multiple times, because it's incredible seeing the growth and the changes the actors make.
I've always been interested in the way two different actors can say the same lines and have the same direction but still give the lines different meaning.
Besides, it's LIVE THEATRE. ANYTHING can happen. If I had only seen Legally Blonde once I would have never seen Kate Rockwell go on as Elle or witnessed "The Great Golf Cart Crash of 2008". If I had only seen Hairspray once I would have never seen Darlene Love as Motormouth. If I had only seen Drowsy Chaperone once I would have never seen Bob Martin surprise the audience by coming out as the super during the final performance. I could go on and on here as can most of the other posters as well.
Off-Broadway - Marvelous Wonderettes 14 times
"All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney
We must have different Gods. My God said "do to others what you would have them do to you". Your God seems to have said "My Way or the Highway".
A Chorus Line, Chicago, Forbidden Broadway-5x Falsettos, La Cage 4x Hairspray, Nine, Hair 3x Dancin!, Grease, Godspell, Nicholas Nickleby, Sweeney Todd, Cats, Little Shop of Horrors, Les Mis, Search for Intelligent Life, Lend Me a Tenor,Tommy,Company, Rocky Horror, Follies, Urinetown, Merrily We Roll Along, Naked Boys Singing, Avenue Q, Bombay Dreams, Pacific Overtures, Spamalot, Die Mommy Die, Gypsy, Divine Sister, Brief Encounter, Priscilla and Normal Heart 2x
Broadway, touring casts across the country, Canadian cast, Italian cast (it happened to be in Milan when I was there so I had to go) and the new Off-Broadway cast.
I've seen RENT over 100 times, but that's including high school, community, and regional productions on top of off-Broadway, Broadway, and on tour. I've only seen it around 10 times with those productions.
Next To Normal on Broadway and on tour more times than I can keep track of. I've seen A Chorus Line about 30 times including local productions. I've seen Annie about twenty something too many times.
I've seen hairspray over a thousand times and continue to see it via regional productions ect. And i would be first in line to see it again at the Neil Simon!!