What is a memory from a show that will stay with you forever?

Can be from watching a show, stage door, any experience in the theatre that you will never forget.

Mine are when Alice Ripley brought me to tears in her performance as Diana in Next to Normal during "So Anyway" and Bernadette Peters' performance of "Send in the Clowns" when she made eye contact with me.

EDIT: Forgot to add this, but the Final Performance of the Ragtime revival. The curtain rose on the tableau of the entire cast and I began to cheer and jeer for what seemed like an eternity. When Sarah died, I burst into tears like a baby and stayed that way for the next hour and a half. Afterwards, I went backstage and I was talking to Marcia Milgrom Dodge and she signaled to the stage manager to raise the curtain and the giant gust of wind easily pushed me back a foot, and I had never felt a sensation like it.

G'head

Updated On: 8/9/10 at 01:25 PM

When I saw The Drowsy Chaperone, I won the lotto and was sitting in the front row next to a friend. During "Toledo Surprise," Danny Burstein winked at me and said "That's for you, baby." I was totally taken by surprise and had to look at my friend to make sure I had actually just been hit on by Aldolpho.

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i saw beauty and the beast w my grandma and when the beast jumped into the west wing, my grandma jumped out of her seat and screamed! lol!!!!!!!!

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I will never forget Michael Jeter's first appearance onstage in GRAND HOTEL. There was nothing extraordinary about his entrance but just the sight of him walking downstage center with his luggage while wearing the over-sized clothing just took my breath away. I can't explain why.

There are so many...I was at the final performance of the revival of Sunday in the Park, and at the very end of the show when George turned and all the figures in the painting bowed to him, everyone in the audience simultaneously burst into tears...it was beautiful and so unexpectedly moving.

And there are too many from the revival of Ragtime to name...one of the biggest standouts though is at the end of the first act when all the people up on the 2nd tier of the set dropped their flags simultaneously, and then after a moment the lone bass chord at the beginning of "Till We Reach That Day" started...so so stunning.

Wow. i have moments from every show ive seen that will live with me. they all make up a piece of my soul :)

Hairspray- seeing Ashley Parker Angel again. i was obsessed with him when i was little during his boyband days. also feeling that broadway high for the first time.

Little Mermaid- seeing my favorite movie live was surreal.

Wicked- that unbelievable feeling i got seeing Defying Gravity.

9 to 5- "im gonna get that gun of mine and change you from a rooster to a hen in one shot!" what i wouldnt give to be able to use that line in my lifetime.

Promises, Promises- seeing KCheno, in the flesh. also knowing in my heart that i had just seen a tony winning performance in katie finneran and a month later being proved right

Hair- finally getting to dance on broadway.

Next to Normal- Kyle Dean Massey half naked HAHAHA. jk. the theatrical brilliance of "I'm Alive" as well as the sheer emotional power of the show. The whole experience was so moving and beautiful.

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I have so many but my favorite, and the one that crossed an item off my bucket list was dancing on stage 3 times after Hair. I was so overwhelmed with feelings of love and community and getting to dance on a Broadway stage was incredible....

The 1500th performance of "Deathtrap" - thanks to Marian Seldes, I got to go backstage and meet the cast members as well as the playwright Ira Levin!

When "Sugar Babies" came to my town, I wrote Ann Miller a fan letter and got a reply from her secretary telling me that after the intermission my friends and I could watch the second act from the theatre wings! I had seen Ann Miller several times and she and her secretary were so kind to us fans. Mickey Rooney is another story.

While in NYC on another trip, after a performance of "The Little Foxes", Maureen Stapleton and her dresser Eloise White took us backstage and then took us onto the stage itself! Being on the stage was such a special moment for me- thinking of all the talented people who had given performances there, especially Maureen and Elizabeth Taylor- who I didn't get to meet, but at one point I stood just a feet or two from her.

And this one is different but for me unforgettable- back home I was working in the restaurant connected to our repertory theate. One day, before a matinee, playwright/author Spaulding Gray came in for a cup of coffee. Everyone had left to see the show, and he was the only guest in the place. I told him how much I had enjoyed his writings and his acting work. He was so nice. He talked to me for what seemed the longest time. We chatted and he had a refill, then his associates came to get him. He thanked me for being nice to him (!!) Years later when I read of him going missing and later found dead, I thought back on that day. And I cried and cried.

Hearing "On My Own" for the first time on my first trip to a Broadway show when I was 10.

The first time I saw "Defying Gravity" in Wicked.

The first time I saw the Phantom revealed in the mirror when I was 10.

( ^ I confess that I fall for the spectacle the first time I see shows like this.)

The first time I saw Next to Normal and the big reveal in Act 1. I was caught completely off-guard and instantly burst into tears (and stayed in tears for the rest of the show).

Seeing "The Drowsy Chaperone" and "Curtains" and realizing how I much I yearn for the old-fashioned in musicals. The same thing happened when I listened to Jason Danieley and Melissa Errico belt out "Almost Like Being in Love" at the Irish Rep's Brigadoon Concert Gala. I forget how much I miss that feel until I see it done well!

Finian's Rainbow closing performance; first time I saw the South Pacific Revival; Alice, Brian and Jenn's last performance of n2n; upcoming: South Pacific closing in two weeks!

Surely more to come!

Aaron Tveit. Half-Naked. Next To Normal.

Dancing at HAIR, and then when all died down, helping Caissie Levy get up and then she fell into MY ARMS :P.

Nick Adams thrusting his crotch in my face at LA CAGE

(the least sexual of all of these) Hearing Paulo Szot singing "Some Enchanted Evening"

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Chita Rivera's entrance in "The Dancer's Life." To be honest, I knew little of Chita before the show but felt I needed to see the show if I was going to call myself a lover of theatre. When she danced behind the screen and eventually came out, I was nearly in tears. I've been in love with her ever since.

Seeing Christine Ebersole sing "Another Winter In A Summer Town" in Grey Gardens. You could hear a pin drop in the Walter Kerr. She had the audience in her palm of her heartbroken hand. It was transcendent.

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YOU THERE WHY ARE YOU SO LATE
Betty Buckley in the Adelphi theater in London
at the top of the steps waiting for her entrance
I thought i was gonna burst

When Diana leaves in next to normal and Bobby Spencer had tears streaming down his face and the light shone off of the tears. I still get chills thinking about it.

Patti LuPone. Gypsy. Nuff said.

The lights fading on the kickline at the end of A Chorus Line.

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