I'm getting my friend a t-shirt for his birthday. I want it to say:
Why Do I Love Theatre? Listing several reasons why...like It takes me away. It gives me life. It makes life more fun. It helps me learn life lessons. It helps me teach other people life lessons.
Marla: I have to go sing about a life I never led.
What a great question. Off the top of my head: It lets me feel, it inspires me, it makes me think, it changes my life, it moves me, it opens my heart, it transports me, it opens me up, it reconnects me to what's in my heart, it breaks down barriers, it connects us, it gives me powerful music and stories ... I could go on, but there's a start.
Thank you gents. It's such a broad question, and when you think about it everyone's own answer is made up of hundreds (thousands...more?) little moments which collectively define a relatively undefinable feeling.
I have so many more...
I propose for this thread we should all share our own "reasons".
... Because we hear the people sing. ... Because we're born every night at half-hour call. ... Because there's no business like show business.
I love theatre because family and friends have come and gone and I have moved from city to city and had many jobs... and through it all the only constant besides my parents and brother has been Broadway.
When I'm feeling inspired and dreamy, I go storm the barricades and sing with the amazing characters of LES MIZ. When I'm sad and lonely and need cheering up, I put in THE PRODUCERS. When I'm feeling romantic, I listen to the music of the night with the Phantom and Christine...
There is a show for everyone, a character everyone can relate to.
Theatre teaches us about the past- SOUTH PACIFIC and MISS SAIGON- while entertaining us.
Theatre transports us to anywhere it wants to take us... and that's a good thing.
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
This may sound perverse, but one reason I love theater is precisely because it's so rare that all the elements come together perfectly at the same time.
Seeing a great performance is like sighting a unicorn.
Because sometimes, we hate the greats and love the unknowns. Because a simple play, not too well written, can move us to tears, like WAR HORSE. Because life is a Cabaret. Because great performances pop up in mediocre plays, like Lavin in THE LYONS. Because Neil Simon recycles his works and still makes me laugh. Because young, exciting playwrights are always being discovered. Because someone like Sondheim can have as many great collaborators as he's had. Because Donna Murphy can be elegant, awkward, a tragic figure, a comedienne. Because the only worthwhile things we leave behind are Children and Art. Because of the wonderful variety that appears on and off Broadway. Because, even in what some call a poor season, many Tony categories were tight.
"There's No Business Like Show Business" Theatre is it's own emotion because there is so much put into it and so much comes out. Theatre is a release, a medicine, a reliever to the soul. Simply, it's art: it's made for us to make us feel good.
Because waiting for a show to start, in the moments in the dark, I feel closest to god. (no kidding.)
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
I love theatre for all the reasons already listed, and, because... it connects me. It connects me to people, to memories, to stories, to my hopes and dreams. It truly does make me feel alive.
"Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. . ."
“In these days of political, personal and economic disintegration, music is not a luxury, it's a necessity; not simply because it is therapeutic, nor because it is the universal language, but because it is the persistent focus of our intelligence, aspiration and goodwill.”
I would say the same for theatre. It's a necessity.
"Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. . ."
(I confess I could only paraphrase them so I looked them up to get the exact wording.)
"The good die young but not always. The wicked prevail but not consistently. I am confused by life, and I feel safe within the confines of the theatre." - Helen Hayes
"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos." - Stephen Sondheim
Scratch and claw for every day you're worth!
Make them drag you screaming from life, keep dreaming
You'll live forever here on earth.
It's one of the few things in life that brings people from all different backgrounds together to watch some of the most dedicated, bravest and most talented creative people do what has been done for centuries, tell a story. Some tell it better than others but at the end of the day, we are all part of that experience and everytime I go I can't think of another place I'd rather be.
The only review of a show that matters is your own.
Because there are more grindr users around Shubert Alley than Yankee Stadium :P.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
I am so happy I happened upon this thread. So many of you have described so eloquently what I've felt for so long and didn't know how to put into words.