Wicked Saved Broadway!!! So did many musicals before Wicked! Cake! — Page 5

Well, actually, the first Broadway musical I ever saw was last Spring Break. Although I was 13, I felt like I had a moderately good grasp on musical theatre.

Well...my naive-ness combined with Julie Hanson's off-key voice didn't exactly motivate me to go out there and start picking off some OBCR's at Border's.

But recently (about 3 weeks ago), my friend brought in the OBCR of Wicked [this is actually how I got to know her], I had Defying Gravity stuck in my head ALL day. I ended downloading the entire Wicked album, then said "what the hey", and went to go buy it.


Now, I'm proud to say that I have started voice lessons, and hope to soon become a student in some sort of Musical Theatre program.

Mark my words, Sondheim, I will be astonishing. :)

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Ha ha PAB, now you can sleep!

Sorry, I just read this post on page 3 and have to ask why race is an issue in attendence? I mean i know it's going to happen, but I don't understand it. I don't mean for this to turn into a racist debate or anything, but simply to better undstand the situation. Why don't african-americans go to the other shows besides ones featuring african-americans? I'm sure you'll find a lot of white ppl in the audience at rasin in the sun, etc. Why don't they support "our" shows. And I think calling them "ours" shows is wrong on so many levels, but whatever. Just a question...

what do you mean first American Grand Musical? Rent was American...

Oh, Okay I get what you're saying. In the sense of like critical praise and staying power, I would consider Rent a mega musical, but Yeah i see what you're saying. But yeah, I would considered Wicked the first American Mega Musical, that i can think of. Producers and Hairspray aren't really in the "mega" category.

Totally agree. I love Wicked. I think it's def. a mega musical in any sense of the word.

RentBoy86,

I assume you are talking about my post. It is just a fact that African American's for the most part do not attend the theatre. I could go into the reasons I and many others think they don't. We discuss this in our meetings at the DCTC (Denver Center Theatre Company) a lot. I can say that it is partly due to economy and it is also a cultural thing. My black friends used to think I was some kind of a snob because I saw more than the black productions I mentioned in my post on page 3. I will say that it is my thought that there was a time that African Americans were probably not allowed in to the Legitimate Theatre. So there was not a lot of exposure. There was the Chitlin Circuit for music but none for theatre, that I know of. After years of non exposure and being excluded, I suspect that Theatre is looked at as something elite by a lot of the African American Community. So therefore they go when it is a show that they can relate to as an African American. There were, and are these very low budget shows targeted at the African American community such as the "Beauty Shop" series back in the 80's that would sell out a 2 or 3 day stays in a city. I forget the name of the person behind these shows, but to me and a lot of African Americans I know, they are apalling. Poor acting, sets, etc. Pretty much a money making scheme. And I don't attend them. One was enough for me. But they know their market and they go for it. Most people outside of the Black community don't even know the show is in town. As I said before, it saddens me because I think we can all relate to/understand/enjoy/like/have our minds stimulated/dislike or whatever, any show out there. I have dragged a few of my black friends to the theatre kicking and screaming! And by the time the show was over, some of them were ready to see another show!This is why I Chair the organization I do to try to get more Africans into the theatre.

Hope I made sense. Just my opinion.

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Adam Chris,

I must admit that I was not really familiar with him until I saw him on Oprah and realized I had heard of him! Didn't know he had his work out on DVD. What did you watch on DVD. I went to Netflix and none of the DVD's have been released yet.

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Updated On: 4/15/05 at 03:22 PM

I first got hooked on Broadway by "Pippin." I saw the touring company in Baton Rouge, LA with Barry Williams, of all people. I wound up seeing his understudy (Michael Rupert?)

A few years later I saw it on Broadway.

There are always shows that will haunt you.

Bravo for "Wicked" if it's somebody's obsession. It's not mine. I saw it, and enjoyed it.

Will I see the Chicago production when it opens? Probably not. I'd rather see something that I haven't been exposed to before. I know that every performer brings something diffrent to the role. But I'd rather not pay a nice piece of cash, just so that I can compare the two productions.

Did it saved Boradway?

Broadway always needs saving.