Beauty and the Beast - October 22nd 2000. Andrea McCardle was Belle, Steven Blanchard was the Beast, and Patrick Page was Lumiere. I remember saying to my aunt that I wanted to do what Belle and the Beast did, and I was absolutely mesmerized.
I still have the Playbill and it's something I treasure considering Beauty and the Beast is not only one of my favorite movies and musicals, it was the first of both for me.
"Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we’re all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.” --- Patti LuPone.
Mine was Aspects of Love at the Broadhurst in 1990. I was a junior in high school and an ALW nut at the time. (I still like a lot of his work more than many others here.) The London cast recording had been out for a long time, and I had it thoroughly memorized, so I noticed every little change from London to Broadway (there weren't that many).
Although Aspects is now below the top tier in my list of favorite musicals, I still admire the score a great deal (book and lyrics, not so much!) and find the original orchestrations to be incredibly gorgeous. The OLCR is a really vivid, almost totally complete document of the show, but I still hope we'll get another recording someday. (The only other one I'm aware of is a Japanese highlights recording.)
A CHORUS LINE, Easter weekend - April, 1976. My enlightened drama club teacher advisor, and director of our school plays at Liberty High School in Clarksburg, WV, brought a bunch of us up to NYC for a long-weekend trip. We raised money for the trip by selling pizzas, car washes, etc. It was my first time on a plane (we landed at LaGuardia), my first time in NYC, and first time seeing a Broadway show! (We also saw Pippin and The Wiz that weekend, along with The Radio City Easter Show (with movie Robin and Marian - starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn)...
A CHORUS LINE blew my little 16 year old West Virginia boy mind! I already had the cast album memorized, and now to actually see it on stage FOR REAL was a thrill beyond description! I was in a state of delirious ecstasy for the entire show, my eyes never leaving the stage...Highlights? So had to pick any specific moments, but I'd say these three moments for sure:
1. When cast comes forward on those Marvin Hamlisch strident pulse beats and stop in a line, their black and white headshots in front of their faces...
2. Donna McKechnie - "Music and the Mirror"...when she finished this electrifying number, the thunderous applause seemed to go on forever, and she just stood there breathing only a little heavily, hand on her hip, that endless leg thrust out from her red leotard wrap-around...
3. Paul's monologue...as a teenage male struggling with facing the fact that I was gay, Paul's achingly honest description of his father's reaction when he saw his son in drag left my heart racing...Could any of my classmates guess from the tears streaming down my face that I was identifying with this character so intensely because his story was partly my story??
I knew in my heart that night that I would get to NYC again in the near future, come hell or high water...and so I did...and I've been here ever since! No longer acting for a living, but as a fundraiser for an esteemed institution, I still use my "acting" all the time! Great memories.... :)
My first Broadway show was West Side Story, 17th December 2010 at the Palace Theatre. It was my 21st birthday and i wanted to see a show and that was the cheapest we could find at such short notice. All i remember is that we had nosebleed seats and that i really enjoyed it. It was my first trip to NY (im from the UK) and since then ive been back 6 times, 5 of those in the last 18 months!
I saw my first Broadway show last month on 6/7 as a matter of fact. I won the ticket lottery for Wicked. I'm so glad it was my first show because it was truly magical. Since I have also listened to the soundtrack for years, it was really enjoyable seeing the story and music come together.
Since then, I have watched 13 shows in total, most of which have been lottery wins, as well, averaging about $40 a ticket.
The Lion King in 1999, very back of the balcony. The next day I saw Ragtime in the row 3 center orchestra. Right after the show was over, I immediately sold the ticket to Jekyll and Hyde and bought Ragtime tix again. What a season it was! I still think Brian Stoke Mitchel was snubbed!
My middle school drama teacher took us on a field trip to see the Original Broadway production of "Dreamgirls" in 1982. It fostered my love for all things musical theater and my affinity for hot black men.
Mine was FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at the Broadway Theater back in 1971 I was 13--on my first trip to the Big Apple with my grandmother, who took me to see, over the years , THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG, SUGAR, A CHORUS LINE (just saw Baayork Lee's production at Pace Univesity this spring), TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, ANNIE, BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE....and the list goes on after my college years! Thanks Gram!
Mine was the civil war, I don't really remember that much about it other then I went with my mom. I think we picked that one cause I've always had an interest in history and even though I live here I didn't have an interest in theatre until 2010. I know we got the tickets at the tkts booth and I know I have the playbill somewhere in the house but I haven't really taken the time to search for it.
It was the Winter of 1977 and a group of us went to see Liza in THE ACT, have dinner at Mamma Leone's, and then catch Yul Brynner and Constance Towers in THE KING AND I.
Oh my, the original BW production of GREASE, and as a young kid, it wasn't quite what I was expecting, as it was for it's day, a bit raw and vulgar. I loved every minute of it.
Times Square was a different world back then, full of strip shows and X rated (does that still exist?) skin flick movie theatres.
"when I’m on stage I see the abyss and have to overcome it by telling myself it’s only a play." - Helen Mirren
Mine was Ben Franklin in Paris, which I really wanted to love. Even at 14, I could tell it was just not right; but I was so excited to be there, I didn't really acknowledge to myself that it wasn't a masterpiece until I saw Hello Dolly, Funny Girl and High Spirits over the next X months. Too long ago to remember exactly how long between seeing Ben and the other three.
Hello Dolly was total magic, goosebumps, etc. High Spirits was fun. Funny Girl was a little disappointing because, even at 15, I could tell she was going through the motions, changing lyrics, e.g., I talk this way because I'm French????? Somewhere in there, I am pretty sure I saw Drat! the Cat, which I also loved.