Posted: 6/13/20 at 11:51pm
@JuneJune the timeline in your memory doesn’t line up- there was no Manhattan location of Junior’s until around 2007, the year that “Beauty” closed.
Updated On: 6/13/20 at 11:51 PM
Posted: 6/14/20 at 12:14am
bwaylvsong said: "@JuneJune the timeline in your memory doesn’t line up- there was no Manhattan location of Junior’s until around 2007, the year that“Beauty” closed."
According to the Junior’s website, the Shubert Alley/45th St location opened in 2006. It doesn’t provide an opening date. Just the year. Beauty and the Beast closed July 2007.
Posted: 6/14/20 at 12:27am
BLs68 said: "bwaylvsong said: "@JuneJune the timeline in your memory doesn’t line up- there was no Manhattan location of Junior’s until around 2007, the year that“Beauty” closed."
According to the Junior’s website, theShubert Alley/45th St location opened in 2006. It doesn’t provide an opening date. Just the year. Beauty and the Beast closed July 2007."
My mistake, then- MY memory had it opening in 2007 lol. So 2006 gives JuneJune’s timeline a year or so of plausibility.
@JuneJune if you were born around 2000 (so you would have been 6-7 in 2006-7), you probably DID see it on Broadway.
Posted: 6/14/20 at 12:31am
On Broadway: COMPANY, 1971
On Tour: CALL ME MADAM starring Ethel Merman and Russell Nype, 1967
Posted: 6/14/20 at 12:46am
Posted: 6/14/20 at 1:38am
Broadway wasn't my first professional theater experience. That would be Liza Minelli in Carnival at The Paper Mill Playhouse. Broadway would be Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway in Hello Dolly.
Hundreds of shows later, I still can't get enough of live theater.
Posted: 6/14/20 at 11:05am
Posted: 6/14/20 at 12:05pm
First show on Broadway was Chicago in March 1976 from the first row of the mezzanine (I believe the tickets cost $15.50). On that trip, I also saw The Wiz and A Chorus Line.
First show I remember seeing at all was Snow White at Shady Grove Music Fair in the early 60s (when it was still a tent).
Posted: 6/14/20 at 12:45pm
Rent, 2003. Got $20 lottery tickets in the second row, so that was a great first Broadway experience.
Posted: 6/14/20 at 1:51pm
"My Fair Lady" with the original Broadway cast, Harrison and Andrews. We wrote ahead asking for tickets to the first available Saturday matinee. Our tickets were for six months hence, Nov. 1956. We listened to the album until we could decipher the strange English accents and learned the songs by heart. When the day finally arrived, we walked down Broadway to 51st St. I was so excited to see the marquee that I ran to the theater.
Posted: 6/14/20 at 2:37pm
My parents once took me to see The Sound of Music. It must have been well into its run, because Mary Martin was not in it. I do remembering that I loved it, but I did not save a Playbill, to my eternal disappointment. (To this day I have one for every Broadway show that I see, minus a few that were probably misplaced).
When I started attending with a close friend, the first show I ever saw (at 14) was Mary! Mary! The day before our first trek into Manhattan, it had become the 10th longest running show in Broadway history, so it seemed like the one to see. Paid $2.30 (don't ask why I remember) to sit in the second balcony of the original Helen Hayes, a jewel box of a theatre torn down for the Marriott. I didn't really like it, but I remember being entranced by the set, the fact that it was live, and occasional lines. Clearly, I was too young.
The second show I saw with the same friend was Ben Franklin in Paris, which was flop with Robert Preston. I remember enjoying that one quite a bit, though, and there was one genuine show stopper. Next was Funny Girl...Christmas week, standing room bought in advance, and I was hooked forever.
Posted: 6/14/20 at 3:02pm
Do national tours count? Since I don't live in New York,the first show I ever saw was the National Tour of Showboat,when I was about 6. I didn't understand the plot,but I loved the music. My dad used to like to sing "Old Man River". He and my mom were big theater buffs,so I grew up listening to cast albums before I was old enough to go to a show. I was really hooked on Broadway by the time I was 10 and still am! Even more as an adult.
The first show I ever saw in New York was "Barnum",with Jim Dale. He had just won the Tony Award,which I had seen on TV before my trip. Glenn Close had left by then,but she was on the cast album that I bought. That was the first time I'd heard of her.
Updated On: 6/14/20 at 03:02 PM
Posted: 6/14/20 at 3:28pm
Song And Dance with Bernadette Peters for the matinee. Sweet Charity with Debbie Allen for the evening.
Posted: 6/14/20 at 4:27pm
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying 1962. From the moment the overture started I was hooked! And that has not changed.
Posted: 6/14/20 at 4:31pm
In the Spring of 1970, i moved to NYC and my very first in person Broadway show was...COMPANY...
(now i did see a touring production of I DO! I DO!, with Mary Martin and Robert Preston...in Los Angeles, in the late 60's, but i know that doesn't count!!...)
Posted: 6/14/20 at 4:33pm
Beauty and the Beast in 2001 as a kid. First time going to NYC, too. I live here now! Feels crazy...
Updated On: 6/14/20 at 04:33 PM
Posted: 6/14/20 at 5:37pm
The first show I ever saw on Broadway was the first Les Miz revival, in 2007. Alex Gemignani, Ben Davis, Lea Salonga... pretty great experience!
Posted: 6/14/20 at 5:46pm
Esther2 said: "First show on Broadway was Chicago in March 1976 from the first row of the mezzanine (I believe the tickets cost $15.50)."
That’s what I paid for Chicago in 2010! But was a significantly discounted bus trip and show through my college. If I paid full price, it would have been closer to $200 for the bus and show ticket.
Posted: 6/14/20 at 8:28pm
My first Broadway Show was the Menken/Ahrens A Christmas Carol in 1994. I still vividly remember Link by Link and the wonderful choreography in Mr. Fezziwig's Annual Christmas Ball. I can't quite remember Scrooge's big solo near the end of the show but I remember it being excellent. It was a beautiful production. There was just so much to look at throughout the theater.
And if we're not counting that as a Broadway show, my first was Les Mis in 1997. My first experience was awful. It was a school trip. We were seated in partial view seats in the rear mezzanine and right near a speaker. I remember not being able to see much and being quite startled by how loud the cannon shots were. I saw it again in the front mezzanine that summer and had a much better experience.
Posted: 6/14/20 at 9:38pm
Posted: 6/15/20 at 12:09am
Pippin at the Imperial in January 1974. I was 15 years old and on a high school field trip. It was a Wednesday matinee and there was a major snow storm the night before. Ben Vereen was out of the show that that day, but since it was my first Broadway show, I didn't care. Most of the original Broadway cast was still in the show. Irene Ryan had already died and Dorothy Stickney played Berthe. Leland Palmer had replaced Jill Clayburgh that previous weekend. I enjoyed theater, but didn't get to Broadway until that day. My mom saw Broadway shows when she was younger, but my dad had no interest, although mom did take my sister and me to see the Christmas and Easter shows at Radio City some years which were no comparison. After Pippin I made sure I went on every available high school field trip to a Broadway show. The only one I didn't go on was a trip to see The Magic Show (I don't remember why). Once I was old enough to come into the City on my own, the rest is history.
Posted: 6/15/20 at 1:21am
Like goodlead, my first Broadway show was My Fair Lady in 1960. Even as a young teenager, I was thrilled to see the show. But I developed a terrible nosebleed that morning. It was a 98 degree day, a doctor treated my nose, and I sat in the theater hot and miserable with cotton stuffed up my nose. Andrews and Harrison were not the leads by then.
Two days later, I saw Bye Bye Birdie with Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera. The show had opened a couple of months earlier and, being from out of town, I knew nothing about the show. I felt better and had a blast. It was so much fun. Four years later, by chance, my high school in LA performed the show and I had the opportunity to play the role of Hugo Peabody.
Posted: 6/15/20 at 11:00am
msmp said: "Phantom of the Opera was my first show on Broadway (summer of 2004, Hugh Panaro as the Phantom I think)."
Me too! I had seen the 2004 movie and loved the story and art direction, but HATED the vocal performances. Seeing the show on Broadway changed my entire life, and not once have I visited New York since then without seeing Phantom.
Posted: 6/15/20 at 3:20pm
Still love reading posts like this, no matter how many times they pop up. To think that some of our compatriots witnessed the original casts of MY FAIR LADY, THE MUSIC MAN, or SHE LOVES ME fills me with an ineffable joy.
My first Bway show at 11 years old was FIDDLER ON THE ROOF in '67, with Harry Goz playing Tevye. I was in love with the revolve, the house hinging open to show the interior, and the magic of a scrim revealing the many other families echoing Sabbath Prayer. (Little wonder I grew up to be a set designer...)
Next Bway stop was the OBC of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC on New Year's Eve 1973. Too much magic to itemize-- this show has remained my favorite musical of all time.
