Your Strongest Memories of Your First Broadway Show- Page 2

[JamesMacon]

Posted: 8/23/06 at 9:49pm

My first was Guys and Dolls in the early 90s. All I would do was sing that music over and over agian.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 8/23/06 at 9:50pm

The King and I Revival 1996

I remember there being 2 huge elephants on either side of the stage and the bed moving offstage on its own. I was young so this fascinated me.

[wexy]

Posted: 8/23/06 at 10:03pm

Robert DeNiro in a play "Cuba and His Teddy Bear" which also had Ralph Maccio and Burt Young.
I was thinking "Wow.Deniro."

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 8/23/06 at 10:13pm

My first show was PETER PAN with Sandy Duncan. I was five. I wanted to fly soooo bad I was just in awe of the whole expierience. I was hooked forever

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 8/23/06 at 10:19pm

My first Broadway show was Gypsy, on June 12, 2003. I couldn't believe I was actually seeing a Broadway show. I loved the music and I thought everyone was perfectly cast. But my main memory of that night is Bernadette. I realized right then and there that she is a true goddess.

[Joelbeans]

Posted: 8/23/06 at 10:35pm

The first time I was in NYC I remember it was January in the 1990's it was the year of one of the first huge snow storms. I remember we had gone up to get one of my friend's furniture back. He lived in NYC for a while, and his roommates were moving out of their old apartment, and they had been using his furniture. Well after a long continuous ride from St. Louis I remember I slept the last part of the trip up there. I remember my friend woke me up and I looked out the front window and saw HUGE snowflakes falling down in front of the lights of Time Square. Well we immediately got tickets to see Sunset Blvd. with Betty Buckley. I was amazed that I was actually seeing Betty Buckley. I too remember how small I thought the theatre was, I was used to the Fox theatre here in St. Louis, and this one was soooooo small. I also was amazed with the huge staircase, and watching it rise with BEtty on it while the New Year's eve scene rolled out underneath. Then the final scene with Betty Buckley, how impressed I was with the technology, and Betty's acting. Wow.

[almostxfamous]

Posted: 8/23/06 at 10:47pm

My first Broadway show was RENT back in 2002.

I remember sitting in the first row of the mezzanine, resting my head on my hands on the bar in front of me, and taking in the theatre around me. The show started, and I was in awe the entire time. I remember sobbing throughout a large chunk of the second act, which basically was Without You, ICY:R, Goodbye,Love, and both Finales. I was hooked.

Posted: 8/24/06 at 12:12am

My first Broadway show was Beauty and The Beast back in 2000.
I remember it was March and kind of cold. I remember that Stephen Blanchard was The Beast and Andrea McCardle was Belle and I remember being way far back but still being able to see all the colors and costumes and being in awe of it all. I remember screaming when the wolves attacked. I just remember all the whole time thinking as if it were a dream. I also remember getting the Beauty and The Beast t-shirt with the embrodered rose on it {which I still have}}

[LyTeMyCanDyI]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 12:55am

My first show was Les Mis. I had jsut turned 9 and it was 1997. i remember sitting next to my mom reading the Playbill. I turned to my mom and said, "Mommy, this says there are whores. Aren't those the girls that have sex for money? People play hookers? Cool!" Mind you, I was 9.

Then it started and I turned to my mom and said, "Mommy! They're all singing right here! I'm in the same room." I remember the baricade, thinking Marius and Enjolras were hotties, wondering how they aged Valjean. I was amazed with Javert's suicide. I wanted to play on the turntable. I was so impressed with how everyone sounded so good. By the end of the show I was in love with musical theater and was so envious of the little girls playing Eponine and Cosette as children. OT FAIR!

In the nine years since then i've seen 29 different shows, some of them multiple times. Thanks Les Mis.

[dented146]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 2:33am

My first Broadway show was My Fair Lady in 1960. I was a kid visiting NYC from LA. I was supposed to see Bye Bye Birdie with my young cousins but I refused to see a "kids show" and talked my aunt into trading shows.

When we got to the theatre I developed a terrible bloody nose and remember being very uncomfortable sitting with tissue stuffed in my nose.

Two days later my lovely aunt let me see Bye Bye Birdy with my cousins and, of course, I loved it.

[Cheno'sBiggestfan]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 2:38am

My first broadway show was Sound of Music in 1999. I remember my mom freaking out when Richard Chamberlin walked right by her during the Wedding Scene...I was 7 so that's all I can think of.

[justme2]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 2:48am

I was a late comer to Broadway...my friend had purchased opening night tickets to Will Rogers Follies (1st National Tour)in SF. Original Broadway cast (sans Cady Huffman, I believe). It was 1992 and I was about to have back surgery. I had never seen a Broadway musical and remember turning to her at intermission and saying something about never wanting the show to end, it was so beautiful. It had ended act one with "Diamonds for Mrs. Rogers" and the chorines were all dressed as jewels and it was stunning.

It made quite an impression on me and I love the show still.

After the show, we ran into Tommy Tune outside trying to hail his limo or a cab. A first stage door experience, and I was too in awe of him to say a word. I would talk to him later, after Tommy Tune Tonite though...

[istoleatv]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 2:52am

my first broadway show was "sunset blvd." i was so upset that Patti wasn't doing it. i was shocked to see glenn close do so well. i was then and still am a huge patti fan, but glen did very well. i remember her coming down the staircase, and she was so dramatic! i loved every bit of the show and have seen many bdway shows since then.

' i am big, it's the pictures that got small '

[C is for Company]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 3:09am

Les Miserables- April 18th, 2003.
I had some attachment to this show and don't know why it appealed to me. I remember watching the 10th Anniversary concert tape at my Grandma's a lot and asked my dad to take me before it closed.

So I remember my exact spot in the last row and the Prologue with the chaingang, the turntable and seeing the various people onstage during that part and Lovely Ladies, the big set with the bridge and the cafe scenes and there being gates. Yeah lol, this was like 3 years ago and this was some of the extent to my memories seeing the show. I remember a lot about that day and details, but not of the show. I remember really liking it a lot and being satisfied that I saw the show a month before closing with the original Javert.

[TIGGOSAURUS]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 6:25pm

My first Broadway show was either 'Anything Goes' or 'A Chorus Line' back in 1989. Sorryto say, but I'm not actually sure which it was! I do remember that Chorus Line made the much bigger impression though - it just seemed quintisentially New York!

[halyiaganitefiz]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 6:57pm

First Broadway show was August 3rd, 2003: "Aida".

I sat somewhere in the middle-to-back of the mezzanine/loge area. I remember thinking how terribly far back I was and how I hoped to God I'd be able to see things and there were so many people and I'd never seen so many people in one theatre before and--

...and then the lights went down. I remember the wall of sound coming at me, the clarity and perfection of the music so clean and bold that it felt like a dream. I remember the lighting being too beautiful to understand, and the way the set moved, and the way the people moved on the set... all of it was unreal to me.

I remember not being able to breathe. I remember my mouth falling open at how effortless it all seemed. All of it.

I remember not being that impressed with Toni Braxton. And by "not that impressed" I mean I was kind of insulted by how much I didn't like her in the first half. She got better as it went on.

I remember loving Mandy Gonzalez as Amneris, a role that I don't relate to in any way, shape, or form, but have always wanted to play because of "My Strongest Suit," the song that got me into my first musical ("The Boyfriend" at my middle school two years before seeing "Aida" on B'way).

I remember LOVING Mereb and Nehebka even as minor-ish roles.

I remember practically moaning out loud in amazement at the transitions between scenes, how flawless and beautiful they were, and how incredible even the unspoken, unpronounced movements and gestures were.

Even at the back of the house, I literally felt transported by all of it.

And I sobbed my heart out in the finale.

When people say "Broadway is magic" or "theatre is magic"... I remember that night and know that they sure as hell weren't kidding. *shakes head*

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 7:15pm

August, 1996 - Beauty and the Beast
Kerry Butler and Jeff McCarthy
Palace Theater

Still have my Playbill.

And Steve Blanchard was the Beast understudy.

[LeoButz=LOVE]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 8:10pm

My first Broadway show was Beauty and the Beast in July of 1996. Kerry Butler and Jeff McCarthy (sp?) were the leads. I was only 5 so I can't remember much, but one thing stood out for me. It was the when the Beast finished singing "If I Can't Lover Her" and he was standing on the balcony and the audience went crazzzzzy! So me, being five years old followed suit 'cause he must have done something right to make all of those people happy.

[pab]

Posted: 8/24/06 at 8:23pm

Instead of waxing sentimental I'll sum up, in two words, my strongest memories of my first Broadway Show, The Wiz:

The Tornado

[LilDiva05]

Posted: 8/25/06 at 12:43am

My first Broadway show was the revival of 'Annie' back in...May of 1997, for my tenth birthday. I remember my mom and I getting to the theatre to find that our seats were in the second to last mezzanine row. Now, when I was little, I was almost blind, so my mom asked an usher if there were any closer seats that we (or even me by myself) could sit in. Turns out, the right side balcony was empty, so we sat there. I was able to touch the door to the orphanage. I remember the understudy was on for the orphan Pepper, and she REALLY annunciated her words. When she said "Shut up!", it came out as "shuT uP!!!!!" So I thought that was wierd. The Annie (Brittny Kissinger) wasn't the best singer, but oh well, I was 10, what did I know? I remember my friend Mekenzie who played Duffy coming out during the bows with the other orphans and that she was wearing the pink version of Annie's red dress. I met Sutton Foster after the show, the Grace understudy (Christy Tarr), and the Pepper understudy (Alexandria Keisman). Then Mekenzine came out and we had a 'little kid freak-out'. I lost pretty much all the pictures that were taken that day, except for this one of me and Mekenzie: https://www.broadwayworld.com/viewphoto.cfm?id=4388

I also had a little 15 minutes of fame. My mom was talking to this woman next to her at the stagedoor, and they were talking about how I played Annie at my theatre camp the year before. Well, this one lady only heard the part "My daughter was Annie..." and kinda barrelled over to me and asked me to sign her playbills and take a picture with her kids. I told her I wasn't the Annie on Broadway, but she didn't care because her "kids just want to meet ANYONE who played Annie." Then everyone caught on to what was going on, and I must've signed about 50 playbilld haha. I'll post pictures once I dig them out of a box in my garage hahaha.

[DrunkyMcWasted]

Posted: 8/25/06 at 2:01am

My first broadway show was CATS. Say what you want about that show... but when I was 10 I was in love with it. I wore the London VHS out. It was my first trip to New York City as well. I went with a friend of mine and was SO EXCITED. We painted out faces before we went (or, rather, *I* painted our faces), and we rode in a cab (which, at the time, I thought was the coolest thing EVER). During the show people kept asking us where we got our faces painted. I remember being so proud telling them I did it myself. We were in the mezzanine, so our seats weren't that good... but it was the first show I ever saw that wasn't a school production or community theater.

[flicker_]

Posted: 8/25/06 at 2:13am

My first was Beauty and the Beast. I was really young, but I still remember it. God, what an introduction to Broadway! From the minute the enchantress threw that ball of fire, I was entranced. I will never forget it.

[AnotherDay46]

Posted: 8/25/06 at 2:23am

The Phantom of the Opera when I was six. Like flicker, I was really young too. The strongest memory of it was the scene right before the overture, when he says, "Perhaps we may frighten away the ghost of so many years ago with a little illumination... Gentlemen" and then the lights flash and the chandelier rises. It surprised me so much I jumped out of my seat.

[jv92]

Posted: 8/25/06 at 12:00pm

My first Broadway show was Seussical. It wasn't the first time I went to the theatre though. I had seen shows in amateur and regional productions. Although I lived in New York, I had never seen a Broadway show. I was about 10 or so and I wanted to go, not because of the Seuss thing, but because I saw a high school production of Once on This Island that I loved. Since Ahrens and Flaherty wrote Once on This Island, I wanted to see something by them.
So my parents and I went to the Rodgers Theatre and I remember how disapointed I was. I had seen all of these old movies where people wore evening gowns and suits to the theatre. Behind me was some old lady who looked like she was ready to wash her car. Oh yes, and that old lady hated the show and complained to her companions (her grandchildren) how awful she thought it was.
Onto the possitive things, I enjoyed David Shriner. I really thought Kevin Chamberlin was great. I liked the score. I was 10, so I didn't realize how really bad and episodic the book was.
The next show I saw was the revival of Kiss Me, Kate, which was probably the first time going to a Broadway show met my expectations. People dressed nicely. The sets weren't cheesey looking and the orchestra sounded like an orchestra.

[GreenGirl22406]

Posted: 8/25/06 at 12:06pm

My first show was Wicked, and I remember just being amazed at the huge theater and the set and everything, and I still have the Reeses Pieces that I got there because I was too amazed at the show to eat them. The actual show I saw kind of blends in my mind with the bootlegs that I've watched, but I know all of the dances and music with harmonies and can play everything on the piano (sad, huh? that happens with about 6 other shows too...) but I did really enjoy it.