Broadway anyone???

[Duchess]

Great thread!!!...I love musicals and plays. My favorites are really old school..Favorite musical is a toss up between A Chorus Line and Cats..My favorite plays are Arsenic and Old Lace and You Can't Take It With You w/ Jason Robards in the lead....

Duchess

[Arwen]

I'm a bit of a scene/set 'ho myself. I love watching HOW things are put together. I remember a set for "The Night Is A Lonely Hunter" (Carson McCuller) at my college. It was built on three levels with each one being a series of frames. They were meant to represent rooms but also literally frames for each scene as though it were independent of the rest. If you know the play, you know no one is really ever independent of the rest.

Our narrator spoke from various points on this stage setting the scenes. I always thought that bare bones staging was brilliant.

Of course, I also remember the dress rehearsal when the brand-spanking-new computerized (very chi-chi in those days) lightboard ran through ALL the cues in about 10 minutes during our narrator's opening monologue. It was a hoot--DISCO time.

The crew was amused. The director? Not so much.

[Gemme]

I am a theatre virgin. I find this rather amusing considering what my honey does for a living.

I don't count the community theatre that I've been to to support my friends. I enjoyed it, but I was there for my friends and, honestly, it lacked some of the magic I'd hope I'd find in a professional production.

Some of my wishlist includes:

Wicked (one of my housemates saw it in Seattle and LOVED it)
Chicago (I love the movie)
Rent (I love the movie)
A Chorus Line (I own the movie...somewhere...and it holds a certain sentimental value to me now)
STOMP! (HAVE to see this one!)
Hairspray (who doesn't love this one?)
The Producers (loved the movie)
Riverdance (okay, I just love dancing)
The Lion King (with 6 days of load in and 15 trucks full of materials, it HAS to be spectacularly fantastic!)

I have no idea what Boeing, Boeing entails but considering Boeing is a mere hour away, maybe I should invest in finding out.

I, however, have no urge to see Phantom at all. It's just not my cuppa.

[cerys]

Originally Posted by Gemme

Rent (I love the movie)

The Rent movie was..... I don't have words. It had the potential and was SO CLOSE to being amazingly perfect. They took out Contact (for the rating, I believe), but how could they take out .... damn. i can't remember which song I was so upset about. But I was very upset about it when the movie was over and that song was missing!

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by cerys

The Rent movie was..... I don't have words. It had the potential and was SO CLOSE to being amazingly perfect. They took out Contact (for the rating, I believe), but how could they take out .... damn. i can't remember which song I was so upset about. But I was very upset about it when the movie was over and that song was missing!

I have no idea what you are talking about (having not seen it on stage, of course), but if I do get the chance, I'll make a mental note to keep my ears primed for what you are talking about. Who sang it and to whom?

[Darth Denkay]

Like many of you, the energy from a good production is amazing. DOesn't matter the venue - college, community, or professional - it is addicting. It doesn't matter the size of the audience, good actors seem as though they connect with me like there is no one else in the room. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

I've developed this odd little behavior that I think you all might get. After a good show, during curtain call, when each actor comes forward and bows I nod my head as though the gestures are between us. It just feels WRONG not to acknowledge them!

Apocalipstic - Sequel to Phantom? Do tell!!!

Cerys - You mentioned the movie "Rent". I first saw the show at the Orpheum, our professional theater. LOVED IT!!! When the movie came out I was really excited - it was almost the exact same cast so I figured it would be good (not as good as the stage performance of course). I was really disappointed, the movie had none of the feeling that the show did. Now, I may watch it again - maybe I was just in a weird mood that night, but it was just so weird to have basically the same cast and not enjoy it. I wasn't aware they left a song out - I'll have to pay attention when I watch it again.

Rock on my theater friends!

[Duchess]

Originally Posted by WicketWWarrick

Like many of you, the energy from a good production is amazing. DOesn't matter the venue - college, community, or professional - it is addicting. It doesn't matter the size of the audience, good actors
!

I so agree with you. One of my favorite places in Atlanta is Actor's Express. Seats maybe 500 and it supports alot of gay and lesbian productions. It's absolutely charming. It showcased my favorite production of Love, Valour and Compassion..

Duchess

[Arwen]

I've only seen "Rent" on screen. Had a chance to see it here in Austin last year but wimped out. Won't do that again! I will have to find the Broadway album so I can get all the music. I have several musicals on my iPod including Rent, Chicago, Enchanted, The King & I... grin


So let's go back....what's the first live theater you can remember seeing?

P.to the S. So nice to see others who get the energy of theater over the location.

[jenny]

Originally Posted by cerys

The Rent movie was..... I don't have words. It had the potential and was SO CLOSE to being amazingly perfect. They took out Contact (for the rating, I believe), but how could they take out .... damn. i can't remember which song I was so upset about. But I was very upset about it when the movie was over and that song was missing!

There were several songs missing, in addition to "Contact." All of the "tune ups" and "voice mails" were missing, and were great fun in the stage version. Also, "We're Okay" and "Christmas Day" are left out of the film version.

I saw the stage version of "Rent" about ten times, including twice with the original cast. Amazing. The interesting thing about the film version, though, is that it fills in a lot of the blank spots in the stage show that left me guessing for a while. The movie version of "Chicago" did the same thing, when compared to the stage version.

[Rook]

I saw Fiddler on the Roof, with Alfred Molina, that was awesome..
Never got a chance to see Rent with the original Cast Live..
I was mesmerized by Angels in America {the HBO version was ok...kind of 'boosting' with special FX}..
I was given Cats on DVD for a birthday gift[oddly enuff the version I saw in Canada wasn't the same as the DVD, my fave parts were of Mr. Mistoffelees, Deuteronomy , and Macavity}..
I do wanna see the Lion King...
in college, i was told i needed 2 extra credits, to give some thought what I'd like to take, i figured theater would be suitable..every lawyer has to perform theatrics in front of a jury to convince them at some point, no?
I almost quit Law at the time to pursue performing arts when the production ended...it was an experience of a lifetime..
Although , I did find the directors pet peeves curious..
for instance, he was of the firm belief true actors never Bow...
veterans in the troupe were very nervous after an encore, half of us bowed to a full house of applause..
backstage however, some vets kept saying 'i dont think we shouldve done that'..
and yeh...he stormed into the dressing room and pretty much tore into us
"while you're on my stage, u will never fucking bow, the difference between professional, and amateur is bowing, all of u showed me how professional u are tonight"
i never bowed again *L*{but i did wonder quietly about every actor i've ever seen bowing..}

[Beau]

Yes, theater is my passion; it was formative for me. I saw myself in a myriad of ways that helped explain an inner reality that was privy to no one else. My baby butch lived and breathed in the world of musicals, plays, and film.

Today I thought of this one.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6B2K3dPvlo"]YouTube- Oliver!- Where is love? [Scene Five][/nomedia]


And it took 48 years, but I found her.

[Jet]

I wanted to be an actor and was determined to go to New York
after high school. I became a radio announcer, a copywriter and a designer; so there's about 38 years in
communications never making it to New York. I did have a brief stint acting in college.

I loved acting and I have thought about auditioning for a theater troupe, or maybe a one-act, maybe three.
But I have been gone for so long from the theater, I have a lot of catching up to do.

I left off acting in "theater of the absurd" or "black comedies" such as Ionesco, Albee and Ibsen. I thought they were all crazy.
Being traditional and preferring timeless scripts (as you might expect being an ol' jet-type), I prefer pillars like O'Neill and
Williams, Inge etc. in theater, and Billy Wilder and Paddy Chayefsky as sort of my benchmark favorites in da movies.
I totally love the 1920s and 1930s writers who were in that tight "New York circle" of dramatists and writers such as Lillian Hellman, Clifford Odets,
and Dorothy Parker. I think Dashiell Hammett and Moss Hart may have been in there, but don't quote me.
It would have been ultra to do a Lillian Hellman play like"These Three" (play and film) later re-shot by William Wyler and retitled
"The Childrens Hour" about a scandal involving school teachers accusing them of being lesbians.

Thanks for this thread. It's going to bring me up to date on theater, and air old my old musty memories,
which I haven't taken the time to do.

[Darth Denkay]

Great question! If we're talking live performance in general it would be The Nutcracker. Beyond that...wow, I'm not sure. I think You can't take it with you, at a community theater. First musical: Give my regards to Broadway at my high school theater. And first Broadway show (although the former might have been on broadway???) was either Phantom or Les Mis. In high school we went on a school trip up the east coast seeing all sorts of historical locations, the places we'd been studying about - a really good trip! Anyway, on that trip we saw Phantom and Les Mis on two consecutive days, so those were the first.

And this is off-topic as far as the question, but in thinking about all this I can't help but remember all the children's musicals I was in at church. You know, 25+ years later I still remember some of the songs!!!

Originally Posted by Arwen

So let's go back....what's the first live theater you can remember seeing?

[cerys]

Originally Posted by Gemme

I have no idea what you are talking about (having not seen it on stage, of course), but if I do get the chance, I'll make a mental note to keep my ears primed for what you are talking about. Who sang it and to whom?

That's just it. I remember being really upset and I could have sworn that it was "Goodbye Love" but I checked the track listing for the movie soundtrack and that's there. I'm fairly certain it's a song that should have been towards the end....but I can't remember which one. I haven't seen the movie in a few years.

[cerys]

Originally Posted by jenny

There were several songs missing, in addition to "Contact." All of the "tune ups" and "voice mails" were missing, and were great fun in the stage version. Also, "We're Okay" and "Christmas Day" are left out of the film version.

I saw the stage version of "Rent" about ten times, including twice with the original cast. Amazing. The interesting thing about the film version, though, is that it fills in a lot of the blank spots in the stage show that left me guessing for a while. The movie version of "Chicago" did the same thing, when compared to the stage version.

yeah, i wasn't so upset about the voicemails being missing... I guess I could see why you'd cut them out of a movie version.

[Ryobi]

Originally Posted by apocalipstic

Ha, I have hella black wardrobe too. a must for theater people.

Backstage for Lion King! Awesome! Where?

Have resisted Shreck, but would love to see Legally Blond. It had just opened in London in December when we were there a couple of weeks ago and it was sold out with huge lines.

I'm so behind on everything lately!

Lion King: I worked with the "Cheetah" tour. At different times I worked in the areas of, audio, carpentry, automation carpentry, puppets, and wardrobe. This tour has been dismantled, regrouped and is touring in China. (without me, no less. BOOOOO!) I wonder what it is that makes you say the set is a "simple set". It's one of the biggest and most abstract I've ever seen. lol. Just wondering.

The very first live show I saw on stage was a musical called "Up the down staircase". I have not seen it or heard about it since. Anyone else ever see it? I think I was 7, my memory of it isn't clear.

Last week I had the pleasure of working "Groovaloo". It was awesome and very high energy. I really enjoyed what I was lucky enough to see. I know they will be in Austin on Feb. 28th. Tickets are 23 to 58 bucks. (sorry, I have no strings to pull there. lol) Cost is well worth it.

Have a good show.

[BestButchBoy]

On Broadway....


Saw this last night (pre-opening night) [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1CT4SR6cFM"]YouTube- Addams Family Broadway Preview[/ame] and it's a fun show. I think it will only get better as the actors really get into their characters.

Nathan Lane does not disappoint and the crowd loves him. You can see and feel his passion for his craft on stage. Bebe Neuwirth is rather amusing as Morticia and does a great Argentinian tango with Lane. Great gams that chick has!

If you get to NY and want to see a fun show (not a theatrical masterpiece)...I think this might be a good bet.

And, I'm all for supporting Broadway!

GO!

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by BestButchBoy

On Broadway....


Saw this last night (pre-opening night) YouTube- Addams Family Broadway Preview and it's a fun show. I think it will only get better as the actors really get into their characters.

Nathan Lane does not disappoint and the crowd loves him. You can see and feel his passion for his craft on stage. Bebe Neuwirth is rather amusing as Morticia and does a great Argentinian tango with Lane. Great gams that chick has!

If you get to NY and want to see a fun show (not a theatrical masterpiece)...I think this might be a good bet.

And, I'm all for supporting Broadway!

GO!

O. M. G!!!!

I HAVE to see this!

[Darth Denkay]

Thanks so much for sharing this - I'm with Gemme - gotta see this one.

Anyone know anything about the sequel to Phantom of the Opera? On the one hand, Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote it so I would think it would be fantastic. On the other hand, a sequel to the phantom???

Originally Posted by BestButchBoy

On Broadway....


Saw this last night (pre-opening night) YouTube- Addams Family Broadway Preview and it's a fun show. I think it will only get better as the actors really get into their characters.

Nathan Lane does not disappoint and the crowd loves him. You can see and feel his passion for his craft on stage. Bebe Neuwirth is rather amusing as Morticia and does a great Argentinian tango with Lane. Great gams that chick has!

If you get to NY and want to see a fun show (not a theatrical masterpiece)...I think this might be a good bet.

And, I'm all for supporting Broadway!

GO!

[Duchess]

I did have the pleasure of experiencing Patti LuPone in Evita..Almost better than sex..


Duchess