the performance that made you choose theatre

[fae]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 3:08am

just wanting to hear some stories about why you chose to pursue theatre. i saw a dinner theatre prod. of "music man" on my eighth birthday....that gave me the itch, but linda balgord in the natl. tour of "sunset boulevard" drove me to nyc. i moved there six months after seeing "sunset."

[starlyricist]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 3:13am

I saw my high school's production of Annie in my freshman year. Our Annie kinda sucked (okay, she REALLY sucked) and the rest of the leads were less than memorable, but it was the ensemble...the little guys whose parents the director wasn't friends with, whose parents weren't the rich and wealthy in the school district, the ones who did it for the pure love of performing. I owe all of my aspirations to what I saw on the stage in my high school that day. I auditioned for the very next show, and although I played Charlie Brown to the Lucy that was the pitiful Annie of the forementioned show, it was a defining moment for me. *sigh*. I heart theatre.

[LittleBroken]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 4:06am

For me, it was The Wizard of Oz film that did it for me. I know its not a "performance", but from the age 5-7 I watched that movie on a daily basis and made it my goal to perform like Judy Garland. I was finally able to do my first play at 7 years old cuz thats the requirment and we did "Alice in Wonderland". I think being so young and having all of the older people to idolize really cemented the need to do theater.

As far as what made me want to move to NY (I have to finish college- but Im moving next June!) was RENT in all honesty. I swear, when I feel doubtful of myself, I see that show and it totally inspires me. Updated On: 7/27/04 at 04:06 AM

[broadwaybaby654]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 4:39am

Starting at age 5, I would watch Oklahoma over and over and over again at least twice a day and then I saw Carousel on stage when the tour came and it changed my life!!!

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 5:02am

Into the Woods lead me to writing musical theatre... I want to write 100 musicals in my lifetime.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 5:43am

I didn't get interested in musical theatre, really until I was in high school choir when I was in the 9th grade. We were doing our "end of the year" show and one of our songs was the title song for PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. That right there, folks opened the door for me. I went out immediately and bought the HIGLIGHTS version, because I was too poor for the full cd. That one cd led to almost 100 cast recording I now own (Including RENT.......*bows down*). POTO will forever hold a place in my heart because it opened my eyes to music theatre and I say "thank you." (Mushy, I know).

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 5:47am

Into the Woods had me so passionate, I now own over 1000 cast albums and I have nowhere to put them all. Half of them are on LP, and I have some interesting rarities too (but only a few, yet still valuable). Out of all of them, Tanz der Vampire has to be my favourite. I am a child of the theatre now. I write and sing and breathe and sleep musical theatre and I'm very defensive about it in conversation. And you should see my walls. There's not a white gap! Just an endless visage of musical posters and musical posters and musical posters

[SamIAm]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 9:35am

Two words: Funny Girl

[KMF_NYC]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 9:45am

for me it's two -- Pricilla Lopez in the original cast of A Chorus Line (ok --- the entire cast and crew of that show) and after that the incomparable Patti LuPone -- the one and only Evita.

[MusicalDirector109]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 9:50am

I was in the 4th grade and our local high school started to produce an annual musical. From the first beat of the overture from "Oklahoma!", Annie Oakley riding a real motorcycle in the shooting match scene in "Annie Get Your Gun", Fiona, through a scrim, singing the lovely reprises to Tommy in "Brigadoon" to the real and regal splendor of "Camelot" THESE SHOWS WERE PURE MAGIC!!!! I later attended that high school, went to college, and directed their musicals for ten years. Now I'm running a community theatre group, which primarily produces musicals and teaching music. BOY LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!!!

[Matt_G]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 9:57am

This one's for you, Capnhook.

When I was about 6 years old, my parents drove me and my best friend 3 hours out of town to see PETER PAN. It was the first live show I'd ever seen before and I thought it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. To this day, I can remember what the set looked like and the costumes. There were pirates, lost boys and flying. What else could a 6 year old want??
That was the performance that made me fall in love with the theatre.

[Britt0913]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 9:58am

I always enjoyed the theatre, but what really cemented my decision was seeing Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci in FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE. After I saw the show, I thought, "I wanna do that one day."

[judy_in_disguise]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 10:08am

I started in dance lessons when I was 2 and it all kind of went from there.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 10:18am

One birthday, I decided I wanted to go to NYC to see Beauty and the Beast. I wasn't too familiar with Broadway, so I don't know how I came to think about it. Never happened, but I got the cast recording. From there, I got more cast recordings and really got interested and more knowledgable about shows. Eventually, a year later, I saw Thoroughly Modern Millie with Sutton Foster. Actually, my first show was 42nd Street, but that was the tour. The first show on Bway was TMM. Those two shows did it for me - I was hooked. From now on, I will always enjoy theater, but as a viewer. I don't act, sing, or dance.

[brdwaybaby17]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 10:21am

Whoa fae... are we the same person?? lol

I knew I loved musicals, I started watching The Sound of Music, Houseboat, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers when I was 3 staying at my grandma's house while my mom worked. And my grandma would sing other songs to me from shows, she's the reason I first loved musical theater.

But when I was eight, my parents took my family to see The Music Man in Stratford and the whole time I sat there I kept thinking, I could do what Amerylis is doing... that's not hard. It looks like fun. And now, the only thing that has changed about that is that I would rather be Marian!

[MusicMan]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 10:24am

In 1968, my parents took me to see a movie with Alan Arkin and Rita Moreno called POPI. But before the movie began, a short was played called BARBRA IN MOVIELAND, about the filming of the DON'T RAIN ON MY PARADE number in the Hoboken terminal (it's now available as an extra on the FUNNY GIRL DVD). Though I grew up familiar with the classic musicals, I knew nothing about FUNNY GIRL, Jule Styne or Streisand. But when they played portions of the song throughout the short, I thought my head would explode from the excitement. It was my "I can do that" moment and musicals have been my passion and career since.

Posted: 7/27/04 at 10:25am

Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway in her one-woman show.

[Brodybaby03]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 10:30am

I came home from school sick when it was Tony season the year of the CABARET revival....Alan Cumming came out to do Wilkommen....I was mesmerized. I went through my Moms old slips, spray painted a pair of Steve Madden Mary Janes silver...painted my faice...and decided I wanted nothing more than to be a whore in berlin in the 40's ...and damn it if I didn't turn THAT dream into a reality!

All kidding aside...he really was my inspiration to try theatre.
But Ann Margret in BYE BYE BIRDIE....she is the reason I became a performer.
Barbra Streisand singing MY MAN in Funny Girl solidifies it everytime I doubt myself.

Posted: 7/27/04 at 10:57am

Well I don't know if mine counts since I too cannot sing, dance, or write music :) BUT I love going and I love my collections of cast recordings. I can thank my 4th grade teacher who performed in community theatre productions and she took was to see The Music Man and The King & I. Not my two favorites, but just to see a live performance of people singing and dancing held me in complete awe. If NY wasn't so damn far I'd go every weekend :)

"Thank you Mrs. Anderson!"

[PJ]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 11:10am

The Wizard of Oz and Disney animated musicals made me fall in love w/ musicals in general. I remember running around the house singing songs from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahantas.However it wasn't until I saw the revival of Cabaret w/ Raul Esparza when I realized that I wanted to do theatre someday. The electricity that I feel when seeing a show performed live is unlike any feeling in the world.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 11:16am

Big River. And I was in it. I was not a performer but my roommate in college talked me into going to the college's annual musical audition. I did, got cast and fell in love within a week of rehearsals.

[ponine24601]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 11:32am

i saw grease on broadway when i was like 6 or 7 and i fell in love with it.

[CrAzY_4_THEATER]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 11:36am

I saw Les Miserables was my brother was Javier and it was amazing!

[NYUstud]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 12:06pm

My Fair Lady the movie was the first musical I can remember seeing. I knew that I wouldn't to sing and act forever after I saw that. When I saw Cats (I know I know) when I was in 6th grade, my first live show, I knew that I wanted to Broadway for the rest of my life!

[thetheatregirlinside]

Posted: 7/27/04 at 12:16pm

Seeing Peter Pan when I was 10....and then in my first year of college I was a stagehand for a one man show...and I sat in the wings watching him, and I knew that is where I wanted to be..