If you could go back to one performance...

[kelsey1389]

Sorry if there's already an existing thread on this (and please point me in that direction if there is one) but my friend and I were just discussing this so I felt like I had to ask here. If you could go back in time to one theater performance (one show, an opening or closing night, whatever) which would you choose?

I personally said that I would go back in time to see the original cast of Hair sing "Flesh of Failures/Let the Sun Shine In".

*edit: now I'm on a Hair bingewatch and I've also decided that I would go back to the 2009 Tony's to see this moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlbD5tdFxXM

[gregnyc2]

With all of its faults, it’d be Judy Kuhn and David Carroll in CHESS.

[Sondheimite]

First Choice:  The original Tom O'Horgan Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway.

Second Choice:  The Universal Amphitheatre production of Jesus Christ Superstar that Tom O'Horgan directed

Third Choice:  The original Broadway cast/production of HAIR.... which Tom O'Horgan directed.

[LLW2]

I wish I could have seen Elizabeth Ashley in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1974.

[BalconyClub]

Kiss of the Spider Woman in London with Chita Rivera. What an incredible performer.

[Dave28282]

The original production of Miss Saigon in London in 1989.

[Dave28282]

Double.

[Miramar3]

Ginger Rogers as "Mame," London, 1969.  Half a century on, it remains one of my most favorite theater-going evenings.

 

 

[goodlead]

Maggie Smith in "Lettice and Lovage."  I had the chance to see it a second time but passed because I didn't want to sully the memory of the first performance.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Sondheimite said: "First Choice: The original Tom O'Horgan Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway.

Second Choice: The Universal Amphitheatre production of Jesus Christ Superstar that Tom O'Horgan directed

Third Choice: The original Broadway cast/production of HAIR.... which Tom O'Horgan directed."

I feel like I'm detecting a pattern here...

[CATSNYrevival]

My answer always changes but I’ve been thinking about The Fantasticks lately and how delightful it must have been to see the original cast at the Sullivan Street Playhouse back before anyone could have imagined what the show would go on to accomplish.

[Call_me_jorge]

Much more recent, but I’d go back to the 2015 King and I’s final performance.

[Here I Am]

Do you mean a performance that you’ve seen that you want to see again? Or any performance ever, even ones that you couldn’t possibly have seen?

My two answers:

One I’ve seen that I want to go back and see again: Fiona Shaw in Medea.

One I didn’t see that I wish I did: The Pillowman.

[Dave13]

The final performance of the original cast of Hamilton on July 9 2016.

[David10086]

Here I Am said: " Do you mean a performance that you’ve seen that you want to see again? Or any performance ever, even ones that you couldn’t possibly have seen?

 

Good question, as I was a little confused, as well. So my two answers:

WHAT I'VE SEEN: I would want to go back to the performance  of Tyne Daly singing "Rose's Turn" in GYPSY (May, 1991). 

WHAT I HAVEN'T SEEN: I would want to see the Jean Simmons-led cast of "A Little Night Music" in the 1970s - one of my all-time favorite cast recordings. 

 

[JayElle]

Orig cast Ham, but

with 1994 Glenn Close Alan Campbell in Sunset Blvd as backup choice  

[jv92]

The first performance of COMPANY in Boston, 1970. (I'm not sure if it played the Shubert or Colonial... someone help me?) The old fogies must have been baffled and outraged. The smarter set must have been baffled, intrigued and thrilled. Oh to eavesdrop on that intermission talk! 

 

A second choice would be Rex and Julie in the original MY FAIR LADY-- not necessarily a specific performance. A third choice... there are too many. Let's leave it at that. 

[morosco]

The tryout for COMPANY played at Boston's Shubert Theatre. 

[Nomusicalsforme]

Hair at Sheakespeare in the Park.  Although I saw the original production, there was something magical about seeing in the park.

 

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

the opening night of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG...i moved to NYC in the spring of 1982 so missed this by 6 months...i would have given anything to see this original production warts and all because i love the OBC so much!!

[Skip23]

Performances I’ve seen:
Maggie Smith - Private Lives
Dorothy and Alexis in Follies
Jennifer Holiday - Dreamgirls

Perfs I never saw but wish I had:
Orig cast My Fair Lady
Merman in Gypsy

Dream perfs:
Dolores Gray - Mame

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

"WHAT I HAVEN'T SEEN: I would want to see the Jean Simmons-led cast of "A Little Night Music" in the 1970s - one of my all-time favorite cast recordings". 

David10086 i was lucking enough to have seen the sublime Jean Simmons in the touring company of ALNM here at the long gone Shubert Theatre in Century City...i had seen Glynis Johns in the OBC in New York, and i loved her,  but i was such a Jean Simmons fan of all her movie roles that to see her sing "Send In The Clowns" was pure heaven!!...to this day i will say ALNM is the most perfect musical Sondheim wrote!

[Andres_Zayas]

Opening night of The Drowsy Chaperone

[dramamama611]

Caroline, or Change. Always regret not seeing it!

[bwayphreak234]

Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown - It kills me I never got to see it since it closed early.