The Broadway show thread where we discuss all things Broadway

[CapeCodTenor]

That was the first show I saw on Broadway (I had seen Annie on tour up to that point). Saw it with David Cassidy in 1983. I saw it again in the 90's with some former teen star and I can't remember the name.

Didn't Donny Osmond do Joseph when it was revived?

 

[Hercules10]

Didn't Donny Osmond do Joseph when it was revived?

There is a DVD out with him as Joseph. Not sure if he did it on stage.....although I think you're right and he did.

 

[tiggger1]

I have seen a bunch of Shows on Broadway.. When I was in High School my drama club would have a fieldtrip us twice a year...

On Broadway I have seen

Cats
Will Roger's Follies
Les Mis
Guys and Dolls with Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella
Grease
Damn Yankees with Jerry Lewis
Beauty and the Beast ( twice)
Sunset Blvd ( with Betty buckley and Andrew Giordano( who I got to perform in BATB with a few years ago)
The Who's Tommy
The Secret Garden ( great show but long)
Crazy for You
42nd Street
Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat



On Tour

Hairspray( loved it)
Legally Blonde ( Loved it)
Avenue Q ( Loved It)
Les Mis
Guys and Dolls ( it was a major letdown after seeing it on Broadway)
Miss Siagon
Rent
Lion King
Wicked ( Love it)

 

[Reflection]

It is hard to pick one favorite out of the many I've been fortunate to see but the list would include:

Musicals: She Loves Me, Guys and Dolls, For Me and My Girl, Woman of the Year, 42nd Street, Fosse, Chicago

Plays: Othello, Noises Off, Streetcar Named Desire (with Blythe Danner as Blance), You Can't Take It with You, The Real Thing, Moon for the Misbegotten, Nicholas Nickleby, Much Ado About Nothing and Cyrano de Bergearc (Derek Jacobi played Cyrano and Benedick----fantastic, fanstastic production!!!)

 

[JenM]

Didn't Donny Osmond do Joseph when it was revived?

Michael Damien played Joseph when the revival opened. Not sure if Donny ever did the part on Broadway.

Here's my list:

Favorites:
Rent
Les Miz
The Who's Tommy
Billy Elliot (in London, I haven't seen it on B'way yet)
Ragtime
Man of La Mancha
Wicked
The Secret Garden

The worst:
All Shook Up
Footloose
Titanic

Favorite performances: Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz, the original cast of Rent, Harvey Firestein in Hairspray, Brian Stokes Mitchell or Nathan Lane in anything.

Funniest: Spamalot/The Producers

Saddest: Blood Brothers

Most original: Movin' Out, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Most fun jukebox musical: Jersey Boys

Funniest songs:
"The Song that Goes Like This", "Diva's Lament" - Monty Python's Spamalot
"Where Did We Go Right?" - The Producers

Saddest songs:
"The Letter" - Billy Elliot
"A Little Fall of Rain" - Les Miz
"Tell Me It's Not True" - Blood Brothers
"Back to Before" - Ragtime
"Left Behind" - Spring Awakening

Best Love Song:
"You're Timeless to Me" - Hairspray

Best Dance Sequences: "Angry Dance" and "Swan Lake" arial ballet from Billy Elliot

Most jaw-dropping opening sequence: The Lion King

Songs I never get sick of:
"La Vie Boheme" - Rent
"Defying Gravity" - Wicked
"You Can't Stop The Beat" - Hairspray
"The Impossible Dream" - Man of La Mancha
"Electricity" - Billy Elliot
"One Day More" - Les Miz
"Tenterfield Saddler" - The Boy From Oz
"Make Them Hear You" - Ragtime
"Totally *$##@!" - Spring Awakening
"Lily's Eyes" - The Secret Garden

Funniest Ad-Lib Ever: "There's a cute guy in that," - Hugh Jackman after an audience member mentioned the X-Men movies.

I'm sure there's lots more - as you can tell, I love musicals!!!

 

[CapeCodTenor]

Michael Damien played Joseph when the revival opened. Not sure if Donny ever did the part on Broadway.

I just looked it up on ibdb.com and saw that. However, I still think Donny Osmond did Joseph, even if it was as a replacement. At least that's what my mind's wanting to tell me.

 

[piney]

Going back a few years: The Scarlet Pimpernel

 

[kafitty]

a thread for geeks like me!!

unfortunately, i've never been able to actually see anything on Broadway.

However, i did have the amazing luck to have a position at the now-defunct BostonNOW! magazine as a theater critic...free press seats, AND i got paid to review the show!! MAN DO I MISS THAT JOB! i knew it was too good to last too long, hahaha.
i even got to interview Anthony Rapp once (originated Mark Cohen in Rent). i was soooo nervous!!

i'm definitely a musical person...my faves are Wicked, Avenue Q, Les Miz, West Side Story, Rent, and Legally Blonde.
i know, i know, about that last one. But seriously, it's done EXTREMELY well, and if you have really studied theater and musicals, you pick up on all the little inside jokes and technical stuff that make it really translate well into a show. For example, the addition of the "Greek Chorus" is just BRILLIANT!

i gotta say though...Cats is AWFUL! The music is okay as a standalone, and the dancing is fantastic, but i enjoy plot lines, hahah.

 

[Aristocath]

Anyone see Sunset Blvd? I saw it in NY with Betty Buckley. I loved the sets in this show. The mansion set was amazing.

That was a great show! Betty Buckley was amazing.

I'm getting tickets for Guys and Dolls in February. It is one of my all time favorite musicals.

 

[lisajl]

The last one I saw was Wicked. Absolutely great!

What about off Broadway? When I was in N.Y. a loooonnnnggg time ago I saw The Fantastiks. It was great, too. It was this small little theatre, made you feel like you were a part of it all.

My new fave, I wish I would have been able to see...
Grey Gardens. I like Christine Ebersole and I love this song....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-P-Bvn8qGo

 

[bgirl29]

Didn't Donny Osmond do Joseph when it was revived?

Donny did perform in Jospeh in Chicago. We saw him there and loved it. I am pretty sure he was in Toronto with it too, before moving to Chicago.

 

[Hercules10]

Donny did perform in Jospeh in Chicago. We saw him there and loved it. I am pretty sure he was in Toronto with it too, before moving to Chicago.

Buy it here:
http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?userid=99366478031500&item_id=11126&searchID=15494767

If anyone is interested.

 

[DISshopkeeper]

Love a lot of these shows! Les Miz is my fave. Loved Mary Poppins, too, but I've been a Poppins fan since I was 10!

One not mentioned so far that I really loved... The Full Monty. SO funny!

I feel fortunate to live near Philly, just a short shot to NYC. Plus there's a CHEAP bus from Philly ---> Penn Station that has elevated a Broadway trip to a spur-of-the-moment event for us sometimes. $20 RT bus, hop in the TKTS line. Always a great day!

ETA! I forgot to mention the South Pacific revival at Lincoln Center! SO GOOD!

 

[tiggger1]

Recently, off-Broadway: Rock of Ages - awesome show!
.

How was Constantine in ROA? I did Les Mis in concert with him before he did AI...

 

[PK Disney Dork]

Ah now this is a topic near and dear to my heart...generally because it's how I make my living!

Let's see my favorite musicals...ok this will be in no particular order...

Urinetown the Musical!-Possibly one of the smartest and most complete shows written in the past decade! Brilliantly funny and a score that rivals anything ever written.

The Fantasticks!-It's musical theatre in its purest form. It's a smple love story with strange twists and an ending that leaves you smiling.

Showboat-It amazes me how a show as old as this one can still be so socially relavent! A lush score that has never been matched!

Sweeney Todd-This is Sondheim's magnum opus! Nothing compares to the dark complexities show this brings to the table. I am talking however about the original incarnation of the show and not the joke of a revival a few years ago.

Big River-Mark Twain's best book combined with the originality of the score by Roger Miller...just good and deep stuff.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying-Quirky...catchy tunes with a very campy story...what's not to love?

As far as plays go...no explanations...just here they are...

The Changling

The Foreigner

The Diviners

End Game

Six Degrees of Seperation

I've never been a fan of anything Andrew Lloyd Webber has ever written. Most of his shows are extremely repetitive and tend to lose steam by intermission. Cats being a complete abomination!

Like I said...live theatre is how I make a living...as an actor and director...so threads like this are great!!!

 

[LoraJ]

I think it was Michael Damian I saw in Joseph.


I remembered a couple more of my favorites, Tommy and How to Succeed in Business Without Really trying. Saw both of them twice.

 

[Realgrumpy]

Rent
Xanadu
Spring Awakening
Wicked

...in that order. I am bummed that I didn't see Spring Awakening one last time before it closed.

 

[MM27]

I've seen a ton of Broadway shows, but my all time favorite has to be Blood Brothers. Saw it with the Cassidy brothers

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was one that had me laughing the entire show.

 

[LoraJ]

I've seen a ton of Broadway shows, but my all time favorite has to be Blood Brothers. Saw it with the Cassidy brothers

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was one that had me laughing the entire show.

LOL! I saw it with the Cassidy brothers as well. I had front row and was in heaven because it was like finally seeing my 3rd grade crush Shaun in concert.


And I loved 25th Annual as well.

 

[Denise W]

We saw Donny Osmond as Joseph in Boston. It was probably the best single performance we have ever seen live, and we have seen A LOT of musicals.

We also saw 2 other tours of Joseph, one with Sam Adams and one with Patrick Cassidy. The narrator in the Patrick Cassidy produciton was Amy Adams (the one from American Idol, not from Enchanted). She was fantastic.

Spring Awakening is on tour, we will see it this srping.

Whem we saw Starlight Express, there were ramps built out from the stage through the audience, sort of a huge figure 8. It was a very fun show at the time. I don't care for how it was changed in the last few years.

This spring we have tickets to see 9-5 and South Pacific when we go to NYC for the weekend.

Denise