To me the theater is a magical place. Don’t you wish you could be up there performing for an audience and totally into your character that you become them for a short time, 6 days a week with 2 shows on Wednesdays and weekends? Most say it’s a grueling schedule, but it’s one of my dreams! To act, dance and sing things I love to do, and have the audience applaud and wish they were in your shoes – WOW!
I have been to a lot of plays and some I have gone to twice. My first play was when I was probably four or five years old and my mom took me to see Beauty and the Beast. We were in the front row and while I do not remember a lot, I do remember waving to the cast members at the end and them waving back. I was hooked. I have been to the theater 28 times and have seen 5 play two times.
All of the plays have had dancing, singing and acting and require the actors and actresses to be strong well rounded performers. My favorite plays have been Billy Elliot, West Side Story, The Addams Family, and Shrek. Jersey Boys was great and I would love to see that one a second time. When I was younger I also saw more Disney plays including Mary Poppins, Little Mermaid, and Lion King. Mary Poppins was great and I had an opportunity to do a back stage tour after the play. I met the actor who played Burt. He was great and talked to us about what it was like to walk up the side of the wall and across the top and back down again only tethered to a rope all while singing. It was unbelievable.
Some of the plays that I have gone to have closed or are touring and not on Broadway which gives new plays an opportunity but not many of them seem to be around for a long time with the exception of a few. Little Mermaid was on Broadway for less than two years. The revival of Promises, Promises didn’t even last a year. Another play, 9 to 5 which I thought was very funny only lasted 6 months but went on and did a national tour.
Phantom of the Opera, I haven’t seen this one, has been on Broadway for 25 years and is the number one show in Broadway history. Wicked has been on Broadway since October 20, 2003 and is seen as a long running show and the 13th longest running show in Broadway history. Other long time shows include Lion King ranked 7th overall so far, Chicago ranked 4th overall so far and A Chorus Line ranked 5th. All of the shows mentioned with the exception of A Chorus Line are still currently on Broadway.
If there is a play that you want to see I would try and see it as soon as you can. For me, I would like to see Memphis, a musical of singing and dancing, tells the story of the segregated south in the early 50’s through a DJ and a night club singer.
Most plays are about 2hours and 30 mins long, South Pacific was 3 hours long.
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