I’ve seen two.
Cats. Meh.
Billy Elliott, Good, but I liked the movie much better.
My favorite live performance was a comedy club performance by Jon Stewart in the early 90’s before he became famous. It was a small club in NYC and there were about 15 people in the audience. Jon made fun of my husband’s flannel shirt, lol.
I LOVE musicals. By the time my son left for college, he had been in 32 school and community shows.
In recent years, I’ve been going to NYC twice yearly and always see a few musicals. My favorites have been Chicago, Jersey Boys, Miss Saigon, Book of Mormon, Come From Away, School of Rock, Wicked, and Beautiful. I saw Lion King in Toronto and loved it. I saw Hamilton in Chicago and wished I’d read up on my history or at least listened to the soundtrack.
Shows I didn’t care for include Kinky Boots, Something Rotten, Once on This Island, Escape to Margaritaville, and Frozen.
First broadway show I saw was The Magic Show. Had nothing to compare it to and I loved the spectacle. As a girl I loved Annie, the OBC Annie grew up near me which helped me fall in love with the show.
As an adult my favorites have been:
Wicked, with Kristin Chenowith
Hamilton - OBC
Springsteen
Les Miz
Rent - OBC. Very innovative
Local and community and other favorites:
Hairspray - loved being part of the story of this show at my community theatre. Such a great message
West Side Story - great music, choreo, story.
Shrek - another show that surprised me with its message.
A Chorus Line - so innovative when it premiered
Book of Mormon - hysterical but irreverent
Grease - cheesy but I like it.
Hope to see Mean Girls soon. I know I’m leaving out a bunch of shows …
I wasn’t that thrilled with Book of Mormon. Not sure why.
Seeing Hamilton ( original cast) on Broadway in 2016 was amazing and worth the cost of the tickets. Fun fact: a year or two before D and I saw a City Center production of Jonathan Larson’s “Tick, Tick Boom” starring Lin Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odum Jr.
@FallGirl Yes, that was a terrific reading of TTB. And with Karen Olivo! What a threesome!
I hate to say this here. But I usually wish that most musicals cut out a few songs. Two acts with slightly longer acts would be fine with me.
And I’ll probably be crucified for this too. but I loved the “Grinch” on broadway. And really didn’t love the radio city and the rockettes “Christmas Spectacular”. The ending was quite unexpected and strange as I had invited my conservative Jewish friends, they didn’t mind but I thought it would be more Santa and less religious. It was a one and done for me. And I am a Catholic fwiw.
Does this make me a bad person ?
Sorry. Meant slightly shorter acts. Lol.
I don’t think you’re alone in that thought process @privatebanker . As many shows as I have seen, there’s usually a point (especially in community theatre) where I say, one less song would have sufficed…
I try to bring my girls to NYC to watch a Broadway or Off-Broadway show once a year (often taking advantage of the Feb Kids Night on Broadway 2-for-1 deals).
Favorite - Off-Broadway’s Sweeney Todd. My kids had already seen the Angela Landsbury/George Hearn recorded performance a few times and loved it. The Off-Broadway version was wonderful. Small, in a pie shop, the actors right there and all around you. Wonderful.
Also - Jagged Little Pill! Coming soon to Broadway. The younger crowd (teens through 30s - not meant for anyone under 14 as there are mature themes) will love this, as it is topical and edgy, and concerns current social issues such as the #metoo movement, gender identity, sexual assault, secret drug use by a competitive mom, teen pressure for top colleges, etc. We saw the world premiere in Cambridge, MA (we have season tickets to the A.R.T.) and my daughters (then ages 13 and 15) LOVED it. Said it was “now” and “relevant” while most things they’ve seen are good but “old.” My daughters loved it so much that we saw it again, with them buying their own tickets. We eagerly awaited the news of it ending up on Broadway - which we fully expected it would (Waitress started at the A.R.T. with the same director and ended up on Broadway). We already have center orchestra seats for November when the show opens on Broadway, hopefully with the same cast. Remember the name Lauren Patten by the way. She’s Broadway’s next phenom.
@JanieWalker Yes, Lauren is a wonderful actor. I’m not sure about the phenom title, but she is well-known in the theatre community as she’s been acting onstage since she was a young child. 
And, of course, you can also see her on Blue Bloods in a recurring role.
Wait til Jagged Little Pill hits Broadway with her starring as Jo. The phenom title will stick. ;).
I know she’s been part of the Chicago theater community since she was a kid, but she was an adult when she arrived in NYC and has only been on Broadway once before,I believe. Was cast as an understudy and then took over a role on Fun Home. So maybe she’s well known in the professional acting community if you are a Chicago/NYC pro yourself, but for the general audience out there, she’s still an unknown. For now. Not for long.
This thread reminded me that I saw Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin in Sunday in the Park on Broadway in 1984 or 1985. I was mesmerized. It didn’t take off, though. I was surprised and still think of it and, in particular, BP singing the theme song, periodically.
Just looked up Jagged Little Pill and it doesn’t open until November. Will be in NYC next month so too early. I think we’re going to see Prom and Ferrymen.
Like several of you here, I had the opportunity to see many of the Original Broadway Cast productions of a ton of classics. I grew up in NYC and both of my parents loved theatre. Whenever I visit NY (at least 1/year), I see a few shows when I’m there both on and off Broadway.
I now live in San Diego, a town which punches above its weight theatre-wise with some good regional theatres that regularly send things to Broadway (the Old Globe and the La Jolla Playhouse. Some of the things that have gone to Broadway from the Globe and the Playhouse include: The Grinch, Big River, Indecent, Come From Away, A Gentleman’s Guide to Murder; Jersey Boys; Tommy – a few others not worth mentioning are Margaritaville, Hands on a Hardbody, and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. Some other revivals that made their way to Broadway included Thoroughly Modern Mille with Sutton Foster; there have also been some plays that should have gone but didn’t (Hunchback of Notre Dame with Patrick Paige. There are a number of small theaters that get some National and West Coast premieres as well, and some mighty fine actors come through the kiddie / high school theatre programs and youth companies here and/or gotten their start here: Sutton Foster, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Annette Benning to name a few.
I’m also a big fan of the Oregon Shakespeare Company in Ashland Oregon – another regional theatre that does some top-notch work. I also try to get to Shakespeare in the Park and the Theatre for a New Audience when I’m in NYC and the timing is right.
Among the most memorable live productions I’ve seen (in no particular order –– some are memorable because of the actors performing, others because of the productions, still others, both):
Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast and two of the touring productions)
Porgy and Bess: (Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis)
Richard III (on Broadway with Mark Rylance)
Something Rotten (both OBC and touring version twice – love it!)
Evita (OBC Patti Lupone and Mandy Patankin)
Phantom: (OBC with Micheal Crawford and Sarah Brightman
Hair (Original Broadway Cast)
Wicked: (OBC with Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith and at least 5 or 6 touring productions.
Les Miserables: (OBC with Colm Wilkinson and at least two other Broadway productions and at least 10 touring productions, including one with Brian Stokes Mitchell – we’re big Les Miz fans)
Spring Awakening (recent Broadway production by Deaf West Theatre)
Streetcar Named Desire: OSF Ashland
Pirates of Penzance (Delacorte Theatre/Shakespeare in the Park with Kevin Kline and Linda Rondstat)
Kiss of the Spider Woman with Raul Julia
Man of La Mancha (with Brian Stokes Mitchell)
Julius Caesar (2017 Delacorte Theatre/Shakespeare in the Park)
Cymbeline (2015 Delacorte Theatre/Shakespeare in the Park with Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe)
JC Superstar: both the OBC with Ted Neeley and a 2012 production with Josh Young and Paul Nolan
Henry V - OSF Ashland - 2018
King Lear - with Michael Pennington - Polonsky Shakespeare / Theatre for a New Audience
The Winter’s Tale - Polonsky Shakespeare / Theatre for a New Audience
Oklahoma - OSF Ashland - 2018
Hamlet - OSF Ashland with Dan Donahue
She Loves Me - OSF Ashland
Indecent - La Jolla Playhouse
Come From Away (touring version – missed the original at La Jolla Playhouse)
Merchant of Venice - site-specific production in the Jewish Quarter in Venice; there was also a Mock Trial that was officiated by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and F. Murray Abraham performed the role of Shylock
I also try to catch as many of the screening of NT Live productions as I can. There have been some outrageously good ones. Ones that immediately come to mind:
War Horse
Curious Incident
One Man, Two Guvnors with James Cordon
Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein alternating Creature/Victor featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonnie Lee Miller
Othello with Rory Kinnear and Adrian Lester
Hamlet with Rory Kinnear
Not a fan of Book of Mormon – actively disliked it, in fact.
Also not a fan of Cats, but recent touring production with updated choreography by the Hamilton choreographer was better than previous versions.
Wish I could see / have seen:
Fiddler in Yiddish
Most recent revival of Oklahoma at Studio 54
Les Miz 10th anniversary concert (with “Dream Cast”)
Springsteen
@collage1 I’m jealous! I have a VHS of that Peters/Patinkin production of Sunday in the Park, and I’ve watched it about thirty times. That must have been amazing live!
@LoveTheBard what about Cabaret
with Alan Cummings or Joel Grey. Or pajama game with Harry connick?
They were really great.
Negative on Pajama Game, I’m afraid.
I forgot about the many dozens of Fiddlers I’ve seen (not the Yiddish one though, as I mentioned earlier). I saw the recent one with Danny Burstein (another great actor with a San Diego connection – he got his MFA at UCSD), and I’ve seen it with Zero Mostel and Topol.
Cabaret – I’m pretty sure I did see it with Joel G, although TBH - I may be conflating it with the movie because Liza M. is who comes to mind when I think of Sallay Bowles. I missed the Alan Cummings version – but I have seen that production’s interpretation done (Cabaret-stype and with ending with more symbolism) done locally.
One of my favorite musicals (which, like Porgy and Bess, has some troubling racist overtones than need to be dealt with) is Showboat – another play that you almost never see done anymore.
I think She Loves Me is one of the most under-rated and excellent musicals around.
Oh, and I also love Cole Porter, Gilbert and Sullivan, anything Gershwin, and some of the classic old-time musicals (42nd St, Music Man, Guys and Dolls, etc.)
Also Hair, original NYC. Probaby also about 14 and with my grandmother. (Didn’t they turn down the lights at the nude scene?) Remarkable was a local community theater co’s production of 1776, outside Boston. Totally there.
My fav though was always ballet, my mother and I would spring for $$ tickets when we lived in DC and LA. But best ever was young Barishynikov in SF. Went by myself. An entire audience in awe. Men and women.
@Bromfield2 If you want to feel young, go to opera in NYC. Afew younger kids, obviously brought by parents, but overwhelmingly an older set.
Oh, and Sondheim. How did I forget Sondheim?
And Cyrano. Preferably in French, but I’ll take a well-acted English version, too…
We just returned from a weekend in NYC; we were there for my S’s law school graduation. We saw Lincoln Center’s production of My Fair Lady. It wouldn’t have been my first (or second, or third) choice to see, but my H selected it because he thought his parents, who came for the graduation, would like it.
It was fabulous! The production was beautiful; the talent was amazing (Laura Benanti as Eliza Doolittle!), the costumes sumptuous. No spoilers, but updates made the plot more palatable to modern viewers.
I was not that excited about the show ahead of time (there were so many other shows I would have preferred) but it was absolutely wonderful.
Just because I know he dislikes this mistake, and because I’ve seen it a couple of times in this discussion, it’s Alan Cumming. No S.