What was your most memorable theatrical experience, either on-stage or off?

Question

I’m very excited to return to Broadway this fall in the new Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein.

The first Broadway show I ever saw was the original production of “Chicago" with Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera (1975).

The first musical that I had a role in that had a major impact on me was "Petra" in "A Little Night Music" my freshman year at Northwestern. I had never really acted before, and a girl in the cast (a sophomore) suggested that I "make friends" with my character. It has worked for me ever since!

Answer 1

My most memorable show would be 2 nights while playing Willie Loman in Death of a Salesman in 2005. My mother came to my opening night, even though she wasn't feeling well. The next day she was in the hospital. I spent that day with her in her room visiting until it was time to go get ready for the 2nd performance. My car was broke down so I had to walk to the theater. Luckily it was only a 15 minute jaunt. I called her from backstage just before curtain and her last words to me were, "I love you, Ronnie. Break a leg!". She died early the next morning and I had one more performance to do. I didn't tell anyone in the cast for fear that it would affect our last show. Somehow they all found out by the end of the show and I received a lot of love and support from the cast and crew. So, opening night and my last night as Willie Loman would be my most memorable performances. I miss her very much.

Answer 2

My most memorable on stage experience was when I was in two short plays for the school variety show. In the first called "The Role of Della" I was playing a girl auditioning for a part in a play. I was crawling around the stage, fainting (quite convincingly I might add), speaking Spanish, and miming an incident with a mouse at a dinner party. I was so dedicated to the part that I got a few bruises from my performance. Then, I was in another pshort play called "The Perils of Group Therapy Without a Doctor" in which I played a character in need of anger management. My first and last lines were yells (at the top of my lungs) and thoughout the entire play I had to keep my anxious, angry attitude while being simultaniously afraid of the other people in the room while my own frustration mounts as I await the doctor. Afterwards I was sore, bruised, tired and horse, but everyone remembered me and the characters I played. These experiences have convinced me that I want to at least study some theatre in college and audition for plays whenever I get the chance.

Answer 3

A very recent theatrical memory. Last year I played Herald Loomis in the Los Angeles production of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone". The initial cast was probably the finest ensemble that I have been associated with. It was one of those transcendent moments when years of preparation and work set the stage for what I would consider a new, mature approach to my craft. Every performance was different, and it was a charged evening each night as a great cast was married to great words and an audience that was transported to a new place and new time with laughter, tears, horror and hope. The fact that the show was highly honored at the end-of-the-year theatre awards seems like such a footnote to the joy of creation and performance that I felt at every curtain call.

I even got to do the role again in San Francisco after the artistic director of the theatre there saw my performance and called me up and offered me the role again. And how many times does that happen in a career?

Answer 4

I have been in over 10 community theater productions, and I'm only 19. The most memorable experience had to be when I was in a recent local community theater production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. In this production, I went in assuming I would just be a mere ensemble member, there only for a couple of numbers. However, the director gave me a lot of roles. I finished the show having the roles of The Letch, Kenneth the butler, and the Dishwasher. Talk about being thrown everything including the kitchen sink! I really had a fun time developing the little to develop with the characters and the really good feeling was that everyone had nothing but well wishes for my roles.

Answer 5

I was eleven years old the first time I went to New York. Already an avid musical-phile at the time, I was beyond delighted by the list of shows my parents and I would be seeing in a seven-day period; among them Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera, and Footloose.

Footloose has always been a favorite for both my father and me, but my mother has never much liked it, so she advised us to buy our tickets for a showing that would occur at the same time as a business meeting she was in New York to attend. We were all happy with the resolution...until we learned that Footloose had closed, and we would not be able to see it after all.

My father worked magic. I'm still not sure how he did it, but I will always be grateful. In the time when we were supposed to see Footloose we ended up seeing Les Miserables (my favorite musical then and now) instead. In the front row.

I'll never forget the sensation of being in New York City, on Broadway, preparing to watch probably the greatest musical ever written. I was hot and cold, my spine tingling, half-afraid that when the music began I would burst into song myself and ruin it for everyone else. I thought that I couldn't be more excited. Then, to my utter amazement, the conductor turned to me--me!--right at the crack of 2:05 (of course these shows never actually start at 2:00) and asked, "Should we begin?" I could only nod, a stunned expression on my face.

It was an amazing production. The casting was spectacular, the music everything I remembered from the years I had spent listening to the soundtrack. I know I cried at least twice (I usually cry only once when I see it now, although whether that is because the production is less good or because I've hardened my heart since childhood I don't know).

I have seen Les Miserables multiple times since then, in Seattle, Vancouver, and even in New York (the only real highlight of the production currently on Broadway is Lea Salonga, the original Kim from Miss Saigon, as Fantine), but none has ever compared to that experience.

My mother still hasn't forgiven my father and me for seeing it without her.

Answer 6

My most memorable experience? Gosh there have been sooooo many, which is kind of scary since I'm only 19 and only have 4 visits to Broadway under my belt. My most memorable, though, would have to be when I saw The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Broadway and got picked as a speller! It was so much fun, and the jokes were hilarious!

My first Broadway show: The Diary of Anne Frank with Nathalie Portman. Not only is it a great play with a fantastic cast, but there was the added magic that I was in NY!

Answer 7

I also saw that wonderful original production of 'Chicago' on Broadway when I was a teenager. I was already 'hooked' though. As a child in Columbus, Ohio, my family would get season tickets for the Kenley Players (regional summer musical theater) productions that came through town every summer. Going backstage after the shows and seeing how the scenery and lighting actually worked, and meeting the actors (I still remember meeting Dick Shawn!) firmly planted the theater bug within me. Having no acting skills, I discovered that I did have some talent for building scenery, but lighting turned out to be my true calling. When in college (BGSU) I was involved in designing and executing the lighting for so many shows that I am still amazed when I recall it now. After moving to SoCal in 1982, I did make a few attempts to parlay that resume into a job in the entertainment or educational theater areas. Despite some interest, soon the reality of paying the bills took over and I have worked in logistics now for nearly 25 years, but every time a new touring show comes through the OC and I see how technology has advanced the art form, I look back fondly on those years.
The road not traveled..........

Answer 8

I still remember seeing "Candide" on Broadway in the early 1970s. This was the revamped version, done for laughs with wild staging (audience in bleachers, multiple performance spaces, and some seats in the orchestra on stools!). To encourage the carnival like atmosphere, there was a barrel of peanuts to snack from as you took your seats. The "Jungle" sequence in Act II was enhanced by green streamers, which were release from the ceiling over the audience - and eventually cut loose! It also had a wonderfully dramatic opening - two trumpeters in full military regalia of the period playing the Bernstein overture fanfare and first few notes from the top of the audience bleachers, then marching (in step) down the steep stairs and into the wings! I've loved live theatre ever since.

I never performed professionally, but while still in high school, I was fortunate to be part of two events, one large and one small. The big one was President Nixon's 2nd inaugural parade in Jan 1973 - at that time, the largest assembly of musicians ever assembled AND MOVED (1,976 band members). I still have the official White House thank you note somewhere. The smaller event was being chosen as one of the woodwinds to help perform Copeland's "Lincoln Portrait" on stage at Ford's Theater for a radio broadcast on Lincoln's birthday. A local radio personality did the narration. Sitting on that stage and looking at the presidential box was enough to give anyone chills, especially a 16 year old!

Good luck in Young Frankenstein! May it enjoy the same success as "The Producers" did.

Buffalo922

Answer 9

I was doing Fiddler on the Roof for a local theater company playing Tevye. On the day of the last performance I woke up with food poisoning. We had a 1:00 curtain and a standing room only audience, I was told it was the largest audience the theater ever had. I was extremely sick I drove to the Theater at 11:00 hoping I would start feeling better. It didn't happen. Prior to the curtain I was given a shot of Phenergan (several doctors were in the production). I went out and did the first act and I actually walked into the proscenium and said excuse me. By intermission I was literally feeling like I was going to die. I had 103 degree fever, sweating heavily and my stomach cramping again. I went off stage about 30 secs early and almost passed out. Paramedics were called to the theater to give me bags of fluids and another round phenergan. We held intermission for an extra 15 mins and the audience was told a cast member was extremely sick. I remember very little about the second act but it was truly an unforgettable experience and the show did go on.

Answer 10

I have been acting for several years now and I have had many memorable moments. Just this summer I have had the privilege of seeing two fantastic shows on Broadway. Earlier this summer I saw Les Miserables which was AMAZING, and just this week I went to see Curtains which was also AMAZING. I will never forget either of those shows. I think my most memorable on-stage moment would have to be when I was in a show called "June Groom." If you have never heard of the show you should know that many scenes are very similar to eachother and several lines are used more than once. It was opening night for us and during our second or third scene someone missed a line which kinda threw off the rest of the cast and we ended up skipping 16 pages of the script. It took a LOT of going back and fourth and some very good improvising from the whole cast to get the show back in order, but we pulled it off to a standing ovation.

Answer 11

I was in 6th grade, and I had already done a few musicals with my town's theatre. However, they were only done by other children. I auditioned for my first "big" musical with adults. It was Oliver! I had the best time on that play. I didn't have a large part, I was apart of the ensemble. In Fagin's gang and a street person and a workhouse orphan. But it was a blast. Rehearsals were fun, and the best times were when we had 2 plays in the same day. There would be a matinee and then an evening performance. In between shows the cast would order pizza and we would just chill out on the opening set (the benches that the workhouse boys sit on). I loved every actor there, they were all so nice. I miss the friends I made. Some of the other kids did other plays with me. But that production was my favorite.