Musicals and Plays

[Mikokat]

Who else here is a theatre nerd? I know I am! I've been acting onstage on and off since I was four years old and I've been in numerous plays, so theatre is a way of life for me! My most recent gig was voicing the carnivorous, man-eating plant known as Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. That was one of the most fun roles I've had to date!

Like the entire rest of the musical theatre community, I've just been freaking out over Hamilton. I've only listened to the cast recording and it just seems like one of the greatest musicals ever created to date. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a complete genius! The best musical I've ever seen live, though, was The Book of Mormon. Hilariously crude and offensive, but also completely sweet and uplifting. Combining those elements successfully is almost impossible to do, but The Book of Mormon does it. I've seen it four times on tour!

So what's some of your favorite roles or shows that you've seen or been in? I know I can't be the only theatre nerd here!

[Marizzle]

OMG, yesh, finally someone brought this subject up! Although I'm not an actress nor anything of sort, I just love seeing musicals and plays. I can't consider myself an encyclopedia on the subject, though. We can say I'm still new to the community.

Sadly, my country doesn't invest much in this area, so I'm stuck with the soundtracks and YouTube videos. Last month, I spent 3 days in London and, since I had never visited the city before, I only had time for one musical. So, I couldn't miss out the chance to see Wicked, my fav musical, with the 10th anniversary cast ('Cause I just love Rachel Tucker and Suzie Mathers!). Hopefully, I'll have another chance for a visit someday and, then, see another musical and pay another visit to Wicked, since the cast will change.

But, I would also like many others, from the famous 'clichés' to more recent ones: Phantom, Les Mis, Cats, TLKoB, Avenue Q, Rent, Hairspray, Funny Girl, Hamilton, If/Then, etc, etc. I've heard a lot about The Book of Mormon too, but I haven't "done my research" on it...yet.

Any other musicals you recommend?

[Elton John]

I have seen The Lion King and The best little whorehouse in Texas. I was disappointed in TBLWHIT as when compared to the dolly parton / burt reynalds film it was more of a comedy.

Plus it was missing 'I will always love you' which is criminal.

The Lion King was great. I want to see Phantom of the Opera and Hamilton and Aladdin...

Can we discuss Ballet as well? I saw the nutcracker performed by a Russian troupe and in spite of me being really tired most of the time I liked it more than I thought I would.

I have seen a few plays. I want to see the Denzel adaptation of Fences which was a good one.

[Squeely]

I love musicals and plays! Back in the good ol days when we had money, I saw The Lion King, Rent, Cats, Starlight Express, and Wicked. Was very disappointed in Starlight as the show was so altered and gutted. Different lyrics to songs than both the 80s and 90s cast recordings (I remember being so lost when it came to the replacement of "A Lotta Locomotion", couldn't catch most of the lyrics), no C.B., and the races were pre-recorded and you had to watch them on a screen. I know the last one was because of limitations since it was a tour, but it was still lame. I have no idea why Webber can't decide what he wants in this musical, but at least if he was going to make more changes, he could have done another cast recording.

More recently, I've been to Cirque du Soleil a couple times, and seen The Crucible and Into the Woods at the community college I used to go to. All were great!

[Mikokat]

[quote="Marizzle"]OMG, yesh, finally someone brought this subject up! Although I'm not an actress nor anything of sort, I just love seeing musicals and plays. I can't consider myself an encyclopedia on the subject, though. We can say I'm still new to the community.

Sadly, my country doesn't invest much in this area, so I'm stuck with the soundtracks and YouTube videos. Last month, I spent 3 days in London and, since I had never visited the city before, I only had time for one musical. So, I couldn't miss out the chance to see Wicked, my fav musical, with the 10th anniversary cast ('Cause I just love Rachel Tucker and Suzie Mathers!). Hopefully, I'll have another chance for a visit someday and, then, see another musical and pay another visit to Wicked, since the cast will change.

But, I would also like many others, from the famous 'clichés' to more recent ones: Phantom, Les Mis, Cats, TLKoB, Avenue Q, Rent, Hairspray, Funny Girl, Hamilton, If/Then, etc, etc. I've heard a lot about The Book of Mormon too, but I haven't "done my research" on it...yet.

Any other musicals you recommend? [/quote]

You've basically maxed out the ones that I'm fans of. Basically all the classics though, I'm a fan of. From what I saw, School of Rock looked really good at the Tonys! The Lion King is here in San Francisco, but I don't have plans to see it. I entered for free tickets though, we'll see what happens! Aladdin looks really good, I'm a huge fan of both the 45-minute Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular that played for nearly thirteen years at Disney California Adventure park in California as well as the current version of Aladdin on Broadway. The Genie is my number one dream role, I've wanted to play him since I was 12 years old and I'm 24 now...

[HasiraKali]

I went to a performing arts high school. I was a technician for our shows and designed and built sets and stage managed a few of them. I've seen a TON of shows. My favorite musical is Phantom. My top five are Phantom, Starlight Express, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Tanz der Vampire, and Book of Mormon. My sister and I basically speak to each other in Disney and musical theater references.

[MeerkatOnTheMoon]

As a Thespian, I'm so delighted this thread exists. I haven't done a lot of theater compared to live music performances, but my recent work was as a co-music director for a West Side Story production. Thanks to Nathan Lane, I became a huge theater fan. Love him in Guys and Dolls and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum but also his recent venture into drama like Angels in America.

Some of my other favorites: Waitress, Kiss Me Kate, Wicked, Beauty and the Beast, Porgy and Bess, Hadestown, Hamilton, Les Miserables and Moulin Rouge.