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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2019 11:18:08 GMT
Remember seeing THE BAND WAGON movie at a young age and being fascinated by the ‘Triplets’ number.Saw it again last year and loved Jack Buchanan’s brilliant comedy performance as the obsessive director.Wonder why this show has never really taken off on stage in this country? I think Lost Musicals may have covered it, but as an old-school revue-type show it could have legs(preferably Cyd Charisse’s back in the day).
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Post by rachpywell on Apr 8, 2019 20:39:54 GMT
Hi everyone! New here, thought I should post here before I properly dive in elsewhere.
My grandma looked after me before I started school and she was very into musicals. She had the Jesus Christ Superstar film, Cats and Joseph, but her biggest loves (and mine) were Australian recordings of Pirates of Penzance, Mikado and HMS Pinafore with Jon English in leading roles. She only had a small collection of VHS tapes, so I watched them on repeat.
I do also have a memory of my mum and grandma going to see Cats when I was small (6 or 7?), but being upset that I wasn't allowed to go. I think my first actual show was the Lion King in Sydney.
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1,886 posts
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Post by distantcousin on Apr 8, 2019 20:56:09 GMT
For me, it was all the buzz over the ALW mega-musicals in the 80's pervading the mainstream. I was always a pop charts kid, obsessed with the Radio 1 top 40 and Top of the Pops.
It was when the songs from Phantom started entering the charts and then all the press and buzz over it's opening that really made me curious and take notice of this new world/artform...
Being a TV addict and pop culture fiend, I'm sure the likes of Cats and Starlight Express then caught my attention when featured in TV light entertainment or Sat morning TV performances.
That was really it. Film musicals were not big in my house, and I've discovered over the years that unlike a lot of families, we didn't watch family films together so the likes of Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music have zero cultural capital with me.
So for me, when I think of what really made me first take notice of stage musicals, and more specifically "The West End", it just has to be "Phantom" - which is why it still holds a special and emotional place in my heart. (thought it would actually be another 5 years or so until I entered a West End theatre and watched a musical production....)
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Post by rachpywell on Apr 9, 2019 12:53:15 GMT
Welcome to the board rachpywell. Good start to life, those VHS tapes, I think. Funny how those things wear out - I was really angry when I found someone had repeat-watched my copy of "Song And Dance" to near-oblivion. Thank you so much! Yeah, we definitely started to wear through the VHS tapes, then we replaced the tape players, so I replaced the VHS with DVD versions! I still have the Gilbert and Sullivan versions (they're not available any more).
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Post by danb on Apr 10, 2019 7:24:01 GMT
I think mine was a bit of an all-angles combo! ‘Grease’ came out when I was 6 and I remember going twice in a week. I remember going to see ‘Joseph’ but don’t think it left much of an impression. My nana shelled out for us all to go and see ‘Phantom’ in London and I think the magic of that left an impression. My pocket money got spent on records; one week a ‘Cure’ album, the next the ‘Chess’ cd...I just loved music and still aged (whispers) 46 have very eclectic and varied tastes. You’ll just as likely find me at some gnarly rock gig as at a show but it keeps me same.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2019 9:11:06 GMT
Growing up somewhere with zero opportunity to see theatre, when I was 18 and at university, my friends and I started coming to London to see various concerts at Wembley and The o2, and like most tourists we’d come see a show.
The first west end music I ever saw was The Lion King and it was crap (except for the first 10 minutes). On a later trip I was talked into seeing Wicked and I just loved it. Same trip we saw Avenue Q and suddenly, I was in this world of what was basically theatrical pop music.
I grew up loving pop music and after lamenting the lack of decent (or any) pop music midway through the 00s, I stumbled across musicals that had the same sort of innocence, that happy go lucky singalong style of song that I loved. Musicals did not just mean Phantom of The Opera.
So when I moved to London shortly after university, I took full advantage and started seeing new shows. I try not to listen to a cast recording until after I’ve seen a show, which did open me up to different styles of musicals and I began to appreciate everything.
Whilst at university I developed an interest in actors - good actors - and took the opportunity to also see a lot of plays when I moved to London too. So my interest in both increased at the same time and between them I began appreciating the craft and learning about the theatre as a whole.
What I think I love about theatre and musicals now is that there is always something new to enjoy. No ones approach to any element of the live production is the same: the same musical can be horrid in one production and the absolute best in another. Same with cast recordings and even actors and performers. The more you explore the genre your tastes change and diversify, and what you didn’t like 10 years ago can suddenly speak to you later.
The only thing I lament about my theatre going is that going to the theatre isn’t really much of ‘an event’ as it was in my earlier days. It’s not ‘an occasion’ for me. But it’s a happy trade off.
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Post by alexandraastrid79 on Oct 6, 2019 12:52:08 GMT
I got the couridge to go to a show on my own. Otherwise i would miss out. I would go no more than a couple of shows a year one in oxford and the west end, then ended up going a couple of Times a Month. If i lived in london i would be there every night for sure.
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