Musical Theater Chat! Chat about and post experiences here!!

[The Wonder Weezel]

Hey there.... So ive heard there are many people here who love musical theater..... possibly as much as me. Now, while I have my doubts, I figured, ah, I might as well start a thread about it!

Some things to definetely add in your post....

1) What Large performances have you seen? (not a local thing, but maybe a state-known performance, or a giant dinner theater, or even Broadway production!) And how was it / Were they?

2) What Plays have YOU been in over time?

3) If you have pictures.... feel free to post 'em!

I have a lot of experience, but i dont want it to sound like im making a thread to talk about myself... .. so ill post about some fun plays Ive been in later... for now, you guys post! Ill post some stuff after conversation starts up a bit

[Inexistence]

Haven't really seen any big plays, I only go to my cousins' plays every year. Like Aladdin, Snow White, most Fairy Tales.

I have only been in 3 plays that I can remember, all for school. The first one they judged us on how big we were. The tallest guy got to be Santa and I only got one line. A beautiful introduction to acting. Hehe.

In my second we were auditioning for the parts (at least we got to audition for this) and then on the last day a guy came back from holiday and got the lead role.

In my third I finally got the main role I had been wanting. It was in the film:Waldorf. Now I have that nickname, I hate it so much.

But I don't want to sound like I'm moaning, I'm fine with it all.

[DiscordantNote]

This'll be moved to Abbey Road shortly, seeing how it's about music and Abbey Road is the music forum.

I've never seen any major broadway shows live, but my family's been involved in a local production of The Who's Tommy, which is one awesome rock opera. My brother's an actor, my mom does all sorts of random stuff to help out, and I just finished being a substitute for one of the tech crew members. I got to run the slideshow for two days, but today I had no cue sheet (the guy who usually runs it forgot to print one out, since it's on his own computer, which he didn't drop off today). I had to do all of it almost completely by memory, which didn't turn out as badly as you may think. Aside from a few minor errors, it was okay.

[mushaboom]

I've been to two Broadway show sin New York: Hairspray and The Little Shop of Horrors. They were both amazing, considering I never really wanted to go to one. I absolutely loved it, especially the latter. So very cool.

I've only been in elementary school plays. Meh.

[Christopher]

I've been to a Korean style 'stomp', Swan Lake, Something like 'The ice Queen', Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat, and some others.

I haven't been in any though.

[MyleneFarmer]

For big shows, I did see the tour of Cats. Ugh, that was awful. I have no idea why I went to see it, I didn't like the video I had already seen of it either. Maybe because I knew it would be the closest I'd ever get to seeing a Broadway show? :p

I've also seen Godspell at a large-ish dinner theatre in Indy. It was great. ^_^

I've been in 3 musicals and 2 plays. At my high school I was in the chorus of Grease and Bye Bye Birdie, as well as playing the 'role' of Mrs. Pugh in Annie. I was the lead/co-lead in the two plays I've been in. I was Nora in Web of Murder at my high school, and I played Annie Sullivan in a local theatre's rendition of The Miracle Worker. Oddly enough, the only two plays I've ever auditioned for, I've gotten the lead/co-lead. That should give me confidence, but instead it makes me afraid it was all a fluke, and since it's been so long since I was last onstage (1999), I'm afraid to audition again. That, and the competition is much better since I live in a larger town now. I miss performing.

[King Internet]

Around march this year, I went to see Lion King while I was over there. Let me tell you, it was pretty amazing. The sound was great, and the actors did a really good job.

[AFI_Sorrow]

Well, I've seen Wicked and the Lion King. (And I'm going to see RENT on Wed., after our previous dates to see it be cancelled.)
I've never been in a play, but I have helped paint scenery... (And I'm joining stagecrew in my school next year, so hooray for that!)
I love musical theater, I just wish I could see more of it.

[Sock]

Ooh. Love theatre.

I've seen Hairspray, The Producers, and Good Vibrations (the last of which sucked, by the way) on Broadway; RENT when it came to Orange County last September; and Oklahoma, The Lion King, and Wicked on Broadway LA. I might be going to see Avenue Q when it's in Las Vegas...no idea whether or not that'll actually happen.

I've been in Ameritage, Li'l Abner, and Once Upon a Mattress...in Ameritage I played random small roles; in Li'l Abner, I was Appashionata; in Once Upon a Mattress, I was the Queen.

Umm, pictures...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/s ... ess027.jpg
Me in costume with my brother and my Dad and some Starbucks cups...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/s ... ess006.jpg
Me with the mattresses...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/s ... ess001.jpg
Eww.

I'd post some of the cast together but I'm not sure how happy they'd be about their faces going up on forums. ;P

[The Wonder Weezel]

aw, moved to abbey road discordantnote? I was talking less about the music, and more about actually being involved with the theater productions! oh well..... wow, lots of more people here are into theater than I thought super cool!

Wow.... Lion king.... congrats to those who saw THAT on broadyway. That is one outragous play.... probably one of the greatest stage-shows ever... I mean, the music is EXTREMELY fun, but definetely has competition. The costumes and stage performance, however, is extremely hard to compete with.... those amazing costumes... how elegant the movements are on stage.... and how they use all of the stage to their advantage..... like when the curtain closes behind Zazu and he is left on stage by himself.... and hes scared poopless and confused. Ah, thats great.

EDIT:

I just found the disk I saved all my pictures on for Once Upon a Mattress..... which are pretty cool... i think you guys might find them interesting... my school is BIG into drama.. while my school fails in lots of sports, there is a select 20-30 people who make up the majority of the theater-speech-band-and choir program, and we always kick butt! So we are big into theater... you can probably tell by some of these pictures.... our stage is as simple as the next one, with just a big wooden floor with a curtain behind it.... we cant even fit that many people in... but boy, we build magnificent things on that stage!!

I'll just post 3 pictures, each a combination of 2 pictures, and ill make 'em small... that way theyll load pretty fast...

Here are my pictures of the stage itself.... (before and after.... actualy, its more like halfway-through and finalized, but whatever) and in the middle there was a gateway hole which was like the main gate, you can see where the king and queen sat, there are fun windows all over the castle, and the hightened area on the side is just for "spectators" IN the play.... which i spent much time in dancing and laughing and reacting and such.... for those of you who know the play, the jester tapdanced up and down those stairs in "very soft shoes"... its was neato!


here are some fun ones...
This picture VVVVVVVVVVV shows all of the ladies in waiting, as well as a bunch of the knights striking a big pose at the end of the song "we have an opening for a princess" When we sing "We have an opening, for a princess, whos good enough, nice enough, SWEET enough,
SMART enough, RICH-E-NOUGH FOR our, poor, PRIIIIIIIIIINCE!" and hes up there all by himself, striking a "yeah, theyre right, I aint got (s-word)." pose.



Then THIS picture ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ is the princess winnifred, who just entered the cancel and is looking for the prince, and all the knights are trying to show off and start pulling off their best dance moves, and then strike a pose... one by one... two guys do a rather sad side-slide..... another guy does a hick-like leg-kicking thing, and I finish it off by moon walking across stage and spinning on my back and striking a model pose RIGHT in front of her in center stage as the music stops.... it was the biggest roar of every performance and I am so proud.

and heres a cast picture... however, i cut about half of them out, because i wanted to show the main characters mostly, who were in the center.... this was taken on the staircase our castle-stage... so its was fun!


there.... i wont post any more for now, but if you want to see better pics of the princess.... or dancing scenes, or the 40-matress tall bed, just let me know.


Ive also been in:
Give My reguards to Broadway (A Soldier)
Fright Night (A cop and a haunting Wax Statue, also a detective)
The Wiz (Munchkin, Mouse-cop, Emerald City Citizen, Witch-Slave)
13 Past Midnight (A guy trying to figure out a mystery.. not much else to say about him)
Roger And Hamerstiens Cinderella (The King)
Pippin (Pippin)
Suesical the Musical (Cat in the Hat)
Rent (Yes, our school would never allow it, so we got the drama club to do a "for friends" performance, but it was basically for everybody to see, just not official) (Mark)
Oliver Twist (smurf)
The Crucible (Revered Paris)
and Minor-Chorus roles in:
Little Shop of Horrors
Godspell
West Side Story (In which most roles are small, I was a jet!)
Guys and Dolls
Grease

*and ive been in some other plays too, but those rolls were just pitiful and they were the beginning... so.... yeah.*

My next performance: Hello, Dolly! (Cornelius Hackle)

yeah. Its a long list, but ive been at it for 7 years, and sometimes in in two plays at once, so... yeah.

[Igg]

I know I've been in more than one musical, but for some reason I can only remember one...

My youth theatre group performed it March this year. It was written by my friend Joe, and absolutely hilarious, but we were rushed for production time and didn't have a huge budget....so it didn't come off as well as it could've. And we had to cut some bits of it because they were too 'risqué'. Pah.

[The Wonder Weezel]

I know I've been in more than one musical, but for some reason I can only remember one...

My youth theatre group performed it March this year. It was written by my friend Joe, and absolutely hilarious, but we were rushed for production time and didn't have a huge budget....so it didn't come off as well as it could've. And we had to cut some bits of it because they were too 'risqué'. Pah.

ive produced a few plays myself, and all i can say is.... go back over what wasnt successful, and change it... and do it again some day! Do it AGAIN!

[Igg]

I know I've been in more than one musical, but for some reason I can only remember one...

My youth theatre group performed it March this year. It was written by my friend Joe, and absolutely hilarious, but we were rushed for production time and didn't have a huge budget....so it didn't come off as well as it could've. And we had to cut some bits of it because they were too 'risqué'. Pah.

ive produced a few plays myself, and all i can say is.... go back over what wasnt successful, and change it... and do it again some day! Do it AGAIN!

What wasn't successful was that it's something we all have to fit around our schedules, we all had exams going on and we didn't practice enough!

That and my brother broke a beer bottle..

[Sock]

Wonder Weezel, your stage is great. Ours was so simple because the theatre we rented was being used by another play at night - so after every show and any rehersal we used the set, the entire thing had to go down. For some reason they didn't have to, they could paint and do whatever they wanted...pfft. Luckily whatever play was after us had a set that worked for us though.



That's not a very good picture, I haven't got one of the stage, really...but that's almost half of the stage you're seeing right there.

[The Wonder Weezel]

yeah... its pretty amazing how we build them... its actually like 6 dads from the cast/crew... who do most of it, but we come in at nights after rehearsal if we want to help... we build giGANtic frames, with tons of spokes and stuff to build a gigantic box, then we cover it on each side so its a solid box or cube... and we get the whole cast to stand on it and jump at the same time, JUST to make sure its safe... *one time, it went CREAAAAAAAAAK* and the whole cast jumped off at once... that was scary and funny But then after we connect all these platforms and blocks and stuff together, we painted it all greyish brown. THEN, we covered ALL of that in STYROFOAM, and we cut chunks off to give it a jagged rocky stone bricking look... and we paint all that.... and then, to make things like the archway in the upper left, that used to just be an open space, but we actually just cut two styofoam acute triangles , and once painted and something pretty is put at the vertex.... it looks way cool! Oh, and the doorway thing in the center.... used to be a whole square box shape, but we bent a woodent sheet into a curve and stuck it in there, and filled in all the gaps so it looks like the archway was naturally curved..... In the meantime, pretty window covers, curtains, and props and castle points are made by the moms, who come in and make the newly built stage pretty. At lighting and a cast, and BOOM. youve got a pretty sweet stage