"Broadway has been very good to me. But then, I've been very good to broadway." Ethel Merman
When I was 18 years old I went to my first Broadway show, the original broadway production of Mamma Mia. At the time Tina Maddigan was the lead and at the time I thought it was the greatest thing I had ever seen. Truthfully, I still have a special spot for that show and also for the lead. I don't know if this is true for everyone, but I don't see how anyone can truly forget their first show. My actual first show was watching Nutcracker in downtown Jacksonville. My teacher told me to watch for the tree and as it rose from it's spot it was spectacular. This means you will never forget your first show and you will never forget your first broadway spectacular.
For those of you who liked the movie Mamma Mia (entire city of London), I thought it sucked.
When I was 19 and I moved to New York, I was officially obsessed with going to the theatre. Usually, I only went to see celebrities I liked though. For instance, Paige Davis (Trading Spaces) was in Chicago, Christy Carlson Romano (Even Stevens) was in Beauty and the Beast and Delta Burke was in Steel Magnolias, so was Christine Ebersole (kind of scary in person).
A bucket list moment did come last year when I saw Bernadette Peters perform. I saw her again this year as well.
When I was still in Florida I did see Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel perform a song from Wicked during the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, but I was never able to get tickets on the few moments of leave I had to get in to the city. Instead, I listened to the soundtrack for almost 2 years on deployment and became obsessed with the tiny blonde. This was how my liking Broadway became an obsession. I watched Megan Hilty perform amazingly in Wicked when I returned and then I watched Kristin Chenoweth perform amazingly in the Apple Tree, twice. Plus, other productions, she is brilliant after all.
My most recent show was to see Anything Goes with another spectacular performer Sutton Foster. I had seen her in the Drowsy Chaperone a few years ago and she was brilliant. After this performance, which was a matinee, I have never actually seen anything like it. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. The funny thing, I went to see the performance on YouTube and there's a argument brewing over three performers who have performed in Anything Goes. One was Sutton Foster (2 time Tony Winner), Patti Lupone (2 time Tony Winner) and the third is some girl who came in second place on a Glee contest show. Her performance wasn't even the whole show, but instead mash up which included the song on Glee. I am a Glee fan and I do believe she did a good job, but really, really. She's just not there yet, even if she might be one day. I've decided to place the three performances from online. My favorite is Sutton Foster, but that's just who I prefer even though Lupone is obviously brilliant.
Lindsay Pearce in Glee.
Patti Lupone 1988.
Sutton Foster.
If I ever have a kid and it's a girl, she will absolutely hate me. She's going to be named after Bernadette Peters, have the voice lessons of Kristin Chenoweth and dance like Sutton Foster. She'll be damned cute like all three of them as well. If she wants me to like her, then she'll have my hair color.
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