What was the first show you saw on Broadway?

I've never been to Broadway, but my Dad abd his 2nd wife took me to the Music Center in Los Angeles a few times. I can't remember whether the first was "The Wiz" on tour or the original run of "Evita" with Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone, before it went to Broadway. Whichever was first.

Sweeney Todd (musical, original) and The Elephant Man (straight play, original)

My first show actually on Broadway was Hedwig.

However I had seen traveling tours long before I made it to New York of course.

Musical: Cats

Non musical: Torch Song Trilogy with the original cast.

Yes I’m that old

Applause with Anne Baxter playing the Margo Channing role. On Broadway in New York, New York, 1972. Theater elsewhere doesn't count in this thread.

The Magic Show with Doug Henning ca. 1975

Original ,Hello Dolly the the following night, Hamlet with Richard Burton

"Oliver!" musical.

Evita LuPone Patinkin.

Grease, 1972.

"Any Wednesday," ca. 1966.

First Musical: Whoopee! (the 1979 revival, not the original) First Play: Deathtrap

Les Miz in 1989 I think.

Pippin...I think. I saw many shows.

The original production of Show Boat. Overrated. It was no The Black Crook.

Master Class with DIXIE CARTER!

Senior trip, Deathtrap. We are really wanted to see a musical, but the teachers took us to this. Nobody understood what was going the whole time.

Abie's Irish Rose

Opening night of "Oliver"

Was this a school for "special" students?

“The Basic Training of Pablo Hummel” - 1977

Al Pacino won best actor. He was intense, and looked great.

Fiddler on the Roof

Play: My Fat Friend with Lynn Redgrave and George Rose.

Musical: Over Here! with The Andrews Sisters, Janie Sell, Ann Reinking, Marilou Henner, John Travolta, etc., etc., etc. Fantastic cast, cute Sherman Brothers score, wonderful dancing and lots of it. I was in Musical Comedy Heaven.

Once

Eldergay here. Musical: Tovarich with Vivien Leigh; Play: Dr. Cook's Garden with Burl Ives and Keir Dullea.

Eldergay here. Musical: Tovarich with Vivien Leigh; Play: Dr. Cook's Garden with Burl Ives and Keir Dullea.

Play: "Same Time Next Year"

Musical: "Rocky Horror Picture Show"

Promises, Promises (1968)

Deathtrap (1979)

Follies. Not the original Broadway cast, but it was still Follies.

I wish I could have seen the original production of West Side Story, in the 50's. I was just a baby, then...lol.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1961 at the Winter Garden with Tammy Grimes and Harve Presnell.

My first trip to NYC from Boston, where I had seen a few, were A Day in Hollywood, I Ought to be in Pictures and Barnum. Here comes the "Oh Mary" part: at intermission of A Day in Hollywood I just started crying. I was overwhelmed by the whole experience. I then decided that's what I would do with my life. And I have - up until covid.

Very cool R32.

Oh my gosh R25... you saw Dr. Cook's Garden? Great cast, talk about a show I think very few people would know! I know it because a community theatre group I once worked with produced it one season. Interesting plot with an intriguing ending.

I'd love to answer the question for this thread, but honestly, my parents started taking me to B'way shows at a very young age and I do not remember first musical or straight show...

As a lifelong theatre fan, there really was an electricity that shot through me when I first stepped foot into a real Broadway theater. I did have to resist the urge to cry a bit. Total Mary moment, I know, but the theatre and the cinema have always been like going to church for me. All my best religious experiences have been there.

My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, 1956

Musical: Pippin (1972)

Straight play: Finishing Touches (1973)

I got to New York on Tuesday afternoon and saw the OBC of Chicago that night. Next day at the matinee, I saw the OBC of ACL.

We saw four shows on my first visit. I think the first was A Chorus Line (with Rev. Wichert), Sunday in the Park (with Bernadette & Mr. Westenberg), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Tap Dance Kid (New Year's Eve '84).

Phantom of the Opera in 1989.

Annie

[quote] Over Here! with The Andrews Sisters, Janie Sell, Ann Reinking, Marilou Henner, John Travolta, etc., etc., etc. Fantastic cast, cute Sherman Brothers score, wonderful dancing and lots of it. I was in Musical Comedy Heaven.

I would've been in heaven too. I was living in San Francisco at the time this show played and was hopeful there would be a tour, but I guess Patty and Maxene weren't speaking to each other by the end of the NY run so the tour never happened.

[quote] A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine

Loved this show as well

My first show (two nights before I saw A DAY IN HOLLYWOOD... ) was a flop called ONE NIGHT STAND.

On paper it looked terrific. Music by Jule Styne, Book and lyrics by Herb Garner (A THOUSAND CLOWNS), Directed by John Dexter (EQUUS, and later M. BUTTERFLY). Choreography by Peter Gennaro. Starring Jack Weston and Charles Kimbrough. Shoulda been great, right?

Closed in previews.

It didn't matter. I was in New York for the first time, at a real Broadway theater for the first time, seeing a real Broadway musical for the first time. I was in heaven.

Company

Evita. It was on a trip to NYC for the first time in the early 80s.

Sadly, though, it was well into the run, and I saw Loni Ackerman, who was speaking more than half the lyrics the night I saw her rather than singing them. It was a huge disappointment.

The next night, however, I saw My One and Only with Tommy Tune and Twiggy, which was magical.

"Ziegfeld Follies of 1927" with Ruth Etting

Speed The Plow and Carrie the same week.

Grand Hotel

R32 - love your response. Seeing a show on Broadway has always been a faraway dream for me and when I finally did achieve that dream, I was so overwhelmed that I cried. I’ve been back only a few times but each time, I am overcome with emotion.

Musical: Shenandoah

Play: Othello with James Earl Jones & Christopher Plummer

Pippin. Then the next day, the matinee of A Little Night Music. Both OBC.

[quote] The next night, however, I saw My One and Only with Tommy Tune and Twiggy, which was magical.

I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday but. almost 40 years later, I still remember the euphoria I felt after the "Kicking the Clouds Away" number in the second act. Since Tune is a dancer, the Eleven O'Clock Number had to be a dance, not just a song, and this one was memorable in every way.

Rent, original cast in 1996

Yes, that was fantastic, r51. The other song that really amazed me was "He Loves and She Loves," which Twiggy sang in a silent movie theater (which was playing a film-within-the-show memorably entitled "White Baggage of the Casbah").

The Mystery of Drood, with Loretta Swit and George Rose

You mean actual Broadway or just a big professional musical show somewhere?

For the latter, it was a French-language production of Les Miz in Montreal sometime in the late1980s. Fucking awful.

For the former ie. actual New York Broadway, I saw a production of Cabaret in Studio 54 around 2000 with Lea Thompson as Sally Bowles. It was excellent.

Man of La Mancha starring Raul Julia & Sheena Easton in 1992.

Gosh there are lots of old people in this thread. My first was The Most Happy Fella in 1992.

[quote] Seeing a show on Broadway has always been a faraway dream for me and when I finally did achieve that dream, I was so overwhelmed that I cried.

Even though it was not my first show, I had that reaction when I saw the 2008 Lincoln Center production of SOUTH PACIFIC. When that big cymbal crash occurs during the overture I was immediately taken back forty plus years, to my parents' suburban living room, the gayling outcast who never played sports with the neighborhood boys, preferring instead to endlessly listed to old original cast albums while reading the liner notes and hoping some day to be lucky enough to visit New York.

Even after living here for twenty years and having seen hundreds of shows, it's still a powerful emotion.

[quote] My first was The Most Happy Fella in 1992

Talk about starting at the top! That is one of my all-time favorite shows. As an admittedly odd child, in the '70s I saved up my paper route money and bought the 3-LP set. I listened to it endlessly, memorizing each lyric and line of dialog. It's my 'desert island' show.

The two-piano 1992 revival to which you refer was excellent but I would still like to see another production with a full orchestra before I die (they'd better hurry, I'm older than Robert Weede was when he originally played Tony).

The first play I saw was Ten Little Indians. I was maybe 8. It was at this theater. Years later, I saw Sandy Dennis & Gary Merrill in Born Yesterday and Shelley in Gamma Rays there.

R59, The Ricardos and the Mertzes loved it.

My recollection is that they didn't get to see the entire thing, r61.

Annie Get Your Gun, with Reba McEntire. Still waiting for a performance to top Reba's.

R62, It's one of my favorite episodes.

The Boy from Oz in 2003. My first and only trip to New York. I waited by the stage door for him to leave and there he was in the flesh: handsome, polite, and exhausted. He got into an SUV and was whisked away into the night.

A matinee of Amadeus (with Ian McKellan) followed by an evening performance of Evita (with Derin Altay).

Dreamgirls

I don’t think I saw a B’way play until years later.

R64 and Lucy taught the world about second acting.

The Secret Garden on Broadway but I was in high school when Evita premiered in Los Angeles with Lupone/Patinkin and saw that twice. I didn't know that I would see Mandy again at my first Broadway show. I loved that show (also starred a young John Cameron Mitchell}

The Magic Show with Doug Henning. I see you R6! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a straight play on B’way! I think I saw Glengarry Glen Ross in Boston.

My first Broadway musical was “Annie” with the original Broadway cast. I think the first play I attended was many years later . . . “Moose Murders”!

I had seen Evita and Sweeney Todd in LA (I was in the audience when they filmed the latter), but my first show on Broadway was Sunday in the Park with George. I was in college, and I flew to New York on a red-eye for a one-night stay just to see it. I still live in California but I flew back for the Sunday revival, where I felt incredibly old. Been to New York many times since that first trip, but the only other time I did a single-night stay was to see Juno when Encores! did it a few years back. I figured (probably rightly) that I would never have a chance to see the show with a full orchestra -let alone Broadway performers.

First straight play in NYC? Copenhagen, I think.

Musical: A Little Night Music. I loved Hermione Gingold and Glynis Johns but thought the show was a little boring. Maybe I was too young (18).

Play: Same Time, Next Year, with Sandy Dennis and Ted Bessell, of which I loved every second. I was also around the same age as when i saw ALNM, but I was fascinated by the changing scenery and costumes and the aging of the characters…

Play: Social Security. Marko Thomas, Olympia Dukakis 1986?

Musical: Sunset Boulevard. Betty Buckley 1992?

Both were incredibly good. And as a young gayling these two productions both dealt with aging ! Odd isn’t it?

Time goes by in a blink. Respect this.

Marlo *

Beauty and the Beast - meh

Vanessa Williams in "Kiss Of The Spider Woman".

[quote] Gosh there are lots of old people in this thread. My first was The Most Happy Fella in 1992.

Oh, [italic]hon.[/italic]

Even if you were only seven when you saw it (I suspect somehow you were actually older), you're no spring chicken anymore yourself.

Strider- The Story of a Horse

Cabaret. Molly Ringwald, 2001/2002. it was actually pretty good.

Pal Joey. Would you believe Bob Fosse as Joey?

On my 8th birthday The Magic Show. Doug Henning had left by that time. It was, well, magical. I'll never forget that opening piano riff.

Channing in Hello Dolly original Broadway run at the St, James. Lenny with Cliff Gorman. I was a young teen. Honestly I went only because I thought it was a musical you know Tom O' Horgan of Hair? Who was Lenny Bruce? Well that was a shocker. I certainly wasn't expecting THAT. It left me quite shaken and to this day one of the best theatrical experiences I've ever had. If you didn't see Gorman in this role you have nothing to tell your grandchildren.

I've only ever seen one other show there and it was off broadway because i grew up and spent most of my adult life in Cali. Saw a lot there and Phantom in Toronto.

Grease, 1972

Jinx, R10

Our American Cousin

If I recall correctly, it was Sugar Babies with Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller.

Dancin'

I love this story:

I worked (post-college) as a bartender in St. Croix at a gay resort. Yes, I was very attractive and many of the wealthy gay guys who stayed there gave me their cards, numbers etc. with the promise to "look them up" if I was ever in any of there respective cities.

A year or so later, I moved to NYC and I decided, on a whim, to call up one of those men. His name was Victor and he was epitome of class and style and felt so very New York to and surfer Angelino like myself. We met for a drink - which I thought would be awkward and weird (it so wasn't) - and when he discovered I hadn't even seen a show on Broadway, he put an immediate stop to it.

We saw Nine a week or so later and while neither of us liked the show, we had a blast together that night. And now, some 15 years later, we're still great friends.

R83, Gloria Swanson tells Dick Cavett that she walked out of Lenny at 3:20.

Les Misérables back in 1989 (March).

While I live in New York City now, I spent years in Los Angeles seeing the touring productions at the Shubert, Pantages and any number of the theaters in Hollywood or in downtown L.A. They got a lot of the original casts so I got to see Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney in "Sugar Babies", Anthony Quinn in "Zorba" and Richard Harris in "Camelot".

I started going to New York regularly in the late 1990's before moving there a decade ago so my first actual Broadway shows were Whoopi Goldberg in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and Julie Harris and Charles Durning in "The Gin Game". Lots of Broadway and Off Broadway and Encores at City Center ever since, including a ton of disasters.

Play: "Dancing at Lughnasa"

Musical: "Guys and Dolls" (1992 Broadway revival with Faith Prince, who won the Best Actress Tony for her role that year, and Nathan Lane).

I was 21 years old and could not believe a little guttersnipe like me managed to leave the 'hood long enough to see one of my all time favorite shows on the Great White Way. There was a big Broadway gift shop -- not sure if it still exists -- they sold SWAG from all of the shows. The guys working there were blasting *Connie Francis* and I fully enjoyed singing along and chatting it up. A rare, magical night that filled me with optimism.

Like someone upthread, I grew up in NY and was brought to a lot of theater by my family, so don't remember the first. BUT, the first play I saw on my own that blew me away was Stoppard's Arcadia at Lincoln Center. I didn't understand all the mathematical concepts, but was riveted by the language and wit, the wonderful performances and beautiful staging. Plus...young Billy Crudup.

I have spent a lifetime of going to the theatre, big shows , small shows, on and off-Broadway. It’s one of the joys in life. My first Broadway show was a visit to NYC from Boston in the 1960s when I saw Fiddler on the Roof with Bette Midler as one of the daughters. I was young, the show was boring, but there was something magical about being inside a theatre. I have loved it forever.. I live on the West Coast now and have seen as much as possible throughout the years.

Jesus Christ Superstar, 1971. at the Mark Hellinger Theatre.

I was 9 - and I was hooked for life.

The first PLAY I saw on Broadway was PIAF, in 1981.

[quote] I think the first play I attended was many years later . . . “Moose Murders”!

Really? Was it one of the two previews with Eve Arden or was it with her successor Holland Taylor?

For those who don't know (and if you don't, turn in your gay card). MOOSE MURDERS is one of Broadway's legendary flops. It closed after one performance.

The New York Times theater critic Frank Rich commented in his review of the play that there would now "always be two groups of theatergoers in this world: those who have seen MOOSE MURDERS and those who have not." He described MOOSE MURDERS as "the season's most stupefying flop—a show so preposterous that it made minor celebrities out of everyone who witnessed it, whether from on stage or in the audience."

I am not R71, but I saw MOOSE MURDERS, too. One of the great theatre experiences of my life ... it was so surreal.

As R98 noted, Frank Rich famously said that there were "two groups of theatergoers in this world: those who have seen MOOSE MURDERS and those who have not." Might I add that there is an even more exclusive subset: Those of us who saw MOOSE MURDERS with Eve Arden. (The playwright, Arthur Bicknell, in his memoir confused the record by mistakenly stating that there were 2 previews when in actuality, there was 1 invited dress rehearsal and 1 official preview before they replaced Eve Arden.) I was privileged enough to have attended that one and only official preview starring Ms. Arden.

I've never experienced anything like it before ... or since.

Perscilla queen of the desert

All the same week- First ,saw the revival of "West Side Story" with Debbie Allen. Next night "They're Playing Our Song" with Tony Roberts. Day after "The Pirates of Penzance" in Central Park (sat about 5 feet away from Linda Ronstadt as she sang one song). Day after that saw final preview of "42nd Street and the next night I saw "Evita" with Lupone, Patinkin, and Guntin.

I thought Eve Arden simply refused to continue after that first official preview of Moose Murders, not that she was let go.

Ms. Arden was so mortified by her performance (and the audience response - never have I heard so much booing &cat-calling from a Broadway audience. It was simply chaotic & surreal), that she 'refused' to continue, not that they were going to let her continue, anyway. They had a replacement almost ready to go, who had been rehearsing secretly and separately. During the infamous preview, the replacement who was watching from the audience "stepped out" during intermission ... and was never heard from again (yes, it was THAT bad). They suspended previews for 10 days while they got Holland Taylor up to speed.

Into The Woods - November 1987. Les Miz was #2 shortly thereafter

Sadly, it was Rent - worst musical of all time.

"Moon for the Misbegotten" with Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards

Mr. Roberts with Henry Fonda.

R57!!! The Most Happy Fella in 1992 was my first too!

They're Playing Our Song. I arrived in NYC for the 1st time on a Monday morning, and that was the only musical that had a Monday show.

RENT at the Nederlander

I saw All Over Town in 1975. I was only 12. My sister took me. We went to Sardis before the play.

I was too young to understand the play, but the experience was exciting. I recognized Cleavon Little’s face but didn’t know where.

Also in the cast were Bernard Hughes, who I vaguely recognized, Jill Eikenberry, Zane Lasky, who my sister was having a bit of a fling with (that’s how we got the tickets I think) and ... Polly Holliday!

[quote]never have I heard so much booing &cat-calling from a Broadway audience.

Obviously you didn't see Into the Light. They were balling up the programs and throwing them at the cast.

"Oh, NO! Not that MIME again!"