Hey, i've been wondering. Who of you has ever been going to a real musical like Aida, Les Miserables, Lion King, Avenue Q, Wicked, etc?
What kind of musical do you like?
And for those who've seen Wicked; what's it like? In 2006 it's coming to the UK and I wanted to go and see it.. But I wanna hear your opinions about it...

Oh I loved Wicked! I saw it 3 times and loved it every time. My girlfriends aunt is Idina Menzel and she plays the wicked witch of the west. Kristen Chenoweth was amazing in it as well. She is one of my 3 huge crushes in Hollywood/Broadway. The notes that Kristen and Idina hit are amazing. I have the soundtrack to it and it sounds just like it does in the theater. Taye Diggs was the one who played the wicked witch of the west's love intrest, and he is seeing Idina as well so the chemistry was there.

I highly recommend you to see it if you can. The show itself was about 2 1/2 hours long but it is so funny and entertaining.

Lynn I just love musicals!
The last couple of years I've seen Aida, the lion king and mamma mia. I already bought tickets to go and see "Jesus Christ Superstar" in May .
Just like you I haven't seen wicked yet, but everyone is so postive about it that I have to see it!. (though I have no idea when it's coming to our country). One of the things that are important to me, are the songs in the musical, they have to be touching combined with happiness or mysterie.

I love seeing Broadway musicals. The only two I have seen recently were Chicago and Evita and they were great. Wicked is coming into our town in a few weeks and I was wanting to see it as well. But tickets are expensive and I can only afford one show a year. I saw Evita in November so I will have to wait until Wicked comes around again.

I have some friends who have seen Wicked and they were nothing but positive about the musical. Based upon what they have said I would recommend you see Wicked. I do not think you will be disappointed.

Marieke, Wicked is coming 2007/2008, just so you know
Loved Aida too, seen it 6 times haha. I've been to elisabeth too, 6 times.. Mama mia twice. I didn't like Lion King that much.. I'm going to see Beauty and the beast somewhere this year and right now I'm saving up for Wicked!

I've seen The Lion King and Sweeny Todd, which I have to say I didn't enjoy much, it didn't really heve any of those songs that stay in your head for months after you see the play. I really loved Lion King, and the coustumes were amazing!

Wicked is coming to our town in November or something and I am super excited for that! I love the soundtrack. In May I'm gonna go see "Les Miserables", which, in my opinion, is the greatest musical ever.

I live in New York, only around 30 minutes from the City, so I go to Broadway a few times a year! Some shows that I have seen include "Mama Mia" (one of my favorites...it was really good!), "Movin' Out" (very good Billy Joel songs, but I was disappointed that there was no dialogue), "The Lion King," "Grease," "Hairspray" (very good...I recommend it! It was hysterical!), "Fame" (also very good, although I only knew one song, Fame), "Little Shop Of Horrors" (probably one of my favorites ever...it was hysterical, there was interecation with the audience, and the growing plant was awesome! -- "FEED ME!")....

I recommend that anybody who is planning on visiting New York any time soon gets tickets to see a show on Broadway! It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most, and it is really great!



_daviD

Ooooooh, I love musicals too. I'm surprised so many people have seen Aida-I don' tthink it's very populare, is it? Aida is one of my ffavorites. I get to see it again in 2007, my mom thinks that we are the only ones to have bought tickets so far in advance.

I also love the Phantom of the Opera and have memorized most of the songs-although my singing is terrible! I love the movie too, and the book.

I also like Evita, but I've only seen the movie. Is the play even still going anymore?


I also recently saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat and I loved it, despite the musec being a little modern-sounding for me.

I do not think Evita is showing in New York but it is still traveling around the US. I saw it in November so that is not too long ago. If you liked the movie you will love the musical. The guy playing Che was great. He was nothing like Antonio Banderas but it was still an incredible performance.

We got stuck with the understudy for Eva. That usually happens with matinees. Her first half performance was a little weak but I would have sworn she was a different actress in the second half.

I like all of Andrew Llyod Webbers plays and try to go to them as they come to town. His Joseph musical is coming this spring. I think I need to start saving now.

I've heard Joseph isn't that good..
Too bad your understudy was lousy..
Ginevra, I love Aida too:)
Especially the understudy cast was great in Holland.
What did you guys think about Lion King?

I've seen Cabaret (anyone ever heard of it?) and I thought it was really good. It reminded me a lot of Moulin Rouge and had a bit of a meloncholy ending, but I really enjoyed it. It wasn't actually on broadway though, it was a tour thing. I've never actually seen a broadway musical (I like in Iowa) but if I could see one I would definitely wanna see Lion King

Yes, Cabaret, I know it..
Lion king.. hmm I thought it wasn't that good.. quite disappointing actually..

Musicals? Hmmm...

I've never even heard of Wicked, i'm guessing it's about the wizard of oz or am i compeletly wrong?

I live in The NE of Scotland, so all the musicals tend to go to glasgow or edinburgh and avoid us. However we've just had an extention on our theatre so hopefully we should be getting the bigger ones soon, Phantom of the opera Les Mis.

However a couple of years ago I saw Cats. I had a friend who worked at the theatre so i managed to go for free!! *whoo!* And i was in the front row, with the seat next to me empty.

So i'm watching the show and the rum tum tugger is on singing, and well.... he had really tight tights on... where was i suposed to look! but i swear there must have been a sock down there. any way it's nearing the end of the show, and i'm staring at him thinking....sock or not.... and he waves...at me. I timidly wave back and he jumps off somewhere. Now i don't know if any ones seen Cats but at the end they all run amung the audience in their character. So the rum tum tigger jumps right off the stage and starts speaking to me sitting in the empty chair...

Highly emabarasing considering i'd been staring at his crotch all the way through the show.

hehehehe! Helen, that's quite amusing! I can just see that happening to you.

Yeah, wicked is a prequel to Wizard of Oz (kind of shows the fall-out between the wicked witch, the good witch and the wizard.) It came to Cincinnati recently, but the tickets were INSANE to get, so we missed it.

My brother-in-law is actually one of the top-five collectors of musical theater around (as in tapes, videos, paraphenalia), and he's a critic for some on-line review. He gets to go to everything here for free. I get ticked since he never offers me tickets! Some family!

I've seen Les Mis, Phantom (3x), Jeckyl and Hyde, Ragtime on tour, and tons of other local performances. (I've even been in a few. I minored in Drama at college. Great fun there.)

Oh, Helen, did you ever determine if it WAS a sock?
janet

No i didn't! It still irks me to this day It must have been because it was ridiculous, and he was like 'Did you enjoy the show' so i just said, yeah, yeah it's good.... I was dying inside...

Ah... Wicked sounds good, I love Wizard of Oz so, yeah i think i migh have to go and watch that.

I love stage shows, i really wanna see Phantom on the stage, and i wanna see chicago too....

Yer i go to some of the West End Musicals, like...umm... Phantom Of The Opera, Sweeney Todd, Anything Goes, ummm..... i go to plays more often, i've been to more but i can't think of any at the moment!

WOW i'm a third Year now!

I'm just wondering if anyone had ever heard of "A Fiddler on the Roof"
I love that musical! They made a movie on it about 30 years ago. It is one of my favorite musicals. I saw Aida but in GableStage near Miami. I also liked it as well!

Duh, I can't believe I didn't remember "Fiddler!" That was the first musical I ever saw (with Topel). I was in jr. high, I think . . . and it was the night before I had to go into the hospital. How could I forget such a thing?

Matchmaker, matchmaker. <singing myself off to bed now>

I've never seen Fiddler on the roof on the stage, but i've seen bits of the film. I love it when he says

'I want to see [insert forgotten name here] machine' Walks in, then comes out again very quickly 'I have seen it... now we can go!' made me laugh. LIke i said, i've only seen bits of it, i was really young, and didn't appreciate it.

'If i were a rich man lalalalalal'

I haven't seeen any play for a long time, which is sad, really. I love live theatre.

I think the last musicals I saw were ones I did costumes for, so of course they were only community theatre. Not quite the same thing as Broadway. lol They were "Anything Goes" and "My Fair Lady."

Community theatres tend to stick with the old classics, as they bring in larger audiences and keep the theatres afloat financially. Pretty sad really. My local university has done "Grease" twice within ten years.

Sock, or not? Sock, or not? That line keeps running through my head now!

Ow yer i went to see My Fair Lady as well, i like to go to Agatha Christies, but there plays not musicals, on the musicals i also went to Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Nutcracker and The Snowman, but they were all pretty rubbish, i think!

Did any of you British people get to see "The Lion King" a few years back? I read that Luke Youngblood, who plays Lee Jordan in PS/SS and CoS, played Simba on the London stage, he must have a good voice.

Have any of you seen Wicked? My cousins are totally obbsessed with it, even though they haven't seen it. Is it good?

Has anyone read the book Wicked? If you have, do you think that a 12-year-old shouldn't be allowed to read it?

Wicked ROCKS! I'm telling you, it's the best play in the world!! You will not regret it at all! It's def. worth the money!

As for the book... no! It has a lot of crazy things in there that 12-year-olds should not be reading - same goes for the sequel "Son of a Witch." I'd wait till you're about 13 or 14, 15 the best. It has a lot of inappropriate stuff in there.

Also, you're SO lucky! You'lls ee Miriam Margoyles (who played Professor Sprout in the HP movies!). I've sent it in to VTM via the Send In News, but they haven't posted it...

well i really wanted to see "Rent" on DVD and i wanted ot see it when it was live and real because my my friend dillon goes and sees things like that all the time i never go with him because well i don't think my father would like that (my dad it weird) but he says they are amazing and thye hardly EVER screw up and he loves them i wish i could go with him.

I've seen Rent on both the big screen on the (what I call it soemtimes) the "live screen" a.k.a on stage. They're completely different, but both are very, very good! I couldn't tell you which one I liked better, because they both have a good plot and story telling in both. The movie was very good! My friends and I watch it all the time and sing along... we know every word, either spoken or sung. In the musical, on stage, they sing almost every word, which is odd 'cause they don't do that in the movie.

Any who, the man that portrayed Mark Cohen int he movie and was also the OBC for Rent, Anthony Rapp, I met him! He did a book signing in Philadelphia, and I went down their and got in line with the 400+ others (my number was 393) and we met him!

Haha...Cassandra. I read the first one in a weekend. It was weird, and strange but good. i agree you might want to wait a year or a few. (im going to be sixteen) I haven't seen the play but my friends love it. I don't think the play is really close to the book though because my school offered a trip for 7 and 8th graders to go last year. I haven't read Son of a Witch..that concerns Elphie's son right? How was it?

As for RENT. I saw the DVD because my friend was lending it to everyone after buying it because she thought it was great. She would lend it to anyone who wanted to see it. Well Basically anyone. I saw it and I loved it. And my other friend burned the soundtrack from her and we were listning to it. All the music is great. I would love to see it live. I love the songs Tango Maurine, Light my Candle..and well all of them.

As for plays I have seen: Beauty and the Beast twice once in NY and once at PPAC.
Phantom of the Opera (another one with amazing music) at PPAC when I was littler. And this year I went to Lion King! Lion King was great. they have the animals come down the isles in the beginning. The costumes were so great!

Courtney

I've seen only three shows on Broadway - Mama Mia, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Fiddler on the Roof (that's in order). I loved Mama Mia because it was so easy and fun to watch. It's just one of those things that raises your mood and makes you smile involunterely.

I absolutely adore The Phantom of the Opera! It is such a beautiful and sad story that touches your heart. And yes, the Broadway performance is better than the movie. On Broadway, you can feel the energy and the whole thing is so much more alive.

I haven't seen any real Musicals other than the ones my school held.

However, I've heard my friends sing Ave. Q before (in school.. out loud). Some others are obsessed with RENT. I might want to watch those when I get the chance.

Yea, the book is rather odd... there are a lot of inappropriate topics (and some controversial) in the book, which should not be discussed on a family-friendly board - but I recommend it to the older crowd that surfs around here. "Son of a Witch" was a really good book! It's very suspenseful - I read it in 6.5 hours, give or take a few minutes. And the ending... there's totally going to be a third one! Gregory Maguire can deny it all he wants, there will be one!!!

Another great musical -- Aida. I love this musical (although, I love Wicked more )! It's a great musical, the plot is awesome, and the songs are well written! Kudos to Tim Rice and Elton John!

Rent is definatly my favorite musical! Man it is so realistic it is wicked amazing! Man Harry_Ginny777 I suggest you see it!

Fawkes

My favorite musical is Wicked! Now, even though I never really had a chance to see it, the music is wounderful. My favorite song would have to be Defying Gravity (of course).

Well Lion King is utterly astounding, seriously it took my breath away. i love it so much. it is AMAZING. Billy Elliot is also very good but LOTS of bad language, i mean LOTS ! Both of them are spectacular.
I heard Chicago is good, i'm hoping to go for my birthday... "if you had been there, if you had seen it, i betya you would have done the same..." sorry great song there
.X.

Is anyone here following the Grease, American Idol type show, where they are selecting the leads for the new Grease production? I am not a big fan of these type shows but I have been enjoying this one. I am sure this has to do with me just loving Broadway musicals in general.

So if anyone is watching, got any favorites? On the Danny side, I do not really care for any of them. Max is probably the best but he looks way to dorky to be Danny. Derek has the looks but his voice is very shaky. I have heard too many bad notes out of him that sends chills up my spine listening to him.

On the Sandy side, Laura is hands down the best. Allie and Ashley do not even compare to her. She has a strong voice and is great on stage. She first caught my attention when she sang Jesus Christ Superstar for Andrew Llyod Webber. She blew everyone away that night.

I love Rent, Chicago, and Wicked. I want to see all of them. I've seen the movies of Rent, and Chicago. I've read Wicked and It was really good. I was playing in Michigan for awhile, but I think its in Chicago now.

I'm a huge broadway fan. I only wish I'd retain course lectures the way I retain broadway information.

It seems everyone likes the usual- Wicked, Rent, Lion King. Not that they aren't wonderful musicals because they are. But I was wondering is anybody liked anything out of the ordinary but still gets the same amount of praise (even though there's a lack of popularity)?

Personally, I don't think Wicked and Rent are the best musicals. Light in the Piazza definitely deserves some acclaim. What a gorgeous musical and I think Kelli O'Hara can give Chenoweth a run for her money (who oddly had the same voice teacher as her!). Spamalot is also notable along with Spring Awakening, Mary Poppins, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Drowsy Chaperone, Les Miserables (the list goes on and on).

I recently got into the 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee. I would have never thought to be interested in this musical, but I love it. Anybody else share the same interest in these shows?

I love musicals and it's one of my dreams to be on a west end stage but my fave musicals have to be Cats, Chicago, Grease and Mary Poppins.

I have the soundtrack to Wicked and have seen loads and loads of clips from it and know all of the words off by heart. I think it is absolutely amazing and am trying to convince my dad to buy us tickets to go and see it in London and i have a feeling he's interested so fingers crossed people...
I go to a dance school and we're putting on a performance this summer and i'm in a group of five and we want to do a number on our own rather than joining with another group and i've been subtlely (sp?) suggesting that we either do What is this feeling? or Dancing through life or Popular so I'm going to take the CD and the vocal book and backing track with me after the holidays and play them to the teacher. I'm also thinking of doing a solo of Defying Gravity because i know she really likes the song and i love it too so there may be a chance i get to perform that aswell and i'm sooo excited!

Anyway my other favourite musical id Cats. I don't know if any of you have ever seen it but i went to this dance lecture and we got taught this amazing dance from it by a girl that has actually been a cat! I've forgot where it is in the musical but i think it's somewhere before Victoria's solo. Ever since i was little and i first saw Cats i always wanted to be Victoria (the white cat).
So does anyone else like Cats?

rachel xx

I do love the usuals, but I loved stomp, Its not evactly a musical, but more like a crazy music thing. I saw it when i came and it was so funny, and interesting, I wanted to be onstage too. But then again I get that feeling for other movies/musicals.

Oh My WORD!!!!!!! You know Idina????? I love Wicked. It is my absolute favoritest musical ever!!! Sorry. I'll stop shouting. I'm a member at a Wicked forum that's really popular and we talk about Wicked all day every day. The book is incredible (but I would not reccomend it to people under 15.) I also love RENT. Bianca is a hardcore RENThead. And an ultimate Phantom of the Opera Phan.

Mary Poppins is ace! I've been twice with my sis, mum, dad, auntie, ran & grandad and sat on the front row both times! I like the whole atmosphere of musicals!

I love Broadway musicals! They are basically my life...haha. I'm a stage actress so I've acted in a few of them (not on broadway of course). Some are:

RENT - Mimi Marquez
Grease - Rizzo
Chicago - Roxy

And that's it so far but I hope to be on Broadway some day!

I have been to see two in the last 2 weeks. Both in the West End of London. The first was Joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat. This is a new revival of the show produced on the back of a BBC Tv series called Any Dream Will Do which set out to find a new Joseph with the help of the public and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The show was won by Lee Mead who is really brilliant and doesn't even need a wig!

On Thursday I took my youngest to see Hairspray which was equally brilliant. My daughter loved it so much that she has talked her dad into taking her to see it again later in the year. Hairspray has a few well known people in the cast but the leads of Tracy and Link are played by relative newcomers. Link is played but yet another Joseph wannabe Ben James Ellis although he wasn't there on Thursday.

All is quiet at the moment because my daughters is at dance classes but when she comes home, you can bet that she'll be singing along to one or other of the soundtracks at the top of her voice....all day!

Oh Elaine I want to see Hairspray so much!! My mom wouldn't mind mind seeing it, but my dad doesn't want to, and he's the one who pays for the tickets!

I've seen four shows on Broadway, Cats, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, and Phantom, and of those I would recommend Cats (Even thought it closed it was spectacular) and Mary Poppins (Funny, amazing, good singing, just an all around good show). I think that every one should see Phantom at one time or another in their life, but I think it might be heading for a close on Broadway, the phantom was an amazing singer when I saw it, bet the rest was I don't know maybe I'm wrong but I wasn't impressed with the stage craft as much as my parents were ages ago when they saw it, my mom was with me, and she says you don't normally see the weal on the boat . The Lion King just had waaay to much to live up to, it didn't deserve the Tony it got, and it was talked about way to much...

I've seen Wicked at the academy of music, and it is an awesome show, and I want to see it on broadway, and my mom was going to take me to 42nd street in Atlantic City but they wouldn't sell a ticket to a minor

I wanted to see the little mermaid for my birthday but my parents couldn't get tickets around my birthday, I'm hoping for christmas

*Jillsquee*

I just LOVE Wicked,not that i've ever seen it.
I've seen so many clips,listened to the songs over,and I've heard tons about it.Basically I heard it was AWESOME but that was with the original cast,they were really great.As for the actor/actresses now I've heard that they are really good and funny.If you've ever read the book Wicked,it's more or less like that,but alot of things change,especially things about Fiyero and the ending.I suggest you watch it; theres a 99.8% that you will like

My list of Broadways/West ends to see before I die

Edward Scissors hand ballet
Phantom of the opera- eeep better start saving

AND i saw wicked this weekend- omg i want to see it again- it is just as good as the book!!!!!!
Alexia sang no good deed better than indina i think and made me cry- i bawled at defying gravity but whio doesnt!!!

My all time favorite musicals are Oklahoma and Phantom of the Opera.Those two are pretty much the only ones I have seen though. Oklahoma was for sure the best for me. The songs were great and catchy; I couldn't stop singing them for days! Phantom was good, but I don't really remember much of it as I saw it a few years ago. The choir nearby performed some songs from Oliver, so we went and saw that one as well. I really want to see Wicked, but I haven't found anywhere it is playing near where I live. Cats is another one that I have been wanting to see. I've never actualy seen any of these on Broadway, but the have been at one time, so I guess that counts

I saw Wicked on Broadway back in march and fell in love with it! Seriously, I think it even beat out Sweeney Todd as my favorite musical. Well...almost

I saw Annaleigh Ashford as Glinda, and I've come to the conclusion that she's the absolute best for that role. I haven't seen any other Glinda's that compare. Except for Erin Mackey. I think she was in the LA cast and she did pretty good. She's no Annaleigh though.
I was supposed to see Stephanie J. Block as Elphaba, but I saw her understudy Chelsea Krombach. Since it was my first time seeing Wicked I didn't really have any base for comparison and thought Chelsea did awesome. Once I looked up some clips of SJB on youtube I realized what I had missed and really really wish I could have seen her instead of her understudy. I'm not putting Chelsea down because I honestly think she was great, but SJB owns Elphaba. She's the best Elphie, by far.

On a side note about Wicked. I think Idina sucks hardcore as Elphaba. The woman can sing, I'll admit that, but she's a terrible actress and terrible for that role. Just had to mention it.

Wicked well the Two Elphaba's I've seen are Kerry Ellis and Victoria Matlock, Kerry was better but her accent got a little annoying. As for Glinda Kendra Kassabaum(sp?) and whoever was on the tour I saw... Kendra was better(surprise, surprise). Annaleigh Ashford...never saw her as Glinda but she is hysterical on the Legally Blonde original Broadway cast recording(Margot)

I saw Gypsy and Wicked in September, and I saw Gypsy again in January(it was fabulous) and I'm going to see The Little Mermaid in March

*Jilly*

Ps As much as I love Wicked...It doesn't beat out Sweeny Todd on my list either

My all time favorite musical is Phantom of the Opera. The music is so powerful and fantastic. I also like The Sound of Music and Annie. Phantom of the Opera is the only play I've seen professionally done (not at Broadway though). And I saw Annie done by some local people. It was cute. Phantom was amazing though. The special effects and amount of talent there are overwhelming!

I love the book! I've never seen the muscial although it's always got top reviews wherever you look. I acually haven't ben to the theater in ages but I would definately love to see Wicked. There's a lot that intrigues me how they get it in stage form but the story is really great.