https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htLGQ3CDODY

The 70^th Broadway Tony Awards will be broadcast next Sunday, June 12, 2016, at 8 PM (DST) on CBS. I don’t remember how many of those broadcasts I have seen but I do remember the Sunday of April 18, 1976 sitting in my townhouse in Memphis, Tennessee, with Johnny and watching the opening number exactly as you see it above!

It was that evening I fell in love instantly with the Broadway musical called “A Chorus Line”! I was stunned and couldn’t say a word even when Johnny asked me, “What’s wrong and why are you crying?” After I came back to earth I called my father who I hadn’t spoken to in quite a long time and asked him to get me tickets for the show. It would be 6 months before I would get to see the show but that would be the first of 101 performances I have seen in New York, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Missouri, Florida among other States as I went through a long ‘groupie’ period with this show. And there isn’t a production that I have seen that I didn’t/don’t cry at certain times, even when the performances aren’t the best.

Seeing that first performance I couldn’t move when the show was over and thought that I would never see another performance of any show, including “A Chorus Line”, that would move me as much and I didn’t, including the end of act 1 of “Dreamgirls” when Effie stunned the theatre audience singing “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” (#1 on the video below) and Za Zadoing the same thing at the end of act 1 of “La Cage AuxFolles” singing “I Am What I Am” (#20) until September 29, 1983. On that day, at the same theatre I saw it the first time, the Shubert, “A Chorus Line” became the longest running show on Broadway and was completelyrestaged by Michael Bennett!

Buddy Vest, who played Zach on tour, was part of this celebration and he got tickets for Bob Kingsbury and me to be part of that audience. My hands would be sore from clapping and my voice was horse from shouting the whole week after. It exceeded in bringing up more emotions than the first time I saw the opening number on the Tony Awards and even the first time I saw the complete show.

Though I have seen many shows since then that have excited me none have reached the peak or touched my emotions as much as “A Chorus Line”.

Watch the videos below but BE SURE TO WATCH THE TONY AWARDS SHOW ON CBS NEXT SUNDAY JUNE 12, 2016!! (Get a taste of what “Hamilton” is all about!)

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/the-25-best-tony-awards-performances

(Actually there are 30 performances!)