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I have been going to the theatre for over 65 years--I vaguely remember seeing the original cast in "Oklahoma" on Broadway--and from the 1940s up to the 1980s I saw the major plays and players.
I saw the dramas (Streetcar Named Desire, Long Day's Journey, Death of a Salesman, etc.,) the comedies (Born Yesterday, Arsenic and Old Lace, etc.,) the musicals (A Chorus Line, the R & H classics, Man Of La Mancha, etc.,) Shakespeare (Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, etc.), the mysteries (Slueth, Dilal M for Murder, Wait until Dark,etc.) along with all the big names like Vivian Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Alfred Drake, John Riatt, Geraldine Page, Kim Hunter and Stanly, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Gwen Verdon, Eva Lagallon, Helen Hayes, Brando, Comden & Green, to name just a few. I was there for the invasion of the Angry Young Men from Britian, the 'spectacular' musicals from that same Isle that threatened our hold on the best of musical theatre. I waited for Godot and saw the nudity of Oh Calcutta and Hair. I fell in love with the poetry and prose of Tennessee Williams and William Inge.
I watched the gay 'movement' from The Children's Hour to The Boys In The Band to Torch Song Trilogy to La Cage become part of the Broadway theatre fabric.
There were very few plays and musicals I didn't see during the 40s and 50s and when I left NYC in the late 50s I would fly back for a total of 5 weeks a year and see between 7 and 10 shows each week.
I fell in love with the sights and sounds of the theatre; the crowd entering the theatre and the buzz as the houselights came down, the overture to a musical began , the swoosh of the curtain as it was opened. From that moment I became a fly on the wall of the stage entering lives of people I didn't know.
The last time I saw a show on Broadway was when A Chorus Line became the longest running show on Broadway and Michael Bennet restaged all 2 hours and 10 minutes into an unbelievable extravaganza in 1983. Because of circumstances and financial reasons I have unable to return.
I now depend on local theatre and touring companies for my theatre 'fix'. I read about all the new, current and future stars but they don't tour so though I may know their names I don't know who they are, what they look like and/or their talent are. I may, occasionally, see them on TV or in a movie but I haven't seen a Cherry Jones, an Ebersole, Keli O'Hara, Cheyanne Jackson, etc., on stage where they shine.
I read every line posted about every actor and play on talkinbroadway but that is no where the same as seeing them on stage working at their craft.
The closest I can come to seeing what's new, what the future holds, a career building, the immortals of tomorrow, the passing of the torch, etc., is once a year when I watch the Tony awards.
I was living in Memphis at the time the cast of A Chorus Line was first presented on the Tony Award show and was so bowled over by what I saw that the next day I called and arranged to fly to NYC to see if the rest of the show was as stunning as that number. It was and I immediately became an ACL groupie seeing it over100 times all over the United States and again and again on Broadway.
I really have no choice as I HAVE TO, NEED TO, MUST see the Tony Awards show every year to get my 'fix' of theatre, to extend my knowledge of an art form that mezmerises me even after 65 years!!!
For those of you who have never experienced live theatre do it now--go to a local production, see a touring company and if you want to experience the once in a lifetime never to be duplicated feeling go to NYC and see a show on Broadway!!!
