NYT: Taking Young People to Broadway Shows

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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<p>In case you haven't read this, here is a new article, titled: "Broadway: Take ’Em Early, Take ’Em Often" in the New York Times about taking young people to see Broadway shows:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/theater/taking-young-people-to-broadway-shows.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hpw%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/theater/taking-young-people-to-broadway-shows.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hpw&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>So, this made me think of my own two daughters. We live six hours from NYC, so not too close. However, my children have been very fortunate to see a GREAT deal of theater from a very young age, including numerous Broadway productions. They were also quite lucky to have two sets of grandparents who treated them to seeing Broadway shows (who lived closer to NYC than we do). The first Broadway show they ever saw was with my parents: Beauty and the Beast. We also took them to Broadway show periodically, but in addition to that, we took them to see National Tours, regional theater, local theater and so on, as well as seeing theater on various trips to wherever we traveled. Both my girls were involved in musical theater growing up a great deal (though only one is pursuing it as a career). I have this memory at some point when my older D was a teen, where we were on a long plane trip and she decided to brainstorm all the shows she had ever seen and wrote a list. It took up hours on this plane trip and the list was like a mile long. This included all sorts of theater. Both girls went away in summers to theater camps (not the same one as each other) and both their theater camps put on a ton of shows every summer and so they saw a lot just there that made the list even longer. It was so long, I could hardly believe it, as they were not that old at that point. As young adults they continue to see a lot of theater (my D who did not go into MT is still very into seeing theater and is going to NYC tomorrow to see her sister in two shows actually). My D who is in MT, went to college in NYC and so she has seen a ton of theater in her six years living there so far, and not simply just Broadway, though she just saw the opening night of a new Broadway musical for free! </p>

<p>I thought I would share this article with you all. What was the first musical you ever saw? What was your first Broadway show? </p>

<p>In any case, particularly if you plan to go into theater as a career, it is sooooooooo important to see a LOT of theater and all KINDS of theater. I realize Broadway is expensive (though there are discounts) and far from home for many, but see any level of theater. It really informs you as an actor to be so well versed in theater. It really enhances your learning and your own ability as an actor. Not to mention, we all need to support theater to keep it alive. Go see a show!</p>

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<p>Growing up in an inner city, the Ailey company performed at my elementary school…and I was hooked! My middle school took us to see The Wiz on Broadway. Also around that time, my family saw Purlie at a local off-broadway theater. During college, I saw Colored Girls and Showboat off-broadway as well. The King and I…was fortunate enough to see on Broadway right before his death.</p>

<p>Met my husband in a stage production. We are both actors (and have other careers as well) and our daughter caught the bug. Although she is a budding thespian, at 14, she has not seen any broadway shows yet. :wink: She has seen a few local productions though.</p>

<p>I love MT, she is very good at it, but prefers a career on camera. We’ll see how that goes…</p>

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<p>My first was Sweeney Todd in 1979 I think with my father. My D’s I think was Beauty and the Beast as well! We were fortunate to be able to see a ton over the last year and a half while she was being coached in NYC. I will really miss that time with her. I am so craving a show right now!</p>

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<p>While I agree about seeing as much theater as you can – and not just Broadway! – I learned a lesson about taking my kids at too young an age to see some Broadway shows… it really was a bit wasted on them. I remember taking my four year old son to see Beauty and the Beast – he was terrified of the smoke, and then afterwards, he said, “mommy, I like those shows we see at home better” (referring to the touring kids’ theater productions). </p>

<p>With my D, I have been struck by how she not only wants to perform, but loves to see theater in all its forms – any time, any where. She was smart: pretty early on, she started saving her Playbills (and ticket stubs), and now has binders and binders filled with her theater-going history. </p>

<p>I wish I had done that: at this point, I can’t always remember whether I saw a show / particular performer or not. Interestingly, though, my most vivid memories from my childhood are of dance productions. One being Judith Jamison performing in “Cry” and “Revelations” (to this day, the most extended and excited audience ovation I’ve ever been a part of) and seeing confusion on the stage of the American Ballet Theater when Nureyev didn’t return (turns out he’d been injured…)…</p>

<p>One of my favorite memories as a kid wasn’t even Broadway, but an off (off?) Broadway spoof of Shirley Temple called “Curley McDimple.” It was really cute! </p>

<p>The most exciting audience ovation I’ve been a part of as an adult was during the final performance of Jonathan Groff and Leah Michele in “Spring Awakening.” When Groff finished “F**d” song, the audience was practically daring him to break character and bow, but he wouldn’t. Eventually, even the cast members started to laugh, as they just didn’t know what to do in this battle of wills between Groff and the audience! Finally, the music picked up, and the show went on (as it always does…)</p>

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<p>Blown away and excited mom turns to 8 yr old son as they exit NYC Broadway show “The Lion King”: “Wow, what did you think of that, son?”</p>

<p>Son: “I already saw the movie.”</p>

<p>…aaarrrggghhhhh!!!</p>

<p>hahaha. He did grow up to be in many plays and play in many a pit band so maybe, just maybe it had some effect.</p>

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<p>sax…LOL</p>

<p>SDonCC…my girls also saved every single Playbill and I know my older one has saved every ticket stubb too. :)</p>

<p>While I did pose the question of what were people’s first show they saw and/or first Broadway show and I mentioned my own kids’ first Broadway show…I feel badly as I can’t recall my own FIRST! I do recall seeing Pippin on Broadway as a kid. I also recall seeing the tour of Hair in Philadelphia when growing up. Doubt these were the first though.</p>

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<p>Funny that you mention Pippin and Beauty and the Beast , Soozie. </p>

<p>Pippin is the first musical I remember seeing on Broadway. There might have been one or 2 before that , but Pippin is the one that comes to mind as my first. I was fortunate to grow up in a theatre loving and performing family. I lived in NYC and on LI so we were always going to shows. </p>

<p>My son wrote about seeing Beauty and the Beast as his first musical in one of his college essays and the impact it had on him as a 5 year old . He saves every Playbill, even from regional shows as well as some high school shows his friends have been in. Of course we save all the “playbills” from theatre camp. My brother saved his from the same camp… funny to see what roles the famous alumni played as kids!</p>

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<p>The first play I remember seeing was some children’s theater performance I attended as a guest at a birthday party when I was 5 or 6. I don’t remember what it was but it was silly. I know I also saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream around the same age, in a group of kids–probably it was a University production and we were enchanted when the actors came out to meet the audience in the lobby, still in fairy costumes.</p>

<p>My grandparents took my sister and me to Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway when we were quite young. I remember the trip, but not the show!</p>

<p>When I was just turning 12, we moved to the suburbs of NYC so I was able to attend many Broadway performances growing up. I saw hits and flops, musicals and plays, whatever was at the Duffy Square TKTS booth! It cost $4 to get to the city by train on the weekend.</p>

<p>One of the things I have realized in taking my kids to theater is that it is important to take them to some straight drama as well. They are exposed to so much atrocious acting watching the television programs that are produced for teens, and the acting in musical theater is often quite stylized. To appreciate really good acting, we have to take in some serious drama as well. (It’s not my first choice, but I want them to see lots of different things.)</p>

<p>We also see touring productions of musicals that come to local theaters, local professional companies, and plenty of amateur theater, from school productions to community theater shows. Some are awful, some are amazingly good. </p>

<p>One year, I realized I’d gone an entire year without seeing a movie. But I’d seen upwards of 30 live theatrical performances (not counting seeing my kids more than once in their shows).</p>

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<p>thatsmyboy:</p>

<p>Here is why I recall seeing Pippin on Broadway (with Ben Vereen)…I grew up in South Jersey near Philadelphia. My older cousin came to visit us from CA. My mom drove my cousin and I to NYC to see Pippin as a treat (I don’t recall how old I was but I’ll guess around 11). Our car broke down on the NJ Turnpike near Exit 10 (I always think of this experience when I pass Exit 10 on the turnpike to this day!). This was a problem as we had the tix to the Broadway show and didn’t want to miss it but it also was a problem because my cousin was diabetic and could not go a certain length of time without food. Turns out, we had to take a taxi all the way to NYC to catch the show at that point. By the way, as far as Pippin goes, my D played The Leading Player (Ben Vereen’s role) at theater camp and it remains one of her favorite roles she has played. </p>

<p>When I said my kids saved all the Playbills, this includes from ANY theater, not just Broadway and yes, we have them all from the same theater camp as you do from 16 sessions. And yes, it is fun to even see D’s peers from those shows and where they are now. :)</p>

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<p>For some reason, I wound up seeing Pippin a few times. I remember being particularly excited to see Irene Ryan, because her name was familiar to me from the Beverly Hillbillies! I didn’t know enough to be excited to see Ben Vereen.</p>

<p>(I also felt the same way when my parents took me to see The Enchanted at the Kennedy Center when I was about 8…Fred Gwynne was in it and I knew him from the Munsters! Elizabeth Ashley was the star but I’d never heard of her so I was unimpressed.)</p>

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<p>My sister and brother are much older than me and so I spent many, many hours of my formative years sitting on a gym floor in the 1960’s watching them rehearse “Sound of Music,” “Babes in Arms,” and other musicals (in those days it was pretty common to task the older siblings with pretty much raising the younger ones, so I was assigned to follow my brother and sister everywhere). My sister became a speech and drama teacher and brother a composer/arranger/music director of some note. I did MT in high school and sang in college choir, but pursued a computer science career.</p>

<p>Despite this MT upbringing, I raised my daughter to be a fastpitch softball player (its a year-round sport in Texas). I did take her to musicals from an early age, although, as other posters have noted, its not always a good idea when they are under 7 for some shows (she still talks about how Les Mis scared the heck out of her at age 7). We didn’t get to NYC but she did see several shows in the West End (Mary Poppins, Lion King, Guys and Dolls). Despite my emphasis on developing her softball skills (she has been playing since she was 5), when she hit middle school, she started signing up for theatre, choir, and dance every year. When we finally made it to NYC and saw “Wicked” as she was entering 7th grade, it was all over. As we left the theatre, she announced she was going to follow a career in theatre (probably like 90 percent of all the middle school girls that see that show). In her case, it seems to be sticking.</p>

<p>Despite continuing pitching lessons, batting lessons, and lots of successes in softball tournament play, she kept working on MT in school. She worked for 6 months to get ready for auditions to our performing arts high school and fought her way through the process to get accepted. Needless to say, they don’t have a softball team (nor any other sports teams).</p>

<p>Last week she played her final softball game, a hard-fought contest in which she pitched brilliantly, working her way out of a tough jam in the final inning with the bases loaded to win the game. When I asked her after the game how she kept her composure, she said, “Oh, I just kept singing ‘Defying Gravity’ to myself.” </p>

<p>Definitely time to hang up the cleats…I honestly believe that being exposed to MT, especially high-quality productions like Broadway, West End and National tours and the many very good local productions around the country can make a huge impact on a child. I know it did for my D.</p>

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<p>EmsDad, I enjoyed reading your story. Both my daughters grew up participating in both performing arts (several areas) and doing several sports each. My older one never wanted to give up any of these things and so tried to do it all up through to college (but in college, only could do one sport and not the others, or performing). She maintained one foot in the arts and one in athletics until she went to college. My younger one did all these same things too but during middle school, ran into schedule conflicts as she began to increase more in the performing arts areas and gave up all three of her sports by the end of middle school to pursue a life in theater (which appeared to be her “calling” starting in preschool…everyone knew it back then). I think those who she met in college have no idea the many years she spent as a soccer player, alpine ski racer, and figure skater. She does none of it any longer. I’m sure it was bittersweet to see your D’s last softball game (sounds like quite the game!). My older one played softball for years too, among several other sports. She (now 24) was recently home visiting and the other day she and her dad went to see the high school softball game for old times sake. My husband tends to catch some of the soccer games too for old times sake since our kids are not in it anymore and one D played for nine years and one played for 15 years and he misses it.</p>

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<p>I grew up in northern NJ and my mother was a theater fan. I remember seeing Fiddler on the Roof, South Pacific, and West Side Story on Broadway as a little girl. I made my first trip into NYC alone,on the bus with friends, to see the original run of Hair for my 14th birthday. Last October, I got to take my daughter to NYC to see the revival of Hair for her 17th birthday (the nudity was alot less shocking for her than it was for me LOL). We also saw Phantom (her first time) and I was able to arrange a back stage tour. What a birthday present for a theater-loving kid!</p>

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<p>It’s kind of funny when we’ve seen a show as a kid and then our kids are seeing the revival of the same show!! That was true for me too as I saw Hair as a kid and then saw the revival on Broadway with my 20-year-old theater kid (actually she wanted to see that on graduation night from college more than being taken out to dinner and so that’s what we did!).</p>

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<p>Growing up in Wisconsin, I did not get to a see a Broadway show until I was in my 20s, and it was A Chorus Line and I went with my 70 year old Aunt, and it was her first broadway show also. We did do the local children’s theatre prpoductions at the university, the one I remember was about 7 princess each named for a day of the week.</p>

<p>My D’s first live theatre was actually a pantomime (in British fashion) South Africe when she was 4. THe when we moved back to the States my mom took her to a tour of Cats for her 6th birthday and she has now been to more theatre than I can count in all sorts of locations. Our one big mistake was not research a show carefully enough and took her to the Chicago production of Ragtime at 7 - she loved it when she was there but had nightmares for days afterwards.</p>

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<p>My son’s first show was a local high school, low budget production of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, directed by our neighbor, when he was 4 or 5. When we left, he told me, “I want to do that.” It was years before he saw his first Broadway show, but you don’t need to go to Broadway to trigger a love of theater.</p>

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<p>I totally agree that you don’t need to go to Broadway to trigger a love of theater. When I started the thread, sharing the NYT article, I was thinking more along the lines of a kid who is ALREADY passionate about DOING theater and PURSUING it and the importance of seeing a lot of theater as part of their education. </p>

<p>My kids didn’t start with seeing a Broadway show. In fact, I don’t recall what shows they may have seen when very very young. However, my oldest D was in a professional musical at age 5. Then, she was in another one at age 6. Due to the distance for rehearsals, we had to stay at each rehearsal and so younger D who was 4 was watching and so badly wanted to also be in this show. They put her in the show. And from that point forward both were in shows a lot and D2, we could tell when she was so young that this was her life’s calling. I even recall her nursery school end of year report (narrative evaluation) talking about D2 going into this field!! :slight_smile: So, for my kids, the love of theater really began with DOING theater, and I guess they saw local shows, all before they saw a Broadway show when they were in lower elementary school by then. </p>

<p>In any case, if you plan to DO theater, your education/training is enriched by seeing LOTS of theater of all kinds and levels.</p>

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<p>My first Broadway show was a now-forgotten musical called All American. It starred Ray Bolger, known to me then only as the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. My mom and aunt had taken my cousin and me, both age 9, on an organized bus tour to NYC from our home in Mass., and I think we found the Statue of Liberty far more interesting than Broadway. I can’t say it sparked a particular interest in musicals , but as young adults, H and I lived in Manhattan for 6 years and saw many, many shows. We live further away now, but I still see 3 or 4 shows a year, making great use of the TKTS option.</p>

<p>D’s first Broadway musical was Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, a birthday present at age 5. We were lucky enough to know a cast member who took us on a tour of the theater after the curtain. (We got to walk on the stage, and D was absolutely stunned to realize that Belle’s house was just a false front–she walked “inside” and her jaw dropped.) So it was most fitting that as D’s last role as a senior in high school she played Mrs. Potts. We certainly could never have imagined that outcome 13 years earlier, when she hadn’t even figured out she liked to sing! But I do think that in her case that early exposure lit a fire, and she was happy to see a show as a birthday present for many years thereafter.</p>

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<p>Hmmm… My first real show memory is this… my 3 sisters and I would choose song titles out of a hat and act out the show tunes along with the record. I was 4. . We ‘performed’ songs from South Pacific, King and I and My Fair Lady. Because of the intervention of the mother of a friend, I was IN La Boheme in second grade. The first show I saw was a travel company in Omaha putting on Sound of Music. My first Broadway show was How to Succeed with Bobby Morse. I too saw Pippen many years later… Ben V. was so good. My kids grew up listening to show tunes, but I think their first show was Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk. Kinda odd for a first show for kids, but there ya are. Oh and before B and the B was on Broadway, there was a mini-musical at Disneyworld and they saw that at a VERY young age.</p>

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<p>I could not agree more. My daughter avidly seeks out and enjoys every level of theater she can. It’s a bit of a trick out where we are but if you are dedicated it is possible. For a small town, we have a rather odd school situation where there are 4 major high schools in the same town and she goes to everyone else’s theater productions - she has good friends at all the other schools and they are all very supportive of each other which is sweet. </p>

<p>We see the touring shows in Dallas or other close areas as often as we can afford to and we see the shows that actually come to our town (our local venue usually has one big musical every year: she saw the first tour of “Hairspray” when it came here :slight_smile: ) and we did go, finally, to NYC two years ago. And yes we saw Wicked. And yes, that cemented the deal for her. :smiley: And are we saving up to go back there as soon as we can? You betchyerass we are!</p>

<p>Another venue she loves is the UIL competitions. (for you non Texans, it’s our state wide big drama competition and festival - most Texas schools don’t participate in the other big thespian society because UIL is so time consuming and just as competitive that there’s no time to do both) In fact she’s very excited that Monday she gets to go with her teacher and a couple other select students to spend the week in Austin and watch the winning finalist shows from all over Texas, all day long for 3 days. 8 hours a day of watching the other high school’s One Act plays, and she lives for it.</p>

<p>(she gets to go even though her high school’s play did not advance, because her individual costume designs won state finalist…so we’ll be waiting with bated breath to see if she wins…everyone please send vibes that she might land a winning spot again, as she was first place in the state last year and it would be so cool to at least place again this year!!!)</p>