DVDizzy Forum

I go down to Stratford every year to see a few plays, and I have been going for the past 5 years. I don't remember which theaters I saw each play at, but all were at the Avon or Festival theaters. This year, I will be seeing Camelot, and Twelfth Night.

-Oliver!
-South Pacific
-Oklahoma!
-A Comedy of Errors
-Cabaret
-Romeo and Juliet
-As You Like It
-The Tempest
-Peter Pan
-Cyrano De Burgerac
-A Midsummer's Nights Dream

Other than Stratford, I've seen productions of Annie, The Radio City Rockettes, and Hairspray.

So far, I have only seen touring productions of actual Broadway plays at MSU's Wharton Center. I have gotten original cast members in some of the plays from time to time.

The Lion King in February 2006
Young Frankenstein in February 2009
The Phantom of the Opera in May 2010
Mary Poppins in November 2010
Chicago in April 2011
Les Miserables in April 2012

I also plan on seeing Wicked some time in the Summer.

This will be completely off the top of my head and I'll probably have to come back later and update it with something I've forgotten. This will not be in order of which are my favorites, I'll do that another day.

Broadway (NYC)
Wicked
Phantom of the Opera
Curtains
Hairspray
Les Miserables
Mary Poppins
The Little Mermaid
Mamma Mia!
RENT

Broadway in Chicago (mostly on tour shows)
Jersey Boys
Wicked
Bring It On: The Musical
Billy Elliot (x2)
Legally Blonde (x2)
Rock of Ages
La Cage aux Folles
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat
Cats (x2)
Grease
South Pacific
Evita
Working
9 to 5
West Side Story
Beauty and the Beast
The Lion King (x2)
In the Heights
Love, Loss, and What I Wore
The 39 Steps
August: Osage County
Memphis
Next to Normal
The Merchant of Venice

When I visited Buenos Aires, I saw a tour version of Victor, Victoria as well. It was all in spanish, but I still enjoyed it very much!

...and just in because, these are shows that I've been involved with in High School, College, and Community Theatre.

Played in
Community Theatre
West Side Story -Tiger (a jet)
Fiddler on the Roof - Russian Soloist, Brother
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat - Asher
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - Protean
Pirates of Penzance - Pirate, Police Man
Miracle on 34th Street - Doctor, Journalist
Cats - Carbuckety
Into the Woods - Rapunzel's Prince
A Christmas Carol - Frederick, Young Scrooge
Cinderella - Townsperson
Forbidden Broadway - Featured Soloist and assorted roles
Thoroughly Modern Mille - Set Designer

High School and College
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat - Asher
Scapino - Geronte
Little Shop of Horrors - Mr. Mushnik
Cinderella - Herald
The Baker's Wife - Fly Rail Crew, Stage Crew
Lucky Stiff - Stage Crew
Sugar - Set Construction, Fly Rail Crew

Right now I'm making my directorial debut with West Side Story at the high school I work at.

I've also seen Guys and Dolls, Footloose, Beauty and the Beast, Aida, Brigadoon, and Sound of Music on the community theatre stage.

UPDATE:

Since my last post in this thread, I've seen...

Broadway:
The Lion King (Yes, again. 2012)
Memphis (2012)
Chicago (2012)

Tours:
Spring Awakening (2010)
A Chorus Line (2011)
Billy Elliot (2011)
Monty Phython's Spamalot (2012)

I've also played in
Urinetown (2010) - Ensemble
Zombie Prom (2010) - Jonny
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Revised, 2010) - Schroeder
Sweeney Todd (2011) - Beadle Bamford
Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party (2011) - Max/God
The Curious Savage (2011) - Samuel

I'm also currently working as an understudy/assistant director on my school's competition version of "August: Osage County" and I will be playing William Barfee in "...Spelling Bee" in May!

Broadway:
Wicked
Legally Blonde
The Phantom of the Opera
9 to 5
Next to Normal

Tours
Aida
RENT
The Pajama Game
RAIN

Been in:
Fiddler on the Roof
High School Musical
Alice in Wonderland
Anything Goes

Updated list...

Stratford
-Oliver!
-South Pacific
-Oklahoma!
-A Comedy of Errors
-Cabaret
-Romeo and Juliet
-As You Like It
-The Tempest
-Peter Pan
-Cyrano De Burgerac
-A Midsummer's Nights Dream
-Camelot
-Twelfth Night.

Other
Annie
Metaphasia
The Radio City Rockettes
Hairspray
Phantom of the Opera
Grease
Mary Poppins
Cinderella

Scarred4life wrote:
Stratford

I'm going to the Stratford's Shakespeare festival at the end of August! I've never been there, or Canada, before so I'm really excited. I'm going with my university, so I have some options as to which plays I want to see: Much Ado About Nothing, 2) Henry V or Elektra, 3) 42nd Street or Cymbeline

I have no clue which ones I want to see yet, though, haha. I'm really really excited for it, though.

TheSequelOfDisney wrote:I'm going to the Stratford's Shakespeare festival at the end of August! I've never been there, or Canada, before so I'm really excited. I'm going with my university, so I have some options as to which plays I want to see: Much Ado About Nothing, 2) Henry V or Elektra, 3) 42nd Street or Cymbeline

I have no clue which ones I want to see yet, though, haha. I'm really really
excited for it, though.

You'll love it there! It's such a cute little town- I've been going there annually about five years now, and I get super excited every year. (If you're looking for a good place to eat, I'd recommend York Street Kitchen) Every single production I've seen has been top-notch, so you can't go wrong. As for me, this August I'll be seeing Cymbeline, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, and The Pirates of Penzance. I'm really looking forward to Cymbeline, because out of the four theaters, I've never been to that one. Also, outside the Festival Theater, they have a little 'puzzle garden', with a symbol representing each of the plays being performed that year. Will you be doing any of the 'Beyond the Stage' events?

Titanic the musical At the Fox Theater in Saint Louis, MO






The Lion King at that same theater

Scarred4life wrote:You'll love it there! It's such a cute little town- I've been going there annually about five years now, and I get super excited every year. (If you're looking for a good place to eat, I'd recommend York Street Kitchen) Every single production I've seen has been top-notch, so you can't go wrong. As for me, this August I'll be seeing Cymbeline, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, and The Pirates of Penzance. I'm really looking forward to Cymbeline, because out of the four theaters, I've never been to that one. Also, outside the Festival Theater, they have a little 'puzzle garden', with a symbol representing each of the plays being performed that year. Will you be doing any of the 'Beyond the Stage' events?

We've only gotten a few emails about the trip, so I don't know too much about it yet. One of the emails said that there were optional Festival Theatre Backstage and Costume Shop/Props tours but I don't know what that entails. I've heard it's great from many of my school's students, but I'm glad to hear that others, like yourself, find it to be great, too. I know that all of the students are going to Much Ado About Nothing and then we get to choose the other two (so I don't know which of them I'll pick). And it sounds like the town itself is pretty awesome, too

TheSequelOfDisney wrote:One of the emails said that there were optional Festival Theatre Backstage and Costume Shop/Props tours but I don't know what that entails. I've heard it's great from many of my school's students, but I'm glad to hear that others, like yourself, find it to be great, too.

I've done both of those, and they're both fantastic. The Festival Theater Backstage is very informative and interesting, and the Costume Shop is more fun (you can even try on the costumes at the end).

I just came back from my Stratford trip and I was floored with how great the productions were. I saw: Much Ado About Nothing, Elektra and 42nd Street.

It took me a little while to get into Much Ado, but all of the actors were top-notch; I especially loved the actors who played Benedick and Beatrice (Beatrice was hilarious). Overall, it was a pretty good production. The one thing that I didn't like all that well was the staircase that came down the middle of the stage. I was sitting on the left side of the theater (stage right) and I could never fully see what was going on on the other side of the staircase. Other than that, though, it was great.

Elektra was interesting, too. Again, all the actors were great, but the story was kind of weird. The director modernized it (no togas seen here): Elektra was wearing this weird Harry Potter-style uniform/dress; Orestes was wearing bicycle shorts in one scene, a marshmallow jacket and schoolboy uniform in another, and a Dexter/Cracker Barrel combo near the end; Clytemnestra looked like Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. That was all very odd to me. The Greek Chorus was interesting, too; whenever they began to sing they would slap their chests or the tables (there were three tables that had three separate pieces of a man's body; they also glowed). I'm pretty sure a lot of the symbolism just went over my head, so that may be why I'm not overly fond of Elektra.

42nd Street was probably the best, though, for me, it's kind of forgettable. The only thing I remember is the song We're in the Money (and that's only because it was a tap-dancing extravaganza and there were huge dimes that were rolling around on the stage). Everyone was, obviously, super talented but the story just seemed kind of meh, as did the songs. Maybe it was more "illuminating" when it was produced in the 80s, because I feel like I've seen so many backstage stories about putting on plays/dances/whatever. It was okay for me; everyone else I went with though really really enjoyed it.

Next year's performances look to be pretty good. I would like to see Romeo and Juliet (which I feel will be the show that the whole group sees), Fiddler on the Roof, and Othello. Overall, I had a great time this year, and can't wait to go back next year.