“The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation. The theatre is a spiritual and social X-ray of its time. The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation.” – Stella Adler
“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” – Oscar Wilde
Theatre Connections
How does one develop a deep connection with the theatre? Well, this is my family’s story of how our connection started and continues to grow.
I was lucky enough to see my first Broadway show, Grease, for my 13th birthday. For my family, going together to New York for dinner and a show was absolutely amazing. My brother actually liked Grease more than I did. I was a little shell shocked; they pulled a boy’s pants down on stage. I lived in a shoe, this was beyond my realm.
I was lucky enough to go again to a show when I was 15. My mom’s friend called and said she would help my mom get tickets for us to see the King and I with Yul Brynner. Well, we had to wait 5 months, but it was well worth it. We had 5th row seats; I felt as though I was living each scene. The theatre bug hit me hard.
After that, I put away money from babysitting earnings and allowance so I could purchase tickets and visit Broadway whenever possible. During my high school and college years I saw shows including, A Chorus Line, Death Trap, Annie, Evita, They’re Playing Our Song, Sugar Babies, 42nd Street, Barnum, Cats, Les Misérables, La Cage aux Folles, and Zorba the Greek. I think seeing Yul Brynner, Ann Miller, Mickey Rooney and Anthony Quinn will always remain my theatre going highlights. Their dancing, singing and presence just brought me such joy.
When I met my husband, I found someone that shared my passion for Broadway. It was like living a dream. He too was enthralled with Broadway. To decide on our next show was always an adventure. We wanted to see so many shows.
To see so much talent, hear great music and live these stories was exciting, encouraging and inspiring. As we saw shows, we spoke about life, our feelings and how the characters dealt with the human condition. Our relationship grew, how could it not? We were speaking about so many different and heart wrenching stories. As we reflected, we learned about one another and our love continued to grow. Maybe having this foundation allowed us to deal with what life dealt us over the years.
The first show we saw together was Miss Saigon. I had picked up tickets as a surprise for his birthday. He thought we were just going to walk, find a restaurant in the city and have dinner. The show was a great surprise and the dinner was perfect. A police officer in the Times Square area suggested we eat at Carmine’s Restaurant. After so many years later, when visiting Broadway, we still love visiting Carmine’s Restaurant. Now though, our party includes our 2 daughters.
My husband and I loved taking walks. Some weekends we planned to see a show or we would take the Staten Island Ferry into the city, walk from the ferry terminal to Broadway and then decide to see a show. We would check to see what tickets were available from TKTS. If we didn’t like the offering, we would stop at the box office for a show we wanted to see and try our luck. It was fun and we saw so many shows this way including, Scarlet Pimpernel, Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Mamma Mia!, The Civil War, Ragtime, Aida, Hairspray, Movin, Out, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Wicked, Parade, Jersey Boys, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Little Shop of Horrors and more.
Once we had children, we wanted to share our love for the theatre with them. The theatre had given us such joy and such an appreciation of so much talent that exists out there. We’re old souls though, we don’t necessarily enjoy the same things as our peers. Would our children enjoy the arts?
We started slow with shows like Mary Poppins, Aladdin and The Lion King. We also visited the Westchester Dinner Theatre and other venues so they could see a variety of shows such as, Anything Goes, The Sound of Music, Annie Get Your Gun, The Chinese Dragon Acrobats, A Chrismas Carol and more. Then we moved on to other shows like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Tootsie. Little by little the passion, excitement and love for the theatre blossomed in each of them.
My older daughter became entranced after seeing Bernadette Peters in Hello Dolly. She loved the actor’s stage presence; how they completely changed into their characters. The orchestra and music melody played into her keen sense of music. Bernadette Peters’ improvisation was something new and thrilling to hear. Her charisma drew our daughter in. She wanted to see Hello Dolly again, so as a gift, my husband took her again. Something was building within our daughter. You could see her starting to change. A happiness was taking root that showed visibly. When she asked to see Bernadette Peters again before she left the show, my husband purchased tickets and they went one more time.
After this, we started taking each of our daughter’s to different shows. They decided on the shows they wanted to see. We all went to eat and then while I went to Frozen with my younger daughter, my older daughter saw Hamilton. They both wanted to see Anastasia, so this show we visited as a family.
Since our older daughter is more interested in the theatre, we decided to take her to certain shows so she could continue to grow and expand her exposure to the art. She has seen Waitress, Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, Prom, Jersey Boys and Beetlejuice.
What better way to connect? We speak about the music, sets, costumes, actors, actresses and so much more. We compare the theatre musicals to the movie versions and discuss the histories of older actors and actresses. This has led our older daughter to read about many of the older actresses. Many dinner conversations have been spent on this common ground.
I have to say that my older daughter, now knows so much more about the staging, music, actresses and actors than I ever knew. She has delved deeply into Broadway and the musical genre. She is quite the expert and her knowledge leads many conversations on this subject inside and outside of our household.
All the characters speak to her. She is on the quiet side and is one to take everything in. A world has been opened to her. She is very interested in and now participates in the stage crew in school. The stage crew is her personal way of connecting to theatre. She loves lighting and set design. She prefers focusing on stage technology.
My younger daughter loves Broadway too, but in different ways. She loves musicals, but for her, she prefers those with comedic elements. She loves physical comedy. For her, Lucille Ball is her nirvana. I believe this is why Bernadette Peters improvisation and Tootsie appealed to her. Of course being a big Harry Potter fan, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was also right up her ally.
She is also moved by the music. The music resonates with her. She can be found continually singing songs from Rent, Phantom of the Opera, Wicked and Frozen. The music soothes her. She loves to decide on the songs to listen to while on road trips. Both girls have their show tunes ready when we go on our vacations.
This last October, when faced with a choice between going Trick or Treating for Halloween or seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for the second time, both girls decided on seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I wasn’t sure which of the 2 options would win out since both girls love Halloween and going out with their friends. I received my answer and then knew that the theatre was and is part of all of us.
What do I love? I love that a passion that began so many year’s ago has turned into a family passion. I love that this is a point of deep connection for all of us. I love that during our daughter’s teenage years when things can be spinning out of control, we have this common ground. We are so very fortunate. I am so grateful.