What was your fist ever Musical?

Remember musical films. One of the earliest was Calamity Jane. Then Singing in the Rain, A Star is Born with Judy Garland.
On the stage it was The Boy Friend and then the Sound of Music ( 1964/5 and when I got home saying “that would make a good film!).

I did see The Student Prince with Eddy Calvert, I think, at The Chiswick Empire. I was about 10 I think, loved it.

My favourite is West Side Story, always makes me cry at the end.

An amateur production of Carousel was the first one I went with my mum and must have been around 10 years old. First professional musical was Hair! In my 20s around 1972

The first musical I saw on stage was another trip with youth club when I was about 15 or 16; it was called How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
I wonder how many remember that?

Of course, that's without counting all the pantomimes I was taken to when I was a child and I remember going to Birmingham one Christmas to see Chu Chin Chow on Ice when I was about 8.
We weren't that well off but my mother must have saved all year to make sure we had these special treats and memories.

I didn't realise we were talking theatre. Sadly my introduction to musicals was via the Royalty cinema. ABC minors on a Saturday morning (3d to get in and 3d to spend) and the grown up feature matinee on a Saturday afternoon (free if I could sneak in as a family group entered or otherwise 6d).

btw the Royalty closed on 2nd April 1966..one day before my 7th birthday. No one queried me going to the cinema alone in those days. Imagine the ructions these days if an under 7 went to the cinema alone.

I was a late musical theatre fan and was in my forties, but it was : “Saturday Night Fever” in the West End.

I didn't realise we were talking theatre

I think that's how it started out but any chat about musicals is enjoyable. Some musicals I saw in the cinema before i saw the stage version eg South Pacific, West Side Story.
I saw a longish extract from Miss Saigon on stage when we were on a cruise years ago and they had combined film and stage to great effect, making it most memorable.

Grannybags

Hair in London for me too. I was told I was not allowed to go because of all the nudity but sneaked out anyway (as usual!) and really enjoyed myself.

I did admit to my Mum years later that I had been to see it and she admitted to me that she knew!

my second one was 'Calcutta'- now there was a LOT of nudity.

My first cinema musical was My Fair Lady when I was about eight or nine. My first musical in a theatre wasn't until I was 17. I went to see Grease and was lucky enough to see Richard Gere as Danny. Of course I didn't know at the time what a big star he was going to be, I just remember thinking he was rather hot.

If a movie counts it was Guys and Dolls - a birthday celebration for a childhood friend

Now you’ve got me delving into the dark recesses of my memory.
Going a bit further back than the 70’s I do remember seeing The White Horse Inn at the Châtelet in Paris in I think 1961 and I am sure I have vague memories of “Rose-Marie” in my childhood. They don’t make them like that any more - fortunately!

I saw Oh, Calcutta, biba which had Tony Booth (Cherie Blair's father) in. It seemed to me that it was jumping on the nudity bandwagon.

Our 3 daughters and I used to have regular trips to the musical a couple of times a year - blessed Covid!

oh didn't know that. My older brother visited us in London in 1971 and really wanted to go- so I went with him. Not my cup of tea, but he is a naturist and loved it.

After that we moved to Staffs and Leics and I had babies, then toddlers, then to full time study and work- and we very rarely go to the centre of London.

Same here Jaxjacky.
Dh is the same too.
Or pantomines come to think about it.

The Vagabond King, probably circa 1950; my mother was in an amateur musical comedy society and I was four. Splendid. There was a particularly rousing 'Song of the Vagabonds.' that ended 'And to hell with Burgundy.'

Wizard Of Oz. It was an amateur production, my brother was one of the main characters and I knew his songs but I was mesmerised by the whole production.

Loved Hair, so wished I managed to see Cats but been fortunate to get to see so many productions.

DD2 and I were due to see Tina and Sister Act in 2020 but :-( So far they have been re booked twice so who knows.

Still if that is the worst thing to happen we are indeed fortunate.

Pre COVID, there was no reason at all to have to go to the centre of London to see a live musical production; or any other live stage production, come to that. Leicester has the fabulous Curve Theatre which has hosted some wonderful original and touring stage productions. Stoke has the Regent Theatre, which, in normal times, attracts a lot of famous actors and performers. Living "out in the sticks" doesn't mean you can't access live theatre. You just have to want to.

Not my cup of tea, but he is a naturist and loved it I loved Oh Calcutta too but I didn't think you had to be a naturist to enjoy it!

Pre COVID, there was no reason at all to have to go to the centre of London to see a live musical production; or any other live stage production, come to that.

We may have lived in the provinces but we weren't parochial!

On a more sombre note, I do hope theatres manage to survive these lockdowns.

South Pacific

On a more sombre note, I do hope theatres manage to survive these lockdowns.

Me too Callistemon, me too. It's the one thing I miss more than anything else.

chewbacca, do you enjoy going to Curve?

I don't like it as much as the old Haymarket which has just closed down again!! The Haymarket seemed much more of a treat where Curve seems much overcrowded and busy. Though Curve's version of West Side Story had the best Officer Krupke sequence, ever!!

I remember going to the Theatre in the Round in Stoke-on-Trent, must have been in the early to mid Sixties? to see a play called The Jolly Potters.

I don't think the theatre is there any more, or it may have been relocated.

Chorus Line in the 70's at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. My friend and I attended a stage school and got cheap standing tickets at the back of the stalls. We used to do all the moves with the dancers. I think we went back for more 5 or 6 times.