How did you get into musicals?

mezzo_soprano · How did you get into musicals?

My story of how I got into musicals.

I was 7 and my mom said,"Theres this big movie on tonight and you can stay up to watch it with me if you want." It was the movie of Joseph. (My mom LOVED Donny when she was younger and she got to see him live in the show too.) So we watched the movie and I loved it and we watched some of the songs after it (I think It might have been the 50th birthday thing for ALW, I don't know I fell asleep(I was 7))
Fast foward 6 years. Phantom on Pay per view.

Nothing has been the same since.

ilovebway

I was obsessed with movie musicals as a child. Can't remember what age exactly, but I was very little. I started out with the Disney movie musicals (Aladdin, Lion King, etc), The Wizard of Oz, and a bunch of others.

Then when I turned 11 my music teacher told the class that she had recently gone to New York to see The Boy From Oz and Wicked. She told us about the shows and I was amazed. I googled Wicked up, went to the site, listened to the sound clips, and begged my mom to buy the cast recording. As soon as I listened to the first second in the cast recording, I was hooked.

le_moofin

As a kid I LOVED the Disney movie musicals, as well as the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musicals (The King and I, Sound of Music, State Fair, Oklahoma, etc.) I saw the movie musical of My Fair Lady and was hooked, but I've actually only seen 2 professional productions in my whole life: Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King.

Basically, I live off of youtube, movies, and OBC recordings =D

wickedlover4ever

I also loved the disney movie musicals as a kid and I saw my first musical when I was 8 which was Peter Pan when Cathy Rigby was ending her role and I got stuck. But what got me into wanting to do theatre is Wicked, no futher questions Laughing

kozafluitmusique

I did watch Disney musicals when I was younger, nothing much really.

When I was eight or so, I saw "Annie" and loved it. Bought the cast recording when I was nine or something. I also saw "Oliver", but was unable to get the cast recording of it.

But my super major obsession of musicals didn't start until after I saw Les Miserables my freshman year of high school.

Pannic

I saw the movie "Phantom of the Opera." And then I saw my local high school perform "Beauty and the Beast" the year before I enrolled. And then freshman year, they did "Les Miserables."

Then I was hooked.

psych_out

My high school does preview shows at the elementary schools, and in third grade, I saw their preview for Fiddler on the Roof. I told my parents about it, and we went to one of their shows. It's funny, I can barely remember a thing about the production now. But then again, I was eight.

Quique

First musical was Mary Poppins. I watched the film countless times and wore out multiple LP copies of the soundtrack.

Then came Jesus Christ Superstar. Then finally, Les Misérables back in 1986. It all went crazy from there. XD

ActingDude17

My friend's little sister was trying out for a local community theatre's annual production of The Wizard of Oz. She'd taken a class with the group earlier in the year and we'd heard about it from her family.

My parents had taken me to community theatre and college musicals from a young age. My dad asked me the day of the auditions for Wizard if I wanted to try out and I said, "Yeah."

I went in, a 6 year old having no idea what he was getting into, sang an a capella patriotic song and got in.

The rest is history.

broadwayxdoll

my friends mom used to drive me home in middle school and we had to stop at one of the elementary schools for her to audition and she was harassing me into it and bessinging and pleading. so i did it. and i got the lead. and i loved it

fjays

I'm not quite sure when it started..
But I always watched movie musicals, especially the Disney ones and Sound of music.

And then one day about 5 years ago, my mum bought tickets to a proffesional version of Oliver! and I was in love.

And since then, I've been hooked on musicals.
But only in the last year or so have I ahd a love affair with them.

Sweeney Hyde · The Phantom of the Opera. LA. December 31, 1997. I've been a nut ever since.

The Phantom of the Opera.

LA.

December 31, 1997.

I've been a nut ever since.

ConverseSneaker

I had a magnetic pull to musicals my entire life. I grew up watching the disney movies and singing the songs. I played imagination games. I saw Grease when I was five, but remember very little. I saw the yearly preview of the school musical.

But the one moment when I got hooked would be Annie Get Your Gun. My aunt brought me out to see the show and I fell in love. I begged the director to let me in the show for a year after. Two years later, they needed more chorus people and I got picked. Very Happy

NoOneMournsTheWicked

Well, for starters, it's in my blood. My great-grandpa was on the board of the Shubert organization, and my grandma used to sell tickets at The Majestic.

I grew up watching 'Grease', 'Bye Bye Birdie' and 'Little Shop of Horrors', as well as listening to 'Fiddler on the Roof' (which was a given, being raised in a Jewish household). Before long, I was acting out scenes from these movies with my CDs and dress up clothes.

2nd grade, my teacher used to play the OBC of 'Cats' when we'd do art projects. I was in love with it, so my grandma got me awesome tickets to go see it for my 8th birthday (we were like 7th row orchestra). I saw 'Beauty and the Beast' for 5th grade class trip, too.

7th grade, I discovered my all time love: West Side Story. Natalie Wood became my absolute idol, I swore that one day I would play Maria, and I've been a musicals addict ever since...

reedzee

My mom took me to see The Wizard of Oz when I was four, and we ended up making a habit of going to see as many shows as we could. It eventually just got to the point where I wanted to be onstage with all those other people instead of just being in the audience all the time.

Mungojerrie_rt

I first saw CATS in 1999 on tv when I was 9. Then my mum showed me Rocky Horror Picture Show when I was 11, then I saw Chicago on tv in 2005. Since then I've tried to find more. And I have.

~GertrudeMcFuzz~

I've always loved singing, since I was really little, and I'd seen the abbreviated Disney performances when we went to Disney World when I was three and five. Then when I was seven, I saw a show at the local community theatre (I honestly have no idea what it was, other than I loved it) and did their children's show the next year (You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown). I ended up doing shows every year after that and here we are. Smile

thegirlfromack

I was fortunate. Since I was about 6 years old, my Grandmother and Grandfather in New York would take me to see tons of broadway shows whenever I came to visit. My first show, I believe, was Beauty and the Beast, but I've seen over 10 + broadway musicals (no repeats) throughout my life. I loved, and still love, it but I miss my grandparents.

As for acting, I began taking improv classes at the age of 13 and then filtered into community theatre and high school theatre.

wicked_diva

I was raised on the classic musicals (Sound of Music, Music Man, 1776, etc). I started going to music school when I was five, but you couldn't be in shows there or at my elementary school until you were in 2nd grade. So in first grade, I did a local youth show, and then was in the shows at music school from 2nd-5th grade, as well as shows at my elementary school in 3rd and 4th grade.

It wasn't until my sophomore year of HS, though, that I knew theatre was what I wanted to do as a living (or at least, hopefully).

kakoforever

I was a competition dancer when I was little. When my parents decided that it was too expensive, they pulled me out. I got depressed for awhile from having nothing to do after school, for the first time since I was four. So they encouraged me to audition for a children's theatre.

I went, fell in love, and never looked back. I actually didn't start researching actual shows, not children's theatre shows, until I got to high school and we started doing them.

That being said, Dempsey and Rowe's "The Reluctant Dragon" is excellent.

fjays

oh and lets not forget for almost every birthday party since I turned 5 I've watched grease with my friends.

i LOVED it.

music is my life!!!

We sang loads of Joseph and Phantom songs in a choir music festival when i was about 8-9. I then saw Joseph 3 times on tour and went to see it in London last month .... *swoon*

Razz

Ford Prefect

Performed The Jericho Jazz, Joseph (when first released), Godspell, Hip-Hip-Horatio and other school-level musicals at school, brought up singing G&S, saw Sound of Music etc on West End stage as a nipper.

It was a natural progression from then on.

idTAPthat89

Oliver! came to a city close by and my mom took me to see it in 1997. I remember going home and singing "Oom Pa Pa" over and over again. I thought the woman who played Nancy was like..god.

I also remember watching Annie sooo many times and rewinding to "Hard Knock Life" and playing it over and over again. My friends and I would pretend we were orphans and fight over who got to be Annie.

Being a child of the early 90's, disney movies pretty much owned my childhood : ) Especially Lion King and Snow White! I had the cassettes of just about all the disney movies and I listened to them nonstop.

nycbound

Although no one in my family has done much of the acting thing (my dad did two shows when he was in college), they've always been huge fans of musical theater. I grew up listening to shows like "The Sound of Music" and "West Side Story."

I've always been somewhat of a ham. I would go up to strangers in restaurants and ask if they wanted to hear me sing. Back then, my repertoire included such standards as "Bingo" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." My parents realized that I was destined for theater, so I auditioned for "The Sound of Music" when I was five and was cast as Gretl. The rest is history!

musical4eva

It all started with the Disney's. Then I met Sharon Mitchell, My secondary School music teacher and it all carried on from there!

Alexia Dark

Like almost everyone, Disney movies were my first love, though I admittedly spent more time playing the videogames than actually watching the movies themselves, but I did plenty of watching, too.

I've always been a singer, but due to... family problems, I never had a chance to do anything with it, as I was concerned about other things more immediate.

Then, in my first year at a real high school, I saw the Musical Theatre exams for that year's class. I saw a performance of The Phantom of the Opera that was so compelling and amazing that it left me with chills, and I knew "I want to do that."

Thus, my purpose in life: emotional communication with an audience.

LisaKitty

My parents are huge musical theatre fans, and we always had some cast album (yes, an actual album) or other playing at home. They used to take me to see shows at the local outdoor semi-pro theatre every summer. I always dreamed of being up there on stage with the actors.

And now, I am! (Okay, not that particular theatre, but still ...)

blackbird_fly

While flipping through the channels I found myself watching the 2005 Tonys and figured that there might be some good dancing (I'm a ballet dancer.) Instead I watched the revival of Sweeney Todd and while I was kind of confused, the music drew me in. So now while I don't perform theatre, I love watching it and finding out new information.

*paradox in pink*

My choir teacher through middle and high school loved old musical movies, and she would always have us watch them. I love her to death, she's one of my favorite people ever. Very Happy

DaddyDiesel

I was enthralled with Beauty and the beast cartoon. Iloved the format of singing and acting. But wasnt fully aware of musical theatre untill 7th grade. My teacher brought in a phantom of the cast recording and we did some assignment on it. I was hooked from then on. Then I auditioned for my first show as a freshman in highschool. "Fiddler on the Roof".

I ended up taking a 4 year break and ironically the thing that got me into musical format was the thing that got me back into theatre. A local company was doing B&TB. Now I am way hooked again.

Gwen

I always loved singing and started out wanting to be a singer. I grew up on Disney Musical Movies but never really made the connection to "musical theater". I just knew I wanted to perform. I went to a middle school with no theater program what-so-ever, but by 8th grade, I had discovered the name of it. I did my first play in 8th grade...it wasn't that great. I did my first musical (Anything Goes) in my freshman year. Since then I've done more, and will continue to do that.

bare24601!

I met my best friend who loved theatre and I was always so jealous of her singing voice when we were kids, so when she told me she was auditioning for a musical, of course I wanted to audition too, even though I knew nothing about the process. So we both auditioned for a production of The Wiz and there were basically two casts they were choosing, A and B at different times, so it turned out that me and my best friend both got cast as Dorothy. This was my first theatre experience and I loved it.

Buff Daddy

I wasn't really into musicals unti l I was in my 20's. Mrs Buff and I went to see the original Australian production of Phantom of the Opera starring Anthony Warlow. I had not heard anything like it before (either Anthony or the cast/show). I was amazed!

Gradually I listened to more and more stuff. Then in 2001 it was announced that Les Miserables was to be performed in my city. I thought I would audition and if I didn't get in at least I could say I'd tried. Got in and loved it. That was the start of performing in 3 shows in 1.5 years and I've been hooked ever since.

Buff Very Happy

Glissando

My mom's best friend's daughter did musicals with her school (she's now a community theatre director), so I saw my first show for her at age 3. It was an obsession from then on, but I didn't start ONstage until I was 9, for my school's Christmas show. And then I was hooked and started community at age 10.

And it's been up/downhill ever since.

mezzo_soprano	How did you get into musicals? My story of how I got into musicals. I was 7 and my mom said,"Theres this big movie on tonight and you can stay up to watch it with me if you want." It was the movie of Joseph. (My mom LOVED Donny when she was younger and she got to see him live in the show too.) So we watched the movie and I loved it and we watched some of the songs after it (I think It might have been the 50th birthday thing for ALW, I don't know I fell asleep(I was 7)) Fast foward 6 years. Phantom on Pay per view. Nothing has been the same since.
ilovebway	I was obsessed with movie musicals as a child. Can't remember what age exactly, but I was very little. I started out with the Disney movie musicals (Aladdin, Lion King, etc), The Wizard of Oz, and a bunch of others. Then when I turned 11 my music teacher told the class that she had recently gone to New York to see The Boy From Oz and Wicked. She told us about the shows and I was amazed. I googled Wicked up, went to the site, listened to the sound clips, and begged my mom to buy the cast recording. As soon as I listened to the first second in the cast recording, I was hooked.
le_moofin	As a kid I LOVED the Disney movie musicals, as well as the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musicals (The King and I, Sound of Music, State Fair, Oklahoma, etc.) I saw the movie musical of My Fair Lady and was hooked, but I've actually only seen 2 professional productions in my whole life: Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King. Basically, I live off of youtube, movies, and OBC recordings =D
wickedlover4ever	I also loved the disney movie musicals as a kid and I saw my first musical when I was 8 which was Peter Pan when Cathy Rigby was ending her role and I got stuck. But what got me into wanting to do theatre is Wicked, no futher questions
kozafluitmusique	I did watch Disney musicals when I was younger, nothing much really. When I was eight or so, I saw "Annie" and loved it. Bought the cast recording when I was nine or something. I also saw "Oliver", but was unable to get the cast recording of it. But my super major obsession of musicals didn't start until after I saw Les Miserables my freshman year of high school.
Pannic	I saw the movie "Phantom of the Opera." And then I saw my local high school perform "Beauty and the Beast" the year before I enrolled. And then freshman year, they did "Les Miserables." Then I was hooked.
psych_out	My high school does preview shows at the elementary schools, and in third grade, I saw their preview for Fiddler on the Roof. I told my parents about it, and we went to one of their shows. It's funny, I can barely remember a thing about the production now. But then again, I was eight.
Quique	First musical was Mary Poppins. I watched the film countless times and wore out multiple LP copies of the soundtrack. Then came Jesus Christ Superstar. Then finally, Les Misérables back in 1986. It all went crazy from there. XD
ActingDude17	My friend's little sister was trying out for a local community theatre's annual production of The Wizard of Oz. She'd taken a class with the group earlier in the year and we'd heard about it from her family. My parents had taken me to community theatre and college musicals from a young age. My dad asked me the day of the auditions for Wizard if I wanted to try out and I said, "Yeah." I went in, a 6 year old having no idea what he was getting into, sang an a capella patriotic song and got in. The rest is history.
broadwayxdoll	my friends mom used to drive me home in middle school and we had to stop at one of the elementary schools for her to audition and she was harassing me into it and bessinging and pleading. so i did it. and i got the lead. and i loved it
fjays	I'm not quite sure when it started.. But I always watched movie musicals, especially the Disney ones and Sound of music. And then one day about 5 years ago, my mum bought tickets to a proffesional version of Oliver! and I was in love. And since then, I've been hooked on musicals. But only in the last year or so have I ahd a love affair with them.
Sweeney Hyde	The Phantom of the Opera. LA. December 31, 1997. I've been a nut ever since.
ConverseSneaker	I had a magnetic pull to musicals my entire life. I grew up watching the disney movies and singing the songs. I played imagination games. I saw Grease when I was five, but remember very little. I saw the yearly preview of the school musical. But the one moment when I got hooked would be Annie Get Your Gun. My aunt brought me out to see the show and I fell in love. I begged the director to let me in the show for a year after. Two years later, they needed more chorus people and I got picked.
NoOneMournsTheWicked	Well, for starters, it's in my blood. My great-grandpa was on the board of the Shubert organization, and my grandma used to sell tickets at The Majestic. I grew up watching 'Grease', 'Bye Bye Birdie' and 'Little Shop of Horrors', as well as listening to 'Fiddler on the Roof' (which was a given, being raised in a Jewish household). Before long, I was acting out scenes from these movies with my CDs and dress up clothes. 2nd grade, my teacher used to play the OBC of 'Cats' when we'd do art projects. I was in love with it, so my grandma got me awesome tickets to go see it for my 8th birthday (we were like 7th row orchestra). I saw 'Beauty and the Beast' for 5th grade class trip, too. 7th grade, I discovered my all time love: West Side Story. Natalie Wood became my absolute idol, I swore that one day I would play Maria, and I've been a musicals addict ever since...
reedzee	My mom took me to see The Wizard of Oz when I was four, and we ended up making a habit of going to see as many shows as we could. It eventually just got to the point where I wanted to be onstage with all those other people instead of just being in the audience all the time.
Mungojerrie_rt	I first saw CATS in 1999 on tv when I was 9. Then my mum showed me Rocky Horror Picture Show when I was 11, then I saw Chicago on tv in 2005. Since then I've tried to find more. And I have.
~GertrudeMcFuzz~	I've always loved singing, since I was really little, and I'd seen the abbreviated Disney performances when we went to Disney World when I was three and five. Then when I was seven, I saw a show at the local community theatre (I honestly have no idea what it was, other than I loved it) and did their children's show the next year (You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown). I ended up doing shows every year after that and here we are.
thegirlfromack	I was fortunate. Since I was about 6 years old, my Grandmother and Grandfather in New York would take me to see tons of broadway shows whenever I came to visit. My first show, I believe, was Beauty and the Beast, but I've seen over 10 + broadway musicals (no repeats) throughout my life. I loved, and still love, it but I miss my grandparents. As for acting, I began taking improv classes at the age of 13 and then filtered into community theatre and high school theatre.
wicked_diva	I was raised on the classic musicals (Sound of Music, Music Man, 1776, etc). I started going to music school when I was five, but you couldn't be in shows there or at my elementary school until you were in 2nd grade. So in first grade, I did a local youth show, and then was in the shows at music school from 2nd-5th grade, as well as shows at my elementary school in 3rd and 4th grade. It wasn't until my sophomore year of HS, though, that I knew theatre was what I wanted to do as a living (or at least, hopefully).
kakoforever	I was a competition dancer when I was little. When my parents decided that it was too expensive, they pulled me out. I got depressed for awhile from having nothing to do after school, for the first time since I was four. So they encouraged me to audition for a children's theatre. I went, fell in love, and never looked back. I actually didn't start researching actual shows, not children's theatre shows, until I got to high school and we started doing them. That being said, Dempsey and Rowe's "The Reluctant Dragon" is excellent.
fjays	oh and lets not forget for almost every birthday party since I turned 5 I've watched grease with my friends. i LOVED it.
music is my life!!!	We sang loads of Joseph and Phantom songs in a choir music festival when i was about 8-9. I then saw Joseph 3 times on tour and went to see it in London last month .... swoon
Ford Prefect	Performed The Jericho Jazz, Joseph (when first released), Godspell, Hip-Hip-Horatio and other school-level musicals at school, brought up singing G&S, saw Sound of Music etc on West End stage as a nipper. It was a natural progression from then on.
idTAPthat89	Oliver! came to a city close by and my mom took me to see it in 1997. I remember going home and singing "Oom Pa Pa" over and over again. I thought the woman who played Nancy was like..god. I also remember watching Annie sooo many times and rewinding to "Hard Knock Life" and playing it over and over again. My friends and I would pretend we were orphans and fight over who got to be Annie. Being a child of the early 90's, disney movies pretty much owned my childhood : ) Especially Lion King and Snow White! I had the cassettes of just about all the disney movies and I listened to them nonstop.
nycbound	Although no one in my family has done much of the acting thing (my dad did two shows when he was in college), they've always been huge fans of musical theater. I grew up listening to shows like "The Sound of Music" and "West Side Story." I've always been somewhat of a ham. I would go up to strangers in restaurants and ask if they wanted to hear me sing. Back then, my repertoire included such standards as "Bingo" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." My parents realized that I was destined for theater, so I auditioned for "The Sound of Music" when I was five and was cast as Gretl. The rest is history!
musical4eva	It all started with the Disney's. Then I met Sharon Mitchell, My secondary School music teacher and it all carried on from there!
Alexia Dark	Like almost everyone, Disney movies were my first love, though I admittedly spent more time playing the videogames than actually watching the movies themselves, but I did plenty of watching, too. I've always been a singer, but due to... family problems, I never had a chance to do anything with it, as I was concerned about other things more immediate. Then, in my first year at a real high school, I saw the Musical Theatre exams for that year's class. I saw a performance of The Phantom of the Opera that was so compelling and amazing that it left me with chills, and I knew "I want to do that." Thus, my purpose in life: emotional communication with an audience.
LisaKitty	My parents are huge musical theatre fans, and we always had some cast album (yes, an actual album) or other playing at home. They used to take me to see shows at the local outdoor semi-pro theatre every summer. I always dreamed of being up there on stage with the actors. And now, I am! (Okay, not that particular theatre, but still ...)
blackbird_fly	While flipping through the channels I found myself watching the 2005 Tonys and figured that there might be some good dancing (I'm a ballet dancer.) Instead I watched the revival of Sweeney Todd and while I was kind of confused, the music drew me in. So now while I don't perform theatre, I love watching it and finding out new information.
*paradox in pink*	My choir teacher through middle and high school loved old musical movies, and she would always have us watch them. I love her to death, she's one of my favorite people ever.
DaddyDiesel	I was enthralled with Beauty and the beast cartoon. Iloved the format of singing and acting. But wasnt fully aware of musical theatre untill 7th grade. My teacher brought in a phantom of the cast recording and we did some assignment on it. I was hooked from then on. Then I auditioned for my first show as a freshman in highschool. "Fiddler on the Roof". I ended up taking a 4 year break and ironically the thing that got me into musical format was the thing that got me back into theatre. A local company was doing B&TB. Now I am way hooked again.
Gwen	I always loved singing and started out wanting to be a singer. I grew up on Disney Musical Movies but never really made the connection to "musical theater". I just knew I wanted to perform. I went to a middle school with no theater program what-so-ever, but by 8th grade, I had discovered the name of it. I did my first play in 8th grade...it wasn't that great. I did my first musical (Anything Goes) in my freshman year. Since then I've done more, and will continue to do that.
bare24601!	I met my best friend who loved theatre and I was always so jealous of her singing voice when we were kids, so when she told me she was auditioning for a musical, of course I wanted to audition too, even though I knew nothing about the process. So we both auditioned for a production of The Wiz and there were basically two casts they were choosing, A and B at different times, so it turned out that me and my best friend both got cast as Dorothy. This was my first theatre experience and I loved it.
Buff Daddy	I wasn't really into musicals unti l I was in my 20's. Mrs Buff and I went to see the original Australian production of Phantom of the Opera starring Anthony Warlow. I had not heard anything like it before (either Anthony or the cast/show). I was amazed! Gradually I listened to more and more stuff. Then in 2001 it was announced that Les Miserables was to be performed in my city. I thought I would audition and if I didn't get in at least I could say I'd tried. Got in and loved it. That was the start of performing in 3 shows in 1.5 years and I've been hooked ever since. Buff
Glissando	My mom's best friend's daughter did musicals with her school (she's now a community theatre director), so I saw my first show for her at age 3. It was an obsession from then on, but I didn't start ONstage until I was 9, for my school's Christmas show. And then I was hooked and started community at age 10. And it's been up/downhill ever since.

The Resource For Musicals

How did you get into musicals?