Archives: Shows I’ve Seen, pre-1999

I keep a record (too many records) of shows and books and other stuff. Mostly for myself, but I don’t mind having it in a public space. My list of show’s I’ve seen is so long as to be unwieldy and uninteresting, so I think I’ll divide them up into a more manageable form. These were shows I saw before arriving in Australia in 1999 that somehow stayed with me and I wanted to keep them on this list:

Europe – I lived in Europe from 1994 to 1998, first in Brussels and then in London. London was when I really started to see shows!

  • After a time in London, I was encouraged as a gay man to get to know Sondheim. At the Edinburgh Festival, I saw an amazing version of “Into the Woods”, a mediocre “Company” and a god-awful “Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”.
  • And then in the following two years saw at least 3 productions of “Side by Side by Sondheim”, 2 of “Merrily We Roll Along” (both great), and “Assassins”. Also, a concert version of “Sweeney Todd” and the amazing “Sondheim Tonight” tribute show at the Barbican Centre, London from September 1999
  • Tony Kushner’s Slav’s (Edinburgh)
  • Rent (London production)
  • Fame
  • Miss Saigon
  • The Iceman Cometh (with Kevin Spacey)
  • Naked (with Juliette Binoche)
  • Pippin
  • Godspell (a children’s version – didn’t know until we got there…)
  • Richard II with Ralph Fiennes at the Gainsborough Film Studios, London, 1998

Canada/U.S.A.

  • My brother’s high school put on “My Fair Lady”, “Godspell”, “the Wiz” and “South Pacific” (in which he played the Chinese manservant)
  • And then when I got to high school, there was “Oklahoma” and “Godspell”.
  • I also remember a high school production in Hawaii of “West Side Story”
  • And a touring version of Annie
  • Chorus Line (Touring Cast) – probably my first really memorable professional production. I basically think that this, combined with the shows listed above it, made me gay. Or at least a show queen.
  • The Good Woman of Szechuan (Peterborough)
  • Marat/Sade (I was in it!) (Peterborough)
  • Happy Days (Peterborough)
  • The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Peterborough)
  • Cabaret (Touring Cast)
  • Rent (Vancouver, Touring Cast)
  • Angels in America, parts 1 and 2, new york, summer of 1994 (In Jan 2011, I found the ticket stubs I’d saved. My tickets in the balcony cost $25 each…)
  • Thoroughly Modern Millie, Broadway
  • Avenue Q, Broadway
  • Forbidden Broadway – 20th anniversary celebration – Sept 2003, New York
  • Gypsy (with Bernadette Peters), Broadway. Sept 2003 (Sigh, I passed up Into the Woods with Vanessa Williams and saw this instead.)

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