Spyke

What was the last live theater performance that you saw?

Our local university is known for it's historical music program, and they put on a production of the opera Alcina by Handel. It was sublime, and a treat to see a baroque opera performed in a smaller theater.

Do you ever go to see live theater? What was the last thing that you went to? Or, alternatively, what was your favorite?

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lemmy.world

2025, The Book Of Mormon. I'd actually seen it before, but went with some people who hadn't. Hit just as good as the first time I saw it.

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Same! My girlfriend and I went to see it last year. Occasionally she’ll catch me singing, “Hello! My name is…” so goddamn catchy.

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lemmy.world

I've heard such mixed reviews. People love it or hate it, but no one says why- what's good or bad about it. I'd like to see it but have been worried about spending the $ on something we wouldn't enjoy.

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It's fun and funny, but IMO not that funny ... probably hits different for people who know lots of Mormons personally (my sister used to live in SLC and she rates it much higher)

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..Magots in my Scrotum!..

My wife and I still randomly say ORLANDO to each other.

The book of Mormon was so damn funny. It blow my mind it has been on Broadway for 15 years.

I don’t know if it is still there, but for the longest time the mormon church had a huge store front right beside the theater with signs that said, you have seen the play now hear the truth.

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I saw a local college production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson that resulted in some audience members walking out and was adjusted to act as a critique of right-wing populism and Trump.

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lemmy.zip

Most Recent: Hamilton.

Favorite: Phantom of the Opera.

Random general love of theatre: Wizard of Oz performed by a group of middle schoolers. They were all really committed to the performance and put on a fun show.

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lemmy.world

An amateur theater performance can be amazing. Even if a performer is not technically skilled, effort and commitment can often be just as enjoyable.

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lemmy.zip

Very much so!

The first amateur performance I ever saw was a college performance of Assassins 😂

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Spamalot. I heard some negative things and wasn't that excited to see it. However, it was actually quite good and I had a lot of fun.

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About a month ago, I went to a donation-driven community theater improv/Edgar Allen Poe thing.

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Not sure if it counts, but I took my daughter to see Shen Yun last week. It's a pretty show and all, but multiple acts had super heavy handed religious elements, which were pretty off putting. One song was about how you should keep to the traditional values and the worst things in the world are atheists and the theory of evolution. Big applause. Can't really recommend, despite the nice costumes and dances.

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We saw Wicked for the second time last year. Such a good musical! Went to Keller Auditorium for that one, first viewing was actual Broadway in New York.

Next month we're seeing Phantom of the Opera!

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We saw it on Broadway too when we visited NY a few years ago. I wanted to bring the kids to something I knew they'd enjoy, and they absolutely loved it.

Phantom was the first live musical that I saw, and I'll always love it. You're going to have so much fun!

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I think Wicked is my favourite, saw it in London a looong time ago. I still listen to the soundtrack sometimes, and still get goosebumps at "Defying Gravity" :-)

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feddit.online

The last opera I saw was Fellow Travelers by Spears, an 2016 opera based on a novel of the same title about two men who fall in love during the Lavender Scare. It was absolutely heart-rending, just the most tragic love story you could possibly imagine, and the sex scenes were so hot — I don’t think I’d ever seen a fully nude scene at an opera before, even if it was just from behind, and the tenor clearly had spent some time in the gym to prepare. Highly recommend you go see it if you have a chance.

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lemmy.world

Ah, a fellow Seattleite. Saw that opening night and was blown away. Usually not a fan of modern operas, but those Gregs knew what they were doing.

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feddit.online

I wish they’d go back to four full productions each season. The concert as the fourth performance is just not the same.

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Agreed! We tried it out this season and it just wasn't the same. Gonna be renewing just for the full operas this year.

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lemmy.world

I've never heard of this one before; it must be so hard to get a new opera out there! I'm glad people are doing it though. Every production seems like a minor miracle of logistics and ambition.

I see it's based on a book, I might have to give that a read.

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feddit.online

My local opera company does one new opera and two traditional operas every season, so I’ve seen quite a few over the years. The wildest one was definitely The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, a 2017 opera by Bates about the Apple founder.

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I kind of want to hate watch that Jobs one!

I appreciate that they're doing new stuff though! I love historical performance, but I absolutely understand that is a niche interest. If opera is going to survive as an art form (and I think it should), it needs to be a living medium.

The university is putting an a brand new, world premiere opera called That Hellbound Train here in a couple weeks, and I hope to attend.

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lemmy.world

Ooh, I found a production that a college uploaded to YouTube! I very much prefer to see an opera live, but I'd already accepted that I would never see this production since it's probably pretty rare.

I'll definitely give it a watch, thanks for the rec!

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Patrick Stewart's one man performance of A Christmas Carol, in 1994.

A) This is indeed a thing that happened and absolutely was not some kind of hallucination, and B) obviously I don't go to shows very often, do I?

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I was involved in more than 60 theatrical productions until my health no longer allowed almost a decade ago now. I miss it terribly. Mostly community theatre, but a few professional (i.e. paid) productions. Mostly sound design / running sound/mics, but on stage a dozen or so times, backstage a few times.

The last thing I saw was Come From Away. Kinda cheesy in some ways, but also pretty good show - I'd recommend it. About that Canadian airport that saw a ton of planes land on 9/11 when US airspace was shut down. The local community came together and took care of all the passengers and lifelong friendships were formed. It's sweet. And a bit cheesy. But fun, and emotional moments.

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I don't really mind cheeseyness; it shows vulnerability in the author and performers.

Star Trek is undeniably cheesey, but there's an earnestness that comes with it that makes it compelling.

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Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

That's probably the most Lemmy-approved answer I'm ever going to give to a question here.

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Saw Mary Jane on Broadway a couple years back, staring the phenomenal Rachel McAdams. It was good, it was very sad, and heartwrenching, and McAdams did a phenomenal job. She has a ton of range, hope she returns to the theater sometime.

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feddit.online

A play called Souvenir, late last year, put on by a local theater company. (Incidentally, their theater is in the building that used to be the gym when I was in college. It looks really nice inside now, and you would never guess that it was the most divey, stanky gym you had ever seen for like 60 years beforehand. I loved that place.)

Anyway, the play was about a famously bad singer who gained fame for how off-pitch she was. It was funny, heartwarming, and very well done. I didn't know it while watching the play, but she was a real person, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins

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feddit.online

Oh wow, Meryl Streep from fairly recently, I'm surprised I hadn't heard about it. I'll check it out.

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It was pretty good. Hearing Meryl sing terribly is interesting because she's so good

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lemmy.world

Last month my nephew's high school performed Bye Bye Birdie. It was good, but not as good as when they performed Les Miserables last year. That was so emotional and moving it was 🔥

Their school does full live orchestra, lighting, sets, costumes, the works.

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Oh that's excellent! We did Bye Bye Birdie in middle school, and it was a ton of fun. I love the enthusiasm of amateur theater. Awesome that they played the orchestra part, too!

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lemmy.world

I saw Lizard Boy at Portland Center Stage a couple times last week. Once with a friend who saw six showings in a row, and once with her and my wife soon after. Was quite good.

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lemmy.world

I don't know anything about Lizard Boy, but I'm intrigued since you both saw it multiple times in one week.

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The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged. That's the title of the show, I'm dead serious. A cast of three, trying to ram their way through all of Shakespeare's works within two hours. Sonnets included. It's hilarious.

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lemmy.world

We usually prefer plays to musicals but Cabaret is one of my favs. We got to see it with Orville Peck as Emcee. So good!

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piefed.social

It's a beautiful show and really timely. Orville Peck can really sing. Was he wearing his fringe facemask as the Emcee?

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lemmy.world

It was so good. Huge applause with a line about silence equaling agreement. No mask- just his regular face.

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It's a hugely impactful play and the Emcee shows huge changes in it. We had so many audible gasps at the end of the gorilla number

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piefed.social

I haven't seen it before I saw it live. Not even the movie. I knew what it was about but seeing it pure was something

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I'll have to look it up. It was brilliant and want to watch it again and again

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My wife and I love going to the theater. We have a couple of local playhouses, so therefore options, but still find it difficult to go with any regularity.

I think the last thing we saw was Primary Trust in 2024 (!! I can't believe it's been that long)

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If watching a recorded theatre performance from the comfort of my own sofa counts, then The National Theatre's presentation of The Importance of Being Earnest, which is wonderful.

In terms of seeing a live performance while in the actual theatre then it would be Rocky Horror back in 2019.

Edit: Just remembered that we saw Wicked in London in December 2025, before we saw the movie. That was fun.

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lemmy.world

Operation Mincemeat back in March, a few days before the original cast’s last day. It was absolutely incredible

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My wife & I saw this late last year. We agree that it was amazing. What’s truly incredible about it is that the actors were all members of an amateur theater in the UK where it took them years to write & refine the show. They started performing it at their little amateur theater where it eventually got noticed, took it to London’s west end (their version of Broadway), and after a few years there brought it to Broadway in NYC. It’s done so well on Broadway that it’s run there was extended something like 8 times, and it’s now starting a tour across the US.

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Sherwood at the Oregon Cabernet Theater (Ashland). It was pretty good. Can’t go wrong with dinner and a show there, but they have yet to top their performance of Clue.

Actually, in hindsight, it might have been a show at the Camelot Theater in Talent. That one, whatever it was, ran twice as long as it had any right to.

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Who's afraid of virginia woolf at portland playhouse.

It was incredible, as that play always is. The male lead outperformed the female lead, which i feel is less common than vice versa, but everyone was great.

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Aida on Freakin' Broadway in NYC. I'm not a theatre type but I was in the area for a few years, and the performance was everything I hoped to see in a real broadway play; but I was a little disappointed to learn people do not dress up - biz-casual at least - to see a show.

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Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat ! A regional high school did a fantastic job with it.

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this post made me realise i can't remember

time to go to the theatre darlings!

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  1. I saw the turn of the screw at the opera.

What Haunting of Bly manor is technically based on

Pretty boring stuff. Wouldn’t recommend

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Last thing I saw was either Wicked or Hamilton. I'm not sure which. But if you want to count it, I saw Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban with a live orchestra instead of the soundtrack. It was... magical.

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The last live theater performance I saw was "Puss in boots" from Tieck, the last performance I played in. I watched it from the stage.

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2025, Saw the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw

It's a comedy musical with a tiny cast Seeing it live was a hilariously fun night. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoyed the first couple of Saw movies.

Without spoiling it too much, it expanded on the latent gay tension between the two main characters in the first movie and included several jokes for fans of the series.

My favorite musical is the Sweeny Todd casting with Angela Lansbury. The characters are all perfectly cast, and Angela Lansbury is a treat every time she's on stage.

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I had tickets to see Sweeney Todd with Josh Groban. I bought tickets for a Friday and accidentally put it on my calendar for Saturday. So bummed!

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It was an amateur production of Shakespeare's As You Like It that a friend and his son were both acting in. It could have been quite stodgy, but the actors made it good fun.

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kbin.earth

Locally written and produced whodunnit dinner theatre. Before that, university produced Othello.

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lemmy.world

I've been wanting to catch an Othello for years now. I'll see it one of these days!

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Our university students really did well. I hope when you see it, it's excellently done!

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The last live theater I saw was Peter Pan Goes Wrong. Amazingly good. That Cornley theater knows how to put on a great show.

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fedia.io

I'm in line for one right now, I'll let you know how it went when it's done.

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Heh. Sorry, got busy with stuff when I got home. null

It was an episode of an improvisational soap opera I've been attending. Went rather well, they sang a song and at the end of the episode a bunch of characters got "freaky Fridayed" into each others' bodies so the actors got to make fun of how each other portrays the characters they played.

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Last year I went to a performance of Beauty and the Beast that included the audience. They had two long dinner tables that everyone sat at. The actors worked around us. Running on the tables and in between us. At the far end was the throne chair.

There was also a live band mixed into the set and playing the music and sound effects.

My only complaint is my neck hurt after from all the looking back and forth. The concept was great. Tho.

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Last year I saw a 70s rock anthem retelling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream. I cannot for the life of me remember who put it on though.

Edit: Directed by Daryl Cloran, here be an article

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Not counting a recent shadow cast Rocky Horror Picture Show, last would be the university production of Antigone my buddy was in like 12 years ago.

My mom was a huge Broadway fan, so I've seen Chicago and Les Mis on Broadway, and Les Mis and Wicked a couple of times locally. My wife and I are going to NYC this fall and we're gonna do a Broadway show since she's never been to one. Haven't decided which one yet, leaning towards Book of Mormon but we'll have to see what's playing while we're there.

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If you count high-school performances, I saw a cousin-in-law's performance of West Side story.

If you don't count that, it was a theater rendition of Evil Dead.

The people in the front 3 rows were provided ponchos and advised to wear washable clothes. I was in the back row and still got a bit of gore on me.

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If you twst the definition a bit: 2022, I saw Dream Theater live

Oh, that's not what you meant? Color me shocked...

In that case, 2003, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera

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Inside No. 9 at the Hammersmith Apollo. So glad I got to see it before they finished.

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Went to see the Victoria Symphony a few months ago. They did a special to show off their new oboeist(?)

But prior to that its been years since I saw anything on the stage.

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Coincidentally, I was taken as a plus-1 to a Broadway musical, "Ragtime", this month. I normally don't go out much for theater, but it was free so I went.

It wasn't bad. The style of music isn't my jam, but it had some fun parts.

Also interesting is the play's message seems to be "the only way you'll get something approaching justice is violence" and I'm not sure if that's the author's intent.

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I saw Dear Evan Hansen in like 2019. The staging was kinda neat, and the vocal performances were spectacular.

The story was.... something.

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It's been a minute. The last showing of Hedwig and the Angry Inch with Neil Patrick Harris as the lead.

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It was either Blue Man Group in New York, or The Vagina Monologues in Chicago. Both were about 25 years ago so I don't remember which I saw last.

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We recently saw a show called Wild Party. Had a couple of uncomfortable moments but was overall very good.

Saw a great, really fun production of As You Like It at Writers Theater near Chicago at Thanksgiving. They got several inches of snow that morning so the theater was half empty and the Uber there was terrifying! Really cool little theater.

Seeing Good Night, Oscar at a local theater Thursday night. It's small but usually has good shows. Last year they did one called Satchmo at the Waldorf where one actor played Louis Armstrong, his manager, and Miles Davis.

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Hercules in London. Found out my mate paid like £200 per ticket because it was their debut. It was great but definitely not worth it.

The one before that was My Neighbor Totoro and I really enjoyed that. I never saw the anime and the live performance was so magical to me.

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I do enjoy live musical theatre, but it is quite expensive, and smaller local productions for whatever reason I haven't been motivated enough to go to. I think the last musical theatre I saw was Mozart's The Magic Flute at the New York Met Opera House, in January 2025. The time before that was Hamilton at the Princess of Wales Theatre in June 2023.

So anyways due to cost, I'll settle for watching the latest musical movie at the cinema like Wicked for Good.

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The Importance of Being Earnest (by the National Theatre). Still available on YouTube if you want to see it.

I've seen/been in loads of stuff on stage but I don't really have a favourite.

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lemmy.world

How was that? I read a bit about it and wondered if it was good

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It is the fifth reprisal so it clearly has its fans. Considering the caliber of performers they don't have time for a lengthy prep for an original production so they will do reprisals like this.

Lea Michelle did not perform though her replacement was so very good.

Nicolas Christopher blew the roof off the house as he always does and that alone makes it worth the price of admission.

It is good but I would not make a special trip to NYC to see it. We were going back and forth between Chess or The Outsiders and we made the “safe” bet to see chess based on the three leads. As I said, unfortunately, michelle Did not perform at our show.

If I could go back three months to the planning phase of the trip I would pick Outsiders.

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I work in live theatre, so my perspective is a little skewed. The last one I went to see (instead of working) was The Drowsy Chaperone, a musical within a play.

The concept is that an old (slightly odd, but very welcoming) man is inviting the audience into his house, to listen to an old vinyl broadway recording in his living room. Sort of like a Mr. Rogers Neighborhood episode. As he (and the audience) listens to the record, his imagination blooms and his house transforms into the set for the musical. So the characters in the musical are dancing and singing around his house, while he sits in his armchair (or putters around his room, making tea, serving finger sandwiches, etc) and breaks the fourth wall to add commentary.

It’s a comedy wrapped around a tragedy. The musical is very bright and cheery, but the old man clearly has some eccentricities that begin to show through the cracks as the show progresses. It’s an interesting commentary on the “circus” part of bread and circus, as it explores things like escapism, agoraphobia, and OCD as the man’s happy facade slowly crumbles while the musical progresses (and gets interrupted a few times, which is extremely triggering for him). It becomes clear that he’s only able to maintain his happy public persona for a little while.

As for the last show I actually saw, it was a traditional Indian dance show. I work a lot of those, because traditional Indian dance has a sort of test for their dancers. It’s not a perfect comparison, but many people compare it to a black belt test in karate. Since every dancer has to go through it, there are a lot of them.

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I see I am amongst people of culture, so I won't bore you with too many ignoble details. It was last October and my wife and I were on our anniversary trip to the mountains of western North Carolina, and my wife dragged me to one of those musical dinner theaters in Pigeon Forge Tennessee. I'm not going to say which one, because the show was just so god-awful I'm afraid that naming them would seem impolite. It was a patriotic themed show, and the place was maybe a tenth of the way filled at most. I'm one of those people who easily suffer from second-hand embarrassment, and I was cringing so hard it was beginning to manifest into physical discomfort. It couldn't end fast enough, and when it was over my wife looked at me and actually apologized for inflicting that upon us. I must admit, I had a hard time masking my lack of enthusiasm when she first told me of her plans...

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Mine was Rocky Horror... Unless you want to count a Steve Martin + Martin Short comedy show. That's kind of like theater, right?

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hadestown. i can't imagine anyone other than morgan dudley playing eurydice now. her hair perfectly fit her backpacking clothing

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I've been doing volunteer usher work lately so last one I saw was Blithe Spirit done at the local community college.

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A college rendition of Ken Ludwig's The Game's Afoot. The first half was a little slow but the second half picked up considerably. Before that was A Lucky Stiff; it was quite silly but a fun watch.

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Besides impro which we go see every now and then it was a rendition of the musical Pippin in Dutch.

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Book of Mormon last year at the Fox Theatre in Saint Louis. I usually go once or twice a year for a musical if something good is in town and relatively affordable.

2

The Umbilical Brothers "The Distraction" late last year. Genius comedy.

Seeing them again this Saturday for a repeat of "Speedmouse." I'll be wearing my roadie t-shirt (after ironing it)

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A local rendition of "Tratsch im Treppenhaus" in our local dialect in 2009.

I couldn't really concentrate on the wider play though, everybody kept looking at me when I entered the stage and said my lines.

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Either Lion King or Starlight Express over 2 decades ago. My mum dragged me there. It was meh, I don't think I'll ever go back to one.

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Three Times Left is Right by Julian Hetzel, in Amsterdam. Naked people, Hitler salute jokes that last 10 minutes too long and auto-cannibalism. Do not recommend.

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The idiot by Dostoyevskiy at whatever the theater in Aarhus is called

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Gosh its been a while since finances have been shit the past few years.... I dont think I've seen anything since before the pandemic... I think it was 2018 we saw Book of Mormon on Broadway when we were staying overnight before going on a cruise. I miss vscations....

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Maybe Chicago. It’s been years: I used to like going once or twice a year and convinced my ex we had to do it for the kids

Edit: or maybe that Billy Joel show

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