Your Julia Roberts Moment


I was asked recently where I get my love of theatre from.
As I recall I don't come from a family that ever went to the pantomime let alone go and see a ballet or an opera or a west end play.
My love of theatre comes from a chance visit to the Leeds Grand back in 1986
I had just started work in a mother and baby unit in York and had been asked out on a ward night out by a tall willowy occupational therapist called Ali, who felt that a cultural night was more in order than the usual bun fight down at the Hole In The Wall Pub
She arranged for us to see Bizet's The Pearl Fishes 
and I remember sitting in the vastness of that great Northern auditorium thinking " I have no idea what is about to happen" 
I was blown away
It was a beautiful production with a full orchestra and more colour than a LGBTQ flag.
And when the two friends Nadir and Zurga finally sang their duet of friendship Au Font Du Temple Saint 
I was totally Overwhelmed .....by the homoerotic subtex ( only in my mind), the power of the voices, the beauty of the music and I promptly burst into tears with the magic of it all


From that moment I went to everything that was going. Opera, the world famous Northern Ballet, touring farces at York's Theatre Royal, even the Mystery Plays in the Roman Gardens, I lapped everything up and when I moved to Sheffield with The Crucible and Lyceum Theatres standing tall in the city centre I was in seventh heaven..

So my question today is what is your Julia Robert's Moment?
Her first trip to the Opera in Pretty Woman  really mirrored my own Pearl Fishes moment ( though she looked just a tad more beautiful)

What production moved you, in only that way live Theatre can do


157 comments:

  1. When the Lion King first opened in the West End we managed to get standing only tickets for the back of the circle. We were only in London for a weekend so we were very lucky to get them. Anyway, although I had been to the theatre many times before, this production totally blew me away. The puppetry skills are outstanding and the music was amazing. I had many tears and hair standing on end moments during it. x

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    1. Yes..when the animals congregate at the beginning....a totally mind blowing moment

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  2. Just had a look - awesomely lovely. Love that piece of music. Going to look at more now.

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    1. I think it's special as the duet is between two men

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  3. Back in the late '80's/early nineties I went to see a production called salt of the earth about growing up and growing old in a Yorkshire mining village. I hardly remember anything about the play other than I was transfixed and felt as though I was part of the play. There were no props or scenery but the acting was so powerful that I sobbed.

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    1. Overview
      A humorous, affectionate and touching story of life in the West Yorkshire coalfields, spanning three generations from 1947 to the present day. It captures the ambitions, joys, fears and disappointments of sisters Ann and Mary Parker and Mary's son Paul and his academic success.

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  4. Sarah Jones10:58 am

    I saw Swan Lake on a visit to the theatre with my mother in law, many years ago and burst in to tears(in a good way:)as soon as the music began, it was so moving. In our early 20s me and Mr J also saw Alan Rickman play Hamlet in sunny Bradford, he was absolutely mesmerizing x

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  5. I remember the first time I heard 'The Pearl Fishers'....I was in my car driving through the hills of the valley on my way home from school. It changed me.

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    1. It made me reach more deeply into my 'emotional reservoir' than I had been accustomed to.

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  6. Mine was when I was very young in Boston going to a local G&S group doing Pirates of Penzance. Looking back it was probably very amateur but to me it was wonderful.

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  7. A birthday gift of tickets to Les miserables at the place theatre, Manchester. I didn't think I'd like it but I sat mesmerized. It's good to be introduced to things that one would never choose for oneself.

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    1. I saw les mid with its original cast and totally fell in love it it

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    2. Here's another one who was so knocked out by seeing Les Mis way back in the late 80s that on the way out of London's Palace theatre afterwards I went straight to the box office and bought a ticket to see it once more three weeks later - and then saw it yet again.
      It's still of ALL musicals the one where the music gives me more spine-tingles than any other - and I've seen plenty.

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  8. I've been lucky enough to live near London most of my life and I started going to the National Theatre in the 1980s ... I have seen so many wonderful productions it's hard to single one out. Paul Scofield and Simon Callow in Amadeus ... Fiona Shaw reading 'The Wasteland' at Wilton's Music Hall in the East End; I saw Guys & Dolls three times (I love musicals); numerous RSC productions at Stratford on Avon; Opera North who used to visit Nottingham when I lived there; Michael Ball as Sweeney Todd (did I mention I love musicals?) ... live theatre, opera or ballet, it's all just magical and it takes you to another place. I know I am very fortunate to have had the chance to see so many things.

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    1. How wonderful....the only theatre I cannot take to is Shakespeare but I have persevered over the years

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  9. A bit of a cliche but it was The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre. The Nutcracker ballet at Sydney Opera House also blew me away.

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    1. Phantom has a power about it.
      I saw it in London and on Broadway. The American audience talked all the way through it

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  10. My parents would sometimes play their opera records on a Sunday afternoon and as a teenager of the 60's it bored me to death. Hated every moment. Then they took me down to Boston to see la boheme. Game changer.

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    1. Your tiny hand is frozen
      How lovely was that

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  11. My parents took me to many pantos and shows in the West End of London when I was a child--including My Fair Lady with Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1958. I cannot isolate the first time I was affected by theatre or music, but I must say almost every time I am at a live performance, especially one with music, I still get goosebumps and am moved. My daughter and I came over from the US earlier this year and were able to see Hamilton and Swan Lake. It was wonderful to share those experiences with her.

    Thank you for the video. Like you in the theatre, I ended up in tears.

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  12. I come from a family who didn't even play records or put on a radio! I don't think I have a 'Julia Roberts' moment, but I adore ballet, even though I'm a rock music fan. We have recently discovered the live streamings into cinemas from the Royal Opera House and they are very good.

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    1. The Julia Roberts moment can be anything, a film, a concert anything

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  13. I went to New York as a grad student and we basically sneaked out and went to see Rent. They were still staging it and we have heard so much about it that we couldn’t wait to run to the theater. We had gotten the tix through a friend of a friend of a friend and we had no idea if they were even legit.
    We got to the theater and voila! The tix worked! We sat down and felt all sophisticated and grown up. We were going to see Rent! In New York! The lights went down and boom! Goosebumps, tears, smiles. I was still elated hours after the show. I’ve seen it fourth times more. It still gives me chills.

    XoXo

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  14. I love the Pearl Fishers duet. I usually have Classic FM or Radio 3 on, and have to stop what I'm doing when they play this, to listen properly. Never seen it performed live though.

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  15. It's funny you think of it as a Julia Roberts moment. I think of Cher at the opera in "Moonstruck."

    I went to theater from a pretty young age -- granted, they were often student productions, but good ones. My first experience, as I recall, was seeing the musical "Pippin" at the University of South Florida in the mid-'70s. It's a pretty bawdy show, or at least it seemed so to me, and I always remembered the lights and energy and color and naughtiness!

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    1. It's a common scene in movies....Cher in moonstruck for sure, Jennifer elie in Paradise Road tom hanks in Philadelphia

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  16. OFF TOPIC QUERY - I'm a latecomer to this heartwarming blog and I've been reading from the earliest posts going forwards. I'm currently in 2015. Over the last few days the photos have disappeared and been replaced with just a grey frame, is this just me? I loved the photos!

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    1. Yes I don't know why that is happening apologies

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    2. They might reappear Gill, Blogger is having 'moments'!!

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    3. OK thanks, I'll be patient!

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  17. "Sizwe Banzi is Dead" by Athol Fugard at The Crucible Studio in the very early eighties I recall. It confronted you. It was something more than mere entertainment. Actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona grabbed you as if round the throat.

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    1. It was first performed in 1972!!

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    2. But I only arrived in Sheffield in 1978.

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  18. I was 20. Had just moved to NYC and met my husband. He took me to see the NYC Ballet ,The Nutcracker.
    And so began many years of magic.

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  19. seeing mikail baryshnikov dance in NYC. i'm still not recovered.

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    1. Carla Fracci,I,Baryshnikov,Nureyev,the visiting stars of other ballet companies from other countries...looking back,it was like a dream that I wish I was still having.

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  20. I saw the film "Rose Marie" with Ann Blyth & Howard Keel in our local cinema when I was about 10 yrs old. No looking back - films, theatre, opera, classical concerts, I didn't come from a family that appreciated literature or music particularly but have managed to pass on the love of all these things to my children. Beautiful posts John. Ro xx

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  21. My late husband introduced me to this aria getting on for fifty years ago. Been a favourite ever since. A good ten day ears ago I was in our local seaside town of Clacton what ch is not the queen of watering holes. It was a dank cold day and all day of a sudden I was blasted by two opera singers singing this. They were part of a group that goes round singing to hospital patients. I will admit to mopping up the odd tear. The performance was totally mesmerising.❤️

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  22. I loved The Nutcracker, I went to the live link up at Llandudno Junction for the first time a few years ago. Not quite a Julia Roberts moment but sitting there by myself surrounded in the cinema by lots of folk who had made an effort to dress nicely and take wine and posh nibbles instead of coke and popcorn made the event seem so much 'more'. I was totally 'in' the ballet for the whole duration of the story for the first time ever.

    I guess my real Julia Roberts moment was watching a late night showing of Truly, Madly, Deeply with Juliet Stephenson and Alan Rickman on television in the early 00's. It made me realise the depth of true love ... and that with my first husband I didn't have it.

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    1. And all of that snot !

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    2. That WAS the only YUK bit ... haha.

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    3. Sarah Jones4:34 pm

      I LOVE that film I remember watching it on BBC on my little black and white portable tv in my bedroom, it is so moving and beautiful.

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    4. That was the first film that I was aware of Juliet Stevenson. I thought her crying was so realistic and moving but what I loved most was her and Alan Rickman singing (miming) together. I think of it as "The sun ain't gonner shine anymore" not sure of the actual title but I have loved that song ever since.

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  23. As a young teen I was invited by my mother's friend to see a local production of My Fair Lady. I enjoyed it very much. I am very introverted and have to push myself to get out, but I also enjoy the symphony.
    Barb

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  24. I did have some live theater moments as teenager but I think the thing that truly lit my soul was watching Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet in a movie theater in Tampa, Florida. My 9th grade English teacher was one of THOSE teachers- inspired and inspiring and she had taught us the play in depth and then arranged a field trip for us all to go see the movie. It was a bit scandalous because of Romeo's bare ass in one scene and Juliet's lovely bosoms. BUT, she persisted and we all had to dress properly and we rode on a school bus and we saw that movie and Shakespeare came alive for me and I am so grateful for that experience.

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  25. when I was 12 to 13 I used to go to the Empire in Leeds. Managed to see all the Wilde, Fury, Joe Brown, even Gene Vincent at the theatre as it was non stop music. Loved it all, then I saw Lonnie Donegan and loved him, have you ever heard him sing "Seven Golden Daffodils" ? Fabulous.
    Then West Side Story - wow Leonard Bernstein's music.
    Since then I have been to the Alhambra in Bradford and seen umpteen musicals, the wonderful " Bouncers" but I also love classical music, who said it? from Beatles to Bach Love Andie xxx

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    1. Bernsteins west side story , I'd love to see a good revival

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    2. Sarah Jones4:37 pm

      Andie I love Bouncers too, John Godber was my drama teacher at high school.

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  26. The first thing I saw in the theatre (London) was Phantom Of The Opera and I was blown away. Over the years I saw all the big shows but that remains my favourite. The first thing I ever saw at the pictures, as we called it, was Oliver. It had the same effect and has remained a favourite. I have seen it in the theatre too. The only Shakespeare I have seen was at Stratford On Avon and it was The Taming Of The Shrew with Josey Lawrence. It was really good and if you want to give Shakespeare a try I would recommend that one.

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    1. You are right about Shakespeare the only one that I enjoyed was all to do about nothing with Emma Thompson
      My heart lies on the windy side of care

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  27. Barbara Anne1:31 pm

    When I was young and he was very old, DH took me to an Arthur Rubenstein concert and that was all it took. Our seats were in almost the top back row of the theater and I had a sprained ankle, but, oh, it was wonderful! We've been to many concerts and plays in the decades since.

    Your topics are always so interesting as are the comments of your friends here. It's lovely to sort of get to know you and each other. :)

    Hugs!

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    1. As usual the posts are more interesting than mine

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    2. Barbara Anne4:28 pm

      Oh, John, I wouldn't say that! You're an excellent writer and storyteller.

      Hugs!

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  28. My dad took me to see Peer Gynt and I was hooked.

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  29. Rent, on broadway, summer 2003. Late in life, but better lata then never, eh.

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    1. I've never seen it, I'm ashamed to say

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  30. As a kid - G&S Pirates of Penzance at Oberlin College. My dad got seats right next to the orchestra pit and close enough to the stage that sweat hit us. I was hooked.

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  31. I saw Les Mis with my husband and we were both totally in awe.
    We've since seen it with our daughter, our son didn't want to come with us deeming it depressing and boring.... so we saved ourselves the price of a ticket for him !

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  32. I saw Les Mis with my husband and we were both totally in awe.
    We've since seen it with our daughter, our son didn't want to come with us deeming it depressing and boring.... so we saved ourselves the price of a ticket for him !

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  33. in her younger days Syd's mother was a pianist she loved Liberace we took her to watch him play at the Palace theatre in Manchester for her 80th. I love 7 brides for 7 brothers. Oaklaoma, etc Simply Red ,John Denver , Lots of Country and Western Music, Boy George's karma camelian we used to dance a great quick step to his songs Happy Days XXXXX

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    1. Liberace! I would never have goose bumps over elfin Liberace

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  34. Janacek's 'From the House of the Dead' at the theatre in Birmingham many years ago. I still get goose bumps when I think of it. The next year his'The cunning little vixen' came to the same theatre - just as mind blowing.

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    1. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ypFxqypp2o8

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  35. And if you have never heard Terraga's 'Recuerdos d'Alhambra' played on the guitar try that if you get the opportunity.

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    1. And listen to Sylvain Blassel playing it on the harp...
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnXqbz7UUr8
      A beautiful young man, too!

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  36. "Pearl *Fishers* not Fishes, I had to look it up. Sadly I have never been able to make that leap of faith to magic and just see a bunch of people behaving oddly.

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    1. Go and see a popular opera... Carmen is probably one that you would find more accessible

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    2. Thank you , John.

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  37. I haven't been to a lot of theatrical productions, but love live music. Hearing Mitsuko Uchida playing a Saraband from one of Bach's French Suites at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, I couldn't stop tears coursing down my face, it was so unbearably sad and beautiful (and rather embarassing).

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    1. And your tears probably made others cry too

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  38. I met my husband in the autumn, in December he took me to see the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center in NYC and from then on, we saw Ballet and Broadway plays every fall-winter.
    Meeting Carla Fracci, shaking hands with Baryshnikov , being this close to Rudolph Nureyev ... I was so very lucky ..

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  39. As far as I'm concerned, plays, movies, and television are all variations of the same thing: theater, so I'd have to say it's Jerry Lewis short-lived 1960s TV variety show, which I watched in the first grade.

    As for live performances, well, I haven't seen all that many in my misspent life, so the sheer novelty of a something live may make it seem more exciting to me than perhaps it would for you. I mean I get goosebumps watching the Country Bear Jamboree at Walt Disney World!

    I was also IN a live performance. I played a newspaper reporter in a high school production of Bye Bye Birdie.

    ME: There's a woman in the gutter. Who does she belong to?

    SOMEONE ELSE: It's my wife. Leave her there!

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    1. A bone fido actor!
      I agree with movies and tv being in the lists too....

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  40. So many from Glyndebourne just the once, a ticket bought for a special birthday, Kinky Boots, Sadlers Wells. The one I remember the most was a panto at York Theatre Royal with the wonderful Berwick Kaler. Sitting next to my old dad, me at the ripe old age of 36, heard a noise I’d never heard before in all those years... My dad singing along. I kid you not never had I heard him sing until that night... a magical experience for me.

    LX

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    1. Sarah Jones4:41 pm

      Love Berwick, love your story even more x

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  41. I have had the pleasure of seeing many operas. But in 2002 I sent invite to my girl friends (I was 60) to join me for my hen night with a trip to the opera in Verona, I had replies immediately, 'you're getting married, when did you meet him? I explained I hadn't as such, but thought I 'd have a hen night anyway. Just one friend joined me and it was amazing. By the way I met someone and we married 2 years later and have enjoyed concerts together.

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  42. The humming song madame butterfly, it gets me every time I hear it.

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  43. And Schindlers list soundtrack.

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  44. I was lucky in that my parents often took us kids to see college productions where my dad worked. I remember a production of Peter Pan where the Indians entered the stage from the house - they swarmed around and through the seats, jumping over people and running up and down the aisles. It was magical!
    In high school, we went to a production of Taming of the Shrew in San Francisco and I was spellbound.
    As I said, I've been very fortunate to see lots of plays, musicals, symphony, dance. I've never lost that sense of wonder. xoxo

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    1. The buzz of watching a full orchestra . Or seeing the drama of the crystal chandeliers at the met rising up ....its all theatre

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  45. Beautiful. Jan Bx.

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  46. I too got to see Mikail Baryshnikov. He had a quest performance spot at our Birmingham, Al ballet. It seems he was friends with the director at the time. His performance lasted only minutes,but it was a memory for me for a lifetime.

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    1. You can just feel the atmosphere change when someone like him enters a roo ôr a stage

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  47. I was living in Dallas in 80's. My boyfriend took me to see Madame Butterfly. I was amazed by music, singing and set changes which happened so quickly. It was magic.

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  48. I've thought and thought about a "moment" but I don't have one. I think love of theatre, movies, concerts is in my DNA. Started going to movies with my mom. I've always gone to whatever performances I can afford.

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    1. You will remember one...just pop it on the end x

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  49. Leo Kottke....Vaseline Machine Gun
    I was ruined for anything less.

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  50. Went to Spooky Men concert last night. You might like to hear this.....on youtube.
    The Spooky Men's Chorale - Crossing the Bar, in the Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral, love JanBx.






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    1. I think our choir is planning a visit
      Our Jamie is a singer in it

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    2. Wonderful. I think you will love it.xx

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  51. Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, remember it being very sad, however, the magic of live theatre fascinated me and I loved every minute. Since that I have seen as much theatre, opera and musicals as I could.

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    1. I listened to the famous radio version with goosebumps

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  52. Joan (Devon)6:13 pm

    I love live theatre and many years ago I went on an evening trip to the ballet at Covent Garden with friends. There were three short ballets and the one that blew my mind away was a version of Elgar's Enigma Variations. It was so totally different and I have never come across this ballet again since. Marvellous!

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  53. My introduction to ballet and theatre was at the age of 11 when a friends mom invited me to see Giselle I felt so grown up. My dad filled the house with classical music I just played the video and had a good cry such a moving rendition brings back good memories.

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  54. Anonymous7:40 pm

    When I was a teenager and my favourite part at the cinema was seeing the bare chested man on the screen bang the gong before the film started. I think it was the Rank Organisation. About 55 years later and I can still see him in my mind.

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    1. Anonymous7:49 pm

      And ooh I've just seen him again! On you tube "Rank organisation 1955". The memories!

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  55. The Sound of Music. I was six years old. I came home from the cinema and announced I was either going to be an actress or a nun. My Dad said 'No daughter of mine is going to be a nun.' And so the stage was set.

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  56. Anonymous8:03 pm

    48 years old and never set foot in a theatre, unless you count an operating theatre or a lecture theatre.
    One day maybe...

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  57. For me it would have to be The Phantom of the Opera. Love it!

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  58. I am not a theatre goer, which I could blame on my hearing difficulties but truthfully it's because I have a poor attention span. Also I can't pick my nose in public.

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    1. Be glad I never moved to Trelawnyd. Like butter on a summer day my brand of heathen is easily spread.

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  59. First time would have been during college, great productions. This year we have started going to the Kennedy Center. We just bought a package of four shows for next season.

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  60. Anonymous9:23 pm

    I'm emerging from the lurkerhood to add a few memorable moments.

    Dance: In the early 1980's, Baryshnikov and American Ballet Theatre were touring with a program of short dances. We were sitting very near the stage, at the end of the row, and I could see into the wing at stage right. As a pair of dancers, dressed in white, performed a pas de deux from Swan Lake, Baryshnikov and his partner, dressed in black, suddenly appeared in the wing and began a quick run-through of a piece from Tharp's "Sinatra Suite." The juxtapositions--the white and black costumes, the classic and modern dances, the precision of the performance and the looseness of the practice--were riveting.

    Music: I attended one of the last performances by the great guitarist Doc Watson. Most of the audience probably had seen him many times over the years, and it was clear that we were witnessing an artist in the twilight of his life. The response was appreciative and affectionate, and a bit wistful. As my friend said, "His mind has forgotten some of the words, but his fingers remember all the notes."

    Theater: I'm grateful to have seen dozens of plays, including several on Broadway, but one experience especially stands out. During Vanessa Redgrave's performance of the one-person play, "The Year of Magical Thinking," there was a moment when I felt that all the light in the world was concentrated in the spotlight on her face and the only sound in the world was her voice. It was breathtaking.

    Sharon from Nashville


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    1. Sharon a comprehensive and eclectic list....how wonderful x

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  61. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake on an LP from my Aunt. Totally blown away at the age of 5.

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  62. My father always played opera and classical music on Sundays when we would do jigsaw puzzles. A few years later, our class was able to go to a production of Carmen and it all came to life. Magic.

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  63. My first actual show was Applause, with Lauren Bacall. We sat in the front row of the Loge. It was amazing.

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    1. I remember that that 'Applause' was being played on Broadway on my one and only (so far) visit to New York - back in 1969.

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  64. Mine was when I was about 5 and we went to a pantomime. I stood in the aisle fixated on the stage, tuning everything else out. According to my Mum. i remember it vaguely, more an impression and an emotion. But for me it wasn't so much the call to go watch more as the call to join them! so I did!

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  65. The first time I saw A Chorus Line. I still know all the words to the songs!

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  66. I was 14 and was in London with my high-school English class (I'm from Holland) and saw Ipitombi. Blew me away! The next year I was in Verona with my parents and saw Aida at at the (open-air) Arena di Verona. Moved me to tears! And yes, The Lion King (especially the opening act) that I saw at the beautiful Pantages Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles many years later. Amazing!

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    1. I've never seen Aida..it's on my list

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  67. In 1947 we moved from a tiny coal mining town to a university town. The woman whom my Mom cleaned her house had me enrolled in the university school. There were all kinds of events at Memorial Auditorium. I heard Eleanor Roosevelt speak, listened to the US Marine Band, and later heard a speech by Dag Hammershield, but it was a ballet that sparked my interest in theater and music. I have no idea what company was performing, but 70 years later I can still close my eyes and see the grace and beauty.

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    1. Omg I heard Eleanor was an amazing orator ? Do you remember what she spoke about

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  68. I remember in school going to "theatre in the round" in Bolton, Lancashire. I was fascinated by the ease each actor/actress spoke their lines, I completely forgot they were acting.
    ~Jo

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  69. I grew up in Saratoga Springs, NY and we have a beautiful outdoor amphitheater. In the 70's (and still today) the New York City Ballet had a summer residency at the theater, The Saratoga Performing Arts Center, or SPAC. Tickets were reasonable, and you could sit on the lawn and still see the ballet dancers up close with binoculars. I saw Edward Villella, Peter Martins and Mikhail Baryshnikov dance. I guess I saw many wonderful ballerinas also, but as I was in my teens at the time I mostly remember the men!

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  70. When I went to see my Grandson perform a Modern Dance number with huge Flags, I cried, I knew he is a Talented Artist in so many different Mediums, but I had no idea how Graceful he was, it took my breath away and was so Emotional!

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  71. In high school I had a class called "American Musical Theater." The teacher took us to NYC to see Yul Brenner in the 1970s revival of "The King and I." I was mesmerized. I wrote about it here: The King and I

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  72. I was 23 and was a kiwi girl living in London. I took one of my besties to see Ralph Fiennes play Hamlet, a play we had studied in school and seen in movies, but to see it live was awesome.

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  73. Apologies if my comment appears twice, but I commented yesterday (remotely) and I don't think it made it. Anyway, my Julia Roberts moment was in 1966 when I saw the Royal Hunt of the Sun on broadway with David Carradine and Christopher Plummer. I was 11.

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  74. I don't remember how or why I was there because we were a poor family without spare funds for such things, but at age 16 I attended Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta operetta at the State Fair Musicals in Dallas. Hearing Patrice Munsell sing "Ah, Sweet Mystery Of Life" lifted me to a new plane. Also, a beautifully-costumed production of Gian-Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors while I was at university, especially the song "Have you seen a child the colour of wheat, the colour of dawn?", was another watershed moment.

    A slight typo correction for you, John, it's Fishers, not Fishes.

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  75. Have you seen Balletboyz Young Men, Contemporary take on brutality of WW1. Very evocative, they are on your at the moment too...

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  76. Anthony Hopkins at the National Theatre Ldn playing King Lear with Geraldine Mcgowan and Anna Massey as two of the daughter's was the first heavy weight cast that hooked me to the power of theate as observer. I was lucky enough to be present at an intimate production to celebrate the late great Anthony minghella which involved a contmporary dance company and anthony's prose read by Alan Rickman. I inadvertantly met Alan after the performance and later found myself seated next to his table in a back street resturant that we had booked by chance that evening. What a magical eve, i spent the whole time pushing a slice of haloumi round my plate and hissing at my husband to shush whilst i earwigged the lovey chat. In complete contrast, hearing Steve Balsalmo belt out gethsemane in the lyceum during his time as Jc in Jesus Christ Superstar was spine tingling. Xx Hwyl Suz.
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