Broadway Show Sayings

#1. I do an act, and I've been doing an act for 50 years. I do a variety show, which is a musical comedy show. I do comedy, and I do singing, Broadway show tunes and different songs that I like. Been doing it for many, many years.

Debbie Reynolds

#2. And what would be great numbers in a Broadway show are now on stage of the New York City Ballet.

John Guare

#3. When I saw my first Broadway show, 'Beauty and the Beast,' I was like, 'Okay, I'm definitely gonna do this.' After that, I did little shows and started auditioning.

Lilla Crawford

#4. The first Broadway show I ever heard was the recording of Carousel, and it was a very vivid experience.

Bernadette Peters

#5. When I hit New York in 1972, I thought I was a sprinter. I thought that I would star in a Broadway show and do a movie and win an Oscar by the time I was 25. It turned out that I'm a long distance runner.

Beth Grant

#6. It's disgusting that a Broadway show can't try out anymore, that no matter where they are in the world, there is this massive dialogue going on between people damning or praising it.

Victor Garber

#7. I had been coming to New York, pretty much once a month, to dance on Broadway. I was offered a huge Broadway show but couldn't do it because my brother was having his huge Bar Mitzvah.

Sami Gayle

#8. I remember seeing 'Hairspray' when I was 15, and it is such a luxury to be able to see a Broadway show, and it is so hard to do if you don't live in New York - plus, it can be expensive to go to the theatre all the time, too.

Nikki Blonsky

#9. When I'm working, on stage, entertaining people, or watching someone do something amazing, it inspires me to be the best artist that I can be. I enjoy being around art - whether it be a museum, a Broadway show - or even writing a poem. Those are things that make me feel alive and inspire me.

Naturi Naughton

#10. But it's a Broadway show, so even if you're Christine in Phantom, you're still a princess. All female leads are princesses whether they're Disney princesses or not.

Christy Romano

#11. I understand people who boo us. It's like going to Broadway show, you pay for your tickets and expect to be entertained. When you're not, you have a right to complain.

Sparky Anderson

#12. Jazz isn't dead yet. It's the underpinning of everything in this country. Whether it's a Broadway show, or fusion, or right on through classical music, if it's coming out of the U.S., it's not going to survive unless it's got some jazz influence.

Dave Brubeck

#13. You can't remember what movie you saw two weeks ago, but you can remember what Broadway show you saw two weeks ago and where you ate dinner - everything about it. There's something about live theatre that hits you in the heart.

Susan Stroman

#14. I'm always going back to New York for Broadway workshops or reading. So I always keep my foot in the door: I'm always on the lookout for the next Broadway show.

Katherine McNamara

#15. All my roots are Broadway. I got my Equity Card doing a Broadway show, and my first love is theater.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

#16. everything from Hairspray to the Academy Awards. They were also my co-conspirators on my 2006 Broadway show, Fame

Martin Short

#17. The first Broadway show I saw was when I was 11. I saw 'Hair.'

Bebe Neuwirth

#18. If I do what I really want to do, I'm not going to do a typical commercial Broadway show, so I'm going to write what I want to write.

Mitch Leigh

#19. When you're doing a Broadway show, you have no free time.

Maggie Grace

#20. I am always in much better shape when I am doing a Broadway show because you have the eight shows a week to kind of keep the body clean and perfect in a sense, you know? For instance, I always eat much better when I am in a show because you can't have dairy - for your voice.

Jane Krakowski

#21. Michael has never cried during a Broadway show. Except in that scene where Tarzan's ape father is brutally murdered.
And that was only because he was laughing so hard.

Meg Cabot

#22. It's definitely one of those things when you decide to be an actor that it would be really cool to be in a Broadway show or a series regular on a hit show.

Emily Kinney

#23. My first Broadway show wasn't until I was a freshman in high school. It was my first trip to New York. I came with a group of theatre kids, and we saw four shows. The very first one was 'Contact.'

Laura Osnes

#24. In '92, I got my first Broadway show as a performer - 'Crazy for You.' I was in the ensemble. In fact, I was in eight Broadway shows as a dancer. Seven of them were original shows. That's how I learned to create something from the ground up.

Casey Nicholaw

#25. I would love to be an amazing singer. I take voice lessons. It's good to have as a dancer - to be able to sing and act, too, because for a Broadway show or musical, you have to be able to do everything.

Maddie Ziegler

#26. I got into a Broadway show before I ever sang and danced. I learned how after I got in the show.

Dick Van Dyke

#27. I'd rather be thin than famous
but I'm fat
paste that in your broadway show

Jack Kerouac

#28. Launching a Broadway show is like no other endeavor. It's taxing because you're present - it's not like cutting a movie and test focus-grouping it and filling out forms.

Mark Hamill

#29. I started my career off replacing Rita Moreno in a Broadway show.

Patricia Mauceri

#30. I always wanted to be on a great TV show and in a Broadway show and have a CD out, and the fact that they happened simultaneously is kind of an embarrassment of riches.

Cheyenne Jackson

#31. I had opera training for three years, and I have three albums out. I also did a Broadway show. I'm an actor that sings, so it is in my blood. It is in my system.

Jaime Camil

#32. The phone rings and there's another Broadway show or another TV series or a movie. That's the gamble you take.

Jamie Farr

#33. Even when I did my Broadway show, I did 15 minutes no one had seen before, because that was the night that Michael Jackson protested about Al Sharpton bailing on him. I said, "Wow, if that man bails on you, this must be really a lost cause."

Robin Williams

#34. 'Hairspray' was my first Broadway show. In the meantime, after the show was over, I would go down and do gigs at these clubs that I wasn't even old enough to get into. That continued on, and I think what ended up happening was that I just got these incredible opportunities on Broadway.

Laura Bell Bundy

#35. I know about lots of things that have nothing to do with being Asian, that you would never guess from looking at me. I know all about musical theater. I could go on 'Jeopardy!' and knock off the whole Broadway show tunes category. Also the whole Bible stories category.

B. D. Wong

#36. I have loved 'Les Miz' for so long. It was the first Broadway show I'd ever done.

Lea Michele

#37. I did a lot of musical theater when I was younger, and I really hope to get back there someday. I miss singing a lot. I listen to Broadway show tunes in my car and sing along to them.

Bridget Regan

#38. 'Birdman' is basically 'All About Eve' - the 1950 comedy about rehearsal rivalries in a Broadway show, and another Best Picture laureate - reimagined as a Batman suicide mission. The movie couldn't be actor-ier.

Richard Corliss

#39. When I was on Broadway, my most recent Broadway show was 'Spring Awakening,' and every night I did a topless scene.

Lea Michele

#40. My favorite Broadway show day-to-day, just for the experience, was 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.' The people were so much fun. It was a great show.

Barrett Foa

#41. Over the years, I managed to develop this comedy career, went from opening act to headliner at comedy clubs, to playing concert halls, and had an off-Broadway show with 'Sleepwalk With Me.'

Mike Birbiglia

#42. I was really into dancing, taking six classes a week, and my real dream was to be in a Broadway show.

Natalie Portman

#43. The passions and pain of the Vietnam War have subsided to a degree to which we are now able to look at the broader achievements of the Johnson administration," said playwright Robert Schenkkan, whose Broadway show about the president, "All the Way," is playing to packed houses.

The Washington Post

#44. There is definitely that thing here a little where people are like 'Oh that Broadway girl has come to Nashville' and I'm like 'Listen you guys, I was singing country before I even got a Broadway show. And I'm from Kentucky.'

Laura Bell Bundy

#45. I believe I've still got lots and lots to do. When I left Herman's Hermits in 1973, I said one day I'm gonna be in a Broadway show, and I thought it would be in 1974. Then, it took me ten years to do it, but I didn't ever quit.

Peter Noone

#46. It's a very big collaborative effort to do an animated feature and to do a Broadway show.

Jonathan Freeman

#47. Trey Parker did 'Book of Mormon.' It's the best Broadway show I've ever seen. He does 'South Park.' It's wonderful.

Penn Jillette

#48. I want to toy around with producing a Broadway show.

Lance Bass

#49. I've been to London twice. I saw the Broadway show 'Billy Elliot' there - phenomenal. I was crying through the entire thing.

Olesya Rulin

#50. I hate this expression, but - "thinking outside the box," in terms of how to market and put a Broadway show out into the - allow it to reach the target audience, who can't necessarily spend $120 to come see it.

Katherine Shindle

#51. I was one of those people who watched and videotaped the Tonys every year and kept a highlight reel every year. I saw every Broadway show as a kid.

Jane Krakowski

#52. If you get into a Broadway show and it doesn't work, you're a failure. And if it does work, you may be stuck for who knows how long. It just doesn't sound great to me!

Betty White

#53. Many years ago, I was in a Broadway show and I had to wear a fox fur around my shoulders. One day my hand touched one of the fox's legs. It seemed to be in two pieces. Then it dawned on me ... her leg had probally been snapped in two by the steel trap that had caught it.

Bea Arthur

#54. I saw my first Broadway show when I was 10 years old. I saw 'Big: The Musical' and I remember going out to dinner with my mom afterward and reading the souvenir program like crazy!

Erich Bergen

#55. I have this huge, huge fan base of people who've never seen a Broadway show, but I think it's a great introduction to what Broadway is because my shows are not that. I think that if you're getting people to go to theater then somebody should be celebrating that.

Tyler Perry

#56. My first Broadway show was with Elizabeth Taylor and Maureen Stapleton. Maureen Stapleton, a legend in the theatre; Elizabeth Taylor, a legend, period.

Dennis Christopher

#57. I'd love to do a Broadway show, but I can't because of the style I sing.

Jackie Evancho

#58. I can't tell you the thrill and joy of when I was cast in my first Broadway show. Granted, it was 'Starlight Express' and it was exhausting, but it was my first time on Broadway, and there was nothing like it.

Bryan Batt

#59. I did a Broadway show with Alan Alda and how much money can Alan Alda have.

Alice Barrett

#60. The first big lead that I had on Broadway was in a show called La Strada.

Bernadette Peters

#61. I lived in New York City for a while and miss it like it's a person. Although I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, I'm a New Yorker at heart. A stroll through Central Park, a visit to the MET, a show on Broadway. There is no other city like it in the world!

Zoe McLellan

#62. What to one person is common courtesy is to another tender words of life - and by the same token, what one person intends to show as great affection may be to his beloved an irrelevant show of frivolousness compared to the kindness of simply doing the laundry sometimes.

Anna Broadway

#63. I don't consider success doing a show for 30 years; I'm sorry. To me, you're successful when you graduate from something. I did a series, I did a talk show, I did movies, I replaced Mickey Rooney on Broadway in Sugar Babies. You understand?

Joey Bishop

#64. Since nobody upstages Rudolph Giuliani, his will be a Broadway-class show, perhaps his final bravura performance before November 2000, when he hopes to be turned out of the mayor's office by virtue of his election to the United States Senate.

Gail Sheehy

#65. I was repeatedly told that there isn't an African American woman who can open a show on Broadway. I said, 'Well, how do we know? How do we know if we don't do it?' I said, 'I think you're wrong.'

Lynn Nottage

#66. It's every actor's dream to work in a hit show on Broadway and also shoot a television show.

Aaron Tveit

#67. I'm inordinately proud of Smash, on so many levels. The complexity of producing that show, every week, is just incredible. As a television producer and as a Broadway producer, which I once was, I am in awe of what we can do on that show, every week.

Robert Greenblatt

#68. No show would be successful if you took a group of people and just said, 'You're dumb!' over and over. That's not what Broadway's about.

Trey Parker

#69. 'Bonnie and Clyde' was the first show and the first role that I got to originate. Being part of that from the ground up and investing three years of my life into seeing that show come to Broadway was really rigorous but also so exciting.

Laura Osnes

#70. There's something about being a part of Broadway and going backstage. You know, like when I go to see a show now and going backstage and saying "Hi" to the cast. It's so thrilling. It's so beyond my wildest dreams from when I was a kid.

Rosie O'Donnell

#71. Regarding the current Broadway revival of The Music Man, Jay Nordlinger wrote: There will always be those who sniff that the show is "feel good"-but, oh, it feels good to feel good. And the main reason The Music Man feels so good is that it is good-a great American musical.

Meredith Willson

#72. When 'night, Mother' opened, I did not know how long it would be before I would have another show on Broadway.

Marsha Norman

#73. Now that I'm on Broadway, it's like NASA engineering with the costumes. I was very grateful for the slightly more high-tech ones in my show, 'Venus in Fur'; our costume designer Anita Yavich is kind of a genius.

Nina Arianda

#74. I worked with Ismail Merchant on 'The Mystic Masseur,' I did 'Sakina's Restaurant,' I've done plays, I've been on Broadway, I've done movies, I've done TV ... but nothing has had the pop culture penetrative impact as 'The Daily Show' has. It's the nature of the beast.

Aasif Mandvi

#75. In January 2006, Phantom of The Opera broke the record for the longest-running show in Broadway history, overtaking Cats and reminding us what real entertainment is about: candles, dry ice, big hair, and the sort of synthesized chord progressions only achieved by a collapse at the keyboard.

Emma Brockes

#76. I really feel confident about my dancing now, so I hope there could be a place for me in the West End or on Broadway - maybe a musical, maybe my own show.

Katherine Jenkins

#77. Everyone would like to be on Broadway, cause if a show works, you make a great deal of money and it allows you to write other shows.

Stephen Sondheim

#78. I'm in a play on Broadway, I have an animated TV show coming up, I have a few movies that just came out.

Neil Patrick Harris

#79. Somewhere along the line, a concert became a variety show. It was no longer enough for four dudes to play together in front of some guitar amps. Costume changes, an army of dancers, and Broadway theatrics suddenly became standard for a 'concert.'

Shawn Amos

#80. I did a reality TV show in London called 'I'd Do Anything,' and when I got put in the program, they said, 'What is your ultimate dream?' and I said, 'Broadway.'

Rachel Tucker

#81. In New York, I get people coming up to me because 'The History Boys' was such a hit on Broadway, and they show the film all the time on cable over there, so people recognise you.

Samuel Barnett

#82. I would love to do a talk show. Naturally, I would love to do more films. I'd love to be able to see casting directors more willing to put in a character who happens to be deaf. I'm not talking about doing deaf storylines, but putting in deaf characters. I'd love to be able to do Broadway.

Marlee Matlin

#83. That's why I had to leave Hair on Broadway, because I did it for about a year, and one night I was doing the show, and I realized, well, this is not real. I told the director. He says, man, it was a killer show tonight.

Barry McGuire

#84. I think on a bucket list for a performer is definitely doing a stage show, whether it's in Vegas or on Broadway or whatever.

Lacey Schwimmer

#85. 'Tommy' was the first show I ever saw on Broadway. I was 14. It wasn't 'the show' that started that flame in me or anything, but it did excite me in a way no other show had. I'd never seen a show so brilliantly cast and directed.

Josh Young

#86. You know, they wanted to do a Broadway album and every show was kind of a bomb. There was no music at all.

Les Baxter

#87. I went to Broadway and I've been doing some fun guest spots with 'Entourage' and 'Glee' and I'm ready to have my own show.

John Stamos

#88. Broadway has some very tight expectations as to what a show is.

Twyla Tharp

#89. There's a lot of pressure on Broadway. There's this feeling that the show has to be a commercial success and the producers have to make their money back and Tonys and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Laura Benanti

#90. Burlesque thrived during the Great Depression, and by extension, so, too, did Gypsy [Rose Lee]. Men could no longer afford to pay $5.50 to see a show on Broadway, but they could scrape together $1.00 for a matinee at a burlesque house.

Karen Abbott

#91. What's the difference in opening from scratch in Philly or opening from scratch in New York? The old out-of-town tryout circuit - taking the show pre-Broadway to cities like Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia, Washington - has sort of been replaced with the amount of workshops we do.

Patti LuPone

#92. I think the fact that I grew up in show business had a real effect on my personality. If you were born in New York during the golden age of television, and you grew up on Broadway, that marks you.

Christopher Walken

#93. The dream is to originate a role in a show on Broadway. That's the ultimate goal.

Jake Epstein