In the last few years I've developed a massive taste for the Theatre, maybe it's because my entertainment tastes have matured, or as my mates would have me believe - it's because I've grown a vagina. Either way the thing that is certain is that I love the buzz of seeing a live performance knowing that these actors are acting for real, day in day out with no option for retakes.

So my question is, who else loves the Theatre and what's been great to go and see? It doesn't matter whether it's a grand West End produced musical or one man monologue in a backstreet small studio.

For me it only started just less than two years ago and I saw the great Les Miserable at Manchester's Palace Theatre. I was instantly hooked. It's probably most known for I Dreamed a Dream (and SuBo's stunning take of it) but it has a whole soundtrack of classics, from Master of the House, Castle on a Cloud and it's recurring Look Down theme throughout. But my personal favourite is the confrontation between Javier and Valjean.

Other big productions I've so far seen include Footloose, Legally Blonde (yes perhaps I have grown a vagina), Dirty Dancing and Monty Python's Spamalot. And as of next year I'll be seeing the classic Phantom of the Opera for the first time.

I've seen a good few independently produced plays too which tend to be much grittier and more imaginative. I might come back to those before this turns into an epic no one will read.

I love it, too! Perhaps because when we were kids our folks would take us to Broadway shows. Kids' stuff like Annie, Peter Pan, The Wiz, Barnum, Evita, and perhaps a couple others. I loved it the first time I saw one. In college I went back to Broadway to see The Who's Tommy, and saw a production of "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" at Rutgers. And of course in '96 I saw Pacino & Paul Benedict in NYC, too.

This year I caught South Pacific and Rocky Horror at a local, historic theater. I hope to go more often as they're quite fun. I'd love to see Phantom and some of the other classics.

Turi, we're a theater family. My kids have been in all their school productions, as well as chorus and select choir. They both studied voice with Ray McLeod and Rita Harvey. My younger daughter went to theater camp and has jammed with Gerard Canonico from "American Idiot" and got to wear Frenchy's Pink Ladies jacket when Didi Conn stopped in. She's currently cast as the Purser in her school's spring 2012 production of "Anything Goes".

I've seen "Evita", "Chorus Line", "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Beauty and the Beast" and "Cats" on Broadway. Recently, we saw Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone in concert and they were amazing. I even got Mandy's autograph, after stalking him at the theater door.

SB,

I was very close to getting tickets for Mandy and Patti. Ooh, I thought that would have been a great show.

More on theatre at a later date. Turi, sorry I missed this post, my internet modem died on Christmas night. New one coming today.

They were incredible. They did a few numbers from "Carousel" that had the audience on their feet. They also did "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" and "What A Circus" from Evita, and after Ms. LuPone was done, people were weeping, she was so incredible.

Here's Mandy outside the stage door signing autographs, and the Playbill with his autograph. He was sitting in his car afterwards and my husband said I completely humiliated myself by waving at the window and shouting, "Mandy, I love you!"

Mandy is the greatest. We saw him last New Years in Palm Beach and he brought the house down.

Did anyone see LuPone last night on the Kennedy Center tributes? The woman is 62 years old and her voice is as strong as it was twenty years ago. Amazing!

I missed it! Damn! Her voice is not quite as strong as his any more, but she was still amazing. I saw them back around 1980. My parents took me to see "Evita" for my birthday and I was blown away. I've remained a fan of his ever since. This is my third time seeing him in concert, and he puts on quite a show.

Babe,

I know you're a regular visitor to the Sarasota area. They're bringing the Patti and Mandy show down there in February. We're seriously thinking about making the drive across the state, presuming we're in Delray at the time.

I'll let you know.

SB, I love that you got to meet him - and more so that you went so crazy over him! Would Mr. Babe have thought it humiliating to request some Inigo Montoya lines from Mandy?

It was quite a moment, Gi! In other concerts, he has said "the line", but he didn't this time, I guess because of Patti LuPone.

SB,Gina, et al;

A few years back, Jon Secada was in Grease. We saw a show down the street (can't remember the name), but on our way out of the theatre, we passed the Grease theatre. People were gathered around the stage door so we stopped to see who would come out. My wife was saying, it'll be Jon Secada. Well sure enough out he comes and in her "shy" way pushes through the crowd and shoves the Playbill from the other show in his face. He looks at it, then her, smiles and signs it.