THE FIRST TIME IT HAPPENED - An Article by Jorge

I was 24 years old the first time it happened to me and I'm not talking about sex, but about something much more exciting.

Since I remember I always loved musicals. It began with the old Astaire-Rodgers movies that I saw on television at the matinees and then, later, I saw the likes of THE SOUND OF MUSIC and HELLO, DOLLY! at the cinema. But I had to wait until I was 24 to see a musical live on stage.

By that time I was already completely in love with the cast albums and I was always dreaming of musicals, even imagining me in them. The truth is, that kind of music really touched me and had the power to make me feel happy. Living in a country like Portugal, with no musicals at all, wasn't easy for me. When would I be able to see one on stage? But the cast albums filled my days with dreams and kept my love alive.

In May of 1989, I decided to get out of my country for the first time in my life. I was 24 by then and London was my target. I didn't have much money, so I could only stay there for three nights. As my travel companion I had my grandmother, who didn't speak a word of English and who had never travel aboard.

We arrived at London on a Thursday, late in the afternoon and I was a nervous-wreck. The show I had chosen (of which I owned the cast recording, that I loved) would start at 7.30PM, so we didn't have much time to get to the theatre. To make matters worse, I didn't have a clue of the whereabouts of the theatre and I didn't have booked tickets.

After a subway ride and some running (poor grandmother…), we're able to get to the Adelphi Theatre. Trembling, I asked for the best available tickets and I got a couple for the Dress Circle. I bought the souvenir brochure (the first in my collection) and we ran upstairs, without dinner, and we seated on our places.

I couldn't believe that I was inside a theatre where a live musical would be performed in just a while. When they dimmed the lights and the orchestra started playing the overture, I felt goose bumps all over me and I had tears in my eyes.

The show was the hit London revival of ME AND MY GIRL and I was kind of disappointed with it. After playing the album so many times I had imagined something better. Anyway it really didn't mater, it was my first live stage musical and I would never forget the experience of seeing and, specially, feeling it.

When I left the theatre, completely excited and starving, I was already imagining how would the next show look like. The next day I saw SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE MUSICAL, that I simply loved, and on the last evening I saw another revival, BRIGADOON. These three shows turned my love with the genre into the deepest of passions.

posted August 2001