127 Broadway Musical Quotes

Following is our list of broadway musical quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about broadway theatre.

Famous Broadway Musical Quotes

Don't know about a cabaret act right now, would actually prefer a role in a broadway musical. — Julia Barr

Look at the darkest hit musicals - Cabaret, West Side Story, Carousel - they are exuberant experiences. They send you out of the theater filled with music — John Lithgow

Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall. — Stephen Sondheim

Musical theatre is something I'm familiar with, I've been doing that. — David Naughton

Initially, I wanted to be an ice skater, but then when I was 13 I saw Bye Bye Birdie, and that was it - I wanted to be on Broadway. — Lil Wayne

Broadway’s a little different from Houston, but it’s not a big difference. — Sadie Sink

The way I look at a musical, you are commenting on the human condition no matter what you do. A musical may be light and frivolous, but by its very nature, it makes some kind of social comment. — Gene Kelly

My favorite musical? I don't. It changes all the time. I'm just a diehard, I'm totally old school, like I'll sit and watch, if they are re-doing Oklahoma in New York, I will be the first one there. — Trey Parker

When you're doing the traditional musicals, singing songs that are 40 and 50 years old, you realize there's a reason why those musicals are hits. These are amazing songs! — Tom Wopat

I know, it's weird that I've never done a musical. I turned down two of them. 'The Lion King' and 'The Producers.' I turned two of the biggest Broadway musicals down, am I a mess? — Mario Cantone

If you’re a child, and you’re on Broadway, you automatically know every other child in a production. — Sadie Sink

We didn't have movies in this little mining town. When I was 12 my mom took me to New York and I saw Bye Bye Birdie, with people singing and dancing, and that was it. — Margot Kidder

Well, the musicals give emphasis to love, longing, melancholy, sadness. All of that is always there. — Ismail Merchant

When I owned the theater, I had the Glen Miller Orchestra. I had 20 girls singing and dancing. I had a cast of characters. It was a big group production, as well as ushers, ticket takers. — Bobby Vinton

I'll tell you what I would do in a shot if I could. I would sing in the barbershop quartet in The Music Man. — Ned Beatty

Short Broadway Musical Quotes

• I'm preparing for a multimedia theater piece, Airport Music, that's coming up in New York City. — Jessica Hagedorn
• The country is lyric, the town dramatic. When mingled, they make the most perfect musical drama. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Life is a cabaret, old chum! Come to the Cabaret. — Fred Ebb
• The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral. — H. L. Mencken
• High School Musical has been a blessing and a gift. — Zac Efron
• Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good. — Terrence Mann
• Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage. — Charlie Chaplin

Broadway Shows Quotes

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

Most people know me for Stranger Things, but I’ve been working since I was seven. I worked with Helen Mirren in my second Broadway show, and she was incredible. — Sadie Sink

Broadway has changed tremendously from the early days when the shows were referred to as musical comedies. Musical Theater is now a more expanded art form. Back then, singer/actors were not the norm. From the 60's to now, it is necessary to do it all to be a consummate Broadway performer. — Betty Buckley

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

The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them. — Stephen Sondheim

I learnt a lot from my Broadway experience, it was one of the most challenging things I will probably ever have to do in my entire life, because it was eight shows a week - live singing with really hard choreography - and the spontaneity, you don't know what's going to happen. — Ariana Grande

Harold Ramis and I together did the ‘National Lampoon Show’ off Broadway, ‘Meatballs,’ ‘Stripes,’ ‘Caddyshack,’ ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Groundhog Day.’ He earned his keep on this planet. God bless him. — Bill Murray

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

If Broadway shows charge preview prices while the cast is in dress rehearsal, why should restaurants charge full price when their dining room and kitchen staffs are still practicing? — Marian Burros

Broadway shows in New York draw two times the attendance of all New York sports teams put together. — John Lahr

Broadway Theatre Quotes

A young Brit girl with no theatre experience decided to take on an iconic American role on Broadway. Maybe I should have thought that through? — Emilia Clarke

I received the most fantastic welcome to the Broadway Theatre community. I walked on stage to tremendous applause and a long standing ovation, wondering when I was ever going to be able to say my first line! — Elaine Paige

I figured as I got older, the good roles for women would be in the theatre. So 15 years ago I started building a Broadway career to try and develop the chops to be accepted as a great theatrical actress. — Kathleen Turner

What success I achieved in the theatre is due to the fact that I have always worked just as hard when there were ten people in the house as when there were thousands. Just as hard in Springfield, Illinois as on Broadway. — Bill Robinson

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

Though I acted in hundreds of productions, appeared at the Guthrie Theatre and on Broadway in Amadeus, I discovered in my thirties that I didn't really like stage acting. The presence of the audience, the eight shows a week and the possibility of a long run were all unnatural to me. — Fred Melamed

It's lovely that the Hollywood stars are crossing over to Broadway.... There used to be such a dividing line in the country between Hollywood and the theatre and that's just melting away. It's just wonderful right now! — Julie Andrews

My mother's side of the family was in the production side of theatre. My grandfather, Jose Vega, was a general manager for Neil Simon shows on Broadway. — Yancy Butler

Because Chicago was to radio what Hollywood was to films and Broadway was to the theatre: it was the hub of radio. — Mel Torme

It was a different planet in 1967, the Broadway theatre. It had a little ashtray clamped to the back of every seat and the author got 10% of the gross. — Tom Stoppard

Broadway Quotes

The pop artists did images that anybody walking down Broadway could recognize in a split second — comics, picnic tables, men’s trousers, celebrities, shower curtains, refrigerators, Coke bottles. All the great modern things that the Abstract Expressionists tried not to notice at all. — Andy Warhol

We are living in the excesses of freedom. Just take a look at 42nd Street and Broadway. — Will Durant

I started taking ballet lessons when I was 4, and I was performing in ballet companies when I was 10, and I did summer stock in Miami Beach when I was 12, and finally I said, 'I gotta go to Broadway.' — Rita Rudner

I would like to win the Pulitzer Prize. I would like to win the Nobel Prize. I would like to win a Tony award for the Broadway musical I'm now working on. Aside from these, my aspirations are modest ones. — Evan Hunter

I did 'Lone Star Love' in 2007 with Randy Quaid, and that was supposed to come to Broadway at the Belasco and a marquee went up and everything... and it all fell apart, and that marquee came right down, and we got severance pay. And, it was very sad. — Kara Lindsay

I would like to win the Pulitzer Prize. I would like to win the Nobel Prize. I would like to win a Tony award for the Broadway musical I'm now working on. Aside from these, my aspirations are modest ones. — Ed McBain

Hollywood has its Oscars. Television has its Emmys. Broadway has its Tonys. And advertising has its Clios. And its Andys, Addys, Effies and Obies. And 117 other assorted awards. And those are just the big ones. — Joanne Lipman

When a man and a woman see each other and like each other they ought to come together - wham - like a couple of taxis on Broadway, not sit around analyzing each other like two specimens in a bottle. — Thelma Ritter

The hope is they would like to bring it to Broadway next year, so we'll see that's to come in the end of the finance year and everybody else and also real estate and what theaters are available at the time but I would like to come back with it. — Blair Underwood

I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason Bringing something we must learn And we are led to those who help us most to grow If we let them and we help them in return. — Stephen Schwartz

Musical Theater Quotes

When I was a teenager, I began to settle into school because I'd discovered the extracurricular activities that interested me: music and theater. — Morgan Freeman

Simplify, slow down, be kind. And don't forget to have art in your life - music, paintings, theater, dance, and sunsets. — Eric Carle

Love is a command, not just a feeling. Somehow, in the romantic world of music and theater we have made love to be what it is not. We have so mixed it with beauty and charm and sensuality and contact that we have robbed it of its higher call of cherishing and nurturing. — Ravi Zacharias

I had an older brother who was very interested in literature, so I had an early exposure to literature, and and theater. My father sometimes would work in musical comedies. — Francis Ford Coppola

In musicals, everyone is screaming. — Sadie Sink

Anyone interested in design must be interested in other fields of expression - theater, ballet, photography, literature, music. — Lester Beall

Bangladesh is a world of metaphor, of high and low theater, of great poetry and music. You talk to a rice farmer and you find a poet. You get to know a sweeper of the streets and you find a remarkable singer. — Jean Houston

Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world. — Alan Rickman

I was at the Apollo Theater all the time, skipping school, and I worked in a barbershop. That's how I started with doo-wop. Now I've come full circle. I did all kinds of music. I used to work on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley. — George Clinton

So, through all that early professional career I would occasionally do a musical, a pantomime or a play with songs. The next stop would be a Shakespeare, or an Ibsen, or a play by a brand new writer who had never done anything in the theater before. — Trevor Nunn

Musical Theatre Quotes

I dislike organized games, swimming pools, fashionable resorts, night clubs, music in restaurants, and political manifestoes; I enjoy driving from coast to coast, good food and drink, a few friends, dogs, the theatre, long walks, music and free conversation. — James Hilton

I used to do puppet theatre and also mime and musical theatre in Florida for competitions and festivals, which was great. I was very much involved in theatre when I was in college. — Wesley Snipes

I grew up overseas in Indonesia, and my school had a great art, music, and theatre program. — Angela Kinsey

Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it. — Aristotle

There is a lot of interest in the arts, music, theatre, filmmaking, engineering, architecture and software design. I think we have now transitioned the modern-day version of the entrepreneur into the creative economy. — John Baldacci

The musical has always been in jeopardy - until - or was in jeopardy until it was realised that it is probably the safest living theatre art form. — Harold Prince

We haven't truly had a zeitgeisty, 'songs on the radio' show, since...I want to say "One Night in Bangkok" was the last musical theatre song that charted. That was so long ago. — Nikka Graff Lanzarone

I wanted to be a musical theatre actress - I wanted to play Sally Bowles, forever and ever always. — Carey Mulligan

See, there's only two theaters, man that are set up pretty groovy all around for music and for smooth stage changes, good lighting and all that - the Fillmore and The Capitol Theatre. And those are the only two in the whole country. — Jerry Garcia

Movies are a complicated collision of literature, theatre, music and all the visual arts. — Yahoo Serious

Wicked The Musical Quotes

Some things I cannot change, but 'til I try I'll never know. — Stephen Schwartz

It's just life, so keep dancing through. — Stephen Schwartz

The narrow gauge mindset of the past is insufficient for today’s wicked problems. We can no longer play the music as written. Instead, we have to invent a whole new scale. — Marty Neumeier

I know you don't want to hear this but someone has to say it! You are out of control! I mean they're just shoes... let it go! — Gregory Maguire

Okay let's get this over with, no I'm not seasick, yes I've always been green, No I didn't eat grass as a child. — Gregory Maguire

Don't wish. Don't Start. Wishing only wounds the heart. — Stephen Schwartz

So much of me is made of what I learned from you; you'll be with me like a handprint on my heart and now whatever way our stories end I know you have re-written mine by being my friend — Stephen Schwartz

We can't all come and go by bubble! — Stephen Schwartz

And Goodness knows The Wicked's lives are lonely Goodness knows The Wicked die alone — Stephen Schwartz

Let the green girl go! — Stephen Schwartz

People Writing About Broadway Musical

Name	Quotes	Likes
Julia Barr quotes on education, leadership and culture	15	115
John Lithgow quotes on life, love and john lennon	62	206
Stephen Sondheim quotes on musical atre, life and love	192	611
David Naughton quotes on leadership, life and love	12	62
Lil Wayne quotes on love, hustle and money	251	11052
Gene Kelly quotes on dancing	53	881

More Broadway Musical Quotes

I was a weird kid. I should've been gay because I listened to a lot of Broadway musicals. I don't know why I'm not gay. — Frank Oz

It's a very tough time for the playwright. Broadway has become almost a musical comedy theme park with all these long-running shows. — John Lithgow

Most convicted felons are just people who were not taken to museums or Broadway musicals as children. — Paul Rudnick

I'm hoping to do a Broadway musical on the life of Rasputin. He's someone I can definitely identify with. — Ozzy Osbourne

Basically my influences have been American influences. It's been blues, gospel, swing era music, bebop music, Broadway show music, classical music. — Horace Silver

I definitely want my career to continue to branch out. I've had the pleasure of working in different areas of entertainment, from being in the music business as a teenager in a girl group to doing Broadway. — Naturi Naughton

I was always drawn to Broadway musicals, and obviously composers like Gershwin, Rodgers, Berlin and Porter were writing music that I found wildly impressive. — Marvin Hamlisch

Always drawn to the theatric, Bowie also performed in stage productions of "The Elephant Man" and just recently collaborated on "Lazarus," an off-Broadway musical that's a sequel to his 1976 role in the film "The Man Who Fell To Earth." — David Bowie

I would love to be in musical theater and be on Broadway. If someone were to offer me a position to do something like that, I wouldnt pass it down. Im a huge fan of musicals and I really want to do that. — Michelle Branch

I'm not gay, so I don't know much about Broadway musicals. — Norm MacDonald

I don't like Tommy on Broadway at all. I like the music, I'm pleased with Pete's success but I don't like what they've done to it. — Roger Daltrey

I can tell you that in my modern life I enjoy language. I enjoy words, their meaning, what they sound like to the ear, what they sound like to the listener. I strive to write the perfect sentence in all that I do, and when I write [the] perfect sentence I know it. If I had a second life I'd be a librettist for Broadway musicals. — Neil deGrasse Tyson

The only stuff I don't like are Broadway musicals. I hate them. I don't even like to talk about it. I can't bear musicals. — Laurie Anderson

How to succeed in business without really trying (title of book) — Shepherd Mead

I would love to work on Broadway, but I don't know that it would manifest itself in musical theater.... I have terrible stage fright that I'd have to get over. — Scarlett Johansson

The beauty of Broadway is that if I'm 60 or 70 years old, if they'll accept me back, I can go back. So I think for right now I'm going to focus on the music--it's the new baby--and see how it's going to work out, and then maybe in a few years maybe I'll go back. — Heather Headley

An actor can do a play on Broadway for three years. Every night he's expressing the same emotion in exactly the same way. He has developed a technique to convey those feelings so that he can get the ideas across. Or a musician may not want to play that damn music at all, but he has a booking and has to do it. — Richard Estes

For performances I have my favorite go to's like Prince, Donna Summer, Vanity 6, Sheila E, but it also depends on the type of show I am giving. I could pull references from Broadway musicals, Rock Steady Crew, a Jamaican dancehall or gentlemen's club, etc. all within one show. It truly is a playground with no restrictions for me. — Mya

I went to School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, and we had a bunch of singing classes. My first job in New York was an Off-Broadway musical. — Anna Camp

The possibilities are endless for me - Broadway, TV, music and film. — Michelle Williams

I love Broadway. And, I listen to country music, which I think a lot of people find surprising. — Bryan Clay

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

I was in California, and I was going to UCLA, and I knew I certainly didn't have movie star looks. I remember seeing pictures and photos of Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, who were kind of average looking. I said, 'Well, that's for me, then, to go back to New York and try to be in musical comedy on Broadway.' — Carol Burnett

I wanted to be on Broadway, but in musical comedy. — Carol Burnett

There's been a time where I was like, I wanna be a folk singer; no, I wanna sing soul. I want to sing classical music. I want to sing R&B. I want to be on Broadway. I just wanna sing. Whatever comes out of my mouth, that's what I want to do. — Khalid

I had originally planned to do musical theatre and be on Broadway, but then my love for poetry also set in. Once that happened, I became torn between a career as an English teacher or a music teacher. — Khalid

I wasn't straining at the bit to become a movie star any more than I had plotted to get out of vaudeville and into Broadway musicals. — Ethel Merman

I've always known that I wanted to be an actor. My family kind of was a theatrically inclined family. My father came to New York when he was a young man to be an actor and he, over a course, was in a couple Broadway musicals. I grew up in family where theater was always part of the vocabulary. By the time I was a teenager I was just totally obsessed, and it was the only thing I could imagine myself doing. — Peter Vack

I never wanted to get a job of musician. That was kind of my thing. I came from somewhat of a musical family. I had an uncle on Broadway. My dad kind of knows how to play instruments. Although, I always find it annoying when he does play an instrument. — Nate Ruess

Whether it's animated, whether it's live-action, whether it's Broadway, whether it's television, a musical is a musical is a musical. So, pretty much you approach the songs in pretty much the same way. The difference might be that in a film you have a close up. On stage you don't. So there are more songs on the stage because the songs are kind of the close up. — Alan Menken

I was in musicals and I was in the choir when I was younger. Before I started writing my own songs I thought I wanted to be on Broadway, but it was nothing I ever really pursued. So this was pretty out of the blue. — Sharon Van Etten

I love orchestrating music and conducting and being on Broadway. — Harry Connick, Jr.

I think I learned more about writing scores for Broadway by making mix tapes in the '90s than I did in college. You're learning about rise and fall and energy and tempo shifts. You're showing off your taste and your references. You're trying to be witty by - through placement of music you didn't write. — Lin-Manuel Miranda

On Broadway and in the United States it's very different - people crossover all the time into television. I think that we'll get there [in London] in the end, but it has to start with who comes to see you in the musical and whether they can see beyond the dancing and the singing. — Luke Evans

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