Musical Theater Quotes

Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best Musical Theater Quotes from famous authors such as Diana DeGarmo, Kirstin Maldonado, Joshua Henry, Zachary Levi, Cassie Ventura. Let’s look at these pieces of wisdom. We definitely have something to learn from them!

1
I didn’t necessarily set out to be in musical theater, but that’s where my path has taken me, and I’ve been loving and enjoying it ever since.
Diana DeGarmo
2
Even before Pentatonix, I always thought that I would be out here in New York doing Broadway and doing musical theater. That was what gave me the passion for music in the first place, so it’s been really, really, cool.
Kirstin Maldonado
3
I avoided the party scene at the University of Miami. I came in to study musical theater, and I felt so behind. I literally knew nothing.
Joshua Henry
4
My whole background, my whole life was just lots and lots of theater, a lot of that being musical theater.
Zachary Levi
5
I did musical theater, and I did dancing for what it was at the performing arts high school that I went to. I went to a school where I was there on a scholarship. So I think when you’re on a scholarship, you always work a tad harder, or you want to work a tad harder than the next person.
Cassie Ventura
6
Sondheim is the Shakespeare of the musical theater world.
Mandy Patinkin
7
I used to watch a lot of musicals as a kid. Musical movies, not so much musical theater.
Samuel Larsen
8
I have intentionally not pursued musical theater.
Katharine McPhee
9
Musical theater is often seen as a lesser form of acting, although I don’t see it that way.
Christian Borle
10
My background is musical theater. I have a BFA from the University of Florida.
GloZell
11
‘Cabaret’ was one of the first pieces of musical theater I saw that showed the possibilities of what musical theater can do.
Tom Kitt
12
At one time musical theater, particularly in the ’40s and ’50s, was a big source of pop songs. That’s how musical theater started, really – it was just a way of linking several pop songs for the stage.
Neil Tennant
13
My first love was singing. It was the first thing that really felt like it was a part of me. It’s just in my blood. And acting came sort of out of singing because I did a lot of musical theater.
Evan Rachel Wood
14
I am a big fan of musical theater.
Josie Totah
15
I was a musical theater major at the University of Arizona. And I primarily trained with Marsha Bagwell. It was a classical program, so we did Chekov and Moliere and a lot of Shakespeare.
Christine Woods
16
I started out really into musical theater. So you can imagine I was super popular. I wasn’t awkward looking at all.
Allison Williams
17
I announced at the dinner table when I was 11 that I wanted to be a ballet dancer. But my goal changed to musical theater after the choreographer Robert Joffrey saw me perform while I was on scholarship at the San Francisco Ballet School.
Ann Reinking
18
I would love to do stuff on camera. That’s what I want to do. It took me a really long time to feel confident as an actor. I think, also, because there’s a weird stigma about musical theater where we treat the men who do musical theater differently than we treat the women in musical theater.
Barrett Wilbert Weed
19
I was there when the quote-unquote golden age of musical theater was flourishing. I met everybody who worked in theater or was famous in theater from the ’40s on.
Harold Prince
20
I’ve got quite a low voice, so it’s not your typical musical theater voice, but I do love musicals; they’re a very different experience.
Sarah Greene
21
I grew up doing musical theater. I went to a school for musical theater, so that was always what I wanted to do growing up.
Madeline Brewer
22
I was in musical theater when I first started, so there was always both acting and singing. But as far as getting a record deal, that took time. The majority of that time, I was acting.
Christina Milian
23
I was really sporty and loved singing. I started off doing musical theater. I left university to go to drama school. So I was a bit of a black sheep.
Sophie Cookson
24
I want to make ‘Broadway’ a word that doesn’t have pejorative connotation. I don’t want ‘musical theater’ to be a dismissive term. I want it to be something that people can be proud of, that people can say, ‘Look at the possibilities.’
Thomas Kail
25
Look, I’m 40, I’m single, and I work in musical theater – you do the math!
Nathan Lane
26
At one point, I was hell-bent on being a Disney animator, and sort of got over that in college and wanted to do my own stuff. You know, towards the end of college I had actually planned to go to the Boston Conservatory of Music for musical theater.
Seth MacFarlane
27
Musical theater is an American genre. It started really, in America, as a combination of jazz and operetta; most of the great musical theater writers in the golden era are American. I think that to do a musical is a very American thing to me.
Rachel Bloom
28
My mom is an elementary school music teacher, a pianist, and a singer, and my dad plays guitar – he’s a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. My mom does musical theater, too. All of those influences were around.
Lucy Dacus
29
I went to Elon University and studied musical theater. I usually did two musicals a year, but I also did a couple of plays. That was sort of always where I felt the most relaxation.
Chris Wood
30
I got successful awfully quick, and I wanted it… But I do think there is responsibility to move the musical theater form forward. I think you always have to be aware of the work that came before and build on that.
Harold Prince
31
I love theater. That’s what I did in Mexico City. I did a lot of musical theater, and it’s where my heart is.
Jaime Camil
32
I knew I wanted to pursue a career in the theater the minute I graduated from college having not pursued it! So I went back to school and got a degree in music and began working in musical theater.
Nancy Allen
33
I’ve been doing musical theater since I was a kid. And look for a CD from me in the future. I want to write all the songs!
Zac Efron
34
We thought it would be great to see if you could put pop music back into musical theater.
Neil Tennant
35
Because I was a dancer, I started going to auditions for musical theater, which forced me to sing.
Madonna Ciccone
36
I was trained classically in violin and voice, which led to musical theater. Then I left the music scene to chase acting, which is when ‘Neighbours’ came along. It was a fantastic playground for actors, and the cast around me taught me a lot.
Jesse Spencer
37
I went to a performing arts school, and we studied musical theater, jazz vocal performance, and they kind of start you out on those things because they feel like it is a good foundation, and it was.
Andra Day
38
When I first moved to New York, all I did was musical theater. That’s what I studied at Carnegie Mellon University.
Tamara Tunie
39
Because I am the biggest musical theater nerd, I worship Sondheim.
Beanie Feldstein
40
When I was in high school, I was a bad singer. I mean, all my early acting was musical theater, and my first ever show was ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ Everyone’s familiar with it. I played priest number 3 and sang so out of tune that it’s not even funny.
Sam Claflin
41
I thought I was going to be in musical theater all the way, from beginning to end, and then it started not to feel right after my first year at conservatory.
Briga Heelan
42
I’ve always been interested in music. In high school, I did a lot of musical theater, and I loved it.
Rosanna Pansino
43
In college, I actually majored in Musical Theater. I was pursuing a BFA in Musical Theater.
Grant Gustin
44
I mean, I came from musical theater.
Isa Briones
45
I started off in musical theater, yeah. It was one of my first jobs; it was in Spring Awakening in London, which was amazing.
Jamie Blackley
46
If there is a Busta Rhymes of musical theater, it probably is Mandy Patinkin.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
47
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
48
I didn’t know I was going to go into musical theater necessarily. It was never planned. I just kind of fell into it because I knew I wanted to act, and yet I had this opera training… I knew I had a voice.
Carmen Cusack
49
If I had to put in order what I love to do the most, it would be musical theater, movies, and then television.
Jaime Camil
50
I teach musical theater three days a week at the school that my wife and I graduated from.
Drew Lachey
51
I do create songs and play the guitar. But my focus is definitely on acting. I think, if there’s going to be singing involved in my career, it would probably be in musical theater.
Condola Rashad
52
I always wanted to do musical theater. That was where I saw my life going since I was a musical theater major in college before I went to Pentatonix.
Kirstin Maldonado
53
I love hip-hop; I love Sleigh Bells. I also love classical music and musical theater.
Tatiana Maslany
54
When I got to high school, I was going to do sports, but I got kicked off the volleyball team because I kept missing it for musical theater.
Shanice Williams
55
I believe there’s no reason why we couldn’t be entering a new age of musical theater if we continue to nurture young talent, take risks, and give them a playing field.
Carmen Cusack
56
Although my other ambition was to be a musical theater star (and I would attend college on a voice scholarship), writing was never far from my mind.
Alex Flinn
57
I’ve always sung. I was really into musical theater when I was growing up. As a kid, I listened to Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone, actually, on cassette tapes.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
58
I love rock and opera, and I love musical theater, and I don’t want to lose any of that.
Lauren Worsham
59
I think there are rock stars within every subgenre, and for people who are obsessed with musical theater Sutton Foster and Audra MacDonald are like Beyonce to them. I’m sure the a cappella world has their own version of that, and that exists in every geeky subculture.
Anna Kendrick
60
But you know, I’m not 25 anymore, and I have always said musical theater in particular is a young person’s game. It requires energy, mentally and physically, to do it.
Elaine Paige
61
I never wanted to be a wrestler, I wanted to get into musical theater. I always wanted to be on Broadway.
Tessa Blanchard
62
I have a lot of respect for the musical theater plays.
Christina Milian
63
I’m trying to bring a new generation into the musical theater and to create a new audience.
Jerry Herman
64
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
65
I trained classically for 11 years and then studied musical theater at AMDA New York. My dad is a singer-songwriter, so I followed in his footsteps.
Madeline Brewer
66
I definitely wasn’t cool in high school. I really wasn’t. I did belong to many of the clubs and was in leadership on yearbook and did the musical theater route, so I had friends in all areas. But I certainly did not know what to wear, did not know how to do my hair, all those things.
Dianna Agron
67
I don’t think theater is dying, and musicals are a great American art form. We’ve got apple pie, jazz and musical theater.
Laura Benanti
68
I think of the Roundabout as my musical theater family here in New York City.
Jane Krakowski
69
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
70
I’ve never had any feeling of disconnection between the classical theater, or the contemporary theater, or musical theater, or the thing that we call opera.
Trevor Nunn
71
Thinking back on it, I’ve been in this business since I was 3, and I grew up in musical theater, so I was raised and surrounded by gay men and gay women. I was hardly around anyone straight.
A. J. McLean
72
Dance has been a driving force in my life for 25 years. From music videos and hip hop, to jazz and musical theater, to ballet and classic modern dance, I have had extensive exposure to a variety of techniques that inspire my own electric style.
Anna Kaiser
73
When I wanted to audition for a dinner-theater junior troupe in my hometown, I needed to have a piece of musical theater music to sing. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to use. My mom and dad suggested that I sing ‘Edelweiss’ because I knew it from the music box.
Audra McDonald
74
I went through a few phases of finding myself: I dabbled in musical theater, chess club, dance troupe, splatter-painting, school mascot (go Wildcats), babysitter, photojournalist, drill team girl, emo kid – and not one of them defined me, but every single one will always play a part in who I am.
Debby Ryan
75
I was probably singing before I could talk. Musical theater is my passion. If I could afford it, I would just do dinner theater and live a simple life.
Bethany Joy Lenz
76
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
77
I love singing! I grew up in musical theater.
Juliette Goglia
78
Naivete is the real reason I applied to Juilliard. I wanted to study drama and not musical theater because I have a hard time dancing. I only applied there.
Gayle Rankin
79
I have been taking voice and singing lessons since age 10 and originally got into it because I was really interested in musical theater. After writing my first couple of songs and performing at age 14, I knew that I really wanted to be a singer.
Daya
80
I started acting when I was 10, doing musical theater. I was a brunette at that time. I was always cast in all the exotic parts.
Loni Anderson
81
I double majored in English education and theater with a musical theater minor. Teaching is the only thing that makes me as happy as performing.
Rob McClure
82
Singing is more of a hobby than really something I want to do for a career. But I love musical theater, so I’m hoping I can go back to it and do a role on Broadway for a few weeks. That would be a dream come true. My dream role would be Roxie in ‘Chicago.’
Jillian Rose Reed
83
‘Hamilton’ is a game-changer for the musical theater genre. It’s moved the art form forward so much and redefined so many things about what we do in theater, so it’s pretty hard to oversell it.
Rory O’Malley
84
I enjoyed acting growing up; I did musical theater. I had a secret desire to be a television and movie actress, but it wasn’t something I admitted to myself that I wanted to do, I guess.
Amanda Schull
85
I’ve always been really artistic. I went to an all-girls’ private Catholic school, and one of their biggest things was musical theater. I became obsessed with that.
Daniela Bobadilla
86
Even when I was studying musical theater in college, after I would have theory at 8 in the morning and be on crew for productions until 11 at night, from 12 A.M. to 3 A.M. I was hanging out with jazz musicians.
Joshua Henry
87
My brain knows how to learn musical theater dancing, but learning hip-hop? It was so hard for my body to understand how to move in that way.
Helene Yorke
88
If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they’ll respond to it.
Carlisle Floyd
89
I wore goofy hats to school and did musical theater. Most people thought I was a dork. But if you have a sense of humor about it, no one can bring you down.
Zac Efron
90
I’ve auditioned for musicals a lot, but I think my voice didn’t really match what they were looking for. I went to school for musical theater for a year and dropped out. Legit musicals are not quite my forte.
Cristin Milioti
91
I’m a musical theater aficionado, a.k.a. loser.
Paulo Costanzo
92
As an actor, you generally don’t get to choose what projects you are part of, so I’ve been very fortunate that ‘The Book of Mormon’ was something I got to be part of. I don’t want to be lofty, but it was groundbreaking, in many ways, for musical theater, so that was really thrilling to be part of.
Andrew Rannells
93
I was really into punk rock but also into musical theater.
Michelle Visage
94
What’s missing in the musical theater is producers willing to nurture new work, raise the money and put it on.
Harold Prince
95
I’d love to tackle a classic Shakespeare play or take on Nora Helmer in ‘A Doll’s House.’ Musical theater, it’s the classics like Rodgers and Hammerstein and Cole Porter’s ‘Kiss Me Kate.’ I’m much more a Julie Andrews-type soprano than an Idina Menzel.
Beth Behrs
96
I’m a weird dichotomy of nerd, sports fan, and musical theater, so I’d love to do a superhero musical on Broadway. But all the good superheroes are claimed.
Taran Killam
97
I wanted to entertain and make people laugh. I think it really hit in third grade, but once I was in high school, I joined chamber choir. I wanted to do musical theater, too, but they had rehearsals at the same time. That was a bit of ‘Sophie’s Choice.’
Chrissy Metz
98
I grew up doing musical theater.
Chris Colfer
99
I was a musical theater kid in high school.
Rian Johnson
100
I was in New York and was pursuing musical theater, and it didn’t feel right. I felt I was forcing myself to do things and be things that I wasn’t, all the time. I wasn’t listening to what I wanted to do. I was listening to what I thought I should do.
Briga Heelan
101
I’d taken, like, maybe some African dance classes a couple of times, but I wasn’t a musical theater person at all.
Chadwick Boseman