The Muny

We love The Muny. It's hard not to. It's the country's oldest and largest outdoor theater. The stage is 95 feet wide and it seats 12,500 people per performance. You can pay as much as $66 for a seat, or as little as $9. Or, if you're willing to both risk it and wait it out, they give away nearly 1,500 seats for each and every show.Yep, F R E E. Even parking is free.

Photo - The Muny

So far, we've scored free tix to Damn Yankees and Cats. (Cats was totally worth the price of admission.) We're interested in a couple of other performances later this season, specifically The Sound of Music and Show Boat.

So, you're thinking free, municipal, local performers, lousy sets... But, no. The actor who played Old Deuteronomy is the same one who originated the role on B'way. The actress who brought the audience to tears with Memory sounds, to our ears, better than the original.

Photo - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Here's how it works: Each show begins at 8:15. At 7 PM, they let patrons in to claim seats in the last nine rows of the theater. Sometimes there are lengthy lines at 7, other times there are not. Some people seem content to leave items on the seats and wander off, others sit until the show begins.

We could definitely have arrived later for each of the shows we attended, in neither case did the free seats fill up. But we went on Wednesday nights in not ideal weather (hot the first time, just finished raining the second). Because Scott begins work next week, staying out til midnight on Wednesday likely won't fly anymore. So we'll see how a Friday night show fills up.

Like other outdoor venues we've been to, they are happy to supply free ice and water for patrons. And the local gas company was handing out paper fans at Cats.

The national anthem is performed before each show. This was a bit of a surprise. As was the hand-over-heart, belt-it-out zeal with which those around us participated.

At the end of the performance, everyone files out in a leisurely, orderly manner. People stay on the sidewalks. They do not walk across the grass, even if that's the shortest route. They do not rush back to their cars. 


There is one major drawback to The Muny: It's outside. So during the slow moments, it's hard to keep your attention on the stage when the sunset is going all amazing on you.