Terry Baer remembers the Muny of his childhood as a social hotspot -- where stars came to sing and dance and St. Louisans came to be seen, where headliners frequented lavish cast parties and theatergoers donned their best.

Bypassing the ticket window

Photos by Rachel Heidenry | Beacon intern

Many Muny regulars sit in seats that have been passed down from generation to generation.

 "It was a big occasion to go to the Muny," Baer said. "Even in horrendous heat, people got dressed up. I remember sitting on the most hot, humid nights in a sport coat and slacks."

This strict dress code was enforced by his father Arthur Baer II who served on the Muny's board of directors for 29 years, following in the footsteps of Terry's grandfather Arthur Baer, a 38-year board member. As a teenager when his father and grandfather were on the board, Terry was able to meet many of the stars who visited the Muny's stage -- like Broadway sensation Pearl Bailey and television's Florence Henderson of "The Brady Bunch."

But now, Baer, 53, like most of his theatergoing companions, keeps a laxer dress code.

"I don't dress up the way I used to -- I never wear a sport coat anymore," Baer said. "In some respects, I kind of miss that because it did add a certain level of special-ness to the Muny that it does lack today."

But a lot more than dress has changed at the Muny since Baer's childhood. And even more has changed over the entirety of the theater's 90-year history. The Muny rose out of humble beginnings. Its original purpose was to host a one-time-only run of "Aida" for an advertising club convention in 1917, but the city incorporated the theater between the giant oaks the next year.

Today, the theater touts its status as the oldest and largest outdoor musical theater in the country. Accordingly, it has added state-of-the-art sound and lighting equipment for its 11,000-seat audience. The Muny has also undergone extensive structural changes, adding concession stands, administrative offices and, most recently, a dedicated building for its thriving Muny Kids and Muny Teens programs.

But the Muny's most basic themes remain unchanged. The theater's label of "social hotspot" is no less fitting today than it was 30 years ago. On any given performance night, chattering crowds mingle outside the gates, often with coolers in hand. Once inside, tenants of the free seats make fast friends with audience members nearby and season ticket holders pick up conversations with their neighbors where they left off after the previous week's show.

"It's kind of a mini-community in the section where you sit," Baer said. "You get used to seeing (people in neighboring seats) and you may not see them the rest of the year, but you reconnect for that seven-week period."

Season ticketholder and Muny assistant choreographer Mark Krupinski inherited his family's seats from his mother after her death. She had subscribed to the same seats since 1973 and had become quite familiar with season ticket holders in nearby seats. Even though Mark eventually traded in her seats for tickets closer to center stage, he still makes a point of visiting his "neighbors" at the old seats before each show starts.

"It becomes a family reunion," Krupinski said.

But for the real members of Krupinski's family, his wife, Mimi, and daughter, Ashley, spend the entire summer attending what they long ago termed "Camp Muny," with father and daughter normally performing in or assisting with five of each season's seven shows and mother lending support from offstage.

The Muny is a Krupinski family tradition, encompassing three generations.

Mark's mother was a veteran of the Muny's 1920s children's chorus, and she made sure to give her son an early acquaintance with the theater.

Family tradition

Mark Krupinski inherited family seats, and also passed his love for working at the Muny on to his daughter. Ashley, who signed as a dancer two years ago.

 "Without showing me how to do it or telling me what she was doing, she was really training me for this place," Mark said.

He recalls exactly when musical theater captured his imagination: it was a fight scene between the Jets and Sharks during "West Side Story."

"(I was) watching those guys climb over the fence. They were going to go into the fight," Krupinski said. "And I thought, 'How cool! They're going to let you climb a fence!'"

The scene caught him hook, line and sinker, and Krupinski was auditioning for dancing roles at the Muny by the time he was 5. But it would take another 15 years before he nabbed his first part at age 20 -- the same age his daughter was when she signed her first contract with the theater two years ago.

But Ashley had been performing with the Muny Kids long before that. Her first and most memorable production was "Peter Pan," where she danced in the ensemble as an Indian girl.

Baer, too remembers that show, which helped cement the tradition for the next generation of the family.

"My son was 4 years old when we took him the first time. He was mesmerized. Absolutely mesmerized," Baer said. "A year or so later, we took him to 'Peter Pan' -- still mesmerized. He took a friend who was scared to death of the pirates. The friend was almost in my wife's lap, he was so scared. But Jonathon was just fascinated.

"And that's what musical theater does. It captivates audiences. It engages them and captivates them. It has this mystique -- a magic that you can't find just watching television. It opens up so many different worlds and sparks your imagination."

And that, Krupinski says, is why the Muny is as much a local pastime as Cardinals baseball.

"The people who come here, it becomes what they do on Tuesday nights. I mean, we've had Monday nights for 35 years," Krupinski said. "It becomes what St. Louis does in the summer."

To check out the Muny's schedule, click here .