Oooh, I also want to see the Broadway revue Miss 1917, with Irene Castle, Savoy and Brennan, Lew Fields, Marion Davies, Ann Pennington, Bessie McCoy Davis, and songs by Kern and Wodehouse!
And something with late 19th-century comedienne Rosina Vokes, who was supposed to be the Judy Holliday of her day. Oh! And Judy Holliday in Bells Are Ringing!
A Harry Houdini performance. The flickery silents that are left of him don’t do much justice.
Love’s Labour’s Won, of course. How can you not?
But if I need to pinpoint a specific performance, I think it would be pretty fantastic to see the premier of King Lear at King James’s palace on December 26, 1606. Christmas revels at court must have been something to see, quite apart from the general awesomeness of seeing a brand-new Shakespeare play performed by the King’s Men.
July 3, 1973 - The Hammersmith Odeon, in London. The final performance of “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”
Not a play, but very definitely a theatrical production. Yes, I’ve seen the film, but to be there…
Well, Ancient Egypt had a couple of religious rituals that some people think were a first step to theater. I wouldn’t mind getting a gander at the Abydos Passion Play or the Memphite Drama. As for ancient greek theater, we really don’t know much about costuming. We know they wore masks but they were all made out of things like linen and wood that didn’t ever get preserved. The actual construction of the amphitheaters is still under debate. Most of our knowledge comes from designs on vases that people think were theatrical productions but who knows if the vase painter was drawing true stuff or just what he thought made a pretty vase. There are more mysteries than this but I don’t have my notes from my theater history classes with me right now.
(I’ve always been intrigued by the period between the fall of the roman empire and the rise of liturgical drama in Europe. As far as I know, there’s no real evidence that theater was still occurring during that period but I find it hard to believe that there wouldn’t even be traveling troupes wandering around putting on skits and doing acrobatics. I’d love to see that progression but I’d have no idea where or when to even start looking.)
According to witnesses, everybody got out safely. So I stand by my choice.
Tell you what: I’ll drop you off on my way to see the first performance of Othello. If you’re not at the designated rendezvous point when I come by to pick you up I’ll assume something bad happened and abandon you to your fate.
Just drop me off in Paris on Thursday, 29 May 1913 to see the first performance of The Rite of Spring. With added riot bonus.
Alternatively, I’d love to have been at one of the performances that made up the Velvet Underground’s live 1969 album. Lou Reed in a good and chatty mood, and all round awesomeness.
Victor Hugo’s Hernani could be a fun one from the rioting crowds point of view.
I’d love to see some of the artists for whom there are umpteen reports of their unique greatness but who lived before there could be recordings of it. I mentioned Bernhardt above, but also Niccolo Paganini, Mozart, and Liszt- their compositions survive, but all were supposed to be one of a kind performers.
And of course the great castrati singers. Farinelli was the most famous but there were others, and it’d be interesting to see how close the movie came in synthesizing the famous castrato voice that once dominated opera.
On Thursday, 29 May 1913, be at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, to see the premiere of Stravinsky’s* Le sacre du printemps*, aka* The Rite (not Rites) of Spring.* Supposedly, the performance was so radical that the audience rioted. In recent years, this story has been called into question. Let us know how it really came out***.***
Indeed 
Same with Beethoven and his Ninth Symphony.
You may not want to keep dropping people off at the Globe Theater, but I’d give almost anything to see Henry V. I think it’s the best of Shakespeare’s historical plays.
Tell you what, if you can get me there I’ll bring you cookies, any kind you like. I not just called Baker, I am one IRL And IMNSHO I’m pretty good at it.
I would like to see Gillette perform Sherlock Holmes.
I would like to see if Garrick was as good as they say.
Yeah, this one. It may not have been great acting(who can know?), but it’d be worth it.
He stole mine.
Oh come on, who wouldn’t want to see Bob Balaban and Radar before they were famous? 
Frost-Nixon interview starring David Frost and Richard M. Nixon.
I’m not much into plays, but this thread is interesting because it tells me about some I should know about. Prior to the newly-found options, if I had to choose a play it’d be either a Shakespeare or a Gilbert & Sullivan.
If I could choose a movie though, I’d like to be at the Atlanta premiere of Gone With The Wind. It’s far from being my favorite movie or book, but that premiere is a classic. Inside that is, not standing with the crowd outside waiting for a glimpse of Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Producer David O. Selznick, Margaret Mitchell, Olivia de Havilland and others. Even knowing about and hating the horrifically racist laws that kept Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly McQueen and other black actors away, I can’t help but think it must have been an exciting night, to watch the movie in the presence of those greats.
Nearly as exciting would have been the sneak preview screening for a normal everyday audience long before the movie was even finished.
Just out of curiosity, why did you pick this? I’ve become interested in the Ziegfeld Follies because of an interest in the songwriter Dave Stamper, but I don’t know a lot about them individually. I found this page on the 1917 Follies. What catches you? (It’s so great to see you back btw!)
In the Andrew Lloyd Webber department, I’d see the first production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Colet Court School, March 1, 1968. I’d also like to have been at the BBC when they first presented The Likes of Us, and at for Queen Elizabeth’s 60th birthday celebration on June 18, 1986 for one of the two showings of Cricket. And Hula Ballo, a 1973 show that had six songs by Llloyd Webber & Rice, which was so bad both men leave it off their c.v.