Who did you see before they were famous??- Page 2

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 2:57am

Megan Mullally and Hunter Foster in a pre-B'way GREASE!
Kristin Chenoweth in the Guthrie's BABES IN ARMS.
Norbert Leo Butz in the CABARET tour.

[chinto1984]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 2:59am

I saw Mara Davi in 42nd tour as Peggy. That was her first professional gig. This where it gets interesting. I do shows with a girl who went to high school with Mara Davi at the local theatre where Audra McDonald, Sharon Leal, Robert Westernberg, Sarah Uriate Berry started. I see the old show posters and there were like 15 yrs old at the time. Audra did Evita at 16. I've seen some of the tapes. It was hard to believe that she was 16 playing this role.

[overthemoonboy]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 3:08am

My neighbor saw Laura Bell Bundy and Richard H. Blake in The Sound of Music tour with Marie Osmand as Maria (playing Luisa and Rolf).

I saw Rebecca Pitcher on tour with Phantom... back then I thought she was really good. According to posts here, she's pitchy now

And though he's not very famous, John Altieri (Bob Crew in JB NT 1) was my director at Idyllwild Arts theater camp!

[feinstein9]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 4:20am

Ah, Audra in the Secret Garden (1990 or '91?). I was six and don't remember much but I'm sure she was great. In 1994 I saw Patrick Wilson and Sarah Uriate Berry in Carousal (tour), the production that really turned me on to theater. Raul Esparza in Evita tour. Working at Casa Manana as a kid I got to work with some people that went on to reach success, seeing as in the summer we imported young actors from New York as the leads. There were maybe four or five of them, but I guess it's tacky to name-drop. It's great to see actors develop over time. I'm jealous of those who saw the previously mentioned production of Othello! I imagine you'd leave the theater going "Wow... they were *all* great!"

[actormcfamous]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 4:22am

Saw Celia Keenan-Bolger play Cecile in a community theater production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the Seattle Public Theater back when she was here for Piazza's pre-Broadway run.

[jo]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 4:36am

Not yet Hollywood- or Broadway-famous then --

Hugh Jackman in the London production of OKLAHOMA!

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 6:18am

Nathan Lane in Wind in the Willows.

How could I forget, Sarah Jessica Parker as Annie in 1979.

Ian Ziering (90210) in I Remember Mama (also in 1979).

Updated On: 8/27/07 at 06:18 AM

[mattonstage]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 7:12am

Don't know if this counts, but I was just flipping channels and came across an old Saved by the Bell, and there was Gary Beach as a slimy high school ring salesman, hilarious!!

[stolistar]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 8:59am

I saw Jane Krakowski in Starlight Express, I assume that was before she was really famous. Because later on, any time I would see her on TV I would think, hey, there's Dinah the dining car!

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 9:03am

Carolee Carmello in "Chess" in 1990

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 9:05am

I saw Sarah Gettelfinger in the Seussical enesemble.

I saw Jennifer Hope Wills in a regional production of Oklahoma several years before she even made it to Broadway.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 9:08am

I was lucky enough to be in the theatre dept at Northwestern, so I saw there (and/or worked with) the following talented students:

Megan Mullally
Greg Edelman
Michael Grief
Jayne Atkinson
Richard Kind
Fred Applegate
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Brad Hall
John McGlinn
Susie Plaksin

I am th only non-famous one.

[masterthes]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 9:19am

Well, they're not totally famous yet, but if they ever do, I can always say I went to high school with Patti Murin and Shelley Thomas, and did a handful of shows with them too.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 9:39am

Mandy Patinkin as an undergrad in college playing Tevye in Fiddler (I was around 5 or 6 years old).

Don Johnson playing Tulsa in Gypsy when he was 18 in college. My mom was in the show, too.

Rob Marshall, Judy Kuhn and Donna Murphy in the chorus of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

I was on stage myself with Marin Mazzie a couple of times before she was "famous."

[WonderRobbie]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 9:50am

I saw Jai Rodriguez in a high school production of "Company" in Smithtown, Long Island YEARS ago. He was a senior and friends with my best friend at the time.
I ended up meeting him afterwards and I asked him what he was doing after he graduated. He said he was going to Canada to start working on a new show where he would be playing a dragqueen. I was slightly intrigued and asked him what it was going to be called. He simply said "Rent".

Little did I know huh?

[Pippin]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 11:42am

I saw T.R Knight as "tim" in the revival of Noises off before he was in that show....something anatomy?

[JoeGillis]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 12:24pm

Patrick Wilson in Bright Lights Big City @ NYTW

Eden and Celia in the Bright Lights Big City presentation @ the Guggenheim

[commasplice]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 12:42pm

"Mara Davi (my playbill said Melody Davi) on 42nd Street tour. This was 1 1/2 months before Chorus Line in S.F., where I saw her again."

Are you sure it was Mara? Melody is her sister, who played Peggy after her.

And for me, Lisa Brescia as Cathy in The Last Five Years. She had done Aida and JCS at that point, but this was a couple years before The Times and Wicked. (There might be more, but I can't think of them and I'm too lazy to dig out my Playbills.)

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 12:43pm

Sandy duncan in THE CANTERBURY TALES

[Fiyero13]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 1:11pm

Constantine Maroulis in Rent touring

[EganFan2]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 1:41pm

I saw Kelli O'Hara in the "Jekyll and Hyde" tour.

[avab802]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 2:09pm

I went to college with Tony Yazbeck. We lived in the same dorm building my freshman year (his sophomore year). I wouldn't exactly have called him a friend, but we hung out on occasion. I can't remember seeing him in any shows back then though.

I saw Patrick Wilson in Bright Lights Big City at NYTW, and Celia Keenan-Bolger in Summer of '42 at Goodspeed.
Lots of random people in RENT - Jai Rodriguez, Norbert Leo Butz, Sharon Leal, Richard Blake. Depends on your definition of "famous" which of these people can be considered as such.

EDIT: EganFan, your avatar (and your name) reminded me - I saw Susan Egan in a pre-Broadway run of Triumph of Love at CenterStage in Baltimore. This was after she'd done Beauty & the Beast, but I had no idea who she was at the time. When I saw her in Cabaret years later, I realized that I'd seen her before. I told her so at the stage door and she was shocked that I remembered because (to paraphrase) "that was a million years ago!" Updated On: 8/27/07 at 02:09 PM

[mustard]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 2:51pm

I saw Molly Ringwald as the Dormouse in a community Alice production I went to for my 6th birthday.

I've been in a couple shows with Mara & Melody Davi, and their mom. I've also done shows with Jenifer Foote (she's in DRS). Love them all.

Kate Levering was also from the area so I saw her in stuff (but never worked with her).

I worked sound at a regional theater about 12 years ago and lots of people came there:

Susan Egan (pre BATB)
Rachel de Benedet
Christine Toy
Lenny Wolpe
Gary Beach (although he had already done Bway stuff)

Probably there are more that I am forgetting, but I don't feel like thinking. I keep all my theater programs and it's fun to read through them years later and see who is getting more well known. A lot of the people I know are doing stuff, but not "famous."

[b0b3rt831]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 3:10pm

Barrett Foa, Celia Keenan-Bolger, and Aaron Lazar were in Bye Bye Birdie at Pittsburgh CLO in 1999 and I was in the children's ensemble... Gavin Creel was in Cinderella at CLO in 1997, which I saw

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 8/27/07 at 3:21pm

How famous is famous?

Frances Conroy in Sorrows of Stephen at The Public.
Amanda Plummer, A Month in the Country, The Roundabout
Ellen Greene, National Tour They're Playing Our Song
The entire Steppenwolf Ensemble
David Schwimmer - The Master & Marguerita