Poll: Female Broadway Legends

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 3:59am

Who is your favorite: Liza,Barbra,Julie,Bette,etc.

[itsmeeeee]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 3:59am

Bette

[BwayLeadman]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 4:01am

Bette

[BwayLover]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 4:13am

Barbra

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 4:21am

I say Liza and Julie

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 4:50am

alright...so far Bette is the winner...cast ur vote!

[Macavity]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 4:53am

Liza

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 8:43am

Liza
Julie
Bette
Barbra

[ConductorMan]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 9:47am

Angela Lansbury

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 10:39am

Come on! You gotta give the love to Julie!!

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 10:44am

Bette Davis? She did 2 flop musicals: 'Two's Company' and "Miss Moffatt'.
Bette Middler? She was a replacement in the OBC of 'Fiddler on the Roof' and did a TV remake of 'Gypsy'.
Liza? She did one OB show ('Flora') and two Broadway shows ('The Act' and 'The Rink') and filled in for short stints in 'Chicago' and 'Victor Victoria'.
Even Lansbury is known for basically two shows: 'Sweeney Todd' and 'Mame'. Yes, she was marvelous in both parts but calling her a Broadway legend is still a stretch.
How that qualifies any of them for 'Broadway Legend' status is beyond me.
Think Merman, Mary Martin, Gertrude Lawrence, Helen Hayes, Carol Channing, Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Laurette Taylor, and Tallulah Bankhead. These are women who have performed primarily on the stage for their entire careers, decade after decade. THOSE are Broadway legends.
Quite honestly, I am getting tired of the children on this board who thinks Brodway began with 'Rent' and ends with 'Wicked'. The New York stage has a glorious history going back over 100 years and to ignore anything over 15 years old exposes your ignorance.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 10:49am

Julie Harris

Hushpuppy is absolutely spot-on.

[whatyouown223]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 10:49am

Well, people can like Wicked and appreciate other theatre too, it;s really not that hard. There's nothing we can do about it here, so relish in this thread where you won't find many Wicked fans.

I like Babs. I don't think Bernadette Peters has quite reached this title yet, but once she does, I'll be there supporting her!

[joeybiltmore1]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 10:56am

hushpuppy you are my hero today.

I've got to go with Chita and Ethel.

Bette is probably my favorite performer of the group, but to call her a BROADWAY legend for replacing a supporting role in one Broadway show is stretching it.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 11:01am

Julie.

[kjklo]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 11:09am

Hushpuppy, I agree with a lot of what you say, however Flora the Red Menace WAS a Broadway show and won Minnelli the Tony.

Also, Lansbury has four Tonys and has done a lot more than just Mame and Sweeny, legendary as those were.

[Thenardier]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 11:20am

Gwen Verdon

Updated On: 8/20/05 at 11:20 AM

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 11:30am

gertrude lawrence & judy holiday

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 11:33am

Kjklo: I stand corrected. For whatever reason, I thought Flora was off-Broadway. I apologize for the error (but I still think my point about Liza is valid).
Now, onto Angela Lansbury. I did think long and hard about her career before I posted my comments. Yes, she won a Tony for 'Dear World' but the show was a short-lived flop. And while I happen to love the score, nobody thinks of 'Dear World' when they think of Angela Lansbury or great Broadway shows. 'Anyone Can Whistle?' Despite a great score, only those who are die-hard Sondheim-o-philes are familiar with this show. It lasted 9 performances, I believe. 'Gypsy'? Yes, she did it in London and then LA and NY and forever showed the world that this show was capable of being done on the stage without Ethel Merman. She was superb, but it was a revial, not an original show. 'Prettybelle'? 'Nuff said.
While I think that Lansbury (and Minnelli, and Midler) can legitimately called ENTERTAINMENT legends, their careers largely revolve around media other than Broadway. I go back to my original point: to me a Broadway legend is someone whose career was spent mostly on the stage, season after season, acting in new shows, and creating new parts (for this reason, I question Bernadette Peters, but we'll see where the rest of her career takes her). Angela Lansbury made her name in films, did Broadway in the 60's, 70's, and early 80's and then went on to television where she (presumably, since she is now 80) finished her career. Of course, what makes all this so much fun is that a topic like this is open for discussion, interpretation, and argument, but I thought I'd give you my reasons for excluding Miss Lansbury from my 'legendary' list.

[jobiennj2]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 11:40am

Huh??? What kind of choices are these? You must be a teenager. Have you never heard of Merman, Martin, Verdon, Riveria, Channing, Lansbury, or Stritch?

[Jwei123]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 11:57am

verdon by a MILLLLE

[kjklo]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:04pm

Thanks hushpuppy. Good arguments, well thought-out and presented. I still think if Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters don't qualify as Broadway legends, then the bar is being set too impossibly high--but that's just me.

As for the others initially mentioned, Andrews and Streisand made huge Broadway splashes but then quickly fled to Hollywood, Minnelli's might-have-been career was sabotaged by emotional problems and substance abuse, and Midler has virtually no connection to Broadway whatsoever (other than the Fiddler replacement job).
Updated On: 8/20/05 at 12:04 PM

[grizzabella]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:06pm

I completely understand your reasoning, Hushpuppy about Angela Lansbury, but I have to differ. I think Miss Lansbury's career has been long enough, and varied enough, on the Broadway stage to qualify her.(Four Tony's and two legendary shows aren't negligable.) Yes, she was in some flops, but surely that can happen to anyone with the theatre experience she's had. The discussion was about the performer, not necessarily the productions. I also think that her on-going connection to the theatre in general qualifies her. She might be known to most people for "Murder, She Wrote," but she had a solid theatre career, before and after it. Still, that's the beauty of this board. There's room for lots of opinions.
I completely agree with you about your other nominees, however. These are women of amazing stature, if you include Angela Lansbury or not.

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:31pm

Yes, I think the bar SHOULD be set impossibly high. As a society in general, we are too quick to bestow titles such as 'sensational', 'history-making' and 'legendary' upon those and that not entirely deserving. I'm not going to get into a discussion of the standing-ovation phenomenon, but I believe we tend to bestow unearned superlatives (and unearned standing ovations) to make us feel better about ourselves ('My god, Hortense, I just saw Hugh Jackman in 'Boy From Oz'. What a LEGEND he is!) and to justify the time, effort, and money it cost us to attend a performance. I could argue that nobody alive should be considered a 'legend' at all (and how old must you feel if you're introduced as a 'living legend'?) but only after that person has passed and their entire body of work has been evaluated should the title be bestowed. Sad to think, but given the fact that nobody is writing new musicals year after year as they did in the first 2/3 of the 20th century, we may never see another 'Broadway Legend' again. We will certainly see legendary performances, and legendary roles, but does anyone think that a young 20-something perfomer jut starting out is going to spend their carreer as Merman, Channing, (and yes, Bernadette Peters) etc did, putting on make-up, getting into costume, going out on stage and performing 8 shows a week, week after week, year after year, decade after decade to become true Broadway Legend?

[PJ]

Posted: 8/20/05 at 12:38pm

I'm sorry, but I would not consider Streisand and Midler legends of Broadway. Barbra is a legend for being Barbra. She did two Broadway shows over 40 years ago. And sure, Funny Girl shot her to fame, but it's the songs and the film version that people remember the most about her.

And Bette Midler is not a legend of the stage. Like everyone else stated, she was in Fiddler. Wow.

Both are fantastic entertainers who have had tremendous success in their chosen fields, but come on.
---

If you were to ask me what names came to mind:

Ethel Merman
Julie Harris
Angela Lansbury
Gwen Verdon

and my more contemporary choices would be:

Bernadette Peters
Patti LuPone

And am I the only one who believes that Kristin Chenoweth will be considered a Broadway legend at one point in time? Her talent and instrument aren't really in the fad of belters we see today, which I feel gives her some staying power. You could disagree, though.
Updated On: 8/20/05 at 12:38 PM