Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

#1

Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 5:01am

Has anybody been lucky enough to have caught a performance by a, then obscure, future Bway actor/star...? What show was it...?

Past or current, OK :)

#2

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 5:36am

I have two:
Saw the original Fiddler on the Roof when an obscure Bette Midler was in the chorus, although not quite Broadway, saw a performance at City Center of The Merry Widow and the understudy went on that evening - Beverly Sills.

#3

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 5:57am

Not Broadway but West End:

Catherine Zeta Jones: 42nd Street
Hugh Jackman: Oklahoma

A very lucky friend saw Jude Law in Les Parents Terrible.

#4

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 8:47am

I have pretty lame ones.

Robin De jesus in Rent as Steve before he became, "The Tony nominated actor..."

And once again not very big but Laura Bell Bundy in Hairspray (it's not a very big part) before she became Elle.

#5

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 9:02am

--Jason Danieley in FLOYD COLLINS
--Kelli O'Hara in MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE (she had already done SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS but not everyone knew here yet)
--Elizabeth Marvel in ARTS & LEISURE
--Frances Conroy in OUR TOWN, ARTS & LEISURE and RIDE DOWN MT. MORGAN. (She has been a working actress long before I saw her on stage for the first time, but these credits all came before she became a household name with "Six Feet Under" in 2001.)

#6

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 9:29am

Jane Krakowski in Starlight Express

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Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

#7

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 9:57am

Raul Esparza in the national tour of "Evita" as Che. Natalie Toro also played Eva in that production, and the year previous I saw her in the "Cats" tour as Grizabella. I think she is about to become pretty well known.

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"Johnny cheated. Frankie killed him. Johnny cheated so Frankie killed him. Shot and killed him. Don't blame her - I'd have done it, too."

#8

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 9:58am

Eden Espinoza playing Pocahontas at Disneyland.

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Faced with these Loreleis, what man can moralize!

#9

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 10:03am

The original tour of 'The Secret Garden' featured, amongst others, Audra MacDonald, Douglas Sills, Roger Bart and James Barbour before they became household names in the theatrical community.

#10

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 10:11am

Bette Midler was NEVER in the chorus of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. She played daughter Tzeitel from 1966 to 1969.

#11

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 10:16am

I saw Scott Bakula (and John Kassir, although he isn't a "Broadway star") in 3 Guys Naked from the Waist Down at UNC-Chapel Hill before the show made its way to Off-Broadway. I also saw Michael Cumpsty and Kathryn Meisle in several productions at UNC.

#12

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 11:03am

Doesn't this thread already exist from long ago with many answers?

#13

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 11:09am

I saw Raul Esparza ar one of the very early previews of the Rocky Horror Revival (for any of you who followed it, It was early enough in previews that they still had the "glove" costumes for the floorshow)

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"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel

#14

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 11:11am

Same topic thread started in August 2007:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=945750#3467650

#15

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 11:49am

Kelli O'Hara on the "Jekyll and Hyde" tour.

#16

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 12:26pm

I saw Celia Keenan-Bolger and Hugh Panero as Joanna and Anthony in Sweeney Todd at the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration

#17

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 12:28pm

Linda Eder in the pre B'Way tour of Jekyll & Hyde.

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#18

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 12:41pm

Well Brody, you are mistaken - Midler started off in the chorus in 1964 and was elevated to one of the daughters in 1966.

#19

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 12:50pm

Kyle Riabko(Melchior) before he was any stage guy, he was kyle, with a little jazz album which I love, who taught me how to do shots and hung out with me on my birthday. :) Im so happy to see hes doing well

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#20

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 12:51pm

This doesn't really count since she's not a huge Broadway name now, but I saw VERONICA J KUEHN (Ali in Mamma Mia) in the Lyric Stage Company's production of Urinetown in Boston.

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"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611

#21

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 1:00pm

I saw Eden in a show as Pocahantas in Disneyland! I was only 8 but I remember thinking how awesome she sang!

#22

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 1:03pm

Jai Rodriguez in high school

Billy - Anything Goes

#23

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 1:31pm

FrontRowCenter2 -- not to keep dragging this one but directly from Midler herself (I talked about this with her almost a year ago), her association with Broadway's FIDDLER ON THE ROOF was in 1966 playing Rivka and understudying other roles. She was later promoted to Tzeitel.

In 1964 she was still in Hawaii and no where near New York City. She played an extra in the 1966 film HAWAII (shot on location on various Hawaiian islands), which validates this. Filming was done in 1965 and the money she made from her work in the film is how she made it out to New York City and getting into FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, etc.

All this is common knowledge if you are familiar with aspects of her early career.

#24

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 1:44pm

--Kelli O'Hara in Jekyll & HYDE on Broadway as ensemble member I think Nellie (the girl at the end of Act 1 with the bishop).
--Kate Shindle as various roles in Jekyll & HYDE on Broadway.
--I've seen Christina DeCicco many times in J&H, Beauty and the Beast, as a chorus memeber in Cats I believe, and Peron's Mistress in EVITA all at the Walnut Street Theatre...missed her though in the Wicked National tour last year. Not a "Broadway star" yet but she's good enough to be one!
--Richard Blake as Tony in the National Tour of Saturday Night Fever.

Updated On: 6/28/08 at 01:44 PM

#25

re: Anyone see any Bway stars perform before they 'made it'...?

Posted: 6/28/08 at 1:52pm

Kathy Deitch in high school