Best Performances You Have Seen
Best Performances You Have Seen
#1Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 9:34pmList some of the best stage performances you have ever seen. Doesn't matter how many.
I'm a professional. Whenever something goes wrong on stage, I know how to handle it so no one ever remembers. I flash my %#$&.
"Jayne just sat there while Gina flailed around the stage like an idiot."
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
theatreguy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/31/03
musialman
Chorus Member Joined: 7/1/09
#3re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 9:43pmGavin Creel as Claude in HAIR and Jennifer D. in Next to Normal (among the entire cast :)
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#4re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 9:45pm
Carol Channing in HELLO, DOLLY!
Patti LuPone in GYPSY
Patti LuPone in MASTER CLASS
Elizabeth Ashely in CAT..TIN ROOF
Stacy Keach in HAMLET
Anthony Perkins in EQUUS
Anthony Hopkins in EQUUS
Jeremy Irons in THE REAL THING
Angela Lansbury in MAME
Martin Short in THE GOODBYE GIRL
Angela Lansbury in SWEENEY TODD
James Earl Jones in THE GREAT WHITE HOPE
Bea Lillie in HIGH SPIRITS
Pearl Bailey in HELLO, DOLLY
Angela Lansbury in DEAR WORLD
Patrick Wilson in THE FULL MONTY
Patrick Wilson in BAREFOOT IN THE PARK
almost forgot: That Streisand Woman in FUNNY GIRL
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
Updated On: 8/30/09 at 09:45 PM
#5re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 9:47pmDollypop- You are so lucky. You have seen all the greats.
I'm a professional. Whenever something goes wrong on stage, I know how to handle it so no one ever remembers. I flash my %#$&.
"Jayne just sat there while Gina flailed around the stage like an idiot."
#6re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 9:48pm
Don't judge mine please.
Karen Olivo- West Side Story
Alice Ripley- Next to Normal
J Robert Spencer- Next to Normal
I'm a professional. Whenever something goes wrong on stage, I know how to handle it so no one ever remembers. I flash my %#$&.
"Jayne just sat there while Gina flailed around the stage like an idiot."
#7re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 9:55pm
Patti LuPone in Gypsy
Alice Ripley and Bobby Spencer in next to normal
Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens
Deanna Dunagan/ Amy Morton in August: Osage County
Phylicia Rashad in August: Osage County
Nathan Lane in The Producers
Dan Radcliffe in Equus
Brian Stokes Mitchell in Ragtime
Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in Wicked
Heather Headley in Aida
Cherry Jones in Doubt
Cathy Rigby in Peter Pan
Brian Dennehy in Death of a Salesman
Updated On: 8/30/09 at 09:55 PM
#8re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 9:57pm
Hmmm I would have to second Gavin Creel in Hair and add Will Swenson in the same show.
Lin Manuel Miranda in In the Heights is another one for me.
"If we don't live happily ever after at least we survive until the end of the week!" -Kermit the frog "I need the money... it costs a lot to look this cheap!" -Dolly P. "Oh please, Over at 'Gypsy' Patti LuPone hasn't even alienated her first daughter yet!" Mary Testa in "Xanadu" "...Like a drunk Chita Rivera!" Robin de Jesus in "In the Heights"
"B*tch, I don't know your life." -Xanadu After that if he still doesn't understand why you were uncomfortable and are now infuriated, kick him again but this time with Jazz Hands!!! -KillerTofu
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#9re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 9:58pmOops, I forgot Gwen Verdon in SWEET CHARITY
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#10re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:04pm
Christine Ebersole- Grey Gardens
Victoria Clark- The Light in the Piazza
Jefferson Mays- I Am My Own Wife
Geoffrey Rush- Exit the King
Audra McDonald- Carousel
Brent Carver- Kiss of the Spiderwoman
Brian Stokes Mitchell- Kiss Me, Kate
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
Danny Megs
Swing Joined: 6/20/08
#11re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:05pm
Patti Lupone - Gypsy
Alice Ripley - Next to Normal
Cathy Rigby - Peter Pan
Idina Menzel - Wicked
Victoria Clark - The Light in the Piazza
Raul Esparza - Company
Sean Hayes - Damn Yankees
Jane Fonda - 33 Variations
Fantasia Barino - The Color Purple
the cast of 13!
Updated On: 9/3/09 at 10:05 PM
Leia947
Broadway Star Joined: 6/17/09
#13re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:13pm
Gavin Creel and WIll Swenson - Hair
Heather Headley - Aida
Anthony Barille - Tommy
All of the Puppets in Avenue Q 
"And I'm a grown up....I don't go on vacations....I go to Broadway." - dramamama611
"Even I think that's hot, and I'm a straight guy. If I ever become gay he is the reason." - Drunk Chita Rivera on Gavin Creel
"Leia947 is my theatre mamma, and I love her for it." - AndAllThatJazz22
"Even I think that's hot, and I'm a straight guy. If I ever become gay he is the reason." - Drunk Chita Rivera on Gavin Creel
"Leia947 is my theatre mamma, and I love her for it." - AndAllThatJazz22
#14re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:13pm
Heidi Blickenstaff in Little Mermaid
Susan Marley (U/S for Violet) in August: Osage County
Howie Michael Smith in Avenue Q
Marcia Gay Harden in God of Carnage
Scarlett Strallen in Mary Poppins
"Everything in life, is only for now"
-Avenue Q
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#15re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:21pm
Jeremy Piven in Mercury Poisons Me.
Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE
Updated On: 8/31/09 at 10:21 PM
#16re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:23pm
LMAO!
Blaxxs responses never cease to ammuse me :)
"Everything in life, is only for now"
-Avenue Q
#17re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:32pm
Alice Ripley - Next to Normal
Will Swenson - Hair
Laura Benanti - Gypsy
Johanna Day - August: Osage County
Amy Morton - August: Osage County
Phylicia Rashad - August: Osage County
Boyd Gaines - Gypsy
Sarah Steele - Speech and Debate
Sutton Foster - Little Women
Raul Esparza - Company
Barbara Walsh - Company
Edit: Jesus, I forgot to say Jenna Russell and Daniel Evans!
I know you.
I know you.
I know you.
Updated On: 8/30/09 at 10:32 PM
#19re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:34pm
Glinda I completly forgot
I second Johanna Day 100%!!
"Everything in life, is only for now"
-Avenue Q
#20re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:41pmI think Johanna Day was a better Barbara than Amy Morton. There I said it.
I know you.
I know you.
I know you.
#21re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:51pm
Alice Ripley - next to normal
Katie Rose Clarke - The Light in the Piazza
Bernadette Peters - Gypsy
Katie Rose Clarke - Wicked
Lisa Brescia - Wicked
J. Robert Spencer - next to normal
Ted Keegan - The Phantom of the Opera
hpeabody930
Featured Actor Joined: 9/8/08
#22re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 10:55pm
Anthony Heald in EQUIVOCATION at Oregon Shakespeare Festival
I'm telling you guys, this play will win the pulitzer this year.
#23re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 11:05pm
Michael Cerveris - Sweeney Todd
Angela Lansbury - Blithe Spirit
Christine Ebersole - Grey Gardens
Phylicia Rashad - A Raisin In The Sun
Patti LuPone - Gypsy
Bernadette Peters - Gypsy
Cherry Jones - Doubt
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
#24re: Best Performances You Have Seen
Posted: 8/30/09 at 11:07pmJames885, what do you think to Cerveris on the 05 Sweeney cast album?
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Videos