Best/Worst Celebrities that went onto Broadway — Page 2

Mark Ballas was fantastic in Jersey Boys (I didn't see him in Kinky Boots).

When Alan Rickman was in Seminar, a friend was in town for the weekend and on a whim we got tickets at TKTS and ended up in the front-row balcony. He was everything I'd hoped he'd be and more!

One celeb I wish I'd seen: Darrell Hammond as Vice Principal Panch in Spelling Bee. How was he? Mo Rocca was hilariously bizarre. I loved his performance.

Sutton Ross said: "Deeply loved JordanFisher in Dear Evan Hansen and Brandon Urie in Kinky Boots (his horrible fans were a different story though)."

Best - I agree, I've seen many Evans and I found Jordan Fisher really brought a movie star-quality to the role. I saw it once with his alternate and once with Jordan, and you can tell even his cast mates gave off a heightened performance.

Ed Harris and Nick Robinson in TKAM. Stunning performances.

Bryan Cranston and Tony Goldwyn in Network. 

Worst - Cameron Dallas. I truly felt bad for Erika Henningsen, and even she didn't look like she was having fun, but I think she was also rehearsing for her next show at the time, so she was probably over it.

Loved Josh Groban in Great Comet. Didn't really know who he was prior to the performance, but after hearing not just his great voice but also seeing his great emotional capacity during "Dust and Ashes" I was sold, and now I consider myself mild Groban fan

SmoothLover said: "I really think they should consider Claire Crawley forChicago."

YES! 

Have to add Stamos’s performance in Bye Bye Birdie.  Just awful and an equally awful production.  So disappointing.

I can't say that he was the best or worst, however, I caught Kevin Richardson from Backstreet Boys as Billy Flynn, and I was surprised by his performance. Not as bad as you would think.

For one of the best, I saw Melissa Benoist as Carole King in Beautiful and she was brilliant!  She has such a good, clear voice, and she acted the part really well - there's a fine line between subtle acting and not acting, and she was on the correct side of that line.  I also second the person who said Sara Bareilles in Waitress - obviously she wrote the music, so she has that personal connection to the score and the story, but she was such a wonderfully subtle and nuanced Jenna, and she pulled off a remarkably good southern accent.

I'm dating myself here but:
 

meh: Madonna  SPEED THE PLOW 

impressive:  Lou Diamond Phillips  THE KING AND I

HeyMrMusic said: "Agreed that Sara Bareilles was wonderful in Waitress. I think she’s my favorite Jenna that I’ve seen, to be honest.

I was impressed by Jake Gyllenhaal in Little Shop of Horrors. He was much better at the whole handsome-guy-playing-a-nerd-falling-for-an-older-woman act than Jonathan Groff. I didn’t think he’d be able to pull off Sunday in the Park With George, but I was very wrong. He’s quite a talented actor.

Speaking of that Little Shop production, Taran Killam was really great in that and I’d love to see him doing more musical comedy."

OOh I forgot. Sara Bareilles was incredible as Jenna in Waitress. I never felt like she was acting, actually.

To me, this is either the worst or the best, depending on your level of schadenfreude.

I'm unsure if he was bored, embarrassed, confused, lost, hungover or a combination of them all.

http://youtu.be/uFatMjn_lYU

I feel like there's a couple more sub-categories here. In addition to "best" and "worst," there's also "celebrities who delivered passable performances, but were obviously only cast for their fame." Like, some celebrities aren't bad onstage, but just probably weren't the best actor for the role. For me, those are:

-Uma Thurman - "Parisian Woman"

-James Franco - "Of Mice and Men"

-Bob Saget - "Hand to God"

-Matt Bomer - "Boys in the Band" (though I actually liked his performance in the movie more)

-Jennifer Hudson - "The Color Purple"

-Jason Biggs - "The Heidi Chronicles"

-Amy Schumer - "Meteor Shower"

-Cobie Smulders - "Present Laughter"

-Kiera Knightly - "Therese Raquin"

-Richard Armitage - "Uncle Vanya" (actually, I would probably move this to my "least favorites" list)

 

And then there's the pleasant surprises. Nobody is shocked when Denzel Washington knocks it out of the park, but some celebrities give really strong, solid performances, and I wouldn't have known they had it in them. Some examples for me include:

--Rupert Grint - "It's Only a Play"

--Chris Evans - "Lobby Hero"

--Bradley Cooper - "Elephant Man" (at this point in his career, he hadn't done as many high-profile dramatic roles. And in any case, this performance was so different from anything he's done on film before or since - so it's not necessarily that his talent surprised me, so much as his range)

--Taylor Schilling - "A Month in the Country" - excellent performance, better than anything she ever did on Orange is the New Black.

Best:

Wayne Brady in Kinky Boots

David Cook in Kinky Boots

Deborah Cox in Aida

Ana Gasteyer in Wicked

Kelsey Grammer in La Cage

 

Worst:

Mario Lopez in A Chorus Line

Raven Symone in Sister Act

Rosie O'Donnell in Fiddler on the Roof

Ace Young in Hair

Michelle Williams in Aida