Best living stage actress
Best living stage actress
MCfan2
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/06
#1Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 9:19pm
From this weekend's "Parade" Magazine:
Q. You said Helen Hayes was America’s best stage actress ever. Who’s No. 1 today?—Linda Stevens, San Francisco, Calif.
A. Glenn Close is our pick for America’s Greatest Living Stage Actress. Rounding out the top five are Julie Harris, Cherry Jones, Mary-Louise Parker and Meryl Streep. And rounding out our top ten are Angela Lansbury, Laura Linney, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald and Martha Plimpton. Who's your favorite? Vote in our poll at the right.
http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2008/edition_03-16-2008/Personality_Parade
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Granted, I haven't seen Glenn Close in much and I may be underestimating her, but just offhand I'm not too sure I would have picked her for best living stage actress. What say you?
#2re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 9:27pmI'd say Lansbury. Mame, Rose, and Lovett, all played brilliantly. How could you go wrong?
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
#2re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 9:33pm
I'd agree with Lansbury. I'd also move Patti up the list and add Donna Murphy.
I love Meryl Streep with the fire of a thousand suns, but I'm not sure I'd consider her a stage actress. nor would I consider Glenn Close a stage actress. maybe her before Streep [but I don't like Glenn very much, so she certainly wouldn't be number one on my list]
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
#3re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 9:34pmI never understand the appeal of Close in her screen roles, but perhaps she's more compelling on stage. I think overall, though you could argue the order, that list does include many of our greatest actresses.
#4re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 9:45pmI would hardly consider Streep to be one of the top five stage actresses. I'd say Lansbury is number one. Her performance in Dear World is phenomenal. Really, every role she's ever played has been phenomenal.
"Light the candles! Get the ice out! Roll the rug up, it's today!"
nmartin
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/3/05
#6re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 10:06pmDonna Murphy should be on that list.
"This ocean runs more dark and deep than you may think you know...I'll be the fear of the fire at sea."
-Marie Christine
pc1145N2
Broadway Star Joined: 5/28/07
#8re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 10:10pmCherry Jones should be there.
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
"Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70
"Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#9re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 10:17pmHave Close and Streep done enough stage work to earn that title?
http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer
#10re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 10:26pm
The greatest living actress HANDS DOWN
Dame Judi Dench
"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
K8eeyore
Stand-by Joined: 8/24/04
#11re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 10:35pmI'd vote Lansbury, but after seeing YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, I have to say Vanessa Redgrave should be on the list, too. She was mesmerizing. . .
#13re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 10:52pmJulie Harris - there is a reason she has more Tony Award nominations and awards than anyone else.
#14re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 11:21pmPatti but where is Donna
Genius lasts longer than beauty.
puppetman2
Leading Actor Joined: 3/2/08
#15re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 11:50pm
Angela Lansbury by a landslide considering the diversity of her performances and overwhelming stage presance.
It Sucks To Be Me
Updated On: 3/16/08 at 11:50 PM
MungoGypsy8232
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/8/07
#16re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 11:54pmChita Rivera, Bernadette Peters, and Donna Murphy should be added.
#17re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/15/08 at 11:58pmI totally agree
Genius lasts longer than beauty.
#18re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/16/08 at 12:13am
Donna doesn't bother going to work enough to count.
Angela and Julie are my picks.
....but the world goes 'round
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#20re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/16/08 at 12:20am
Laura Bell Bundy
just kidding.
Angela Lansbury, Sutton Foster
"I told you, NO Rodgers and Hammerstein!"- Bart Simpson
meredithchandler73
Stand-by Joined: 11/18/06
#21re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/16/08 at 12:29am
My list (in no particular order):
Marian Seldes
Angela Lansbury
Cherry Jones
Dame Judi Dench
Honorable mentions (a.k.a. other faves - because though I haven't seen everything they've done, I've loved them in everything I've seen them do):
Audra McDonald
Mary Testa
Deirdre O'Connell
#22re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/16/08 at 1:48amI Think as time goes on Audra will take that title, but right now it belongs to Lansbury
#23re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/16/08 at 1:50amas some of the names on that list pass on Anika Noni Rose will replace in
#24re: Best living stage actress
Posted: 3/16/08 at 4:25am
I would say Meryl Streep has indeed done enough stage work to count, she not only got her start in the 70s as a prominent stage actress (from the time she was at Yale) to her constant returns to the New York stage for the Public Theatre. Not sure if she's necessarily the best living stage actress (definitely the best living film actress), but she's definitely in the top five.
Donna Murphy with her chameleon-like ability and her breath-taking stage presence (try getting your eyes off her when she's on stage...you can't) should be on the list.
Now, Close? Never seen her on stage but she shouldn't be on there over the likes of Zoe Caldwell and Lansbury.
I think Lansbury should have the top title, with Caldwell, Harris, Maggie Smith, and Meryl Streep rounding up the top five. I'd say Donna Murphy, Bernadette Peters, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones, and maybe Cynthia Nixon (or a legend like Dench or Redgrave) should round up the top 10--in no specific order.
I think Anika Noni Rose is close to getting there, she just hasn't done enough stage work to put her in the same list as the rest of the actresses mentioned on here.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Updated On: 3/16/08 at 04:25 AM
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