Posted: 5/14/16 at 11:06am
Davis has also been involved in a lot of non-entertainment projects - including some gender equality/bias efforts in entertainment programming, to trying to qualify for the US archery team about 15 years go, I believe she has also started a film festival. She is also a member of Mensa. I think she will be in the film adaption Marjorie Prime.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 11:16am
Sunny11 said: "John Lloyd Young. He won every award imaginable for Jersey Boys on Broadway, was in the movie then ..."
John Lloyd Young is still performing. He's even got a concert coming up at 54 Below the first week of July.
Updated On: 5/14/16 at 11:16 AM
Posted: 5/14/16 at 11:17am
Maybe he was never a big star but I love Josh Strickland's voice on the Tarzan cast album as well as his performances of "Made of Stone" from Hunchback and I wish we had gotten to hear more of him on Broadway before he moved to Vegas and became a reality tv douche.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 11:37am
Just a minor correction, but Robin Wright has been nominated for the Emmy 3 times for her role in House of Cards, but has not won. She did win a golden globe in 2014. She's excellent in the role though, and the nominations are well deserved.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 4:45pm
"One of the most famous ones was Barbara Harris. She did the original Clear Day & Apple Tree and vanished from Broadway."
True, but in 1976 she made that spectacular appearance in Bob Altman's NASHVILLE. Reminded everyone why she was such a Broadway talent in the first place.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 5:32pm
The one that comes to mind for me is Jana Schneider, who had a few Broadway credits before she was in the original cast of Drood as Helena Landless. She was nominated for the Tony and won a Drama Desk, but several years later she left performing to become a war photojournalist. Then, while on assignment in Sarajevo, she nearly lost her leg due to a shell explosion. There was an article about her back in 2004- due to the atrocities she witnessed, she suffered from some pretty intense mental health problems and ended up on the street.
I can't find the article now, outside of some summaries, but I hope that she managed to get some help- she's always been a favorite of mine on the Drood recording, and from everything I've read about her, it sounds like she was a fascinating person and fiercely dedicated to everything she pursued.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 6:18pm
Nikki Blonsky was on Ugly Betty, some Lifetime movie, and a cancelled ABC family show (Huge! or something like that). I then saw her in nothing until a few episodes of Smash several years later and haven't heard of her since.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 6:28pm
PThespian said: "Anyone know what James Carpinello has been up to since Rock of Ages?
"
He was just in INCIDENT AT VICHY at Signature.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 7:03pm
Mr Roxy said: "One of the most famous ones was Barbara Harris. She did the original Clear Day & Apple Tree and vanished from Broadway
"
Well, we know what happened to Miss Harris: she went to LA and a featured role in one of the greatest American films of all time: NASHVILLE. She also did a Disney movie or two and at least one Hitchcock picture. Then she faded from view, so perhaps her priorities changed or perhaps she too reached "that certain age" when leading ladies stop getting offers in Hollywood.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 7:22pm
This is a theatre blog; and the title of this is big stars who disappeared. So far, the only person identified who was a big star is Barbara Harris. John Lloyd Young may have won a Tony, but he was not a big star. As I typed this, I couldn't remember his last name.
Barbara Harris was big. Three performances on Broadway, three Tony nominations, one Tony. Some of the most incredible reviews I have ever read...for years, when I read a glowing review of someone, I referred to it as a Barbara Harris, in reference to her reviews in The Apple Tree in particular. Walter Kerr's review of her was quoted for years after.
In some ways, Kim Stanley fits the bill, although she seemed to pop up in a movie every 7 or 8 years until she died.
How about Anna Maria Albergetti...she was very famous beyond Broadway, appeared in one show, and pretty much retired, I think.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 9:00pm
Barbara Harris basically gave up on theater after the disastrous 1970 Off Broadway production of THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY. As far as I know, the only other major theatrical role she's done since was PRELUDE TO A KISS in Chicago in 1991, and she said in an interview at the time that she only did it as a favor to the director (Sheldon Patinkin, Mandy's cousin), who was a friend.
She lives in Arizona and teaches these days.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 9:23pm
They haven't disappeared but it's been a while since Julia Murney, Laura Bell Bundy, or Liz Callaway were leads in a musical. I would like that to change.
It would also be nice to have Sara Ramirez back if Grey's Anatomy ever ends.
Posted: 5/14/16 at 9:29pm
Or is sara gets killed off
Posted: 5/14/16 at 9:32pm
Jarethan said: "...How about Anna Maria Albergetti...she was very famous beyond Broadway, appeared in one show, and pretty much retired, I think.
"
Miss Alberghetti never retired. In the 1950s and 1960s, she did opera on TV and starred in various films. She did stage work up through the early 1980s and then concerts and cabaret after that. In this century, she's made a couple of films and continued her concert work. She headlined at THE FABULOUS PALM SPRINGS FOLLIES twice. (Wiki only shows once, but it is out of date.) All FOLLIES headliners I met while working there arrived with a polished act and pre-recorded tracks. So Miss A must have still been performing elsewhere.
BTW, when asked by a local reporter, "And what will you be doing at the Follies, Miss Alberghetti?", Miss A replied: "14 minutes and not a second more, 'cause that's what's in my contract." (Perhaps my all-time favorite response to a stupid, reporter question.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Maria_Alberghetti
Updated On: 5/14/16 at 09:32 PM
Posted: 5/14/16 at 10:35pm
VintageSnarker said: "They haven't disappeared but it's been a while since Julia Murney, Laura Bell Bundy, or Liz Callaway were leads in a musical. I would like that to change.
It would also be nice to have Sara Ramirez back if Grey's Anatomy ever ends.
" I would love to see Laura Bell Bundy back on Broadway
Posted: 5/14/16 at 10:40pm
GavestonPS said: "Jarethan said: "...How about Anna Maria Albergetti...she was very famous beyond Broadway, appeared in one show, and pretty much retired, I think.
"
Miss Alberghetti never retired. In the 1950s and 1960s, she did opera on TV and starred in various films. She did stage work up through the early 1980s and then concerts and cabaret after that. In this century, she's made a couple of films and continued her concert work. She headlined at THE FABULOUS PALM SPRINGS FOLLIES twice. (Wiki only shows once, but it is out of date.) All FOLLIES headliners I met while working there arrived with a polished act and pre-recorded tracks. So Miss A must have still been performing elsewhere.
BTW, when asked by a local reporter, "And what will you be doing at the Follies, Miss Alberghetti?", Miss A replied: "14 minutes and not a second more, 'cause that's what's in my contract." (Perhaps my all-time favorite response to a stupid, reporter question.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Maria_Alberghetti
Sounds like she disappeared. DP
"
Posted: 5/15/16 at 2:35am
Barbara Harris is one of the most spectacular talents I've ever seen/heard (only through film and cast albums mind you) but she reportedly never really enjoyed acting. So she gave it up voluntarily to teach.
Her performances in Nashville and even Disney's original Freaky Friday alone are greater than most ever achieve in a decades long career.
Posted: 5/15/16 at 5:43am
Rex Smith appears to have left show business to sell real estate.
Matt Cavenaugh seems to have left show business to further his education and work in the business world.
Posted: 5/15/16 at 5:50am
Martin Vidnovic has claimed in interviews that he's been blackballed on Broadway since Footloose.
Christian Hoff hasn't worked on Broadway since being fired from Pal Joey.
Posted: 5/15/16 at 8:10am
Christian Hoff is part of the Midtown Men, along with Michael Longoria, Dan Reichard and Bobby Spencer. They make a ton of money doing concerts and don't really need to do theater if they don't want to.
Posted: 5/15/16 at 9:41pm
Jarethan said: "...Sounds like she (Anna Maria Alberghetti) disappeared. DP
"
Do you mean like Betty Buckley? She hasn't starred in a show on Broadway in 20 years, but I promise you she is an active performer and (I assume) a wealthy woman. She does concerts in major venues all over the country and she will star with Rachel York in GREY GARDENS this summer in L.A.
"Disappeared" may mean one thing in New York and quite another in the real world.
Posted: 5/15/16 at 11:19pm
Abigale Haness. She played Janet in the 1974 L.A. Roxy Theatre Rocky Horror Show with Tim Curry. To me she's the definitive Janet, the expertly timed devolution of her vocals into a rough, Joplin-like belt on the cast album is insane. She had the pipes to match all of the big rock musicals coming out at that time, but strangely the LA Rocky Show is the sole credit I can find to her name.
Posted: 6/26/16 at 7:53pm
Rex Smith seems to still be in the biz...he recently tweeted a video of his audition for Charles Frohman in the Tour of Finding Neverland (which he apparently did not land)
https://twitter.com/RealRexSmith/status/743310587996737539
Posted: 6/26/16 at 8:22pm
Call_me_jorge said: "Or is sara gets killed off
"
Sara left the show, so maybe we'll see some more of her!
Posted: 6/27/16 at 8:59am
Linda Eder disappeared from Broadway after Jekyll & Hyde, would have liked to have seen her in something else.
