Calling Broadway Performers by First Name- Page 2
Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
#25re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 12:30am
such a silly topic...
On the boards I think people are just lazy and dont want to type out someones full name so if its a topic about Hairspray and you say Harvey, one would hope the person reading the topic could reasonably conclude whom you mean given the context of the discussion.
In person sometimes you introduce yourself by your first name to someone and theyre chatting with you so first names work, and its not like they need you to remind them of their own name anyways so how often would you really be compelled to use it talking to the person. (Wow you go to that school? I went there and loved it!)
-If theyre not making light conversation then theyre probably the kind of person who likes their distance so a last name use might seem more polite. (Ms ___ do you mind if I take a picture?) Its really just a vibe in this case.
If its two people talking to each other outside a stagedoor about some performer then clearly they both know who theyre talking about so theres no need to qualify further with a last name.
The overall decrease in formality is not just a strange occurence here... for example the formal tense I was taught in Italian classes is not as common now as it was 10 years ago either.
iluvtheatertrash
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
#26re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 2:48am
It's not weird at all. It's just a common mistake.
Typically, when you discuss one performer in a thread, it is fine to refer to them by their first name. If the thread is about Julia Murney, saying "Julia" would be fine.
However, as we often do with famous playwrights, presidents, historical figures, etc. - or even a citing in an essay - after the first time of saying both their first and last name, you use their LAST name only.
I think most people just don't know to do that.
"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman
#27re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 3:18am
Generally, it's kinda rude to address someone face-to-face by their first name unless you know it's appropriate. Although that has fallen by the wayside, and now only the bank regularly call me Miss [Surname]. Which I don't mind too much, but it is a shame.
I think if it's clear who you're referring to, then it doesn't hurt to drop a Greg or a Laura as long as the context is such that people know who you mean. You're discussing them on a message board, not interviewing them for a job.
Whenever I'm discussing a performer, I generally try to start off with their full name, then drop down to just one name once I've established who I mean. And I usually drop down to surname for guys, and first name for girls. Not consciously, it just happens.
#28re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 6:27pm
Didn't we used to call ordinary stars by their last names?
I don't mean icons like Patti, Bernadette, Cher, Liza and Diana. I mean actors like Benanti, Menzel, Lane, Broderick, Graff, Groff, Bundy, Butz, Gaines and Pascal.
So, I guess I do think it's different now. I don't yet know why.
#29re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 6:40pmIn person, I don't think it hurts to err on the side of politeness so I use Mr. or Ms. ____. Most performers may not object to you using their first name but I'm sure there are those who would like it to be their choice if you are more formal or informal. It's sort of like a job interview - when in doubt dress more formally.
#30re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 8:10pm
it's not a big deal, come on, it's on a message board for Christ's sakes. At the SD, it's a different matter, but first names might be all right for the younger BW stars.
And one might consider it rude but I won't go as far as to postulate that the individual who calls performers by their first names is under the impression that he is BFF with said performer.
In Soviet Russia, Wicked hates you too!
#31re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 8:12pmAt least we don't have this problem with Orfeh!
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
WishingOnlyWounds2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/25/08
#32re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 8:37pm
^^^
LOL
OP, So your saying... Bailey Hanks, a 20 year old women, you would say "Ms. Banks."... sounds like Mary Poppins. Anyway, I really don't find it weird and from what I've noticed a lot of performers like when you know their (first) name.
2008: Feb. 18- Rent, Feb. 19- Curtains, April 18- Xanadu, April 22- Wicked, April 26- Legally Blonde, May 31- Wicked, June 13- The Little Mermaid, June 28- Wicked and Young Frankenstein, July 2- The Little Mermaid, July 6- A Chorus Line and Legally Blonde, August 16- Xanadu, September 13- Legally Blonde and 13, September 28- Xanadu and Spring Awakening, Oct. 12-GYPSY and [title of show], Oct. 19- Hairspray & Legally Blonde, Nov. 9- Wicked and 13, Dec. 14-13, Dec. 26- Billy Elliot, 2009: Jan 1- Shrek, Jan 2- 13 and Wicked, Jan 4- 13, Feb 17- In The Heights, Feb 19- Billy Elliot, Feb 22- Sweeney Todd (tour), March 28- Mary Poppins, April 4- Mamma Mia!, April 15- Jersey Boys (on tour), April 25- next to normal & 9 to 5
May 1- Billy Elliot, May 3- Spelling Bee (tour), May 8- Chicago, May 21- Wicked, June 6- Everyday Rapture, June 23- The Wiz, June 25- Hair July 15- Shrek, August 9- Wicked, September 7- Rock of Ages, October 11- Next To Normal, October 23- The Marvelous Wonderettes, November 7- Ragtime November 29- Dreamgirls, December 25- Billy Elliot, December 30- Finian's Rainbow, 2010: January 9- Bye Bye Birdie, January 16- Memphis February 17- The Phantom of The Opera, February 18- God of Carnage, March 7- Billy Elliot, March 31- American Idiot
#33re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 9:09pm
"Generally, it's kinda rude to address someone face-to-face"
i think it depends on the circumstance...
Mr. Miranda, Ms. Blickenstaff, Mr. Groff, Mr. Howar would just be odd.
<-- Gwen Stewart, SOLoist at the last show of RENT
Cages or wings? Which do you prefer? Ask the birds. Fear or love, baby? Don't say the answer Actions speak louder than words. (Tick, Tick... BOOM!)
Cages or wings? Which do you prefer? Ask the birds. Fear or love, baby? Don't say the answer Actions speak louder than words. (Tick, Tick... BOOM!)
Chrysanthemum62001
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/14/04
#34re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 11:11pmI'm from the South plus my dad was military so I grew up with Ms./Mr. and sir/ma'm. I guess it depends on the person to me, for example, you betcha it was "Mr. Sondheim" when I met him, "Mr. Kramer", Ms. Peters, Ms. LuPone, Mr. Grey, Mr. Rylance, etc. The younger people in their 30's I tended to never say their name. Though after a certain amount of conversation, it became "Raul", "Michael", "Donna Lynne" etc. I'm always weary about calling someone "Mr/Ms" cause I don't want them to feel old. And I think if I'd said "Mr. Cerveris" to Michael he woulda cringed.
"What a mystery this world. One day you love them and the next day you want to kill them a thousand times over." The Masked Bandit in THE FALL
ashley0139
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
#35re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 11:33pm
OP, So your saying... Bailey Hanks, a 20 year old women, you would say "Ms. Banks."... sounds like Mary Poppins.
I'm pretty sure if you were to call her anything in that form it would be Ms. Hanks, not Ms. Banks and therefore not sound like Mary Poppins.
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
#36re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/20/08 at 11:42pm
Actually, Brantley doesn't do that by choice - that's the New York Times stated house style. All persons in all articles and interviews are referred to with the appropriate honorific. You'll never see them write "Sondheim" or "LuPone". It'll always be "Mr. Sondheim" or "Ms. LuPone". I believe they're they only major paper left in the country that still utilizes that particular style.
The Wall Street Journal does it, too, I believe. They even use Messrs.
DefyGravity777
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/28/08
#37re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/21/08 at 1:34amWhat if the performer was younger than you? I would feel silly calling Lindsay Northen, Miss Northen or Julie Reiber, Miss Reiber. Sounds like I am talking to a schoolteacher.
Don't believe everything that you hear! Only the peeps involved know the truth!
#38re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/21/08 at 8:00am
Unless they personally tell me to my face that I can address them (or even write about them in a first name basis)as "Michael" or "Patti," they will be "Mr. Ball" and "Ms. LuPone" or "Mr..." or their full name.
And I don't forsee any strong, deep personal friendship starting with any of them soon 
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
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#39re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/24/08 at 9:49am
I like to pretend they ARE my BFFs.
haha, jk. :)
"First up was Max who sang "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" [...] I haven't seen that big of a reaction to a stair descent since Audra left the attic in Ragtime." --Seth Rudetsky
#40re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/24/08 at 10:02amFor me, it depends on who they are. If they're older than me and someone I grew up watching they'd be Mr./Ms. I met Cindy Williams about this time last year and I called her Ms. Williams". But someone younger than me I typically call by their first name.
"All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney
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winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#41re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/24/08 at 2:48pm
Most of the time that I am at the stage door people address the actors as "the person who played" whatever role they played. Or in some cases the name of their character. I always got the impression that actors like it when you take the time to learn their names as oppose to calling them by the names of their characters or "your the actress/actor who played..."
I don't call them Mr. or Ms. because I don't think that they are superior to me nor do I think I am superior to them.
"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear"
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Mamie
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/26/04
#43re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/24/08 at 4:05pmYour question about addressing the children reminded me of the time I waited outside the Neil Simon to get Craig Bierko and Rebecca Luker's autographs after an evening run of "The Music Man". The first one out the stage door was young Jordan Puryear, who played Amaryllis. I had my Playbill and sharpie in hand so I asked her "Miss Puryear, may I have your autograph?" She was thrilled! (She said I was the first person who ever asked her for her autograph.) So maybe in the case of the kids, addressing them formally by their last names just might please them!
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mamie4 5/14/03
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mamie4 5/14/03
twogaab2
Broadway Star Joined: 5/19/03
#44re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/24/08 at 4:24pmIt's pretentious. But just to be sure I asked Mandi, Patti, Audra, and Sutton about it and they all agreed with me.
TWOGAAB
"A Class Act" will never die!
#45re: Calling Broadway Performers by First Name
Posted: 10/24/08 at 6:04pm
When I use "Mr" or "Mrs" or "Ms" or whatever, I'm not saying "hello, I am pandering to you because I consider myself so terribly terribly inferior to you!". I'm showing respect. If I knew someone's last name and I were to address them by name, I would use their last name unless we had agreed between ourselves that first name would be fine. It's not for me to decide when it's appropriate to stop being politely formal when addressing someone; it's up to them to let me know if they're comfortable dropping the formality. Simple manners!
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