Classic Performances You HAVE seen- Page 2

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 4/21/17 at 7:56pm

Heather Headley in Aida...her performance was so stunning, it was the first musical i went back to multiple times to see it to believe it (five times while she was in obc)

Book of Mormon OBC-funniest musical of all time by far and one of my favorite scores

Matthew Broderick and Sara Jessica Parker during the final month of How To Succeed Revival-they were amazing together

Audra McDonald as billie holiday asking us to give her a cigarette, then lighting it and watching her every move on stage during this unreal performance...i have the cigarette box and matches on my desk

Billy Crystal in original tour of 700 sundays...stunning!

Fun Home OBC early in the run- it was a giant group therapy session in the round with some the best acting ive ever seen onstage,,,

Idina Menzel in London wicked opening

Hamilton first preview of touring cast in SF 10th row center

Laura Michelle Kelly My Fair Lady London revival....wow Im still suprised shes not a bigger star

Jason Alexander and Martin Short in the producers...two of my favorite all time comic actors

John Owen Jones Phantom of the Opera in london-amazing singer and actor and well known spitter(sit at least five rows back!!!)

Jersey Boys in SF with Jarred Spector as Frankie (so incredibly great)

Pre broadway tryout of Beautiful and seeing Jessie Mueller own Carol King role

Kinky Boots OBC before the tony awards-was floored by Billy, Annaleigh, Stark and entire cast and knew Billy would win a Tony 

Kristin Chenoweth in On the  20th Century-she was a force unto herself, such chops and comedic timing

 

 

[BentleyB]

Posted: 4/21/17 at 8:01pm

Original cast OD A Chorus Line 

Andrea Mcardle, Dorothy London, Reid Shelton - Annie

Angela Landsbury, Len Cariou - Sweeney Todd

Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Jerry Orbach - Chicago

Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick - The Producers

Harvey Fierstien - Hairspray

Idina Menzel, Kristen Chenowith and Joel Grey Wicked 

Bernadette Peters - Into the Woods

OBC - The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Frank Langella - Dracula (Edward Gorey design)

OBC - Billy Elliott 

Patina Miller - Pippin

Glenn Close - Sunset Boulevard

Ben Platt- Dear Evan Hanson 

Bette Midler - Hello,Dolly! 

Billy Porter - Kinky Boots

Tim Curry - Spamalot

Christian Borle, Brad Oscar (who was robbed for the Tony) - Something Rotten! 

Surton Foster - Thoroughly Modern Millie

Bernadette Peters - Gypsy

 

 

 

 

 

[jo]

Posted: 4/21/17 at 8:53pm

Hugh Jackman in the Royal National Theatre revival of OKLAHOMA!, which I went to see because I was a big Rodgers and Hammerstein fan -- I had no idea who he was when I saw it in London.

[Harriet Craig]

Posted: 4/21/17 at 8:59pm

Georgia Brown in Oliver!

Albert Finney in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

Elaine Stritch in Company

Anthony Hopkins and Peter Firth in Equus

Julie Harris in The Belle of Amherst

Philip Anglim in The Elephant Man

Kate Nelligan in Plenty

Dana Ivey and Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy (the 1987 off-Broadway production)

B.D. Wong and John Lithgow in M. Butterfly

And I can't resist mentioning the late, great Tim Pigott-Smith in King Charles III -- a performance that will probably be remembered as a classic.
 

[Dubliner]

Posted: 4/21/17 at 9:03pm

Original Abbey Theatre cast of Dancing at Lughnasa

Marie Mullen and Anna Manahan in The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Donal McCann in The Steward of Christendom

Sinead Cusack in Our Lady of Sligo and Our Few and Evil Days

Judi Dench in A Little Night Music

Hugh Jackman in Oklahoma!

The History Boys

Michael Ball in Hairspray 

Fiona Shaw in Medea

Cillian Murphy and Eileen Walsh in Disco Pigs

Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell in Sunday in the Park with George

Elena Roger in Piaf and Passion

Ruth Negga in Duck

Anita Reeves in Sweeney Todd

Lia Williams in A Streetcar Named Desire

Andrew Scott in Hamlet

 

Updated On: 4/21/17 at 09:03 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/22/17 at 12:33am

I have to add seeing the original cast of Book of Mormon. "Hello" is one of the best opening numbers of all time, in my opinion. 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 4/22/17 at 9:57am

My personal favorites that I can think of off the top of my head (in no order)...

Neil Patrick Harris - Hedwig

Sutton Foster - Anything Goes

Bette Midler - Hello, Dolly!

Michelle Williams - Cabaret

Cynthia Erivo - The Color Purple

Entire cast - She Loves Me (2016 revival)

 

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 4/22/17 at 10:13am

Original cast of Hamilton

Cherry Jones - Doubt

James Earl Jones - Fences

Nathan Lane & Matthew Broderick - The Producers

Harvey Fierstien - Torch Song Trilogy

Alice Ripley - Next To Normal

Alex Brightman - School Of Rock

[Balcony Bill]

Posted: 4/22/17 at 11:32am

Maggie Smith, Lettice and Lovage. Not a great play, but a thrill to see one of the greatest actors show her brilliance at comedy and  comic timing. Her vocal inflections and line deliveries were priceless, and I remember how she could bring down the house just by the way she would flick a wrist as she delivered a line.

Elaine Stitch in At Liberty. One of the greatest and most joyous one-woman shows I've ever seen. She had us roaring with laughter and then suddenly tearing up. I was too young to have seen her in Company, so it was an unforgettable thrill to hear her sing The Ladies who Lunch, still spectacularly.

Liza Minnelli during her three-week run at Carnegie Hall around 1986-87. Phenomenal.

Patti in Gypsy. Spine-tingling.

Angela Lansbury, Blithe Spirit. In Toronto. I didn't see her in Mame or Sweeney, but grew up treasuring those albums, so finally seeing her was a thrill. and very moving to see her managing wonders of comedy in a secondary role, at age 90.

Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens. One of the most beautifully sung and acted performances I've seen in a musical.

Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in The Producers. In previews in Chicago before it went to Broadway. A great comedy team, and such a thrill to feel we were getting an early look at something that everyone knew would be a huge hit. I've rarely heard an audience roar this way.

Kathleen Chalfant, Wit. Heartbreaking.

Lynn Redgrave, in Shakespeare for my Father and later in Alan Bennett's Miss Fozzard finds her Feet, part of a night of Bennett monologues at Minetta Lane Theatre. She was hilarious and sad and was able to turn on a dime in this poignant monologue, a marvel considering we had heard she was already starting to undergo cancer treatments while she was performing. A performance I'll always treasure.

Bebe Neuwirth in Chicago. One of the greatest dancers.

Chita Rivera and Brent Carver, Kiss of the Spider Woman. In Toronto at a small theatre before it went to Broadway. So excited to see Chita for the first time, bringing exactly the magnetism the show needed in that role, and Canada's brilliant Brent Carver in such a beautiful performance.

Bette Midler's Experience the Divine, 1993. Saw her in Montreal. At the opening, she made her first appearance being lowered from a kind of trapeze/swing from the rafters, and the audience roared. Two hours of brilliance. Not a theatre performance, but will have to be on my list until I manage to see Dolly! I waited in the cold for three hours in March to try to get a standing room ticket during previews, only to have the manager come out at 930 and tell us that there wouldn't be any standing tickets that night. My only chance to see the show on that trip. Made me more determined to go back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updated On: 4/22/17 at 11:32 AM

[wonkit]

Posted: 4/22/17 at 11:34am

Thrilling to see lists of great moments like this, and know (as I have always suspected) that BWW represents a unique body of theatrical history. I have been lucky to see a lot of these moments, too, over the years but the three that immediately come to mind are Albert Finney in JOE EGG, Ian Mckellan in AMADEUS, and the wonderful, wonderful Tim Pigott-Smith in KING CHARLES III.

[The Other One]

Posted: 4/22/17 at 11:36am

So, so many!  Some favorites, excerpts from a long list:  William Daniels (and cast) in 1776, Elaine Stritch in Company, the entire original cast of Follies, upon whom not enough praise could ever be heaped, Ben Vereen in Jesus Christ, Superstar and Pippin, Jason Robards and Zoe Caldwell* in Long Day's Journey Into Night, Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst in A Moon For The Misbegotten, Colleen Dewhurst and Ben Gazzara in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, George C. Scott in Death of a Salesman and Sly Fox, Chita Rivera* in Chicago, Anthony Hopkins in Equus, Al Pacino in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Angela Lansbury* in Sweeney Todd, Christopher Plummer* in Othello, Roger Rees and the entire magnificent ensemble of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby, Judd Hirsch* in Talley's Folly, Mandy Patinkin in Evita and Sunday In The Park With George, Patti Lupone in Evita and Anything Goes, Amanda Plummer in Agnes of God, Maggie Smith* in Private Lives and Lettice and Lovage, Jeremy Irons in The Real Thing, Kevin Kline* in The Pirates of Penzance, Delroy Lindo in Joe Turner's Come and Gone (a VERY underrated performance), Tyne Daly in Gypsy, Stockard Channing* in Six Degrees of Separation, Alan Bates and Frank Langella in Fortune's Fool, Cherry Jones* in The Heiress, Nathan Lane* in The Producers, Alex Sharp in The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Nighttime, Cynthia Erivo in The Color Purple the original cast of Hamilton, Frank Langella* in The Father -- many more, many of which have already been mentioned by others.

* were given to actors who have given many performances worthy of note.

I inexplicably left off Stephen Spinella in Angels in America, so I here give him his very own line.

 

Updated On: 4/22/17 at 11:36 AM

[neil30043]

Posted: 4/22/17 at 12:03pm

Non-Musical Performances:

John Earl Jones-"The Great White Hope"
Julie Harris-"The Belle of Amhearst"
Cherry Jones-"The Heiress", "Doubt", "The Glass Menagerie"
Anthony Hopkins-"Equus"
John Lithgow and BD Wong-"M. Butterfly"
Lily Tomlin-"The Search..."
Philip Anglim-"The Elephant Man"
Jefferson Mays- in everything he's done

Musical Performances:

Jennifer Holliday-"Dreamgirls"
The OBC of "Follies"
The OBC of "A Chorus Line"
Bernadette Peters & Mandy Patinkin- "Sunday..."
Patti LuPone & Mandy Patinkin-"Evita"
Yul Brynner-"The King and I"
Donna Murphy-"Passion"
Alice Ripley-"Next to Normal"
Debbie Allen-"West Side Story"
Len Cariou & Angela Lansbury-"Sweeney Todd"
Carol Channing-"Hello, Dolly!"
Dorothy Loudon-"Annie"
The OBC of "The Producers"
The OBC of "Rent"
Richard Kiley-"Man of La Mancha"
Ben Platt-"Dear Evan Hansen"
The OBC of "Hamilton"
Andrea Martin-"Pippin"
Ben Vereen-"Pippin"
James Corden-"One Man, Two Guvnors"