Discovering Future Stars

I saw Norbert Leo Butz about 6 years ago in CABARET in Los Angeles and he became my favorite performer and has been since. I knew he would go far, and he has! Yay Norbert!

Peter Lockyer- i saw him in Les Miz back in 2001 and now he's done a LOT. he's really incredible.

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In 1993, my high school went to see Tommy on Broadway, and I was rather impressed by some folks in the chorus. "Gee," I said, "I bet that Norm Lewis and Alice Ripley go somewhere!" I was always rather proud of that prediction.

The next year, I saw Kiss of the Spider Woman for the second time, and was blown away by Anthony Crivello's replacement, some young guy named Brian Mitchell. By the time he added the "Stokes," I knew he'd be a star. I also noticed a young guy in the chorus, and decided that this Darius de Haas kid had some good stage presence!

Ah, I love playing "Spot-the-Future-Star". I can just imagine how someone in 1953 felt, watching the chorus of Can-Can and thinking, "This Conchita del Rivero kid is goin' places!"

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Hey Tesse, whatever happened to those pictures we all took at AWNY. Did rob and craig destroy them? :)

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I saw Hunter Foster on the ensemble of Footlooses and remember him for some odd reason. I thought he had great energy.

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I discovered Idina Menzel, Kristen Chenowith, Antonio Banderas, Gwen Verdon AND Bob Fosse. They were all bums on the street until I discovered their hidden talents. Now look where they are! Take it some are not with us anymore, but I made them stars.
I'm just kidding for anyone who doesn't know the use of sarcasm.

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Hee... the AWNY pix have yet to be developed. I'll let ya know when they are!

~Tesse

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So many -- TOO many (I'll have to update this as I think of more):

How about--

-- a pre-Frasier Kelsey Grammer as Cassio and a pre-Woody Allen/pre-Oscar Diane Wiest in "Othello" with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer (I remember Grammer had a rich beautiful voice, though he was a little stiff; Wiest was good, but rather too waifish)

-- a 20 year old Ben Stiller as Ronnie the homicidal, pope-obsessed son in the 1986 revival of "House of Blue Leaves" with Swoosie Kurtz, a pre-Frasier John Mahoney, Christine Baranski, Danny Aiello and Julie Hagerty

-- Continuing on the Frasier-theme, David Hyde Pierce, Christine Lahti and Tony Shaloub in a replacement cast of "The Heidi Chronicles" on Broadway (both Pierce and Shaloub were unknowns at the time).

-- and one more (sort of) -- pre-Lilith Bebe Neuwirth as Nickie in the Debbie Allen "Sweet Charity" (she was also Allen's understudy)

-- Pre-Seinfeld Jason Alexander as Pseudolus and Tevye, and Faith Prince as Tessie Tura in "Jerome Robbins' Broadway"

-- The first time I saw Jude Law, he was emerging naked from a bathtub in "Indiscretions" with Kathleen Turner and Cynthia Nixon (Nixon I remember first as the teenage daughter in Stoppard's "The Real Thing" opposite Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons)

-- a pre-Cosby Phylicia Rashad (then Phylicia Ayers-Allen) as a munchkin in "The Wiz" and a Stepp Sister, chorus member and Deena understudy in "Dreamgirls" (also remember David Alan Grier, Roz Ryan and Lillias White in various replacement casts).

-- Brian Stokes Mitchell in a forgotten musical called "Mail" in 1988 at the Kennedy Center (later Broadway) with music by and co-starring Tony winner Michael Rupert (Mary Bond Davis and Michelle Pawk also had featured roles). Mitchell was already a recognizable face then through his featured role on the tv show "Trapper John, M.D." but nobody knew he could sing until "Mail" which was his Broadway debut (all I remember about him in it was a decent duet with Rupert that showed he could sing OK and then this badly written, embarassing rap number that he had to do that I'm sure he prays no one remembers .... I do......).

-- Matthew Broderick in '83's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (pre-Ferris Bueller etc.....)

-- Kevin Spacey in the mid-80's Jack Lemmon "Long Day's Journey" (lots of great stories about the pre-fame Spacey ... and not all of them are about his acting performances on stage...)

-- The pre-Hedwig John Cameron Mitchell in Larry Kramer's 1992 autobiographical "The Destiny of Me" (a play I always thought was a much better piece of writing than the more famous "Normal Heart") playing the teenage Larry Kramer opposite Peter Frechette as his brother Ben and Piper Laurie as their mother. I also saw Mitchell and a pre-fame Cameron Manheim in Craig Lucas' 1995 off-Broadway play "Missing Persons."

-- I sort of went to school with Michael Cumpsty -- I was a college freshman when he was in his last year of an Equity MFA acting program, so we never even met each other. But I vividly remember seeing his Cyrano and his Betty/Gerry from "Cloud Nine" and remember thinking he would be a star someday -- well a dozen Broadway plays later, if he's not quite a star, he's certainly a well-regarded working actor which is something (I told him this story when I ran into him at the Public after a show a few months ago and he was FLOORED and rather mortified that anyone would remember his "youthful" Cyrano from roughly 20 years ago -- I assured him he was brilliant which he was).

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Updated On: 5/25/04 at 06:15 PM

It's also good to see Kevin Earley doing so well. I first saw him go on as Enjolras understudy in the Broadway Les Mis and remember him being one of the better actor's I've seen in that role.

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Faith2 --

I discovered Michael Ball even earlier than ASPECTS -- I first heard his voice in the London Les Miserables OCR - glorious notes wafting in the air singing RED AND BLACK

But he was already quite well known in England by the time I heard that recording - he had performed in LES MIS (Marius) and PHANTOM (Raoul) by then. So, I am not sure if I could classify him as a relative unknown when I first heard him sing.

I did see him for the first time on stage in ASPECTS - in the lead role! I was lucky to see him perform in both the London and the Broadway productions.


Jo

Updated On: 5/25/04 at 07:42 PM