Favorite theatre villian?

[jamiekennywicked]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 4:49pm

Apologies if there is a similar thread but,
Who are some of your favorite theatre villians (musical or play) Some of mine would have to me

-Mrs. Lovett (Sweeney Todd)
-Ursula (The Little Mermaid)
-Child Cather (Chitty Bang Bang)

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 4:51pm

Rico in Barry Manilow's Copacabana!

Also, Thénardier in Les Misérables.

[(8) :D]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 4:52pm

Killer Queen in We Will Rock You is pretty ace!

[jamiekennywicked]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 4:53pm

I second the KQ choice :)

[Katurian2]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 5:02pm

The Devil- Damn Yankees
Mrs. Lovett

And even though I'm thinking of the movie version (since the stage version is terrible)...

Lina Lamont- Singin' in the Rain

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 5:12pm

Male: Sweeney Todd, Judd Fry, and Bill Sykes
Female: Mrs. Lovett, Miss Hannigan, and The Witch (Into the Woods)

[wicked4l]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 5:24pm

Madame Morrible (Wicked) when the character develops correctly...Carole Shelley, Rondi Reed, Alma Cuervo come to mind.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 5:25pm

Julie Taymor

[Bwaynerd]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 5:46pm

Gaston- Beauty and the Beast
Professor Calahan- Legally Blonde
Ursula- The Little Mermaid
Lucy- 13 the musical
Mrs. Lovett- Sweeney Todd
The Thénardiers- Les Miz

[NeoNormal]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 7:13pm

Any villain that can make me laugh but still despise.

Velma von Tussle
Madame Horrible
Mufasa
Thernadiers

[chewy5000]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 9:33pm

But aren't Judge Turpin and Beadle Bamford the real villains in Sweeney? Sweeeny and Mrs. Lovett are more like anti-heroes I say.

My vote goes to Mama Rose

[Katurian2]

Posted: 4/2/11 at 9:42pm

I've always thought that Sweeney Todd's heroes as Anthony and Joanna, the two innocents of the piece. Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett I wouldn't call anti-heroes so much as protagonists. Anti-heroes have some redeeming qualities about them, but by the end of the show, Sweeney is too mired in his own revenge bent to have any love left in him, and Mrs. Lovett is the basic cause behind that, deceiving him the entire play. At least in the way that I learned literature though, anti-heroes just act contrary to the norms of heroic standards, but are still essentially good. I would absolutely never go so far as to call Sweeney (at least by the point we see him in the show) or Mrs. Lovett 'good.' Judge Turpin and the Beadle are antagonists to the protagonists of Sweeney/Lovett, with Anthony and Joanna as the romantic heroes.
ETA: Just remembered that in one passage of 'Finishing the Hat,' Sondheim explicitly called Mrs. Lovett 'the true villain of the piece.'

Updated On: 4/2/11 at 09:42 PM

[peerrjb]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 4:39am

Audrey II in "Little Shop".

I kinda have to agree about "Mrs. Lovett"....she knows the wife is alive. The whole play could have been finished in Scene Two if she'd-a fessed up.

And of course "Time", which is the truest Villain in "Follies".

(A friend of mine considers "Elsa" in "Sound of Music" well nigh on to the best villain.
I think, though, it's just because he hated her in the movie. I didn't mind Ms. Parker so much...just the make-up.)

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 5:36am

Pretty sure Hitler is the real villain in The Sound of Music...

[Idiot]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 11:02am

I think my favorite would be Lady Macbeth. She's equal parts fragile and evil.

[AlBundy]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 11:59am

There have been a lot of great villains in theatre. But has anyone seen Hrach Titizian's performance in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo! He's truly incredible as Uday Hussein. My favorite villain in theatre right now.

[Idiot]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 12:43pm

I saw Hrach Titizian in BENGAL at the Taper in Los Angeles. Though I'm lukewarm about the play, his performance was quite remarkable.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 1:36pm

I would definitely agree that Mrs. Lovett is the real villain of Sweeney Todd. When Sweeney returns to London he is broken, yes, hellbent on revenge, yes, but she's the one who plants the idea in his head to start murdering people and cooking them into pies even though she knows that Lucy is still alive. She knows the truth the whole time and she manipulates everyone around her so that she can get what she wants, even though it backfires on her in the end. I find her fascinating as a character...I absolutely loved Patti LuPone's interpretation in the revival, and I adore Angela Lansbury's completely different take in the original. Both were arguably quite successful but wildly different, and I think it's interesting when one character can be played in such vastly different ways and still work.

[rorschach37]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 9:32pm

NeoNormal: Scar is the villain in the Lion King, not Mufasa

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 9:47pm

re: Sweeney and Lovett

They're both serial killers, planning, plotting, and murdering together! They're not anti-heroes. They're VILLAINS.

Updated On: 4/3/11 at 09:47 PM

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 9:48pm

Franz & Hertz - ROCK OF AGES
St. Jimmy - AMERICAN IDIOT
Andrew Jackson - BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON
Ivan - WOMEN ON THE VERGE...

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 10:21pm

Dr Sanson Carrasco in MOLM.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 10:34pm

Roy - Angels in America

[philly03]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 10:37pm

The Mad Hatter - Wildhorn's WONDERLAND

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 4/3/11 at 10:37pm

I would almost call Todd a Byronic Hero. Mrs. Lovett, on the other hand, is my favorite villain (especially Patty's version!)