Good actor comeback stories

[Severus Snape]

Posted: 11/21/16 at 10:56pm

I am trying to console/ motivate my daughter who just received some bad reviews for a community theater musical she is in. Is there any examples of a top Broadway actor who got panned for one show but then won a Tony award some time later? 

[gypsy101]

Posted: 11/21/16 at 11:11pm

probably Patti LuPone

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 11/21/16 at 11:28pm

I can't think of any on Broadway, but I do know that whenever an acting nominee has a comeback story at the Oscars, they usually lose.

Judy Garland was nominated for her comeback in A Star is Born, lost to Grace Kelly in The Country Girl; John Travolta was nominated for his comeback in Pulp Fiction, lost to Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump; Mickey Rourke was nominated for his comeback in The Wrestler, lost to Sean Penn in Milk; Michael Keaton was nominated for his comeback in Birdman, lost to Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything; and Sylvester Stallone was nominated for his comeback in Creed, lost to Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies. The only comeback I can think of that managed to win was Frank Sinatra for From Here to Eternity.

Updated On: 11/21/16 at 11:28 PM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 11/21/16 at 11:33pm

Or, you could just let her feel what she's feeling.If she's passionate about acting, she'll get over it and try again. In her own time.

 

And of course, reviewers of community theater don't know squat, usually.

 

 

[gypsy101]

Posted: 11/21/16 at 11:42pm

dramamama611 said: "Or, you could just let her feel what she's feeling.If she's passionate about acting, she'll get over it and try again. In her own time.

And of course, reviewers of community theater don't know squat, usually."

who, Patti?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 12:03am

No, The daughter of the op.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 12:20am

oh! i completely forgot about her.

just tell her about Patti, she's received lots of bad reviews and she has two Tonys.

[Anakela]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 2:14am

Not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but Audra McDonald auditioned for the ensemble of Beauty and the Beast, didn't get it, and then... 

 

Well, that spring at the Tony Awards, Beauty and the Beastperformed "Be Our Guest," which would have featured Audra as a utensil had she been cast, but instead she was at that Tony Awards ceremony winning a Tony! Yes! It was the same year as Carousel...

http://www.playbill.com/article/onstage-backstage-how-did-not-booking-a-role-win-audra-mcdonald-her-first-tony-com-360162

 

[ggersten]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 2:49am

* Updated On: 11/22/16 at 02:49 AM

[Severus Snape]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 3:36am

Thank you all of you for replying. Patti Lupone and Audra McDonalds stories sound ideal.

[Speed]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 3:51am

Sutton was barely mentioned in the NY Times review for MILLIE and she was playing the title role!  No joke.  Look it up.  And Idina got a very dismissive review from the NY Times for WICKED.  They both won Tonys for those shows.  On the subject of MILLIE, Erin Dilly was replaced by Sutton.  But Dilly has had a wonderful career not only on Broadway but on TV and film.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 8:38am

I think the best "theater" story of all...though it played out for in movies is about Julie Andrews who played Eliza Doolittle on Broadway in My Fair Lady and was nominated for a Tony as best Actress for the role. But she was overlooked for the film when producer Jack Warner did not think she was famous or important enough and hired Audrey Hepburn instead (who was indeed charming but couldn't sing well enough and her voice was dubbed). The next year Julie won an Academy Award for best actress for Mary Poppins..and of course, she thanks Jack Warner in her speech..if she was doing My Fair Lady, the MP opportunity would not have have existed.

 

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 8:55am

She thanked Jack Warner at the Golden Globes. But what was more ironic at the Oscars was that Audrey Hepburn wasn't even nominated.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 9:59am

Not about coming back from a pan but about triumphing from a career setback from alcoholism, Laurette Taylor's legendary performance as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie is the definitive comeback.  So much so that Clifford Odets explicitly alludes to it in The Country Girl, a great American play about an alcoholic actor's comeback and a director who believes in him, which is partly inspired by Taylor's triumph in Glass Menagerie.  (Of course, The Country Girl is at its heart a play about the scapegoating of a wife for her actor husband's career crisis, which as far as I know has nothing to do with Taylor's story). 

Updated On: 11/22/16 at 09:59 AM

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 4:41pm

Jeffrey Karasarides said: "She thanked Jack Warner at the Golden Globes. But what was more ironic at the Oscars was that Audrey Hepburn wasn't even nominated.

 

"

Oh that's right. I forgot the details. Senior moment. Haha

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 11/22/16 at 11:41pm

This isn't about a comeback, because the actress in question never went away, but I've often thought of John Simon's review of a young Dianne Wiest in the Phoenix Theatre production of the moving BONJOUR, LA, BONJOUR. Simon not only panned Wiest and the play, he wrote that her eyes looked like two slots waiting for someone to drop coins into them.

Six years later Wiest won an Oscar for HANNA AND HER SISTERS. She also has two Primetime Emmys.

[A Director]

Posted: 11/23/16 at 2:05am

Many years ago, John Simon wrote, even beyond his usual style, a nasty hostile review.  In their next issue, The Village Voice printed his obituary.  I wish I had copied it.  I sort of recall it said he left a grease stain on the lobby carpet.

[Valentina3]

Posted: 11/23/16 at 10:01am

Pretty sure John Simon goes by After Eight now.

[mikem]

Posted: 11/23/16 at 12:47pm

Frances McDormand starred in a revival of The Country Girl after not having been on Broadway for 20 years, and she got scorching reviews.  The USA Today review was headlined, "A miscast Frances McDormand spoils "Country Girl," and that was a pretty common sentiment.  I wasn't sure that we would see her on Broadway again anytime soon.

Three years later, she starred in "Good People" to universal acclaim and won the Tony, the Drama Desk, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for her work.

Updated On: 11/23/16 at 12:47 PM