Greatest Star Making Turns

Sutton Foster in MILLIE comes to mind.

fashionguru_23 said: "Two that I would say are:Angela Lansbury in Mame andIdina Menzel in Wicked.

Both ladies had stable and successes in their careers previous to these shows, but it was in these shows were they werecatapulted into the spotlight, with thousands and millions now really knowing their name. This is especially true if we look just within the world of musical theatre."

Funny, those were the first two that came to mind for me. Angela Lansbury was famous before Mame, but was never a star, let alone a superstar. I agree with most of the other posts, although I do not remotely think that Ethan Slater and Liz Calloway are stars. I do not think Diggs (who I still feel gave the best performance by supporting actor in a musical in the past 55 years) or Odom Jr. quite live up to the subject wording. In some ways, Jennifer Holliday was a one-hit wonder, so I wonder if she qualifies more as a legendary performance than a real star. I would also add:

— Joel Grey for Cabaret

— Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin for Evita

— Barbara Harris for The Apple Tree, except she did not want it and sorta became a ‘2-hit wonder’

— Zoe Caldwell in Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

— Jim Dale in Scapino

— Frank Langella in Dracula

— James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope

— Maureen Stapleton in The Rose Tattoo

— Robert Preston for The Music Man...not unlike Lansbury...pretty known known but not a star

— Gwen Verdon for Can Can

— Yul Brynner for The King and I

— Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday

— Kevin Kline in The Pirates of Penzance



i know there are others...these are the ones that come to mind.

Updated On: 1/25/21 at 03:54 PM

Kristen Chenoweth, STEEL PIER

Not one of the greatest star making turns.
But it's my first response to the question, as for me in the audience, a first sighting of someone hitherto unknown to me whom I immediately recognized was destined for stardom. It was obvious. Her exceptional talent and, more critically, her unique personality announced that she was going to be a star.

Updated On: 1/25/21 at 06:17 PM

Call_me_jorge said: "I would add Alex Sharp for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Jessie Mueller for Beautiful"

Neither of those people (and especially Alex Sharp) are Stars. Jessie is sort of a Broadway star -- but no one outside of these boards know who she is.

Owen22 said: "Jarethan said: "fashionguru_23 said: "Two that I would say are:Angela Lansbury in Mame andIdina Menzel in Wicked.

Both ladies had stable and successes in their careers previous to these shows, but it was in these shows were they werecatapulted into the spotlight, with thousands and millions now really knowing their name. This is especially true if we look just within the world of musical theatre."

Funny, those were the first two that came to mind for me. Angela Lansbury was famous before Mame, but was never astar, let alone a superstar. I agree with most of the otherposts, although I do not remotelythink that Ethan Slater and Liz Calloway are stars. I do not think Diggs (who I still feel gave the best performance by supporting actor in a musical in the past 55 years) or Odom Jr. quite live up to the subject wording. In some ways, Jennifer Holliday was a one-hit wonder, so I wonder if she qualifies more as a legendary performance than a real star. I would also add:

— Joel Grey for Cabaret

— Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin for Evita

— Barbara Harris for The Apple Tree, except she did not want it and sorta became a ‘2-hit wonder’

— Zoe Caldwell in Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

— Jim Dale in Scapino

— Frank Langella in Dracula

— James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope

— Maureen Stapleton in The Rose Tattoo

— Robert Preston for The Music Man...not unlike Lansbury...pretty known known but not a star

— Gwen Verdon for Can Can

— Yul Brynnerfor The King and I

— Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday

— Kevin Kline in The Pirates of Penzance



i know there are others...these are the ones that come to mind."

"On the Twentieth Century" made Kevin Kline a star--in a supporting role at that!!

Zoe Caldwell, Gwen Verdon and Jim Dale (who was a movie lead before Barnum) all became Broadway stars but I think we're talking about people who gave performances onstage that propelled them to be stars of other mediums as well.

"

I created this more as stars within the Broadway community, which is why I included Lenk and Slater whose stars have considerably risen since their breakthrough roles.

Obviously people who became stars in other mediums count as well though, but I wasn’t trying to limit the thread to that, as evidenced by my including two actors who aren’t big name in on other media at all.

Even though, I am not a fan of hers, I'd also say Beanie Feldstein in Hello Dolly. I feel like she was nowhere, and then once the show opened she was everywhere.

Carey Mulligan in The Seagull.

Perhaps not as flashy as some of the others mentioned here, but her performance was shattering and it was a shame she wasn’t nominated that year.

Updated On: 1/26/21 at 09:32 PM

fashionguru_23 said: "Even though, I am not a fan of hers, I'd also sayBeanie Feldstein in Hello Dolly. I feel like she was nowhere, and then once the show opened she was everywhere."

C’mon...’greatest star making turns’...Beanie Feldstein as Minnie Fay. That is absurd.

Jarethan said: "fashionguru_23 said: "Even though, I am not a fan of hers, I'd also sayBeanie Feldstein in Hello Dolly. I feel like she was nowhere, and then once the show opened she was everywhere."

C’mon...’greatest star making turns’...Beanie Feldstein as Minnie Fay. That is absurd."

Oh, Jarethan...when I was thinking about "star making turns", I was thinking about a Broadway role that made them come into a larger scope. Feldstein might be a tricky one. I forgot about Lady Bird. In my mind, once Hello Dolly opened, suddenly she was in many tv shows, or a movie and was on every talk show. Granted, she had a career before Dolly, but everyone has. I'm thinking of these as what started the snowball to turn into a snowman.