Leading Actor Joined: 3/23/07
re: "She's gone now, but dear, wonderful, hysterical, heartbreaking Madeline Kahn."
Exactly the actor I thought of when I read the question!
Actually David Hyde Pierce & Kelsey Grammer would be my ideal, but I could imagine a few others who could pull this off:
Nathan Lane
Harvey Fierstein
Carol Burnett
Patrick Stewart
Debra Monk
Raul Esparza, but I would want him to sing the phone book.
Stand-by Joined: 6/25/06
Bernadette Peters and/or Bob Martin.
Broadway Star Joined: 4/6/06
Celia Keenan-Bolger
Raul Esparza
Patti LuPone
Bernadette Peters
A random Broadway Ensemble who sings everything chorus-y every few names.
Sherie Ree Scott and Norbert Leo Butz.
Bob Martin.
Sutton Foster as Janet Van De Graaf.
Together.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
Carol Channing
Patti LuPone
Angela Lansbury
Maxwell Caulfield (barechested?)
James Earl Jones
Patrick Wilson (barechested)
Hugh Grant (barechested)
Leading Actor Joined: 3/23/07
by the way, which phone book are we talking about?
manhattan or manchester, nh? also, the white pages or the yellow pages? the white pages seem like they'd fare best if billed as 'tragicomedy in fifty seven acts," but only the most ardent robert wilson fans might consider sitting through it for the entire month.
the yellow might yield a better musical if a contemporary composer could be found who's capable of expressing the ironic nature of accountancy, in counterpoint to the ironic bouyancy one might find in a meditation on 'irons and ironing supplies.'
'zippers and zipper repair' could lend itself to a compelling finale in lancaster, pennsylvania, but the last entry in the manhattan yellow pages is 'zoos,' and with only one listing this is problematic, particularly when considering the choreography. (also, the central park zoo pales in comparison to the pull-out-the-stops spectacular that is the bronx zoo; nor does it evoke the underfunded poignancy of brooklyn's prospect park.) one solution might be to add a program note urging the audience to watch the conductor count out the last few bars in silence, a la 'also sprach zarathustra,' but mentioning 'zoos' and 'zarathustra' in the same breath will probably come off as wholesale pretension....
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
I'd say most of the British actors ( including the late Richard Burton) -
*Also, including Michael Ball, who is half-English and half-Welsh. He has such a beautiful speaking ( and singing) voice and accent. He has presented many shows for BBC radio and English television in addition to his stage work. He is also a trained actor and I would love to see him in a drama. His one filmed work was a movie biography of Henry Purcell which cast Michael in the title role.
*Hugh Jackman - so long as he has his shirt off
Seriously, Hugh has an excellent vocal range ( check out his movies, including Flushed Away ) and he was known to audition with a Shakespeare monologue in his early days ( he did that when he auditioned for OKLAHOMA!). My dream stage return for him would be in a Shakespearean drama ( his favourite is HENRY V), with mentor Trevor Nunn directing. He did a few sentences of the Bard's lines ( I think it was Hotspur) for his role as the drunken actor, Root, in THE PRESTIGE.
Updated On: 4/9/07 at 08:44 PM
Chorus Member Joined: 3/14/07
Patrick Stewart, James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury
Sutton Foster.
OOh, better yet: Sutton Foster, Hunter Foster and Christian Borlem together!
And I totally sceond the cast of Grey's Anatomy!!
~Darci
Carol Channing
Roger Bart
(both for hilarity)
Hunter Foster
(cause he's pretty)
Nathan Lane
(to hear him make fun of things found in said phone book)
James Earl Jones
Patti LuPone,
and the following if they were shirtless,
Gavin Creel,
Patrick Wilson,
Raul E.,
and again, Patti LuPone
Bob Martin
Maggie Smith
John Waters
Max Von Essen...;o)
Updated On: 4/10/07 at 03:00 PM
HUNTER. FOSTER.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/15/05
Is anybody going to "Broadway Sings The Phone Book?" on the 12th at Studio 54?
Travis Cloer
Jesse L Martin
Donna Murphy. She could find many many layers in a dry cleaning ad.
Bebe Neuwirth
Michele Pawk
Both have yummy speaking voices. And I'd listen to Pawk sing anything.
IN CASE YOU WEREN'T ALL AWARE
THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING:
BROADWAY SINGS THE PHONE BOOK AT STUDIO 54 NOVEMBER 12
https://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=22461
The Make-A-Wish Foundation makes its Broadway debut when 2007 Tony Award Winning Actress Julie White returns to the Broadway stage to host "Broadway Sings The Phone Book," a fundraiser gala concert for the Metro New York Chapter of the organization. "Broadway Sings the Phone Book" will play Studio 54 on November 12, 2007 at 7PM.
Demonstrating the popular expression "I'd listen to 'so-and-so" sing the phone book," producers Jonathan Tessero, Sarah Melissa Rotker, and Joe Tropia have lined up a fun array of Broadway stars singing their trademark songs... with the lyrics replaced either mad lib style or with names from pages ripped randomly from the phone book. A third performance option includes a variation of the title where performances are crafted with words from pages ripped from a dictionary.
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