If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances would you like to have seen?- Page 3
If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances would you like to have seen?
#50re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/21/06 at 1:35amI saw Merman in Gypsy as a kid ("she's loud, mom") and Julie Andrews in the world premiere of Camelot ("she sings real high, mom") but I'd give anything to go back in time to see Fred Astaire in "Funny Face" and Ray Bolger in "On Your Toes". Just to see what REAL tap danicing was all about.
NYnativeinLA
Chorus Member Joined: 12/30/04
#51re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/21/06 at 6:14pm
Having seen most of the above mentioned people at least in something... ex.(Ethel and Mary in a compilation show filmed at the La Mirada Theatre many years ago), the two that I always wish I saw are:
-Al Jolson in anything!
-Judy at the Palace!
JemimaPearl
Understudy Joined: 5/12/05
#52re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/21/06 at 6:29pmGwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, and Jerry Orbach in Original Chicago. Jerry Orbach in The Fantastiks. Also, Timothy Scott in Cats. He was supposedly beyond amazing.
elmore3003
Leading Actor Joined: 3/31/04
#53re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/21/06 at 6:37pm
Bessie Wynn and Mabel Barrison in BABES IN TOYLAND 1903
Helen Ford in DEAREST ENEMY and PEGGY-ANN
Ethel Merman in ANYTHING GOES (1934) and GYPSY (195
Helen Morgan in SWEET ADELINE
Fred Astaire in THE GAY DIVORCE
Mary Boland in JUBILEE
Ray Bolger in ON YOUR TOES
Gertrude Lawrence and Danny Kaye in LADY IN THE DARK
Mary Martin in ONE TOUCH OF VENUS and SOUTH PACIFIC
Alfred Drake in KISS ME, KATE
Julie Andrews in MY FAIR LADY
Barbara Cook in CANDIDE, THE MUSIC MAN, and SHE LOVES ME
Updated On: 8/21/06 at 06:37 PM
#54re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/21/06 at 8:19pmRent preview the night after Jonathan Larson died.
#55re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/21/06 at 9:39pmElmore3003, you and I think alike. Gay Divorce is my favorite Fred show BUT Funny Face is the best score. Hit after hit after hit AND Adele was in it. I've always wanted to see if she really was better than he was or if that was just adulation.
#56re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/21/06 at 11:16pmJulie Andrews in anything
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#57re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/22/06 at 12:27am
Two more I left out of my earlier post:
Jessica Tandy - A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Shirley Booth - COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA
TomMonster - I also feel old. I too, saw many of those previously mentioned performances!
elmore3003
Leading Actor Joined: 3/31/04
#58re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/22/06 at 2:17pm
Allofmylife, I worked on THE GAY DIVORCE for the Cole Porter Trust and a complete BBC Radio 3 broadcast of the show. Since I prefer Cole Porter to Gershwin (gasp!) I like the score a lot:
"I've Got You on My Mind"
"After You, Who?"
"Night and Day"
It's not a first-rate Porter score like ANYTHING GOES, JUBILEE, or KISS ME, KATE, but I like this show a lot. The dance arrangements are often quite daring with bits of bitonaity. Incidetally, the non-Porter "Continental" scene in the film has a lot to do with "Begin the Beguine" in JUBILEE.
#59re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/22/06 at 2:22pmAngela Lansbury - Gypsy
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
CurtainUp
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/9/04
#60re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/22/06 at 4:57pm
I Would give SO MUCH to see Angela Lansbury, as Lovett, Gypsy or Mame.
Carol Channing as Dolly
Second Jerry Orbach in the Fantasticks
#61re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/23/06 at 10:29am
Elmore3003
Don't get me wrong. I love Gay D. I collect memorabilia of Fred pre movies and have some amazing stuff from the show, including original photos. I have every opening night program for his Broadway shows save for two (and of course, other copies of those) as well as programs for all his British shows. I nearly plotzed when a copy of the souvenir program for Funny Face came up - and went for a mere 400 bucks - on ebay while I was out of town. I had never seen THAT before.
I love the staging of Gay D, with a chorus of just girls and the sets for the New York production were fantastic (London, pretty mundane) and I love the trickiness of "After You Who".
All that being said, I'd still go back in time to see Funny Face because (1) Gershwin often dropped in and played one of the twin piano parts (2) Ira dropped by to visit a great deal and (3) Adele was in the show. I have no idea how good she really was and would love to know.
Now, if I WAS to go back to see Gay D, I'd have a tough time figuring out if I should see it when Clare Luce was playing the lead (I've seen her work. She was HOT!!!) or Dorothy Stone, another unknown vessel for me who is confusingly listed by some as Fred Stone's (of Stone and Montgomery) daughter of wife. Either way, soundls a little creepy.
Problems, problems....
#62re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/23/06 at 12:52pmCARRIE!
#63re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/23/06 at 1:14pm
-- Al Jolson
-- The opening night of the original production of 42nd Street
-- The opening night of Oklahoma!
-- Robert Preston and Bernadette in Mack and Mabel
-- Ethel Merman in Gypsy
-- Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, and Stanley Holloway in My Fair Lady
-- George Rose, Kevin Kline, Rex Smith, and Tony Azito in Pirates of Penzance
-- David Carroll in Chess
-- The original off-bway Little Shop of Horrors
-- Jerrry Orbach in The Fantasticks and Promises, Promises
-- The OBC of 1776
-- The OBC of The Mystery of Edwin Drood
-- John Cullum in Shenandoah
....and probably many many more!
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#64re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/23/06 at 3:00pm
Holy moly!
It startled me quite a bit reading those lists. I've seen about 95% of those cast(s) in those shows. I've been a huge theatre rat since I was 7 years old (1972 -- first show was the original cast of PIPPIN) and spent all my summers from that year on in NYC (I head to NYC several times a year still), so I've been quite blessed.
Heck, I even saw "Carrie" twice, as well as "Smile". Heck, I saw Chita and Gwen about 10 times in CHICAGO when I was 10 and the original cast of A CHORUS LINE about 5 times that same year. Loved that summer -- my favorite film JAWS also opened that summer.
1977 -- another handful of visits for ANNIE...and STAR WARS opened about the same time, too! New York was the best that year, too!
It's endless. I should write an Almanac. 
#65re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/23/06 at 3:05pmi'm with you, All_For_Laura. i just wanna hear Linzi Hately belt out "that's not my NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME" live on stage :)
#66re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/23/06 at 3:12pm
I'll sit in the Orch with you two.
Just to see Eve Was Weak, and the Pigs Blood Ballet.
I lived in NYC by then, but didnt get to the theater to see this...what an ahole.
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
seymour krelborn
Broadway Star Joined: 5/14/03
#67re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/23/06 at 3:42pm
Dick Van Dyke in The Music Man
Dick and Chita in Bye Bye Birdie ( got to see them together in A Dancer's Life so that made up for it a little)
Any Carrie Performance
Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady
Opening night of the original 'Company' (aka Dean Jones' only broadway performance)
hauntedcoffeepot
Chorus Member Joined: 6/13/06
#68re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/24/06 at 7:01am
Jim Dale in Barnum
Jerry Orbach in anything
Bernadette Peters in Into the Woods
first ones to come to mind...
#69re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/24/06 at 11:48amThe shivers I get when I hear the title song, and And Eve Was Weak, are not even funny. Just to be graced with those two wonderful women dueting on stage. WOW! And I also would love to have seen the crazy choreography of "Do Me a Favor" Live! At least Charlotte got some dancing in!
seasons of love
Leading Actor Joined: 1/8/05
#70re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/24/06 at 3:03pm
Chita Rivera in anything
Angela Lansbury and George Hearn in Sweeney
Original Broadway Cast of SITPWG
Original Broadway Cast of RENT
Original Broadway Cast of Avenue Q
Jerry Orbach in The Fantasticks
Julie Andrews in anything
Original Broadway Cast of A Chorus Line
#71re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/24/06 at 3:58pm
Patti in Evita
Cerveris as Tommy, Hedwig
OBC Passion
OBC Aspects of Love
Updated On: 8/24/06 at 03:58 PM
#72re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/24/06 at 4:11pm
OBC:
"Dreamgirls"
"Sunday in the Park with George"
"Carrie"
"Rent"
"La Cage Aux Folles"
"Once on this Island"
"Evita"
"West Side Story"
"Gypsy"
"The Wiz"
"Little Shop of Horrors"
"Cabaret" with Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson
"Man of La Mancha" with Brian Stokes Mitchell
"You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown!" with Anthony Rapp
"Candide" with Kristin Chenoweth and Patti Lupone
"Wicked" with Shoshana Bean and Megan Hilty
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#73re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/24/06 at 8:24pm
Re film stars onstage --
While I was lucky to have seen Ingrid Bergman, Barbra Streisand, Lauren Bacall, Anthony Perkins, Robert Preston, Melina Marcouri, Robert Goulet, John Kerr and Richard Dreyfus onstage, in the distant past, I wish I had also seen :
*Elizabeth Taylor (Little Foxes)
*Richard Burton ( Camelot, Hamlet)
*Yul Brynner ( King and I)
*Julie Andrews ( Camelot... and My Fair Lady in London)
*Audrey Hepburn ( Ondine?)
Updated On: 8/24/06 at 08:24 PM
#74re: If you could have been there in the past, what performers/performances
Posted: 8/24/06 at 9:04pm
So many of you responded with so many of my same responses.
Taking a different tack, there were a couple of "odd" replacement castings I would have love to have seen. Such as, believe it or not, Susan Luccie in Annie Get Your Gun. Reba McIntyre in the same role. Liza taking over for Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria. John Stamos in Cabaret. To name a few.
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