Most versatile stage actors working today?

#1

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 10:59am

Who would you consider some of the most versatile, in terms of the range of their talents/performances? Just curious, since I've been thinking about how so many people on here believe Finneran is giving a performance very similar to that of her Marge. And the comments throughout the years about Denis O'Hare/Matthew Broderick/Sutton Foster, etc etc. who many BWWers think give very similar performances in all of their respective shows.

Not sure if "versatile" is the right word, but I guess the actors with the biggest ranges/breadth of performances

#2

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 11:15am

Danny Burstein

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A little swash, a bit of buckle - you'll love it more than bread.

#3

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 11:17am

I've only seen him Boeing-Boeing and Jerusalem, but I think those two shows alone show the incredible breadth of Mark Rylance's abilities.

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When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain. -Kad

#4

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 11:23am

Michael Stuhlbarg is also incredibly versatile, even though he mostly works in TV and film now.

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A little swash, a bit of buckle - you'll love it more than bread.

#5

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 11:43am

His Arnold Rothstein is definitely one of my favorite things about Boardwalk Empire.

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When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain. -Kad

#6

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 11:54am

Ron Bohmer.

#7

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 11:56am

NATHAN LANE

#8

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 11:56am

Carolee Carmello.

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[believe]

#9

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 12:04pm

Brian d'Arcy James. I've seen him in 4 different shows, and each performance was unique and defined.

#10

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 12:16pm

Norbert Leo Butz--anyone who could do DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS and CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and then turn around and do HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE as well as he did deserves a tip of the hat.

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"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#11

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 12:56pm

Agreed, when I saw this thread my first thought was immediately Butz.

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"...and in a bed."

#12

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 4:13pm

Awesome question.

In no particular order:
Norbert Leo Butz, Michael Cerveris, Raul Esparza, Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, Mark Rylance, Danny Burstein, Sherie Rene Scott... My list goes on and on.

#13

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 4:26pm

Anthony LaPaglia. Everything he does is different - and all excellent.

#14

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 4:48pm

Laura Osnes and most definitely, Carolee Carmello.

#15

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 5:01pm

I would add, Audra McDonald, Elizabeth Marvel and Boyd Gaines

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Namaste

#16

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 7:01pm

Raul Esparza, Boyd Gaines. Lots of talented women but don't know how to gauge "versatile" for some of my favorites like Laura Benanti.

#17

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 9:27pm

I second the vote for Boyd Gaines. He sings, he dances, he acts up a storm!

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"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)

#18

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/23/12 at 10:20pm

Brian d'Arcy James and Norbert Leo Butz. Both have conquered straight plays and musicals and a wide variety of material.

#19

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/24/12 at 12:22pm

Nathan Lane?!? Really, he always seems to play Nathan Lane, in my opinion. Not that he's not good at it.

I'd say: Norbert Leo Butz, Donna Murphy and Brian d'Arcy for starters

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“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” ``oscar wilde``

#20

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/24/12 at 12:46pm

Norbert Leo Butz, Michael Cerveris and Brian D'Arcy James for the men.

Donna Murphy, Elizabeth Marvel and Jessica Hecht for the ladies.

#21

Most versatile stage actors working today?

Posted: 10/24/12 at 12:49pm

There's Amy Ryan...and then there's everyone else.

It's shocking how different she is in everything she does. From Vanya till now, I can't get over her versatility.