Performers Success in Other Countries

Angela Lanbsury and Rosemary Harris are British Broadway stars that have done relatively little on the English stage and owe their success to the roles they played in American TV, cinema and theatre productions. Gertrude Lawrence and Glynis Johns were/are arguably bigger in America than in the UK too.

Tim Flavin was one of the West End leading men in the 80s and 90s, while his Broadway credits are not many and not very important. And it looks like he might have been the first American actor to win an Olivier Award, a couple of years before LuPone.

Kim Criswell was fairly active both on Broadway and in US tours during the 80s, but ever since the 90s she moved to the UK and got some of her biggest roles on the London stages, including an Olivier nomination for Annie Get Your Gun.

Not unlike Marissa, Ako Mitchell is American, but for many years he was virtually the only black leading man in London, starring in Sister Act, Ragtime, The Wild Party etc. And similarly, Joe Aaron Reid played only ensemble/small roles on Broadway (Chicago, Catch Me If You Can, Ghost, If/Then, Finian's Rainbow, Curtains) but got leading roles in the London production of In the Heights and Dreamgirls. Generally speaking, it looks like many American actors of color benefit from a general lack of diversity among British performers - and good for them!

Colm Wilkinson is Irish, but found success in London and later on in the US and Canada. Eva Noblezada herself got her big break in London, which allowed her to "make it" on Broadway. Lea Salonga's name too was - at least for a while - bigger in London and on Broadway then in the Philippines, in which she became a star in later years. I also wouldn't be surprised if Jon Jon Briones were better known in the States (due to MS and Ryan Murphy stuff) than in the Philippines.

Ethan Freeman is American, but he has become a musical theatre star in Austria and, similarly, Frank Wildhorn has shone brighter in the German-speaking world than on Broadway.

Updated On: 2/19/21 at 08:57 AM

JBroadway said: "I guess there's a difference between "finding more success in the UK" vs just being a working actor who ended up being based in the UK for one reason or another."

This is definitely true, but it's also true that it's not always easy to make this distinction. People like Nureyev, Yul Brynner, Tom Stoppard and even Ramin Karimloo fled from their native countries to escape dictatorships, but people like Marisha Wallace, Joe Aaron Reid and others probably moved to the UK because they could get bigger and better roles, so it's not always easy to treat the whole "finding more success in the UK vs ending up being based in the UK" as two discrete categories, since there might be a big deal of overlapping.

But yeah, Kyle Soller studied at RADA so the transition to the London stage was sort of inevitable, so he definitely belongs to the latter.

Updated On: 2/19/21 at 09:51 AM

Call_me_jorge said: "I wonder if Marisha Wallace is sticking to West End theatre by choice. I’m sure, had she been living in New York she would have been cast in the Broadway production of Waitress in a snap."

Actually, Marisha has said that she auditioned for Waitress on Broadway pre-Dreamgirls and did not get it. She's also starring as Motormouth Maybelle in the upcoming West End Hairspray, and has been doing a lot of concerts. They love her over there, I'm really happy she's found such success.

"Lea Salonga's name too was - at least for a while - bigger in London and on Broadway then in the Philippines, in which she became a star in later years. I also wouldn't be surprised if Jon Jon Briones were better known in the States (due to MS and Ryan Murphy stuff) than in the Philippines. "

Lea was a stage prodigy since she was small. We always remembered how she sang TOMORROW from ANNIE which she starred in, in the same repertory company which gave the original London MISS SAIGON many of its Asian cast ( incl Lea and Jon-jon). She also appeared in quite a few local movies as a teenage star...and later on in more adult fare. Over the years, she has released a number of CDs, some in our native language (very haunting and beautiful) including when she was very young. It is a wrong perception to say that she became more well-known elsewhere than she has always been in her homeland.

Updated On: 2/19/21 at 09:58 PM

And Drew Sarich was the star of the world premiere of Ahrens and Flaherty's "Rocky," in Germany.