Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

I don't know if this has been brought up before. If it has, please forgive me, this is my first post!

Anyway, I was just wondering if any of you have seen a play or a musical and then found out later that a very well known actor was in it? For example, two years ago I saw a play called Shakespeare in Hollywood at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC. Very funny show with a very talented cast. I wasn't a huge theater freak back then, so I didn't keep my program. However, someone in my family did, because I just found a program from that show two days ago.

I looked throught the names of the actors in the show, and it turns out Alice Ripley was in it! I didn't know who Alice Ripley was two years ago, but I think its funny that I found out about her after I saw the show. Has that ever happened to you?

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I saw Andy Serkis in a production of HurlyBurly ages ago.

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I saw Michael Hall in Cabaret. Later I became a HUGE SFU fan, and during one of the musical sequences on that show, I suddenly went: SH*T! That's the Emcee I saw!!!!

The closest thing that I have to offer is when I went to go get tickets for Rent. My friend and I wer sitting outside the theater when one of the stars came out. I didn't know much about Rent at the time, so I didn't really care about him... but he kept looking at us because we were the only girls NOT mobbing him and asking him for an autograph.

It turned out to be Joshua Kobak, and I kinda regret not getting his autograph.

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Back in 1992 my wife and I were having dinner at a restaurant near the theater in Sacramento where we were about to see The Secret Garden. As we were waiting in a huge line for the salad bar, the head waiter came over and asked if we would mind letting an actor from the show cut in front of us in line. We said, "Sure, no problem." It turned out to be Roger Bart. He was playing Dickon in the show. We had never heard of him before, but we talked to him for about ten minutes waiting in line. He was very personable. So we've followed his career over the years, later seeing him in Sacramento as Cousin Kevin in Tommy and Bud Frump in H2$ in the later 90's. Now, of course, he's really famous.

I met Daphne Rubin-Vega about 3 times when I saw Rocky Horror Show, talked with her for a while..never realized how amazing she was until I began listening to RENT a few years later. Now looking back I just think, "Holy crap I met Daphne Rubin-Vega!!" lol.

Back when Light in the Piazza was doing its pre-Broadway run in Seattle, I saw Celia Keenan-Bolger in a community theater production of "The Importance of Being Earnest." She was amazing!

I saw Cheyenne Jackson at Broadway in Bryan tPark, the summer AIDA clsoed, and only recently learned that it was him.

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When I saw Rent in NYC a few years ago...I wasn't a huge fan and didn't like it much (now I do, though) but the only character that I really liked was Angel. A year or so later I look at my playbill and find that it was Jai Rodriguez. Very cool.

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I saw Joseph Feinnes in a play called Son of Man in London in 1995.

That same year I also saw Judi Dench in A Little Night Music, also in London. I had no idea who she was back then, mostly because she hadn't really hit big over here yet.

I've had this happen a bunch of times (Megan Mulally in Grease, Heather Headley and Fredi Walker in The Lion King), but the most recent one I discovered is that I saw Jesse Tyler Fergeson in "The Complete Abridged Works of William Shakespeare" about four years ago. Very small csat, only three people, and I remember him being FANTASTIC. Definitely the standout.

A whole bunch of people in Grease: Marissa, Hunter, Jenn Cody
Mike Cerveris in Assassins

I always get a kick out of going through my old playbills and seeing who I saw in stuff before they were -- in the theatre community, at least -- household names.

I saw MJW and Hunter Foster in Grease (I think), Jeremy Kushnier and JLT in Footloose, Donna Murphy in The King and I, Kerry Butler as Belle, etc.

My favorite is so heavy on the irony, though. The first time I saw Adam Pascal was in AIDA, and I had no clue who he was, or what Rent was, aside from some very vague description.

... now look at me.

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