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Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are — Page 2

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#26

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 7:57pm

I've seen a few, and I've worked with a few myself (like Marin Mazzie, Becky Ann Baker, etc.)

SEEN:
Donna Murphy as a replacement for Betty Buckley in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

Maryann Plunkett as the understudy for Agnes in "Agnes of God." (pre Me and My Girl)

Ben Harney as the Tinman in the national tour of "The Wiz." (pre Dreamgirls)

I'm sure there are others, if I started digging through the Playbills. I know Rob Marshall was in the chorus of The Mystery of Edwin Drood... as well as Judy Kuhn and Alison Fraser.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#28

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 8:17pm

I have only begun to love musicals in the last few years. In the first few months "Thoroughly Modern Millie" was on Broadway I saw it with some friends and nearly forgot about it (there is a reason, it is a VERY forgettable show). I went back this year and realized I saw one of my now favorite actresses in theater, Sutton Foster, in the show.
"Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good." -Terrence Mann
#29

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 9:53pm

I sat next to a woman on a plane once who was flying with a couple of other people. This was in my pre-theatre days. She was so pretty that I just had to say something. "You're so beautiful, really you are," I said. She was so nice. We talked for another hour or two, making jokes. We even ordered a couple of the same drinks. I remembered the man she was sitting next to, because he was very nice, and he introduced himself as Marvin. So, I remembered that. Three years later I saw Marvin on television and said, "Oh my god, it's that guy Marvin from the plane!" Marvin, turned out, was still right next to same lady, Bernadette Peters. Oh, to be a young fool again.
#30

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 10:31pm

Oh, this thread has my name on it. I saw Assassins, and though I was blown away by the actor who played Booth, I had no idea who he was. So I'm wating at the stage door for all the folks to come out, and this bald guy (that wasn't Marc Kudisch) came out with his dog. I thought, "Oh, that's probably Marc's UNDERSTUDY..." I had no idea Michael Cerveris was bald! I didn't even know who he was! Well, yeah. Then I saw him win "Raul's Tony" and I was furious. It wasn't until Wall to Wall Sondheim that I really fell in love with him as a performer.
"What a mystery this world. One day you love them and the next day you want to kill them a thousand times over." The Masked Bandit in THE FALL
#31

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 10:41pm

When I was in high school, I saw Susan Egan in a regional production of No, No, Nanette at the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium. Years later when I moved to NYC, I saw her again in the OBC of Beauty and the Beast.
#32

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 10:47pm

I saw Felicia Finley and Kelli O'Hara in the ensemble of the J & H tour, and Sutton Foster as Eponine a few months before she left the Les Miz tour.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#33

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 10:57pm

I saw Shoshana Bean in the chorus of the original cast of "Hairspray" and could never take my eyes off her when she was onstage. I thought to myself as I was watching the show, "She'll go far". Then she got cast as Elphaba. haha
#34

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 11:01pm

Last year, I saw "Fiddler" with Randy Graff in it, and back then, I couldn't care less about the fact that she was in the original production of "Les Miserable." So, when the cast came out, I got my picture made, and autograph, and I thought to myself, "Wow, she was really nice." Then, a couple of months ago I started getting intrested in Les Miz, then I found out Randy Graff was in it, haha, if only I would have known.
#35

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 11:17pm

I saw Les Miserables a month to the day it closed. I had no idea I saw the original Javert until I realized who Terrence Mann was and that made seeing it all the more special
#36

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 11:22pm

I saw Michael Crawford in "The Phantom of the Opera" when I was younger and I saw James Barbour in "Beauty and the Beast" 1999 before I knew who he was in "Assassins".
"Listen to the song that I sing and trust me..."
#38

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 11:29pm

Marc Kudisch in joseph, batb and many other shows. I didn't realize until maybe two years ago!
Carol Channing in Hello Dolly- i was young!
so many others but i don't have my playbills with me right now.
"At the opening night party, they had clowns on stilts, jugglers, a chocolate fountain, popcorn, hot dogs. [My son] looked at me like I had been holding back. Like, 'This is what you do?' I had to tell him, 'No, no, darling. Opening nights don't usually look like this.' It's usually a dark bar with a bottle of vodka." ?Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Jan Maxwell plus i proudly share the title of the shortest member over the age of 10 with wickedrentq!
#39

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 11:39pm

I saw Tim Daly (Tyne Daly's brother and from NBC's Wings) and Annette Benning in Tina Howe's Coastal Disturbances in 1987.

Jesse Tyler Fergeson in the revival of On The Town.

Christy Carlson Romano as Tina Denmark in Ruthless around 1993 (she was about 10) at a summer stock in Galveston, TX.

Ann Sanders (Belle in BATB, Christmas Eve understudy in Avenue Q)as ensemble in Yeston's Phantom, she understudied the role of Julie in Show Boat, and played Antonia in Man of La Mancha at a summer stock in Galveston. And the next summer she played Tuptim in King and I.

Sarah Uriarte Berry (I think she was just Sarah Uriarte then) as Julie Jordan for the tour of Carousel.

This is Harvard, not a stripper bar...
#40

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 11:41pm

Victoria Clark in Titanic - completely forgot she was in that
"It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present." - Ms. Beale

Updated On: 2/7/06 at 11:41 PM

#41

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/7/06 at 11:47pm

I was working with Once Around the Sun at teh Broadway Flea Market (the most recent one) and was giving out discount flyers, and started talking to this woman, and she said no but I told her "it's diiiiscounted" and she was just like "no!" So then I realised that she was Victoria Clark and went "ooh, sorry."
You know it and you want it... you just can't believe you've got it.
#42

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/8/06 at 12:06am

Scott Allgauer - Feb. 2005, "Jesus Christ Superstar"

This made me flip through a bunch of playbills and made me realize that I don't have my playbill for "AIDA," the first big musical I saw. =(
#43

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/8/06 at 12:10am

Fun topic! Here are a few of mine...

Brad Oscar in Aspects of Love
Lacey Chabert in Les Miz as Little Cosette
Nathan Lane in On Borrowed Time
Sherie Rene Scott in Tommy
Harold Perrineau in Godspell
"The theater is my life. I live it. I breathe it. I fondle it till it falls asleep." Jack (Will And Grace) http://feathah.blogspot.com
#44

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/8/06 at 12:18am

C is for Company- same thing. I saw Les Mis for like the third time and it was Terrence Mann's last performance. i had no idea who he was. and even after i looked at his bio, still no idea. got him to sign the playbill and told him he was great and had nice eyes. later on, i found out it was his last performance and thought that was great. and then I was listening to Beauty and the Beast and looked to see who the beast was and saw the name and I was like, no way. I just saw him in Les Mis and he sounded so different. then I looked at his bio properly and was like "holy ****" that was fun.
<--- the set of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I was assistant stage manager for during the 2007 season at the STNJ outdoor stage.

-Dre-
You must remember all the same that at the crux of every game is knowing when it's time to leave the table... And it's important to be artful in your exit. No turning back, you must accept the con is done... It was a ball, it was a blast. And it's a shame it couldn't last. But every chapter has to end, you must agree.
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~

There's a special kind of people known as show people. We live in a world full of dreams. Sometimes we're not too certain what's false and what's real. But we're seldom in doubt about what we feel.
~Curtains~

It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to, than I have ever known.
~A Tale of Two Cities ~
#45

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/8/06 at 12:46am

Funny-

I, too, saw Alice in a show before I knew who she was. However, that was 11 years ago (when I was 10 and she was 31... or... "21").

She was playing Johanna in Sweeney Todd.
"You! You are the worst thing to happen to musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber! And you, well, I just plain don't like you."
~Stewart Gilligan Griffin
#46

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/8/06 at 12:55am

I haven't had any of these experiences, but I'm pretty sure that people who had Idina sing at their wedding or Bar/Bat Mitzvahs are like "Damn, Idina Menzel sang at my wedding".

That's how I would be.
And then, do you know Monseiur Marius, I believe I was a little in love with you.
♥♥♥
#47

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/8/06 at 3:11pm

I saw Chad Kimball, Shoshana Bean, and Barrett Foa in their Godspell days.
If Percy Blakeney were in Les Mis....

Percy: Sink me! If it isn't Javvurt!
Javert: Zsah-vair, it's pronounced Zsah-vair.
Pecry: But it's spelled J-A-V-E-R-T Javvurt.
Javert: Repeat after me Zsah...Zsah....
Percy: Oh! Zsa-Zsa! Like the Gabor sister! Well I personally have always prefered Eva.
Javert: (Looks for gun)
#48

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/8/06 at 3:18pm

I saw Stephanie J. Block as the Narrator in Jospeh in 1998. She was amazing, and I got to meet her and get her autograph after the show. She was really sweet.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
#50

re: Seeing Actors Before You Know Who They Are

Posted: 2/8/06 at 4:18pm

YES! Apparently I saw Kerry Butler and Chuck Wagner in Beauty and the Beast, I just found that out earlier this year and this was about 10 years ago. I even got their autographs, i think. I dug out my old autograph book and checked but the signatures are illegible, one looks like it could say Chuck so....you never know. I also find this happens with community theatre alot.
Canadians are not afraid of the dark! Ok...we don't love it, but who does?

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