The single greatest character to walk the stage of Broadway- Page 3

[Mythus]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 4:47pm

Albin, La Cage aux Folles. He counts as male and female.

[meagan9848]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 5:26pm

As promised...

How ignorant can you be? It's people like you that make younger people such as myself feel un-welcome in this community. Do you think that I do not know who those characters are? Do you think that I don't own countless books, dvds, and cast albums trying to educate myself on a FRACTION of the years of theatre I was not around for? You can barely judge a character from a movie...never mind a book or an album. As much as you can possibly read, there will still be more to the character than conveyed through various sources. It's impossible to gather a character's worth without seeing that character on stage.

I know I'm not going to win this, so I'm just going to give up. You elders can go back to bashing us kids as you ALWAYS do.

[xluckystar2107x]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 5:35pm

add another vote to the Emcee
maybe christine for phantom
so many roles so little time

[mizzie]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 5:48pm

Male - Gavroche
Female - G(a)linda
Um....Both? - Edna Turnblad

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 5:48pm

You say you can't judge a character from a movie - but you can only judge that character on stage? First off, that makes no sense. Second, if you were referring to me, among others, as "elders" bashing you guys, they you are entirely incorrect - I'm 19 years old, dearie.

[meagan9848]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 5:50pm

was talking about margo buddy

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 5:51pm

Good.

[BlueEyedKate]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 6:45pm

Margo...a big fat word to everything you just said. I couldn't have said it better.

I don't think it's necessarily a matter of age persay; however, I do think it is a matter of experience, and what you expect when you go to see a play. I enjoyed "Wicked." It was an entertaining play. However, it didn't really make me think, it didn't really make me question my life and my decisions; great plays, and moreover, great characters will make you do that. A truly great character, in my opinion, is a character that you are constantly wondering why they are the way they are, you realize their motivations, you can see the parallels in your life, and their emotions are so clearly, yet at the same time, intricately revealed in their actions. A great character is not made by a great actor or actress; rather, it is written by a playwright.

As for characters in plays...

Antigone in "Antigone"
Hamlet in "Hamlet"
Henry V in "Henry V"
Lady MacBeth in "MacBeth"
Rose in "Fences"
And my personal favorite, Amanda in "The Glass Menagerie"

As for musicals,
Maria in "The Sound of Music" will always hold a soft spot in my heart
Eliza and Henry in "My Fair Lady"
Sally Bowles in "Cabaret" (IMO, one of the absolute best roles for young girls out there)..also the Emcee as well
Velma in "Chicago"
Jean Valjean and Javert from "Les Miserables"

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 7:05pm

I love when things get feisty....
Anyway...........................

The Witch- Into the Woods
The Baker- Into the Woods
Archie- Secret Garden
Neville- Secret Garden
Mary Lennox- Secret Garden
Seymour- LSOH
Tito- Lend Me a Tenor
Nurse- Romeo & Juliet
Elphaba- Wicked
Lucille- Parade

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 7:11pm

Hedda Gabler is my dream role.

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 7:16pm

If you mess with Margo you mess with me. We travel in posses on this board.

[meagan9848]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 9:10pm

this board is full of posses picking on eachother

[Alix]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 9:17pm

I'm going with the emcee too...obviously :)

[Mr. TN]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 11:18pm

oy vay...I'm not even getting started.

My Pick For Characters (Divided into Categories of Musical Character; Greek/Shakespearian/Renaissance Character; and Contemporary Play Character for the simple reason that a musical character and a Shakespearian character are totally different and should be treated as such.)

Musical:
Macheath (Threepenny Opera)

G/S/R:
Medea (play of the same name)

Contemporary:
(tie) Jean and Berrenger (Rhinoceros) *You can't split this duo. Just like you can't split Estragon and Vlad. from Waiting for Godot.

[jczelyph]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 8:41am

"If you mess with Margo you mess with me. We travel in posses on this board."

What an absolutely ridiculous statement. I actually gave a little laugh-snort when i read that. It evokes images of some kind of Broadway gang warfare. Tell me you meant it as a joke....

"It's people like you [in reference to a previous post made by a different board user] that make younger people such as myself feel un-welcome in this community."

I totally agree. People seem to lament today's Broadway. Surely one way of improving the theatre scene would be to encourage young people to become more involved in this community - fresh outlook and ideas etc... That's not going to happen if new or younger board members are constantly berated for expressing opinions that the more wizened members of the board find unappealing. Of course you needn't withhold your opinions but express them with a modicum of grace and civility, rather than resorting to offensively toned comments like "have you all completely lost your minds?"

-----
Margo:
I do not think it rude or unreasonable to expect people to know who Hamlet or Willy Loman are. Rather, I meant that it is rude and unreasonable to post messages that make out other board users are totally ignorant and "pathetic" if they haven't named a character you agree with. I see your point and appreciate the chastisement to educate ourselves, however, generally speaking, people who don't enjoy the 'classics' have no incentive to seek out the works of literature you mention. Most people encounter enough classic drama to decide for themselves whether or not it is something they enjoy. If someone doesn't enjoy works like King Lear or Antigone, then they're surely not going to label them as the greatest characters?

Obviously as an intelligent man/woman (I never know which noun is more appropriate - can you clear this up?), you were eager to discover drama. Some people simply have no desire to read (or see) material that they know won't interest them. I would be very wary in negatively labelling people like that.

I'd be surprised if people hadn't heard of Hamlet or Don Quixote, but less surprised if they hadn't read of them. And if one hasn't read of them, then how can someone announce them as their greatest ever character?

I'm not personally insulted. I enjoy the vigour of these debates. Nobody need feel insulted, and nobody need insult. We are, after all, talking about something as deliciously subjective as 'the single greatest character'.

I know that there's more to theatre than Wicked, Brooklyn or Rent. I come from a background where I'm fortunate enough to have had the chance to appreciate classic drama (and I agree that there isn't anything stopping anyone from using their local library to research theatre - lack of exposure is no excuse for ignorance) but, all things considered, I still enjoy the characters of modern theatre more. I'm not ignorant, yet I hold a view that many would love to denounce as ignorant.

For the record, I'm 21. How old are you? I'm curious.

Updated On: 11/5/04 at 08:41 AM

[PleaseChangeMe]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 10:16am

In my opinion...

Male: Sweeney Todd, or Judge Turpin. Both characters show amazing range, stunning emotions, and both a reasonable side and an angry side. Put them into a show, and not only do you have the best show, you have the best male characters to grace the stage of Broadway.

Female: Between Mama Rose and Caroline. I'm not going to go into detail about Mama Rose, for obvious reasons, but Caroline...wow, Caroline is just an amazing, nearly 4-D character! Not to mention, someone who sings such amazing songs that show anger, sorrow, regret, etc. Caroline almost beats Mama Rose for THE best character ever on Broadway.

As for the classics, I like some of them, but I don't like how people think some are uneducated in musical theatre because they don't like the classics. Yes, they did what they did, but does that mean that they are any good? Times change, and I know we musn't forget the shows that remained in people's heart, and granted that good shows are hardly getting produced anymore, or run short runs (Caroline, Assassins), but that's how the tides change. But thank you, Margo, for bringing the classics into the thread.

[Ranaranad]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 10:21am

You guys are getting ridiculous...
This should be about sharing ideas and information....
Theater is a community, a family...
A concept that you all might want to think about if you intend to head into it as a profession.
I find some of your attitudes a bit disturbing.
If you all have this much energy, and feel like fighting for something...there are about 1.5 million people in Sudan that could use some help....

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 1:25pm

AMEN!!!

[LyTeMyCanDyI]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 2:41pm

Male- Emcee or Valjean or Chris from Miss Saigon (on a good day)
Female- Elphaba, Mimi, Kim from Miss Saigon

Posted: 11/5/04 at 2:46pm

does it really matter? And theatre is SUPPOSED to be a family, but everyone knows we're all a bunch of vicious freak anyway. I know I can get a little pissy every now and then.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 2:59pm

Margo - Brava

Meagan - Cute pic. Is that you?

My thoughts on the greatests characters

Alexandra del Lago - Sweet Bird of Youth (Actually almost all of Willims characters are great.
Lady Bracknell - Importance of Being Earnest
Sally and Matt - Talleys Folly
Gwen - Fifth of July
George and Martha - Virginia Woolf
Dr. Dysart and Alan - Equus
Salieri - Amadeus

These are some of my faves.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 3:04pm

Dame Edna, of course. Duh.

[LyTeMyCanDyI]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 4:13pm

For the record, I'm sixteen and love literature, especially Shakespeare and Sophocles, and Poe as well. (If he only wrote plays...)I agree that lately teens and young adults don't know about the great works of yesteryear, and that's a shame. I blame that largely on the education system. There are few English teachers who are willing to go above and beyond the basic curiculum. I've been lucky and have had a sleu of teachers that ARE wiling to do that. Also, sometimes it is so easy to get caught up in the modern shows of today that we forget or overlook the classics. This doesn't mean we didn't read them and don't like, or even love them. In my previous post, I mentioned fairly recent characters. I, as you will soon see by my amended list, have read many classics. That's an example of getting caught up. I don't think it is necessary to criticize those who don't know the classics. Some people simply may not like them, others may not have had the chance to read them. Just because some people have doesn't make them better and it doesn't give them a right to belittle those who haven't read or enjoyed the classics.

That being said, in addition to my previous list:
Romeo, Juliet, and Mercutio, who is a great character but is often overlooked.

Oedipus, Creon, Antigone and Ismene as well.

Julius Caesar was a great play as well, so I'll include him. "Et tu Brute?...then fall Caesar"

Kate and Petruchio from Taming of the Shrew.

Cesario from Twelfth Night, and the guy whose name was Orsino, or something similar. ( He opened the play with, "If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it... Was that Orsino?"

Jurors 3 and 8 from Twelve Angry Men

Kate Hardcastle and Charles Marlowe in She Stoops to Conquer

Everyone from Rasin in the Sun

Quentin from After the Fall

I know he's not in a play, but Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye. He is so much fun to analyze and such a complex person.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/5/04 at 4:28pm

dickie of gloucester and medea.

margo, thanks for saying nicely what i would have said viciously.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 8:46am

If you don't have the knowledge or exposure to answer the question, but venture an opinion anyway, why would you be surprised that people take issue?

Margo voiced what many people thought. It has nothing to do with age, it's about having the sense to know what one does and doesn't know. I'm old and I've seen a lot of theater, but *I* didn't feel well-versed enough to offer an opinion about the initial topic, as stated. Picking the appropriate threads to jump into is a fine skill to hone.