Today's Performances that Will Become Iconic

Looking Back at Broadway we can think of Iconic performances that people have remembered for decades and will remember for decades to come. Performances like Merman in Annie Get Your Gun, Mary Martin in the Sound of Music, Streisand in Funny Girl, Lansbury in Mame, Yul Brenner in the King and I, Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly, Loudon in Annie, Lupone in Evita, Buckley in Cats, Holliday in Dreamgirls, etc. What performances of the past 15 years do you think will become Iconic and remembered for years to come?

Fantasias sweaty poonanny in The Color Purple.

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Got my house, it still keep the cold out....

You should be whipped with a cat-of-nine-tails for not mentioning Donna McKechnie in A Chorus Line. That woman knew how to work a red dress. And she did more in 10 minutes with "Music & The Mirror" than most actresses did in a lifetime.

It's difficult because all the ones you've listed were the original stars of original works. Now we have so many revivals and it's always difficult for a revival to outshine an original, whether it's a stage production or a movie. Plus I think the new Millennium brought a dry spell to the Broadway musical. There just aren't that many iconic performances.

If I absolutely had to give an answer (and it's a very weak one)

Sutton Foster in Thoroughly Modern Millie
Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in Wicked

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Maybe just me but Harvey Fierstein in Hairspray and John Lloyd Young in Jersey Boys. And of course Tonya Pinkins (still the best performance given by anyone in the 21st century).

Updated On: 9/6/13 at 07:53 PM

Alice Ripley in Next to Normal
Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens
Tonya Pinkins in Caroline, or Change

^This.

And I would add Victoria Clark in The Light in the Piazza.

**jv beat me to it.

Updated On: 9/6/13 at 07:57 PM

Natasha Richardson & Alan Cumming do deserve a place on this list, as well.

How about Nathan Lane in The Producers?

Why Can't A Performance in a Revival become Iconic? I would say that they definitely have in the past! I think Patti's Rose will be remembered for a long time! But i agree with most of you in the respect that the past decade has really belonged to the ladies with exceptions of Nathan Lane, Alan Cumming, and Norbert Leo Butz.

<------HER

The interesting thing is that I don't think Idina Menzel as Elphaba is or will become iconic....maybe her voice singing those songs because the album is so widespread. But Wicked is SO widespread, and there have been so many replacements that I feel it makes her performance and Tony award less special.

Cf. Tonya Pinkins, Alice Ripley, Christine Ebersole. Their roles are synonymous with their performance.

I think Alice Ripley's performance is already iconic. She played the role for years and is pretty widespread. The problem with Tonya Pinkins and Christine Ebersole is their shows only had short runs and the shows are not that popular...(in contrast, every show mentioned in the OP are very well known), so I don't know if people will be talking about them in the future...

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Updated On: 9/6/13 at 08:49 PM

John Gallaghar, Jr. in Spring Awakening?

Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in WICKED immediately came to mind. Say what you will about their performances and the show itself, but WICKED isn't going anywhere any time soon and I think it'll be pretty cool to tell my grandkids that I saw that original duo, more than once. I don't think giving an iconic performance has much to do with being easily "replaceable" or not. I think that's a sign of a truly great, legendary performance. And I think that's a different thing than being "iconic."

And besides the ones that have been mentioned (Ebersole, Pinkins, LuPone, etc), Hugh Jackman in THE BOY FROM OZ was one of the first ones I thought of as well.

Updated On: 9/6/13 at 10:36 PM