What Do You Think Is The MOST DEMANDING Role in Musical Theater?- Page 2

[dry2olives]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 12:04am

Absolutely the title role in George M.

He's on stage for over 90% of the show. He's involved with almost every musical number. He tap dances up a storm throughout the show and belts out all his numbers. He has to deal with the death of his father and loved ones leaving him, and retain his passion for Broadway.

How Joel Grey did that 8 times a week I'll never know.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 12:06am

BRAVO, gherbert!

[dramafreak13]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 12:08am

i agree with most of those for triple threat roles. i think that for the most vocally demanding role, that would be either jamie or kathy from L5Y. amazingly hard....

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 12:14am

You have to be talented, but I do not think Elphaba and Tracy Turnblad are the most demanding roles.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 12:18am

Lucky Garnett in NEVER GONNA DANCE.

[LiTtLeDaNcEr729]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 12:21am

Jean Valjean? Just a thought...

[andyf]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 12:34am

As soon as I saw the title, I thought Mama Rose.

It's not even just the songs are technically difficult, but to successfully pull off the role takes incredible talent and skill.

And although I never saw it, from what I've heard Caroline seems pretty hard too, just that song from the Tony's must be murder on your voice...although vocal duress was apparently the theme of the night.

[timote316]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 12:38am

Mama Rose definately. Harold Hill is another. Elphaba vocally.

lol, basically, I agree with what everyone has said! lol

[pab]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 12:57am

I think that there is a reason that when Evita was playing, the same actress did not perform the role of Eva at both the matinee and the evening performances. There was no way, with the demands that was placed on the voice, that it could be done. I can't remember another broadway show where this has happened so, as for singing, I'll have to go with Evita.

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 12:57am

The thing that makes Caroline such a difficult character to play is that the audience will most likely find the character unlikable, and the actress playing her has to make her seem like she's still a good person beneath the bitter frustrated exterior, but she can't show that too much in the first act. She has to nail Lot's Wife, because it's what the whole show is building up to, and it reveals Caroline's true feelings and emotions. It certainly can be an acting tour-de-force (as Tonya showed us), and it's difficult voice-wise because she sings soft, loud, high, low, and every other way, and it changes in an instant. Just shows how much Tonya deserved that Tony.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 1:02am

In 1966, when I DO! I DO! was playing on Broadway, there were no matinee substitutes for Robert Preston/Mary Martin because THERE WERE NO MATINEES for this demanding two-role musical.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 1:05am

Ones that haven't been mentioned:

George Seurat~SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
Sweeney Todd~SWEENEY TODD

[Plum]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 1:09am

Best role and most demanding role are two very different things. I'd put Peter Allen in the latter category but never in the first, unless by "best" you mean "best star vehicle."

Of course Mama Rose comes to mind, as do Eva and Caroline. Wasn't Emma in Song and Dance a very vocally challenging role?

Posted: 10/9/04 at 1:12am

I definetly agree with Mama Rose and Harold Hill. I've been involved with both those shows and man are those roles extremely demanding.

[BreakingTheCircle07]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 1:23am

Guido - "Nine"
Harold Hill - "Music Man"
Caroline - "Caroline or Change"
Mama Rose - "Gypsy"

[Jon]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 1:26am

To the person who mentioned Lili/Kate in KISS ME KATE - are you aware that in the second act, she does not sing a single note until the last scene?

Two physically exhausting male roles are Bobby in CRAZY FOR YOU and Quixote in MAN OF LA MANCHA.

Aldonza is a killer role too. It was one of the first Broadway roles to use a matinee alternate. Besides the vocal demands, there's a lot of physical stuff - the fight scene, the rape scene...

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 1:28am

Regarding Kiss Me, Kate-doesn't she sing From This Moment On?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 1:29am

I'm not sure of THE most demanding, but:

cliche, I know... Mama Rose
Don Quixote - MOLM
the Emcee in Cabaret... even though I'm just a tad partial

[Kris2]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 1:31am

"I think that there is a reason that when Evita was playing, the same actress did not perform the role of Eva at both the matinee and the evening performances. There was no way, with the demands that was placed on the voice, that it could be done. I can't remember another broadway show where this has happened so, as for singing, I'll have to go with Evita."

Actually pab, recent ones I can think of are Aida and Miss Saigon. I know Toni Braxton didn't do matinees, Saycon Sengbloh went on in her place. Kim in Miss Saigon has often had an alternate performing at matinees. Even in Les Miz, I think (don't quote me on this one) when J. Mark McVey was Valjean, he had one show off a week at least. I think it happens more often than we think. Some people also trash their voices in big roles instead of having an alternate perform matinees and such - Jennifer Holliday in Dreamgirls as has been mentioned recently.


"You have to be talented, but I do not think Elphaba and Tracy Turnblad are the most demanding roles."

I agree with that one, BwayTheatre11. Still, they must be exhausted at the end of the show. Elphaba is demanding in a vocal sense, like Aida. I find that Tracy is all about the energy.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 1:48am

I'm not sure how valid of an example Aida is. I *know* that I have biases about that show and about stunt casting and I don't want this thread to become another battle about that issue, but before you use that as an example, I think you need to look at those two things in cotext with one another. The only people who did not do all eight performances a week were the "pop stars" who played the role. Up until Toni was cast, that sort of scheduling wasn't the case. Yes, it's a demanding role, but there *were* plenty of people who could handle it.

*steps off soapbox*

[capnkidd]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 2:03am

the show not withstanding,tom hewitt is onstage,in the air,singing&/or otherwise enroute to another place in the theatre or on his way to a costume change constantly during Dracula-tremendous stamina & stage presence...I'm sure there are others,as noted here,,,but currently on broadway?He's got it-hands down....

[Labashier]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 2:05am

Max Bialystock, The Producers. Ignoring all the acting and singing and everything (at least he doesn't dance too much), every night he has to go up there and sing "Betrayed". I've sung it before, and I can tell you that song is KILLER on your vocal chords.

[capnkidd]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 2:12am

labash,
ackkk!"betrayed" was a vanity number for nathan(who can't sing anyway).And Bialystock gets lots of breaks during the show....not in standing w/any of the others posted here in regards to demanding.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 2:15am

Great choices everyone!


I'd say:

-- Rose in GYPSY (the only role so difficult that the legendarily indefatigable Ethel Merman actually missed a few performances -- she burst a blood vessel in her throat and missed a week of performances.... the only time she EVER missed performances in her entire career; Lansbury, Daley, and Peters also missed performances and struggled mightily to complete their runs)

-- Effie White in DREAMGIRLS (Jennifer Holliday missed dozens of performances, as did nearly all of her replacements on Broadway and on the road; as written, perhaps impossible to do eight times a week for months on end)

-- Evita Peron in EVITA (there's a reason that from the get-go, Lupone had Terri Klausner, then Nancy Opel cover the matinees; too rangy and belty for anyone to even try doing more than six performances a week)

-- Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL (there's a reason Streisand left Broadway 40 years ago, never to return; Styne purposely made Fanny's music extremely difficult because the producers wanted Anne Bancroft for the role and Styne wanted Streisand -- he wrote the score so that only Streisand, and a handful of other ridiculously gifted singers could even try to sing it)

-- George M Cohan in GEORGE M (from all accounts -- I never saw it -- the role is an absolute killer)

-- Charity in SWEET CHARITY (Fosse pulled out all the stops to showcase Gwen Verdon; although she was a dancer's dancer and an athelete's athelete, the role damn near killed her; it's the only show I've ever heard of that had two versions during the original run -- on the nights when Gwen simply wasn't feeling up to it, there was a shorter version of the show which cut out two of the production numbers that featured Charity; I'd also include Verdon's role in REDHEAD, which I've heard was even more demanding than Charity)

-- The three lead female roles in THE APPLE TREE (Barbara Harris won the Tony for Best Actress for it and was apparently brilliant, but Tony winner Phyllis Newman was brought in to cover the matinees)

-- The four leads in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (there was a matinee cast that included Elaine Stritch as Martha -- can you imagine?)

-- Peter Allen in BOY FROM OZ (how the hell did Hugh Jackman do that show for a year without missing a performance?)

-- Guido in NINE

-- Harold Hill in THE MUSIC MAN

-- Fosca in PASSION (without dredging up the drama again, how did Murphy sing this role eight times a week for months and only miss one performance, while having such problems playing Ruth Sherwood?)

-- Caroline in CAROLINE, OR CHANGE (Pinkins was robbed)

-- Liza Minnelli's lead role in THE ACT (she lip-syched one of the dance numbers because it was so strenuous; she sang everything else in the show, though)

-- Joe Wellington in GOLDEN BOY (was taxing even for the great Sammy Davis Jr.)

Updated On: 10/10/04 at 02:15 AM

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 10/9/04 at 2:23am

Oh My God...the most demanding is the stiff in Lucky Stiff. How could any actor refrain from tapping his toes, humming along or just keep from scratching his nose. That is the most demanding role in musical theatre...EVER!