What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they originated?
What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they originated?
Chlydomnestra
Understudy Joined: 1/20/05
#0What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they originated?
Posted: 6/18/05 at 12:37amI am sure that someone, somewhere knows this, but I thought it would be a fun question to ask anyway. I was just thinking of how long some performers have stayed in rolls, and others...not so long, and I thought "who has stayed in their role the longest?"
#1re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they originated?
Posted: 6/18/05 at 12:39amShe didn't originate it - but Cathy Rigby has been Peter Pan for decades.
--Aristotle
#2re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 12:42am
Sandra Joseph as Christine. She didn't originate it though.
#3re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 12:45amMary Bond Davis is still in Hairspray. i dont know if thats the longest, but its REALLY long. lol.
#4re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 12:49amCertainly not *the* longest I'm sure, but Adam Pascal's initial run with AIDA on Broadway was something like three and a half years. Then he came back to close for two months, but he'd also done the show in Chicago, before Broadway. All together, it was a nearly five year committment.
#5re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 12:52am
well, thank god for adam! 
lol. love that quote in your sig! what was the context of it?
#6re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 12:53amMy guess (no research done) -- Yul Brenner. How close am I?
#7re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 12:54am
From the Access Hollywood bit on the movie. They were talking about the Justin Timberlake rumours, and the guy was like "So, Roger. Your part. Justin Timberlake?! Thank God-" and Adam goes "Well, thank God for me!" I thought it read as the diva "attitude," like we should all be thanking God that we've got HIM and not Justin, but a lot of people thought he was saying it was great for him that he gets to do the movie. I like my interpretation; it's funnier.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#8re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 12:56am
Carol Channing did THOUSANDS of performance of Dolly, as did Yul Brynner as The King and Richard Kiley as Don Quixote. Over the course of decades, on Broadway and on the road, I believe they all did some 3000 to 5000 performances.
And several recent reviews mentioned that Hal Halbrook has done over 2000 performances in "Mark Twain Tonight!"
#9re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 12:58amThreadjack for a second - what IS "Mark Twain Tonight?" I saw the signage up for it a few days ago, and was so confused. I'd heard nothing of it.
#10re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:01amJerry Orbach was in 42nd Street for a long time, wasn't he?
Mythus
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/16/04
#11re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:04amWhat about that lady in CATS? I feel terrible for not remembering her name...but she was with the show when it opened, and closed with it. Not sure if she was there all the time inbetween.
#12re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:12amAnd wasn't there someone who played Christine in Phantom for like ten years?
#13re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:20am
Certainly not *the* longest I'm sure, but Adam Pascal's initial run with AIDA on Broadway was something like three and a half years.
I don't believe that's true; I caught AIDA in July 2001, and by that time Adam had left the show already. It may have only been temporary, but it was an absence that lasted awhile, I believe; Heather Headley wrote about working with an unfamiliar co-star in her online journal.
MissElphie
Broadway Star Joined: 4/4/05
#14re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:22am
"What about that lady in CATS? I feel terrible for not remembering her name..."
Betty Buckley? She was there for a long time...
Updated On: 6/18/05 at 01:22 AM
#15re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:25amIt seems like Colm Wilkinson was Jean Valjean for a long time on bway in Les Miz. he also did the phantom though. so I really dont know how long he did it for.
#16re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:26amI think they meant Marlene Danielle, who was with the show from opening day until its closing performance 18 years later.
#17re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:27amI vaguely remember something about someone being in CATS for the entire 18 year run. the first name that came to mind was Donna King, but according to IBDB there were replacements for Bombalurina so it can't be...
#18re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:32am
No, the Cats lady is Marlène Danielle, who was one of the original understudies and then took over the role of Bombalurina from 1984 until closing night.
~Steven
#19re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:35am
ha. well, I got the character right...
#20re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:39am
It seems like Colm Wilkinson was Jean Valjean for a long time on bway in Les Miz. he also did the phantom though. so I really dont know how long he did it for.
No, Colm Wilkinson would have only been in LES MIZ on Broadway for about two years; the show opened in 1987, and by 1989 he was opening for PHANTOM in Toronto, where he stayed for almost four years.
However, certainly Colm Wilkinson has honoured requests to return to to LES MIZ several times: for the 10th Anniversary concert, for the 1998 engagement in Toronto, the 1999 engagement in Dublin, and the special LES MIZ production in Shanghai.
#21re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:40amEmcee, I think that was Sandra Joseph.
#22re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:44am
Then I think she (Marlene) wins!
Wow, just looked at my playbill - which is from the end of August....the show closed in September.
Wow. Damn. long time.
JUST FOUND THIS:
Employed 231 actors. (Nineteen have died; two--Marlene Danielle and Susan Powers--have been with the show since day one.)
Source
Updated On: 6/18/05 at 01:44 AM
#23re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:46am
Yeah, I saw Cats in August 2000. It's a physically demanding show, so woo hoo for her for being in it for about 18 years!
~Steven
#24re: What Broadway Performer has stayed the longest in a lead role, they ori
Posted: 6/18/05 at 1:50am
Wait looking in the playbill, I don't see Susna Powers' name.
She began in the chorus and Jennyanydots understudy.
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