The Other One said: "I don't agree with you about this at all. The question doesn't ask who your personal favorite Broadway performer is. It asks "who is the greatest performer to have ever graced the broadway stage?" Carrying on as though nothing that occurred on Broadway before your birth is of value to its history is narrow minded in the extreme and downright narcissistic."
I think you will agree that most of the responses in this thread answered the question that (you correctly say) wasn't asked. (This, like many threads, is mostly about personal preference, because a lot of-I dare say most-posters here think everything is about themselves.) One could review the critical literature and attempt an assessment about a consensus answer, but few people here have even pretended to do that. And besides, finding consensus in art is a fool's errand. An example from today: there are those who have said that Rylance the greatest living actor. And yet there are others who cannot abide his acting. What are we to make of that in any meaningful way? In the end this is just yet another silly thread. And it's not like there is a paucity of meaty subjects one could ask about.
theater_tech said: "The lack of Kelli O'Hara is killing me"
I think Kelli O'Hara is a very talented performer; but, as a star of musicals and musical comedies, she has not demonstrated much charisma to me (compare her to Sutton Foster or Kristen Chenoweth or Idina Menzel or the charisma scale,and she is seriously lacking). I think that is why her name hasn't come up yet. The truly great musical stars all had charisma coming out of 'their eyeballs.'
I agree about Kelli. Lovely performance. Beautiful voice. But having seen both Kelli and Kristin in their respective roles “that” season, still shocked she beat out KC. “Nuanced” performance or not. Listening to “Veronique” on Sirius the other day it reminded me of just how difficult and brilliant that performance was. Anna and Lily....no comparison. As for the question, I’d say Angela.
The male who starred in Fela! was amazing- one of the most impressive performances I have seen- along with Billy Porter in Kinky Boots. I thought Jessie Mueller- Beautiful- and Alice Ripley in Next To Normal were incredible- along with Bernadette Peters in Sunday In The Park With George years ago- still very memorable to me though- Lansbury was great in Mame- loved Estelle Getty and Harvey in Torch Song Trilogy- thought Kathleen Turner in Virginia Woolf was the ultimate - and better than Liz- very impressed with Hugh Jackman in Boy From Oz- Liza in Flora was amazing- a true star performance- loved Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria, loved Audra in Porgy and Bess, thought Kelli was great in South Pacific.
Now for biggest disappointments- Nicole Kidman in Blue Room I think it was called-Julia Roberts, Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig, thought Bradley Cooper was boring in Elephant Man.
you saw BARBRA STREISAND when you were 15... and she was BORED...
ok...
got it...
It doesn't take a moron to recognize a bored performance. She really didn't even try to keep up with the dancers during Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat which was a big number (and she was clearly not whisked off stage -- she was in the number from beginning to end); Compare that to Angela Lansbury in Mame (who was twice her age and three times in the revival) two years later in the same theatre. Before seeing the show, I could recite every lyric from playing the album so often. Throughout the show, she repeatedly changed lyrics and a bunch of times, they didn't even make sense or fit the number of available syllables. SHE WAS BORED.
I know that Streisand is a legendary performer with an incredible voice and sense of comedy, and I am sure that she gave incredible performances earlier in the run than when I saw it; I stand by my view that her performance 500 performances later was a far cry from what it was earlier in the run; otherwise it wouldn't be a legendary performance.
I don't feel qualified to name THE greatest performer, but one performance that touched me very deeply was Joan Diener as Aldonza in Man of La Mancha. Her ability to communicate rage, despair, and tenderness with her voice was miraculous and her transformation from Aldonza to "Dulcinea" was electrifying. Richard Kiley was brilliant as Don Quixote, but for me, the evening belonged to Joan Diener.
Not a real response to the thread's question, so sue me. I just felt like saying that the two most riveting performances I've seen on Broadway, both in my youth, were Cliff Gorman in Lenny and James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope. As someone else said, this was long before he played James Earl Jones.
