best acting ever in a musical- Page 2

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 6:30pm

I'd going to have to go with Bernadette Peters in "Gypsy" (from what I have seen live). Tonya Pinkins is up there, though.

[Guido Contini]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 7:16pm

I'd have to say Colm Wilkinson as well for Les Mis....the man is remarkable. No question!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 7:23pm

Jon,

Oops is all I can say. Daniels was on my list (which I did off the top of my head) the first time I typed it out, but my computer froze at work just as I clicked "Post Message" and I lost the whole thing (don't you hate it when that happens?!). When I re-typed the list again (after many choice expletives) Daniels just slipped my mind. Based on the movie, a truly great performance.

[theaterfan194]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 7:28pm

sutton foster in tmm
tonya pinkins in COC
anika noni rose in COC
veanne cox in COC
the entire cast of urinetown

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 7:40pm

Tyne Daly in GYPSY.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 7:45pm

Here are a few more:

Lonette McKee in Showboat
Lonette McKee in Lady Day at Emersons Bar & Grill
Lillias White in Dinah Was
Christopher Plummer in Cyrano
Lauren Ward in Violet
Loretta Devine in Dreamgirls
Marilyn Cooper in Woman of the Year
Ellen Greene in Little Shop of Horrors
Dorothy Loudon in Ballroom
Lenny Baker in I Love My Wife
John Cullum in Shenandoah
Bea Arthur in Mame
Inga Swenson in 110 in the Shade
Audra McDonald in Marie Christine
Audra McDonald in Ragtime
Brian Stokes Mitchell in Ragtime

[ponine24601]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 8:09pm

alfred molina and randy graff- fiddler on the roof
idina and kristin- wicked
jennifer gambatese- hairspray
raul esparza- taboo

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:15pm

I'm sorry it's just when somebody mentions Heather Headley in Aida as the best performance EVER in the history of musical theatre. She just doesn't pop out as one of the best in the past decade.

[ponine24601]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:19pm

i really don't think that there is ONE performer who is the best. i think that they are all equally talented and that is all that should really matter.

[Derek2]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:19pm

Barbra in Funny Girl
Carol in Hello Dolly
Gwen Verdon in anything she touched
Chita Rivera in West Side Story and Chicago
Angela Lansbury in anything she touched
Any actress who ever played Rose in Gypsy
Jennifer in Dreamgirls
Robert and Charles Nelson Riley in How To Succeed
Nathan in anything he touced (and he's still touching...)
Patty in Evita
Stephanie in The Wiz
Ben in Pippin
the entire cast of Once On This Island

recent:
Idina/Kristin/Jennifer in Wicked
Sutton in TMM
Hugh in TBFO

[Marquise]

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:35pm

margo channing im sending a big virtual hug your way because u gave lonette mckee props for her two b'way perfromances...have never been fortunate enuff to see the lady do her thing on stage but im a fan of hers thru her film work....

i cant really comment on the topic because i havent really seen ALOT of performances on broadway so i would feel kind of dumb posting:

ETHER MERMAN in GYPSY

if i wasnt even born to see the performance...

but i can add a couple to my list:

JENNIFER HOLLIDAY - DREAMGIRLS

CHITA RIVERA - KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN

ZOE CALDWELL - MASTER CLASS

MATTHEW BRODERICK - HOW TO SUCCEED

EDIT: I realized this thread limited performances to musicals...MASTER CLASS was a play but i'm keeping it on because I loved it Updated On: 8/31/04 at 09:35 PM

Posted: 8/31/04 at 9:45pm

Just because, if I actually had a gun to my head and was FORCED to choose one, I'd pick Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady.

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 12:17am

Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd comes to mind. I was blown away by Idina Menzel's performances in Rent, Wicked, AND the Wild Party also...however I realize that in the large spectrum of things, I've seen next to nothing.

[Crazy4MattMorrison52]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 12:25am

i think the obc of hairspray was afrotasic. and some of the current cast ..jenn gamby, carly jibson, chester gregory

[dry2olives]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 12:46am

Based on what I've seen live (since 1976), PJ Benjamin in Charlie and Algernon. Without hesitation, the best acting performance I've seen in a musical.

Strong second: Raul Esparza in tick...tick...Boom!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 12:52am

My god, I had forgotten all about PJ Benjamin and "Charlie and Algernon." A couple of years after that show, I saw Benjamin in the road tour of "Torch Song Trilogy" -- he was amazing.

[Gothrockboheme]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 12:54am

Raul Esparza...in TICK TICK BOOM. Best piece of acting EVER.

[pab]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 3:27am

Thank God there are people on this Board like Margo, and a few others, who know that Broadway just didn't start ten years ago. There are so many posts that I've read that talk about the best this and the worst that and it's mostly limited to the year 2000 and beyond. It's great to read posts by people who actually saw A Chorus Line, The Wiz, Fiddler (with Zero), Shenandoah and even earlier shows. Broadway has been around long before Wicked and Hairspray.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 3:32am

Sutton Foster in Thoroughly Modern Millie
Harriet Harris in Thoroughly Modern Millie
Hugh Panaro in Phantom of the Opera
Julie Hanson in Phantom of the Opera

Tours:

Patrick Ryan Sullivan in 42nd Street
Bianca Marroquin in Chicago

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 11:38am

hey pab ---

i totally agree with u. u learn alot from people like margo. i know i have. too bad i've missed out on some really great performers: gwen verdon, etc. but posters like margo and dgrant are here to let us in on how great those performers/shows were back then.

[NuggetMonkeys]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 11:48am

like how to spell "you", perhaps?



Tonya Pinkins in Caroline, or Change
Angela Lansbury in everything she has ever done; that woman is the best female performer ever.

-d.b.j-

[NBRISBY]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 11:58am

is there a recording of dinah was?

[NBRISBY]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 12:03pm

I second pab's love of Margo.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 12:50pm

Whoa guys! I'm not as ancient as you think I am. Sorry to disappoint, but I didn't see every one of those performances "way back when." I included several on the list based on what I've read or heard about them (or in some cases, based on film/video footage I've seen).

While I've certainly seen a great many shows over the years (800+), my memories of Broadway only go back when as kid my folks took me to see "Fiddler" and "Man of La Mancha" at the end of their original Broadway runs in the early 70s. Unfortunately my folks thought I was too young to "get" "Follies" and "Company" and went without me (something I've never forgiven them for ). Thankfully, though, they soon realized there wasn't much I didn't "get" so I got to see a who's who of great plays and musicals and great performers the next several years (Elizabeth Ashley's Maggie the Cat, Jason Robards, Julie Harris, George C Scott, Colleen Dewhurst, Pacino, et al as well as the original casts of Pippin, The Wiz, ACL, Shenandoah, and many others).

I unfortunately never saw Gwen Verdon live -- her last show, "Chicago," was the only one I could have seen, but she was out due to throat surgery for several months during the first year of the run, so I missed her. I saw Zero do "Fiddler" during the 1977 revival (I wasn't even born when he first did the role).

So, no I wasn't around to see Gertrude Lawrence or Sid Caesar or Barbara Harris or Inga Swenson, but I decided to include them because of their reputations. I did, however, see pretty much all of the ones I listed that happened after 1974 or so.

Updated On: 7/28/05 at 12:50 PM

[NBRISBY]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 12:58pm

But, Margo...that still makes you cooler than me...who saw his first Bway show in 1994.