The Best Broadway Performance Ever

Audra McDonald in pretty much anything

Faye Dunaway in Curse of the Aching Heart. She had to rollerskate on stage all while speaking with an Irish brogue!

Best Broadway performance ever?

I guess you didn't find anybody in The Black Crook worthy of that encomium.

What is the fucking deal with The Sudden Adoration of Reba Uber Alles on Datalounge this year?

Betty Buckley in Sunset Blvd

OP It is so obvious that she's not B'way, that she's not a theatre actress. That she has no theatre training or experience.

Reba was great.

Laurette Taylor in The Glass Menagerie

Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun

Elizabeth Ashley in Agnes of God

Cherry Jones in The Heiress. Natasha Richardson in Cabaret.

It was the rare alchemy of role, entertainer and voice which made Reba’s performance inarguably the finest ever. Many jealous Broadway purists just can’t acceot this. Nashville!! The horror!

I second Betty Buckley in Sunset Boulevard! And add Lena Horne if that counts.

I can’t get over the Reba KFC commercial. That is her legacy.

[quote]I say Reba McEntire in Annie Get Your Gun, she made the Tonys reconsider their rules and got a Drama Desk Award.

But the Tonys didn't reconsider their rules. There is no replacement Tony so what's your point?

I third Betty Buckey Sunset Blvd.

Anyone in Follies!

So this is just one queen, not a DL trend, this Rebaism?

Ethel Merman in "Gypsy". I was only 6 at the time but knew I was witnessing something amazing.

Patti LuPone in EVITA

I second Patti LuPone in “Evita”.

Did you actually see Taylor or Merman? Wouldn't it be the performance that you actually witnessed, or is it what you've heard is the best performance?

Patti LuPone was dreadful in Evita. All undisciplined show, and you could hardly make out a single lyric. I will hand it to her that she probably seemed as much of an egomaniac as the real Eva, though.

Angela Lansbury in Mame

[quote]Patti LuPone was dreadful in Evita. All undisciplined show, and you could hardly make out a single lyric.

Dimmy up widda heed windja nod ebba nad ebba do me!

Recent performance that blew me away was Cynthia Erivo in The Color Purple.

Reba can do anything! R11 is correct. Once she have seen her do Annie you can't think of Ethel Merman in that role again. She did the same to some effect in "South Pacific". It's not just her accent. It's the internal knowledge of the character. She has known people like that. And she is smart enough to be able to translate it. All great singers/performers have that gift. Reba is one of them. You couldn't put Dolly, Loretta, Tammy or Patsy in that role- but you could Reba! If only Carrie Underwood understood that. Then we would have been spared her middle school performance of Maria.

[quote]Country Music is my Religion

And Dumbass is your middle name.

Cynthia Erivo in Color Purple as well

[quote]Once she have seen her do Annie you can't think of Ethel Merman in that role again. She did the same to some effect in "South Pacific".

Yeah, right.

She's top notch dinner theatre. More Branson than B'way.

R27 you know nothing about country music or me-your ignorance is embarrassing.

Helen Morgan in Showboat

Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens. Some of the material was questionable but her performance was something else. Mary Louise Wilson too.

reba is a dumb fuck chrump supporter -

Reba and Donnie sittin' in a tree....

Reba really was brilliant in that role. Sung the shit out of it and was funny as hell.

For me, I'd say Tyne Daly in GYPSY. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I've never seen someone inhabit a character so fully. I never once thought I was looking at Tyne Daly on that stage. It was only Rose. She was so brilliant that even her light singing voice didn't bother me. She knew not to hold notes she couldn't sustain. I've seen just about all the major Roses post-Tyne and she's easily the best. She was hysterically funny, pathetic, charming, scary, disturbing, and heartbreaking.

vanessa redgrave as mary tyrone; john c reilly and philip seymour hoffman in true west; mandy patinkin, sunday in the park

Patti LuPone is one hell of a bad singer. She sounds like a used car.

Hugh Jackman in 'Boy From Oz" gave a great performance. Not the best voice and I'll doubt he'll ever play Lear, but it was a fully inhabited performance.

Maggie Smith in "Lettice and Lovage" and Judy Dench in "Hay Fever" (in the West End) were a blast. It was clear that both women were having a great time in the roles, and they commanded the stage.

Two other performances that have stuck with me were Michael C Hall as the Emcee (replacement) in Cabaret and Ian McKellan as Salieri in Amadeus. I saw Hall before he Six Feet Under and knew that he would be one to watch. McKellan was just plain sublime.

R31 Cool it, Reba.

LOL R35 with some video about Reba from people who probably believe in Illuminati Lizard People. They're saying because she released a religious song that she's a Trump supporter. She definitely does not like Trump even if she was a repub, she's not a fan of rude brashness.

I've heard repeatedly that Laurette Taylor was so sublime in THE GLASS MENAGERIE that she made almost every young actor of that generation who saw her decide to be an actor. All kinds of famous Broadway actors said that, so I believe them it was incredible.

The other greatest Broadway performance from what I've heard was Dame Judith Anderson in MEDEA in the late 40s. Toscanini was so moved by it that during the curtain call he crawled over the footlights to kiss the hem of her gown.

I honestly don't think there's been anything in my lifetime (I was born in 1966) that compares with either of those performances, from everything I've heard.

And no, OP, I do not imagine that Reba McIntire is somehow up there with Laurette Taylor and Dame Judith Anderson--as hard as that may be to believe.

Do we mean just Broadway, or can we include the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, FL, OP? Because it would be a pity to exclude Miss Ruth Buzzi in "Evita" or mr. John Forsythe in "Hamlet."

Really? No votes for Ben Platt in DEH??

I second Tyne Daly in Gypsy.

Reba? Please.

I second Ebersole and Wilson in GREY GARDENS. Phenomenal performances. It would have been a crime if they had lost the Tonys that year.

What rules did Reba force the Tony people to reconsider?

What R36 said. Tyne Daly. GYPSY. As the first act curtain came down, my friend seated next to me - a savvy showmo - looked at me and said, "Oh, my God. I never realized before that "Everything's Coming Up Roses" is a mad scene."

And indeed it is. Tyne Daly gave you the full breakdown even as she demanded that things were going to be great. Sometimes other actresses hint at it. Sometimes they don't get it at all. Tyne delivered. She also cannily turned "You'll Never Get Away From Me" into a straight-up seduction of Herbie. She is a smart, skilled, and creative actress and she made the role of Rose her very own.

She did sing like shit, though. It didn't really matter.

Marilu Henner in "Gettin' the Band Back Together." No question.

For me, it’s a tie-

Audra in 110 in the Shade— sublime yet one of her few performances that didn’t win an Tony.

Michael Jeter as Otto Kringelien in Grand Hotel—no one could have done it better

R47 there was talk of changing the rule about a replacement being nominated as Reba was ineligible.

Cynthia Erivo in The Color Purple.

One of the great performances I saw was Carey Mulligan in The Seagull before she became a big movie star. It was obvious she was going to be a famous actor

LuPone was amazing in Evita. You needed a steamroller in that role and that’s what she was. Everyone else pales in comparison in that role. In fact, the only way it can be effective is to be a steamroller— because she did it that way

Estelle Parsons in everything she’s ever done.

That’s adorable R44.

EYE. FUCKING. ROLL.

Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd was so extraordinary, milking every line for humor and pathos.

I keep going to see that show hoping someone else can do what she did. No one can

I used to read a lot of theatrical bios and agree that in Broadway lore the greatest is generally considered to be Laurette Taylor in "Menagerie". Brando in "Streetcar" might be the runner-up.

I haven't seen any Broadway performances that I consider great, but I only lived in NY for 3 years.

R10, yes Cherry Jones in The Heiress made me an instant fan

Fuck Cynthia Erivo, that busybody cunt.

I wish I could have seen her in The Heiress but am fortunate to have seen her performance in Doubt which was stunning.

I thought Zoe Caldwell in Master Class was supposed to be the "one."

Rosemary Harris in Hay Fever, Irene Worth in The Cherry Orchard and Cliff Gorman in Lenny were among the best I've seen.

In a musical I'd say Nell Carter in Ain't Misbehaving and George Rose in Pirates.

The best productions as a whole were not Broadway but the Ingmar Bergman productions at BAM which were beyond anything that I could have thought that could be achieved on a stage. Transcendent and otherworldly like a great silent film.

In over 35 years as a theatergoer (since I was a kid) Here are my Top 20 (in chronological order)

Jennifer Holliday in Dreamgirls

David Carroll in Chess

Tyne Daly in Gypsy

Stockard Channing in Six Degrees of Separation (how Mercedes Ruehl won for going full retard over this sublime performance I'll never know)

Anne Meara in Anna Christie

Diana Rigg in Medea

Julie Harris and Calista Flockhart in The Glass Menagerie

Cherry Jones in The Heiress (and though it's Off-Bway, I'd like to add her performance in a play a few years later called Pride's Crossing)

Joe Sears and Jayston Williams in A Tuna Christmas

Elaine Stritch in A Delicate Balance

Brittany Murphy in A View From the Bridge

Marie Mullen and Anna Manahan in The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Lea Delaria in On the Town

Tom Hewitt in The Rocky Horror Show

Lily Tomlin in The Search for Signs...

Michael Stuhlbarg in The Pillowman

Patti Lupone and Michael Cerveris in Sweeney Todd

Vanessa Redgrave in The Year of Magical Thinking

Mary Louise Wilson in Grey Gardens

Jessie Mueller in On a Clear Day...

I'd also like to add one performance that was not on Broadway (but should have been) and trumps nearly all of these, and that's Laura Esterman in Marvin's Room

I’m with R37 - the greatest performance I’ve ever seen on Broadway was Vanessa Redgrave in A Long Day’s Journey.

I’ll never forget it.

I know I'll get attacked because she's not a legend yet...but Sutton Foster was sublime in Anything Goes. Isn't it fun how nobody talks about the male performances? How gay are we! Lol

Michael Jeter in Grand Hotel

Bernadette Peters in Song and Dance. She told her characters story through song and for one hour she was charming, flirtatious, weak, strong and heartbreaking.

Angela Lansbury in Gypsy (I saw this when i was a child, and she was great -- she kept on bowing after the applause had subsided on "Rose's Turn)

Len Cariou in Sweeney Todd -- he was brilliant, and while Lansbury was great, he was even more chilling than she was as the run progressed as I went back to see it again and again (things were reasonably affordable then)

Robert Lindsay in Me and My Girl - great musical comedy performance

Bernadette Peters in Sundsay in the Park - really lovely and very moving

Ian McKellan - brilliant in Amadeus

Elaine Stritch in At Liberty (also memorable in A Delicate Balance)

Carole Shelley in THe Elephant Man

Anita Morris in Nine (sexiest number by a woman in a musical)

agree about Michael Jeter in Grand Hotel

Michael Crawford in Barnum (in London)

Elaine Paige in Sunset Blvd -- acted and sang it brilliantly

Patti LuPone in Anything Goes - lots of charisma and I could understand most of her words for once

Reba in Annie Get Your Gun - -yeah, she was excellent, perfectly suited to the role

Debbie Reynolds in Irene -- pure star power (Jane Powell was wonderful too, with a better voice)

Michael Berresse in Kiss Me Kate. I nearly came in my pants when he danced.

Jeanne Eagels in Rain.

Fantasia in The Color Purple and she has the reviews to prove it.

'How gay are we! Lol'

Well you are not going to get a lot of straight men discussing the best Broadway performances they've seen.

Gwen Verdon in CHICAGO. Roxie was tailored to her strengths and they were many. She exemplified the Fosse dance style. To see her dance his choreography was an enormous privilege.

It has to help that the the original production, unlike the Encores revival, was glorious, inventive, colorful, and evocative of the period.

Non-musical votes for a different Redgrave - Orpheus Descending - and a different Dench - Amy's View ...

Deanna Dunagan and Amy Morton were pretty spectacular in the last scene of Act 1 - August, Osage County.

[quote] Patti LuPone was dreadful in Evita. All undisciplined show, and you could hardly make out a single lyric.

Yet she won the Tony and is the gold standard of Evitas.

Sound like you just have poor taste.

R65, that's a fascinating list and kudos for remembering Joe Sears and Jayston Williams in A Tuna Christmas. That show's amazing for two actors (and the back stage crew as well).

Yes another vote for Deanna Dunagan!

Nicholas Nickleby- Royal Shakespeare Company 1981

Why can't I post a new thread ?? Paying member here ..........reposted my confirmation number and updated my preferences. IS DL just fucked up today ??

I can reply on some threads, but not others

Trying to get my thread views and replies up .....will that fix the problem, ???

From the number of mentions it seems that Reba’s is the gold star performance.

The only one who should EVER be allow to perform that number is Anita Morris...goddess extraordinaire

Reba's quite good. But why did the director allow her to use her trademark bending of the note. It takes me out of the performance when she does it.

It's a tie- Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke in the Miracle Worker.

Elaine Stritch in her one-person A View from Liberty.

I sat in literally the last row of the upper balcony and she had us all in the palm of her hand. Sadly the DVD of the show doesn't come close recreating that experience

Is there a video, even a bootleg, of Reba's performance anywhere?

Looks like it's on YouTube:

Neely O'Hara in Tell Me, Darling (I saw it in previews before her understudy took over on opening night)

I'm so happy to see Tyne Daly in Gypsy on several people's lists. It sounded like such strange casting at the time and she definitely wasn't a vocal powerhouse like Merman or LuPone, but talk about the perfect role for the perfect performer at the perfect time. I still can't believe what she did on that stage. She genuinely disappeared into that role so thoroughly that even her less than stellar singing seemed like more of a pro than a con. In some ways, it made her seem more tragic - all this pent up theatrical energy and no way to harness it except through her children. Hell, if they decided to revive it again today, I'd go see it again even if she'd be too old for the character.

Jennifer in Dreamgirls, Glenn in Sunset Blvd, Harvey in Torch Song.

Patti, in everything

R86 My parents saw those performances and said the same thing.

I’ve seen almost everything listed above....but have to go Off Broadway...Steppenwolf Theater at the Minetta Lane. Laurie Metcalf in BALM IN GILLIAD. No song or dance step or star turn in any show haunts me like this John Malkovich -directed performance. Indelible. Breathtaking. Mid-show 12 minute ovation...in a non-musical. It is the show my theater pals beat themselves up over for passing on this final performance of the run.

[quote]I'd go see it again even if she'd be too old for the character.

"Too old," you say?

Yes R87 - “A View from Liberty” - almost as good as “The Trip to a Dead Salesman”

Don't you mean "Elaine Stritch at the Bridge" R96?

Elaine Stritch: View From A Broad

Elaine Stritch: Hang her She's a Witch Part 2 was also quite good.

Elaine Stritch: If You Can't Look at My Face All Night, I've Still Got Great Legs

I wish I'd seen Elaine. I love the documentary.

That I’ve seen, Betty Buckley in Sunset Blvd. That I’ve heard, Ethel Merman in Gypsy. Runner up, Barbra in Funny Girl. That must have been amazing to see!

R102 who is "The Greg"? A new poster permeating Datalounge

Robert Preston in "The Music Man" - it's all there in the screen version

enable is unwatchable. Nails on chalkboard unwatchable.

Jane Lapotaire in Piaf

Kate Nelligan in Plenty

Hugh Jackman in Boy From Oz

Marin Mazie in Ragtime....gorgeous singing of Back To Before

R94. I saw the production at Steppenwolf in Chicago before it went off-Broadway and before it had legendary status. But we all knew we'd just experienced something extraordinary. The play is far from first-rate, but it did give some great actors wonderful opportunities to spread their wings. Jeff Perry (the former Mr. Metcalf, father to Zoe, and late of Scandal) played a fierce drag queen!

Daniel Radcliffe’s penis in Equus.

I so agree with r91. Tyne's Rose wasn't talented enough to make it so her illusions of grandeur were even more tragic.

Anthony Hopkins in Equus and Ian McKellen Acting Shakespeare

Lorna Luft in Promises. Promises

Gwen Verdon in"Redhead".

[quote] Michael Crawford in Barnum (in London)

[quote] Elaine Paige in Sunset Blvd -- acted and sang it brilliantly

Those weren't Broadway performances. They were in West End performances.

I think you're a little unclear on the concept.

Elaine Paige was one of the replacements for Norma in "Sunset Blvd" on Broadway. I saw Crawford at the Palladium, but the performance, whose show originated on Broadway, was also filmed or videotaped.

Nell Carter in Aint Misbehavin'

Over Here! - the Andrews Sisters and Janie Sell as Marlene Dietrich

Side By Side By Sondheim - David Kernan, Millicent Martin and Julia McKenzie (billed as "Julie N. McKenzie") and the irascible Ned Sherrin

Twiggy in My One and Only (but not Ms. Tune) and Twiggy as Gertie in If Love Were All at the Lortell in 1998

Karen Ziemba and the entire cast of Steel Pier; Stro's greatest choreography and Kander and Ebb's best score

[quote] —First-Night Fantasia

Which, knowing Fantasia, could be any night she deigns to show up.

The great Michael Jeter in Grand Hotel.

I must have seen Marilyn Miller in Sunny more than a dozen times. Nothing compares. Unfortunately the film doesn't do the performance you saw on stage justice. You had to see her live.

I can't say what is "The Best Broadway Performance Ever" because I haven't seen every show... not by a long shot. However, Ian McKellan in "Amadeus" (w Tim Curry as Mozart) was indelible, esp McKellan. I believe I saw Tom Courtney in "The Dresser" and that was the most devastating close to a play I've ever seen. His heartbreak at the end was almost overwhelming. My mother took me to see "Travels with My Aunt" where I saw Brian Murray for the first-time. Years later I saw him again as Horace in "The Little Foxes (w Stockard Channing). He could be chilling with just a pause or a look; I'd hold my breath waiting for him to finish dialogue.

I've seen other fabulous performances, but those have been banging around my brain seeing this thread.

R119 I remember the night of that performance. I could watch it over and over again. Jeter was just brilliant. His performance is the reason why I love the stage. You could do that on film but the emotion and power of it wouldn't be as great as it is live. I wish we still had live television. Now no matter what program there is always a delay.

I saw Chip Zien in Grand Hotel. I don't remember him being anywhere near close to that.

Bea Lillie as Madame Arcati in High Spirits. Tammy Grimes too as Elvira. 1964. Also on Broadway at that time Channing in Dolly, Streisand in Funny Girl and Burnett in Fade Out, Fade In.

Well, R124, you've certainly punched your gay card for 1964, haven't you? So, are those the only performances you've seen or is it that for you, no one has ever matched what you saw 54 years ago? Lansbury? Audra? Patti? Stritch? Gwen? Chita?

No one has ever matched those shows?

And what about Sammy Davis in Golden Boy and Mostel in Fiddler? Not to mention all the great British and American actors appearing in dramas and comedies.

In fact, R78, Elaine Paige is the gold standard for Evita in the real world. Justifiably so: her interpretation, which pre-dated LuPone's, was infinitely more perceptive, not to mention that you could understand what she was saying. I saw both performances live. Then again, I really don't get why LuPone is so admired at all.

Probably one of those childhood memories that is awash in nostalgia, but at 9 years of age, our family went to NYC for the World's Fair in 1964. In a three day period we saw Streisand in "Funny Girl" and Channing in "Hello, Dolly". It was relatively early in both runs and both were in peak form and truly amazing. When I returned to school in the fall and we were asked to talk about what we'd done that summer, I received blank looks from every student in class with the exception of Sister Mary John who beamed!!!

LuPone os pure electricity onstage

The performance usually gets shredded to smitherines on this site, but Bernadette Peters in Follies was still the best thing I’ve seen live and I’ve seen a bunch of “good” stuff.

[quote] When I returned to school in the fall and we were asked to talk about what we'd done that summer, I received blank looks from every student in class with the exception of Sister Mary John who beamed!!!

And Father O'Malley, who brought me into his office and fiddled about while having me re-enact Before the Parade Passes By.

(R131) Actually it was Msgr. Quirk and he was not amused by my having affected a Carol Channing accent to describe the show in detail. At 9, it's the first time I was consciously aware of being called a "panty-waist" and a "mama's boy".

By the time she strapped the cardboard T Bird on her back there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

The New York World's Fair and Dolly and Funny Girl with their original stars. Talk about nothing else to live for.

Tard-woman Reba really does support Trump.

Doug Henning in Merlin.

Hard sell indeed!

That's Chita with the Cheetah.

R135 give it up. She's never said that

[quote] Probably one of those childhood memories that is awash in nostalgia, but at 9 years of age, our family went to NYC for the World's Fair in 1964. In a three day period we saw Streisand in "Funny Girl" and Channing in "Hello, Dolly". It was relatively early in both runs and both were in peak form and truly amazing. When I returned to school in the fall and we were asked to talk about what we'd done that summer, I received blank looks from every student in class with the exception of Sister Mary John who beamed!!!

O Mary and Joseph, what a fine little nancy boy we have here!

[quote] Doug Henning in Merlin.

Certainly no one can dispute it was the finest Broadway performance ever by a harelip!

Reba WAS Annie Oakley.....shes sublime in the role.

Reba replaced Bernadette Peters, who won a Tony for AGYG....and she was far superior in the role. BP looked amateurish in comparison.

Reba was the ultimate!!!!

Of so may decades of Bway-going, it’s Michael Jeter’s performance in Grand Hotel that I still remember with awe.

Jeter was indeed marvelous, R145. I am grateful that he was featured in the Tony Broadcast and we have that to remember him and his work. Michael took over from Jaston Sears in GREATER TUNA and was just as astonishing in that as he was as Otto Kringelein.

Also at the Martin Beck, Maureen Stapleton stopped the The Little Foxes at the top of the 3rd Act with Birdie's monologue. In a few short minutes, she grabbed every person in the theater with her character's sadness. When she exited the stage, the ovation she received was well deserved. (Not 12 minutes, mind you. But impressive, nonetheless.)

The finest comedy performance I've ever seen anywhere was Maggie Smith in Private Lives. It was a master class in comic timing and she was so much in control she could collapse the house in laughter by half arching an eyebrow.

Special honors for Estelle Parsons in Miss Margarida's Way and Lily Tomlin in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.

Fuck Reba. Bow down, bitches.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA......and she wonders what took so long to win a "DAYTIME" Emmy.....BWHAHAHAHAHA.

Same for Maggie Smith in Lettice and Lovage, which would be on my list as well ...

Elizabeth Franz in Sister Mary Ignatius.

r151...shes my cousin

Well tell her that was one of my favorite performances of all time. Having gone to catholic school as a boy I did what I always thought nobody ever did literally-fell out of my seat with laughter.

R148 Jesus, that just reinforces how great Reba was

+1 Patti in Evita +1 Erivo in The Color Purple

Love this thread, living in New Zealand have had zero opportunity to see any of the legends or their performances.....EXCEPT

Patricia Morrison came to Auckland mid- 80's to play the lead in 'Aloha', written by the dude behind '13 Daughters'. The show was kinda 'interesting', (clip below from the earlier amateur version below for your pleasure)

My Mum was in the production and one night we ran into Patricia and her female 'companion' at a food hall of all places. We had a ball, she was just a darling and was thrilled I knew all about her and Broadway at the bottom of the world, She had seen the quickly and recently closed 'Quilters' and loved my lapping up her recounting a show she loved. She was a women in her seventies and looked it. UNTIL...

She got on stage and she was a forty year old Hawaiian Queen, and she still had a voice but more, she had star power and quality., which I had never seen before to a real Broadway level. Obviously Mary, I totally cried, for what I would never see, but also loving getting to be in the presence of a great.

Oh, R156 Here again, what the fuck is up with the Reba troll, nobody buys that shit in any way, are they serious or just fucked?

Wonderful story, r156.

[quote]Oh, [R156] Here again, what the fuck is up with the Reba troll, nobody buys that shit in any way, are they serious or just fucked?

When you say "the Reba troll" are you talking about the posters who say she was great (she was) or the posters who say she was overrated?

R159 people just have a hard time believing that so many posters are cool with Reba because she's a Country artist. Her performance was amazing no matter how you feel.

I think the reaction was about the poster who said it was the greatest performance in the history of Broadway

Young Maggie Smith does Coward, in a TV version of the National Theatre production.

Best on Broadway: Fantasia in The Color Purple (and I saw Reba; Susan Lucci too!) Best on West End: Heather Headley in The Bodyguard

Honorable Menton: Billy Porter in Grease

I loved Reba but she cannot compare to Betty Buckley in Sunset. That was astonishing.

Fantasia could not hold a candle to Betty.

Please, R164. When did Fantasia do Sunset Boulevard?

She played the deed monkey.

Lots of people would like to take a candle to Betty.

Still waiting for shots or footage of Betty as Dolly.

Betty White? Betty Hutton? Betty Grable? Betty Rubble?

Betty Boop

Anything by David Elder!

R171 love David Elder! knew him as a kid when he performed at a Texas theme park (can't recall the name) - handsome as the day was long. Sweet guy.

Glenn Close in SUNSET BLVD!

R171, That theme park is Opryland.

The Times practically came in its review of Reba in Annie Get Your Gun. I went to see it after this review. Turns out, they were right. At the end of the show, the cast came out and Reba made some speech about providing financial support for people with AIDS and donations of money and items for auction she was providing. Back in 2001, that still seemed like a big deal to people like me.

And this article has some info on how Reba's performance triggered a discussion on changing rules to try to recognize the impact a replacement might have.

Reba gave the finest replacement performance in Broadway history. Full stop. But some purists can’t bear that some country singer bested their Juilliard-trained hacks without even breaking a sweat.

many walked out

annie's gun was off key, poor reba, WHAT A SCREAMER

Her and Dolly, how can they have fans when they been in closet for decades. Disgusting....riding on their 'family' image.

r178....youre high. Ticket sales jumped when Reba took over. Peters won a Tony for the role, but seemed amateurish compared to Reba....there has never been a more perfect melding of part and performer....Reba was born to play that part.

Funny, Peters left the role and ticket sales jumped....Peters took over for Midler and ticket sales fell.....coincidence ?

Peters was woefully miscast in Annie Get Your Gun. After sitting through that, Reba was such a welcome relief. The moment she walked out onto that stage, you just knew you were in good, capable hands. I think that's what makes a good performance honestly. The minute the actor walks out there, you don't feel their nerves or their shaky voices hoping they'll hit the big money notes. When an actor comes out there with such confidence and enthusiasm, the audience can kinda relax and know they're in good hands. Reba did that.

It's still one of the most perfect marriages of actor and role I've ever seen. I'm not sure Reba would be a perfect fit for every other role Peters or LuPone or Merman has played, but she certainly fit that one like a glove and managed to nail every laugh and then some and sing the shit out of the score. It was insane.

It’s a shame they couldn’t have gotten Reba for the Dolly tour.

I agree about Peters in Annie Get Your Gun. Not so good. However, I thought she was the best Dolly in the recent Hello, Dolly revival. She was incredibly funny, moving, and the score sat well with her voice. She was a true star on that stage. I got to see all the Dollys and she was easily my favorite. With the right role, she can be truly wonderful.

For me, the greatest performance I've ever seen was Tyne Daly in Gypsy. I still can't believe she had that in her. I've never seen such a transformative performance. I didn't think about Tyne Daly for a second - it was all about Rose. She became Rose like no one else I'd seen before or since. She played her like common white trash with a certain grit and charm that I can imagine was similar to Merman. It made you root for her. She was also incredibly funny and it really made act I fly by. That production still has the best pacing of any other production I've seen. By the time they got to "Everything's Coming Up Roses", Daly did a complete 180 and became terrifying in her determination and delusions. She was scary as hell. I still treasure my bootleg of that production and I'm so glad it was recorded for posterity in some way.

I remember going back to see it with Linda Lavin when she replaced Daly, because I figured that Lavin was more of a natural fit for Rose, so maybe she'd really be something. I actually didn't think she was that bad, but she just didn't have the charm to pull off Rose. She came across as a bit too cold and maybe smaller than life for the role, which is strange. She had a slightly better voice than Daly, but she just didn't gel and had zero chemistry with her cast mates. It's funny how you can pick a performer who seems like a natural fit for a role and they disappoint and you can pick some crazy wild card performer and they hit it out of the park. Casting is much more delicate than one would think.

I'll never forget Bobbie Adler's performance in Death of a Salesperson

Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald - Wheels of a Dream (Ragtime)

Original Fantine - I Dreamed a Dream (Les Miserables)

The Wizard of Oz Earths Kitt & Mickey Rooney Sam Francisco Orpheum Theater

Reba asked to do Annie. She saw the show with Bernadette and said to her husband "I can do that." She had grown up on a farm in Oklahoma with five brothers and immediately identified with the part. She contacted her agent or manager the next morning and instructed them to contact the Weisslers and ask whether they would consider her as a replacement.

Alan Rickman in Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

It was absurd that Malkovich won the film role over Rickman.

Rickman at that point had no name outside of the theater whereas Malkovich was a film star. It's show BUSINESS. baby,

And Malkovich was very, very good despite not being attractive enough for the part as written. It's a masterful performance.

It's a wonderful film with one of the great final close ups in film history. Thanks, Glenn.

The whole "Titanic" ensemble.

Funny that the clips of two of the most praised performers on this thread, Michael Jeter and Reba McIntire, feature Brent Barrett, aka Tony Barclay, jet ski rigger/Jenny Gardner killer.

Many moons ago I saw Yul Brynner in “The King and I” at the London Palladium. He was splendid. Wikipedia says he performed the role 4,625 times. I love Rogers and Hammerstein and it was a magical evening.

Otis Skinner is estimated to have performed the role of Hajj in the original non-musical version of Kismet, on Broadway, in revivals and constant tours, and in both a silent and non-surviving 70mm talkie film version, over 20,00 times. His performance was considered definitive and I doubt will ever be surpassed.

Cornelia was his daughter.

[quote] When did Fantasia do Sunset Boulevard?

Who can forget her Norma Desmond on Broadway, or the addition of her Aunt Bunny to the show as Norma's sagacious Aunt Bunny?

Right after Norma Desmond's final "With one look I'll be me!" and the blowup of Norma's 1920s screen image, suddenly a spotlight appeared on Aunt Bunny in the wings staring at Norma and saying her inimitable catchphrase.

Patty Duke and Anne Brancoft in The Miracle Worker 😀

Oh, Brancroft was good but I wasn't exactly chopped liver.

[quote] Earths Kitt

"Earths" Kitt is the new Lens Dunham.

R189- The role called for someone sexy and dangerous. AR fits that far better than JM. They should have taken a chance considering that Rickman was already an accomplished actor.