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I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a great admirer of spoken theatre. Everything you can do on stage you can do better on screen, as fluid camera work and editing can make even the clunkiest play come alive (I know, I tried to sit through The Woman in Black in London - and failed!). That being said, I sometimes go to the theatre to watch really great actors live at work. Of course it's mesmerizing to see artists you only know from either the silver or the small screen perform just a few meters away from you.
What are your fondest "stage memories"?
Mine, so far (and just a few months apart), have been - all, seemingly, actor-related:
- JAMES EARL JONES ("I AM your father", "This is CNN") in "Driving Miss Daisy" - Admittedly, this is not a great play. It's just TOO smooth, TOO polished, ultimately too bland. Yet I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to watch the greatest African American stage actor live, and having Dame Vanessa Redgrave play Miss Daisy didn't hurt either. And Jones was magnetic!
- LAURIE METCALF (Jackie in "Roseanne", and a veteran of the Chicago Steppenwolf Theatre) in A LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT. One of the finest plays ever written, and Metcalf was terrific in the female lead. One thing I like about the West End is that you get to see the plays as they were originally MEANT to be performed, not being wrecked by some director who wants to exorcise his childhood traumas.
- DANNY DE VITO and RICHARD GRIFFITHS in "The Sunshine Boys" - It was De Vitos first stage appearance in a quarter of a century, and the little weasel commanded the stage. Richard Griffiths, a fondly remembered British stage, TV and film character actor internationally known for the Harry Potter films, had always been a chubby guy. But seeing him here in 2012, he reminded me of Moby Dick (and more than one review made that same comparison). He died during heart surgery a few months later, shortly before rehearsals in L.A. were about to begin for a US tour of the play.
And if you ever go to London, don't miss out on THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS, based on the Buchan novel and the Hitchcock film (incl. some of Bernard Herrmann's music for other Hitchcock films) - Hands down, the funniest thing I've seen on stage - EVER. At the Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly Circus.
And for musical theatre: A tie between the London production of Mel Brooks's The Producers and Lionel Bart's wonderful Oliver!)
Now, what are yours?
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Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel and Bobby Morse in "Wicked".
The road company of the revival of "South Pacific".
Baz Luhrman's "La Boheme"
The revival of "A Chorus Line" (pre-Broadway)
Road company of "Annie"
Dame Edna Explains it to You
Barbara Cook in "Mostly Sondheim" Concert
And in my way yonder distant past:
Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens in "Private Lives".
Most DISAPPOINTING Theatrical Experience:
"L'Estat".
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Well there was this beautiful girl sitting next to me and she just was as h---- as can be so she put her hand down my ----- AND THEN she made me feel like John Travolta, well that was the 70's for you. But if you are talking about the lesser experience, well that would be THE GIN GAME- FANTASTIC PERFORMANCE by the 2 leads and I had a front row seat with my then girlfriend, incredible emotional experience in a secondary manner[ha-ha]
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Fell in love with a girl while watching GODSPELL on Broadway .
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A few years ago my family and I saw URINETOWN on Broadway and for an encore they did the dance in the garage number from WEST SIDE STORY. They were awesome, and the number was completely unexpected!
"Boy, boy, crazy boy
Stay loose, boy! . . ."
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Wow,
What a great question.
I have two.
The San Francisco production (long running) of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
and
Jason Robards last performance as Hickey in The Iceman Cometh in Hollywood.
The one I wish I could have seen was:
Arthur Hill and Uta Hagen in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
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Non-Musical: The Steppenwolf Theatre Production of "The Grapes of Wrath" in 1990.
Musical: The Original Broadway Production of "Follies" in 1971.
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Non-Musical: The Steppenwolf Theatre Production of "The Grapes of Wrath" in 1990.
Musical: The Original Broadway Production of "Follies" in 1971.
Sorry for Double-Post.
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