spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
Posts: 2,523
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Post by spiderwort on Mar 19, 2017 16:13:21 GMT
Have you ever seen classic stars on stage? I've been fortunate enough to see a few:
Alexis Smith in "Follies"
Joan Blondell in "The Effect of Gamma Rays on the Man in the Moon Marigolds"
Faye Dunaway and Jon Voight in "A Streetcar Named Desire"
Peter O'Toole in something in London; he was so drunk, I don't remember the title of the play.
Angela Lansbury in "Sweeney Todd"
Jean Simmons in "A Little Night Music"
Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards Jr. in "Moon for the Misbegotten"
Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn in "The Gin Game"
Julie Harris and Charles Durning in "The Gin Game"
Julie Harris in "The Belle of Amherst"
Richard Dreyfuss in "The Normal Heart"
Alan Bates in "Butley"
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Post by Jonesy1 on Mar 19, 2017 16:15:28 GMT
I once saw Mickey Rooney on stage with his wife Jan Chamberlin.
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Post by Jonesy1 on Mar 19, 2017 16:23:49 GMT
I once saw Mickey Rooney on stage with his wife Jan Chamberlin. That must have been fun. Do you remember the play? It wasn't a play, half of it was his reminiscing and the other half was song and dance with Jan. |
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Post by mikef6 on Mar 19, 2017 16:31:27 GMT
Janet Blair as "Mame"
Jack Cassidy a mystery/suspense play called "Suddenly, At Home"
Carlton Carpenter in "Boys In The Band"
William Daniels and Howard da Silva in "1776"
Gordon MacRae in "I Do, I Do"
Kurt Kasznar in William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes"
Rich Little performing his act live.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 19, 2017 19:14:39 GMT
Some I recall seeing (some more "classic" than others):
Beah Richards, Yaphet Kotto and George Takei in Othello
George Kennedy and Carol Burnett in Plaza Suite
William Devane in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Edward James Olmos in Zoot Suit
Ingrid Bergman in The Constant Wife
Richard Thomas and Bruce Davison in Streamers
Deborah Kerr and Frank Langella in Seascape
Groucho Marx in An Evening With Groucho
Jane Powell in Irene
Debbie Reynolds, Harve Presnell and Gavin MacLeod in Annie Get Your Gun
Yvonne DeCarlo in Gypsy (although she's not necessarily a "classic star," I had previously seen Joanne Worley as Mama Rose, and she was excellent)
Shani Wallis, Dick Shawn and Stubby Kaye in Oliver!
Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller in Sugar Babies
Liza Minnelli in The Act
Anthony Newley in Chaplin (I hadn't liked him previously, but he won me over completely; that man owned the stage)
There were others, but the memory hole has gone dry for now.
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Post by mattgarth on Mar 19, 2017 19:25:11 GMT
Tony Curtis in SOME LIKE IT HOT (playing 'Osgood')
Joan Fontaine in DIAL M FOR MURDER
Melvyn Douglas in THE BEST MAN (with Frank Lovejoy and Lee Tracy)
George C. Scott in RICHARD III
Christopher Plummer in INHERIT THE WIND (with Brian Dennehy)
Margaret Leighton in SEPARATE TABLES
Joanne Woodward in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (Redford and Newman popped out of the cellar at the end as previous victims)
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Post by marshamae on Mar 19, 2017 19:29:24 GMT
Mary Martin in I Do, I Do- with Robert Preston in Broadway previews. The first time I really understood why some people are stars. Two people held the stage for 90 minutes, sang , aged 50 years, and were utterly entrancing.
Robert Morse and Rudy Vallée in How To Succeed- another pair of genuine stars doing miracles
John Slattery, Nathan Lane and Robert Morse- The front page - this is a recent production and only Morse is a classic but what a joy this was.
Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirit - in her Tony award winning performance as Mme Arcati. She was fun but she had been on the road for 9 months after 2-3 years on Bway and a year in London. She was pretty dépendant on her ear piece and lost focus a few times. Still totally worth seeing. The cast also had Simon Jones (Bridey from Brideshead Revisited) and Charles Edwards ( Gregson from Downton Abbey) .
Kenneth Branagh and Alex Kingston in Macbeth at the Park Avenue Armory. A completely engrossing theatrical experience. We were seated on long benches about twenty feet from the action, looking down on the actors. The fight scenes splashed us with mud and were terrifying. The soliloquies were right in front of you. Mesmerizing.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 20, 2017 16:58:42 GMT
When I was a teen, my BIG Christmas / Birthday present was a box with theater ticket stubs in it. I could go as often as I wanted and see whatever I wanted to see. The only stipulation was that I had to get balcony seats and preferably with discounts for previews etc. Saw just about everything as it opened and some that opened and closed nearly simultaneously. Of particular note: Dramas were often shorter than musicals and I went in and saw the finale and curtain calls of "Camelot" so often that the doorman recognized me and would say "hello, back again, eh ?" Burton, Andrews, McDowell, Coote, Goulet, etc ! Saw a total dud called "Home Sweet Homer". BUT Yul Brynner walked onto that stage and the audience went totally mad ! All he had done was appear ! Never have heard or experienced such love across the footlights. Get chills just writing about it. Was one of the few who actually saw Angela Lansbury in "Anyone Can Whistle". Don't understood why it totally failed. It was pretty good. I have boxes of playbills from the era and one of these days plan on going through them and documenting just who was in what and who all I saw. Yah. In my spare time, I'll do that !  |
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Post by neurosturgeon on Mar 20, 2017 17:23:29 GMT
I saw Angela Lansbury do "Sweeney Todd" twice at the Chandler in Los Angeles. She was also part of the All-star staged reading of the film script of "All About Eve." Others in that cast were Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner, John Ritter, Victor Garber, Calista Flockhart, Kirk Douglas, Carl Reiner, Jennifer Tilley and Tim Curry.
Another Actors Fund reading is saw was "Sunset Blvd" with Anjelica Huston, Patrick Wilson, Ben Kingsley, Stanley Donne, Marc Kaplan and Charles Durning.
Last Play I attended was "The Subject Was Roses" with Martin Sheen playing the father role. That was nice because it came with a backstage visit.
About 40 years ago, my hometown opened a new performing arts center and I was working at the local radio station I got freebies to see:
"Cyrano de Bergerac" with Stacy Keatch and Stephanie Powers
"Eccentricities of a Nightengale" with Sandy Dennis
"The Man Who Came To Dinner with James Whitmore
As a kid, I saw Noel Harrison in "Half a Sixpence" at the Melodyland Theatre in the Round out near Disneyland, which was consolation for not taking me to see "George M!" with Joel Grey.
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Post by marshamae on Mar 20, 2017 17:35:10 GMT
I saw Yul Brunner in his last tour of the King and I. Have no idea how he managed with lung cancer. Perhaps his vocals were pre recorded. I know his bare chest was a sponge muscle suit. Didn't matter. He was magic.
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Post by divtal on Mar 20, 2017 21:45:16 GMT
- Ricardo Montalban in "The King and I." Years later, I met him, and saw his pronounced limp ... the result of an injury sustained during the filming of Across the Wide Missouri. I couldn't believe that he managed to work around that, on stage.
- Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward in "Love Letters."
- Colleen Dewhurst/E.G. Marshall in "Love Letters."
- Lauren Bacall in "Applause"
- Angela Lansbury in "Blithe Spirit." That was a little more than a year ago, and I felt so lucky, as she announced that would be her final "tour."
- William Windom in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."
- James Whitmore in "Give 'em Hell, Harry!"
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Post by marshamae on Mar 22, 2017 1:04:23 GMT
I saw Walter Pigeon, Jackie Gleason and , again Robert Morse in Take Me Along. Charming version of Ah Wilderness. Pigeon had a lovely rich baritone and actually anchored the show. Gleason and Morse were like showy butterflies , clever, fascinating but the real guts of the show were in Pigeon's role as the father.
Eileen Herlie, una Merkel and Susan Luckey ( music Man , Peter Pan, carousel) were tge female leads and Valerie Harper had a bit, but I really don't remember their performances. All great actresses, so I can only think the production, as the play does, was slanted to the men.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 22, 2017 1:24:14 GMT
spiderwortSpeaking of injuries. Danny Kaye was on Broadway in Two By Two a play about Noah. He broke his foot and kept performing with a cast on his leg and in a wheelchair. I have a vague memory of seeing the play twice both before and after the injury. Very Vague as it was a loooong time ago. "He appeared with his leg in a cast and either rode around the stage in a wheelchair — in which he sometimes would try to run down the other actors — or hobbled around the stage on a crutch — which he used to goose the girls," wrote Rodgers in his autobiography Musical Stages. "In addition, he began improvising his own lines and singing in the wrong tempos. He even made a curtain speech after the performances in which he said, 'I'm glad you're here, but I'm glad the authors aren't."
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 22, 2017 13:49:46 GMT
You got to see Deborah Kerr! I can't believe it. Oh, be still my beating heart. And Ingrid Bergman, too! I don't know that play, though. I, too, saw Edward James Olmos in Zoot Suit - probably the same production you did, in L.A. in the seventies? Loved it. I neglected to mention Barry Nelson was also among the four-person cast of Seascape. The Bergman show was a Maugham play dating back to the 20s, a drawing room comedy involving infidelity among mature marrieds; I'd have jumped at the chance to see her in anything. I'm sure you're right about Zoot Suit (at the Aquarius; always liked that house...just intimate enough to amplify the intensity of such a show). |
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 22, 2017 14:57:38 GMT
I'm sure you're right about Zoot Suit (at the Aquarius; always liked that house...just intimate enough to amplify the intensity of such a show). Yes, Zoot Suit at the Aquarius when El Teatro Campesino was just coming into its own in the big city. What a wonderful production that was. I seem to recall that it's now back on Broadway, or will be soon. Ah, I was not aware of that. Well, why not? As you note, it was a great show and, as a dramatization of bona fide Los Angeles history, it's just as relevant now as nearly 40 years ago, and given the current sociopolitical atmosphere, perhaps more so. |
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