Best Performance You've Seen?
Best Performance You've Seen?
TheHappyPhantom
Featured Actor Joined: 8/25/11
#1Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:16pmFor me it was hands down Cicely Tyson in Trip To Bountiful. Beautiful, authentic, heart-breaking. So glad I saw it.
PositivelyEmerald
Stand-by Joined: 7/24/11
#2Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:44pm
Christine Ebersole and Marie Louise Wilson in Grey Gardens
Betty Buckey in Sunset Boulevard and Carrie
I'm in the minority but Elena Rogers' performance in Evita was also very profound to me.
#2Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:47pm
Kelly Bishop in A Chorus Line
Tovah Feldshuh in Irena's Vow
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
FishermanBob
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/9/12
#3Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:03pm
In recent years:
Tracy Letts - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Nina Arianda - Venus in Fur
Kevin Spacey - Richard III (BAM)
An all time favorite:
Stephen Lang as Colonel Jessup: A Few Good Men (1989)
#5Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:07pmSutton Foster in Anything Goes
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#6Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:12pm
Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens on Broadway
Lois Smith in The Trip to Bountiful - at the Goodman in Chicago.
"...ah, gays and their wit. Hell must be a laugh a minute!"
-Evie Harris
#7Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:21pm
My top five (no particular order):
1) Nina Arianda in Venus In Fur
2) Danny Burstein in Follies
3) Jan Maxwell in Follies
4) Cynthia Nixon in Wit
5) Paulo Szot in South Pacific
Check out my eBay page for sales on Playbills!!
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WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#8Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:31pm
The one that immediately comes to mind is Tonya Pinkins in CAROLINE, OR CHANGE.
Honestly, when I try to make a list in my head, I could go on and on. I've been very fortunate to see some incredible performances. But I do think Pinkins takes top honors in my mind. Her much-buzzed about rendition of "Lot's Wife" was indescribably powerful. I mean, it was truly unbelievable.
Updated On: 7/23/13 at 04:31 PM
#9Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:32pmJudy Kaye as Miss Lovett also deserves a nod.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#10Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:35pm
Audra McDonald in PORGY AND BESS
Bill Irwin in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
Bernadette Peters in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Len Cariou in SWEENEY TODD
Michael Cerveris in ASSASSINS
Mark Rylance in BOEING BOEING
Elaine Stritch and George Grizzard in A DELICATE BALANCE
on and on and on...
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#11Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 5:30pmI consider myself fortunate to have seen so many performances that have moved me, or struck a chord deep in me... But no performance eclipsed Geoffrey Rush in EXIT THE KING.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
michellek45
Leading Actor Joined: 5/20/11
#12Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 5:38pmNot the best performance I've ever seen, but I think Rachel Bay Jones' performance in the Pippin revival was amazingly strong, nuanced, and underrated. I honestly think that the way she makes you love Catherine is integral to the overall success of the revival.
#13Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 5:47pm
Janet McTeer - A Doll's House
Betty Buckley - Sunset Boulevard
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#14Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 5:51pmI have been fortunate to see many wonderful performances that I have enjoyed and which are very memorable to me. Among those, my favorite, hands down, was James Snyder's performance as Billy Bigelow in Carousel - the singing and acting and nuance and realism were just off the charts for me.
#15Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 5:59pm
Marin Mazzie - next to normal
Angela Lansbury - Driving Miss Daisy
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#16Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 6:21pm
Angela Lansbury in MAME, GYPSY or SWEENEY TODD
Dorothy Collins in FOLLIES (though I didn't fully appreciate it at the time)
Victoria Clark in FOLLIES
John Cullum in SHENANDOAH and 1776
William Daniels in 1776
Richard Kiley in MAN OF LA MANCHA
Chita Rivera/Gwen Verdon in CHICAGO
Clamma Dale in PORGY AND BESS
Sada Thompson in ALL MY SONS
Hume Cronym/Jessica Tandy in NOEL COWARD IN TWO KEYS
Meryl Streep/Raul Julia in THE TAMING OF THE SHEW
These are off the top of my head...
Updated On: 7/24/13 at 06:21 PM
#17Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 6:23pmTonya Pinkins in CAROLINE, hands down. I've always said that if I'm lucky enough to live to be 100, I already know there will never be a performance as great as that one was. I just don't think it's humanly possible to top it.
#18Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 6:24pm
"I consider myself fortunate to have seen so many performances that have moved me, or struck a chord deep in me... But no performance eclipsed Geoffrey Rush in EXIT THE KING."
The last second of that show is seared into my brain. God, he was brilliant.
#19Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 6:30pm
I have seen many great performances but the ones that really made an impact on me in no particular order were:
Bryan Fenkart in Memphis (Huey)
Joseph Leo Bwarie in Jersey Boys (Frankie)
Michael Lomenda in Jersey Boys (Nick and he's going to be in the movie!)
Gavin Lee in Mary Poppins (Bert)
Billy Porter in Kinky Boots (Lola)
bernadettelupone17
Swing Joined: 7/16/11
#20Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 6:35pm
Beth Leavel in The Drowsy Chaperone.
Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens. I will never forget the last few moments of that show.
#21Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 6:36pm
Harvey Fierstein in Torch Song Trilogy
James Earl Jones in Fences
Mary Alice in Fences
Elizabeth Ashley in Agnes of God
Geraldine Page in Agnes of God
Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens
Yul Brynner in The King and I
Michael Crawford in The Phantom of the Opera
Betty Buckley in Cats (don't judge)
Cherry Jones in The Heiress
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
mpd4165
Leading Actor Joined: 8/6/09
#22Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 6:51pmJohn Benjamin Hickey in Normal Heart. His final moments were transcendent for me.
KathyNYC2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/2/10
#23Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 7:16pm
So many but who comes immediately to mind..
Brian Stokes Mitchell, Peter Friedman and Marin Mazzie in original cast of Ragtime
Barbara Cook and Daniel Massey in She Loves Me.
All time favorite.. William Daniels 1776 (along with most of the cast).
#24Best Performance You've Seen?
Posted: 7/23/13 at 7:40pmSo far, Bertie Carvel in Matilda. Billy was great, but Bertie was absolutely phenomenal. He should had won Best Actor. I also loved Lauren Ward, Cory in Newsies and Laura Kelly in Mary Poppins.
