Because I am ridiculously jazzed for the upcoming re-revival of *Cabaret, I am curious to know who you all saw play Sally Bowles and the Emcee?
I saw Heather Laws, Molly Ringwald's understudy, in 2002. Raul Esparza was the Emcee. I remember nothing about Laws, sadly, but do remember Esparza scaring the ish out of me for some reason. (I was sixteen.)
I don't recall the Sally Understudy who went on for Teri Hatcher but consensus was she was MUCH better. Norbert Leo Butz played the Emcee and was SPECTACULAR.
First time was mary McCormick, Alan Cummings, Ron rifkin, Denis o'hare, and Blair brown. Blair brown and Ron rifkin stole the show. Second time was raul Esparza and Molly ringwald, both were electric.
Tina Arena in Sydney, A very miscast Lisa McCune in Melbourne Australia
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
I too saw Esparza and Ringwald. I don't really remember her performance but I do remember being excited when I found out she was Sally. I do remember Raul and thought he was fantastic.
The Emcee remains my favorite performance of Raul Esparza's, who I saw twice. I thought he was dynamite. Alan Cumming was also wonderful. Near the end of the run, I saw Adam Pascal, who was very good (and showed me he could play against type).
I saw Jennifer Jason Leigh (wonderful!), Brooke Shields (meh), Molly Ringwald (outstanding except for the title song which lacked bite), and Susan Egan (not terribly impressed).
I know I saw Carole Shelley as Schneider a couple of times, but I can't rememeber who else I saw. I saw Larry Keith as Herr Schultz and also saw his understudy, Gordon Stanley, on two different occasions.
For the life of me I can't remember who Cliff was any of the times I saw the show.
I know at least once I saw Victoria Clark as Kost. Definitely also saw Candy Buckley a couple of times as well.
First time I saw it was right after the Kit Kat Klub re-opened (if anyone remembers the crane falling on 43rd Street), and I saw Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Later on I saw it with Susan Egan and Adam Pascal. I also saw it on tour in LA, with Teri Hatcher (who I thought was great) and Norbert Leo Butz, who I thought was great. Fun fact: sitting in front of me the night I saw the tour was future Emcee Neil Patrick Harris.
"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
I saw the tour with Kate Shindle. She was amazing. Did anyone see Michael C. Reilly on Broadway?
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
Fritzie isn't much of a role is it? I am so fascinated by Victoria Clark's career because by that point she was already in Titanic and How to Succeed. She has paired such a range of roles from featured and leading.
The actress playing Fritzie also plays Fraulein Kost in the Mendes/Marshall revival. Kost's first name is not mentioned in the script, but the actress playing Kost is introduced in "Wilkommen" as Fritzie.
Lucky enough to see Natasha Richardson with Alan Cumming in the revival. Natasha's performance was one of the true greats-- rebuilt the character from the ground up and made a smart show into a heartbreaking one.
But back in '87 I saw the Hal Prince original staging revived with Alyson Reed and Joel Grey-- a sterile relic that made us wonder what was so brilliant about this show in the first place... until the Sam Mendes version proved it to us all over again.
I first saw Natasha Richardson and Alan Cumming right after the show won the Tony and at the wee age of 13, I told my parents I wanted to do that and that never changed. I later saw the tour with Kate Shindle who blew me away.
A few years later, I caught both Raul Esparza and Neil Patrick Harris (last Raul performance, first NPH performance) with Molly Ringwald. Esparza and NPH impressed me and mesmerized me. I found Molly Ringwald to be totally serviceable. She had her high points (I loved her Maybe this Time) and her low points (the title song didn't move me. At all.), but for the most part a performance that was good, but not great.
These are the theater memories I hold dear to my heart, as they were the ones that I made when I was finally becoming an adult and deciding that I could scrounge pennies together to road trip to NY from the midwest without being told it was a bad idea. And the shows I saw between 2002-well, now still…I hold near and dear.
There is ample footage of Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance on YT. In my opinion, she is an odd duck. Regardless of the piece, be it film, television, or stage, something about her strikes me as false. Her perpetual sense of melancholy seems so studied. Similar to a maudlin teenager demanding to be left alone to in their room to brood, she still makes it a point to let you know just how upset she is with the world.
I saw the very last performance at the Kit Kat Club at the Henry Miller's Theater before the crane came down in Times Square.
So, I saw Alan Cumming, Natasha Richardson (brilliant), Ron Rifkin and Mary-Louise Wilson (amazing chemistry and I thought Ms. Wilson should have won her first Tony for her heartbreaking portrayal of Fraulein Schneider-hers is the performance I use to measure all subsequent Fraulein Schneiders. Together, they were a cute couple-you wanted to see them succeed.)
I actually saw pretty much the original cast of that revival. It was flawless. I'm hoping for similar chemistry here.
First time, I saw Susan Egan and Michael Hall (flawless performances). Then I saw Lea Thompson and Michael Hall (also fantastic). Finally I saw Susan Egan and Jon Secada (she was wonderful, he was.........)