Just looking at the performances on the list is overwhelming.
1948 Grace Hartman for Angel in the Wings 1949 Nanette Fabray for Love Life 1950 Mary Martin for South Pacific 1951 Ethel Merman for Call Me Madam 1952 Gertrude Lawrence for The King and I 1953 Rosalind Russell for Wonderful Town 1954 Dolores Gray for Carnival in Flanders 1955 Mary Martin for Peter Pan 1956 Gwen Verdon for Damn Yankees 1957 Judy Holliday for Bells Are Ringing 1958 Thelma Ritter for New Girl in Town ----Gwen Verdon for New Girl in Town 1959 Gwen Verdon for Redhead 1960 Mary Martin for The Sound of Music 1961 Elizabeth Seal for Irma La Douce 1962 Anna Maria Alberghetti for Carnival! ----Diahann Carroll for No Strings 1963 Vivien Leigh for Tovarich 1964 Carol Channing for Hello, Dolly! 1965 Liza Minnelli for Flora, The Red Menace 1966 Angela Lansbury for Mame 1967 Barbara Harris for The Apple Tree 1968 Patricia Routledge for Darling of the Day Leslie Uggams for Hallelujah, Baby! 1969 Angela Lansbury for Dear World 1970 Lauren Bacall for Applause 1971 Helen Gallagher for No, No, Nanette 1972 Alexis Smith for Follies 1973 Glynis Johns for A Little Night Music 1974 Virginia Capers for Raisin 1975 Angela Lansbury for Gypsy 1976 Donna McKechnie for A Chorus Line 1977 Dorothy Loudon for Annie 1978 Liza Minnelli for The Act 1979 Angela Lansbury for Sweeney Todd 1980 Patti LuPone for Evita 1981 Lauren Bacall for Woman of the Year 1982 Jennifer Holliday for Dreamgirls 1983 Natalia Makarova for On Your Toes 1984 Chita Rivera for The Rink 1985 1986 Bernadette Peters for Song and Dance 1987 Maryann Plunkett for Me and My Girl 1988 Joanna Gleason for Into the Woods 1989 Ruth Brown for Black and Blue 1990 Tyne Daly for Gypsy 1991 Lea Salonga for Miss Saigon 1992 Faith Prince for Guys and Dolls 1993 Chita Rivera for Kiss of the Spider Woman 1994 Donna Murphy for Passion 1995 Glenn Close for Sunset Boulevard 1996 Donna Murphy for The King and I 1997 Bebe Neuwirth for Chicago 1998 Natasha Richardson for Cabaret 1999 Bernadette Peters for Annie Get Your Gun 2000 Heather Headley for Aida 2001 Christine Ebersole for 42nd Street 2002 Sutton Foster for Thoroughly Modern Millie 2003 Marissa Jaret Winokur for Hairspray 2004 Idina Menzel for Wicked 2005 Victoria Clark for The Light in the Piazza 2006 LaChanze for The Color Purple
Discuss.
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
Can you imagine being on that list? With those women?
Alexis Smith for Follies Patti LuPone for Evita Anglea Lansbury for Sweeney Todd
Honorable mentions: Gwen Verdon for Redhead, Mary Martin for The Sound of Music, Donna McKechnie for A Chorus Line, Chita Rivera for Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Lauren Bacall for Applause, Victoria Clark for The Light in the Piazza, Glynis Johns for A Little Night Music, Carol Channing for Hello, Dolly!
Damn, it was hard to pick three.
Theatre is a safe place to do the unsafe things that need to be done.
-John Patrick Shanley
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
My list is rather subjective given the fact I haven't seen 90% of those performances: Mary Martin-SOUTH PACIFIC Bernadette Peters-SONG & DANCE Donna Murphy-PASSION
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
I find it interesting that sometimes strong years are followed by relatively weak ones.
Like 1960, you have Mary Martin for The Sound of Music, Ethel Merman for Gypsy and Carol Burnett for Once Upon a Mattress. All three easily could have won, though Martin did. And then the next year? You have Elizabeth Seal winning for Irma-La-Douce.
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
Angela Lansbury - Sweeney Todd Sutton Foster - TMM Idina Menzel - Wicked Mary Martin - Peter Pan
And you think of all of the things you've seen, and you wish that you could live in between ,and you're back again only different than before...
After the Sky.
-Into the Woods (Jack)
Lansbury (Sweeney Todd), LuPone (Evita), and Johns (A Little Night Music).
Honorable mentions- McKechnie (A Chorus Line), Channing (Hello, Dolly!), Martin (South Pacific), Lansbury (Mame), Lansbury (Gypsy), and Rivera (Kiss of the Spiderwoman)
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
Clark in Piazza, Lansbury in Sweeney Todd and Chita Rivera in The Rink. Now, I didn't see Channing in Dolly (in '64 at least) or really anything before 1967 or '68, so perhaps Martin and Merman and Channing were more deserving, but those three ladies were so superlative, so outstanding in every aspect of their role, they really deserved it. Honorable mention would go to Patti LuPone for Evita and Christine Eberole for Grey Gardens (She didn't officially win yet, but why bother waiting for the ceremony.)
I have seen 15 of the winners, so I pick from only those:
Angela Lansbury for Sweeney Todd, Patti LuPone for Evita, Bernadette Peters for Song & Dance, and Victoria Clark for The Light In The Piazza (I guess I have a tie!)
(Had Sutton Foster won last year, she would make the list, too)
this is hard, but I say Lansbury (Sweeney), Rivera (Kiss of the Spiderwoman) and Lupone (Evita)
<------ Me and my friends with patti Lupone at my friends afterparty for her concert with audra mcdonald during the summer of 2007.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado
Donna McKechnie - A Chorus Line Donna Murphy - Passion Patti LuPone - Evita
That was really hard.
Honorable Mention Lea Salonga - Miss Saigon Victoria Clark - The Light in the Piazza Angela Lansbury - Sweeney Todd Chita Rivera - Kiss of the Spider Woman Gwen Verdon - Damn Yankees Carol Channing - Hello, Dolly!