# Great New York actors I've never heard of **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981 "2012-03-27T21:16:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981/1 "2012-03-27T21:16:59Z")
First off, I’ve never been to a Broadway show, and stage dramas don’t normally go on tour with the original cast. So when theater fans tell me I should have seen Jerry Orbach as a song and dance man, or that Angela Lansbury and Kristin Chenowith dominated the stage in a way that their TV roles never did justice to, I have to take their word for it. Not to mention the army of actors, singers and dancers who, for whatever reason, never jumped to movies or TV. Who lights up Broadway that we in flyover country have never heard of? Also, who might we recorgnize, but wouldn’t believe how dazzling they were on stage? ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981/2 "2012-03-27T21:29:11Z")
[Brian Stokes Mitchell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Stokes_Mitchell), “one of the central leading men of the Broadway theatre since the early 1990s” according to Wikipedia. As a huge fan of the 80’s T.V. show _Trapper John, M.D._, I was familiar with an actor named Brian Mitchell, who played the wisecracking black resident, “Jackpot” Jackson. I was shocked when I turned on the T.V. one day to see a brilliant singer and actor named Brian Stokes Mitchell, then appearing in _Ragtime_ on Broadway. He was nominated for a Tony for that role, one of four nominations (he won once). [Donna Murphy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Murphy) and [Audra McDonald](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audra_McDonald%5B/url) are two actresses who have appeared occasionally on television and are also leading lights of Broadway, with six Tony awards between them. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981/3 "2012-03-27T21:38:01Z")
Too late to edit, but I was going to add this year’s Tony winner for Best Actress in a Musical, [Sutton Foster](http://www.suttonfoster.com/about-sutton.htm), who is about to appear in a new T.V. drama. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981/4 "2012-03-27T21:48:20Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Who lights up Broadway that we in flyover country have never heard of? Also, who might we recorgnize, but wouldn’t believe how dazzling they were on stage? Almost everyone, but John Douglas Thompson is first to spring to mind. Insanely talented. People you’ve heard of would include Jane Krakowski and Michael Urie. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981/5 "2012-03-27T22:16:17Z")
[This website](http://www.bluegobo.com/) has performances by many theater stars over the decades, including Sutton Foster and Jerry Orbach. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981/6 "2012-03-27T22:35:38Z")
[Bernadette Peters](http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=68530) never got her due in films or TV. There’s also[Patti Lupone](http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=50271) (who was on a hit TV series, but few remember it) and [Elaine Stritch](http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=61342). All three are older stars, but they still are appearing in major roles. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981/7 "2012-03-27T23:15:14Z")
I have recently seen _amazing_, should-be-star-making (but won’t be) performances by **Elizabeth Stanley** (in _Merrily We Roll Along_), **Rob McClure** (_Where’s Charley?_) and **Tari Kelly** (standing in for Sutton Foster in _Anything Goes_). Oh, and V\*\*arla Jean Merman \*\*and **Leslie Jordan** were hilarious in _Lucky Guy_, which opened and closed like a camera shutter. There are so many insanely talented people in the theater and so few roles and vehicles, it is heart-breaking. I am \*so \*glad I am not an actress. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981/8 "2012-03-27T23:18:38Z")
I saw Angela Lansbury in THE BEST MAN last week, and she definitely is past her prime. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981/9 "2012-03-28T00:02:49Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > I saw Angela Lansbury in THE BEST MAN last week, and she definitely is past her prime. Oh, how was it? I was impressed with the cast list! ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-new-york-actors-ive-never-heard-of/616981/10 "2012-03-28T00:12:07Z")
Didn’t age well (Lansbury, who forgot some of her lines, or the play itself, which seemed more dated than I’d expected.) The play centers around the rumor that one candidate had mental health issues and another was plagued by rumors of a gay affair, neither as scandalous as in 1960. James Earl Jones played, in essence, Harry Truman, without explaining how a black man came to be an ex-President in the mid-20th century U.S.