The comedians and comedy shows you’ve seen thread made me think of some other shows I’ve seen that were notable for who was in them. I didn’t see the original productions, of course, but I did get to see touring productions with these stars.
Cabaret with Joel Grey (also saw a production with Lea Thompson as Sally Bowles)
Camelot with Richard Harris
Jesus Christ Superstar with Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson (Dennis DeYoung was supposed to be Herod, but I caught the understudy). Saw a second production with Carl Anderson where Sebastian Bach was supposed to be Jesus, but caught his understudy.
Fiddler on the Roof with Topol
Mark Twain Tonight with Hal Holbrook
Michael Crawford performing the songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber (in addition to Phantom songs, he sang Gethsemone from Jesus Christ Superstar and other ALW tunes.
Saw tons of other shows with various touring or local productions but those were the interesting ones that I thought might inspire a thread.
I cannot remember many specifics, and especially not the actors involved, but I’ve enjoyed some great Shakespeare productions in Stratford, Ontario, obviously named after the English city but having a world-renowned Shakespearean theatre.
I’ve probably been to more than one Broadway play but I particularly remember The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas! Many years ago, though!
Road company Dracula with Raul Julia as the Count.
Road company Annie.
J C Superstar with Neeley and Carl Anderson.
Grease in the round at a dinner theater; starred Mary Page Keller as Sandy.
Road company Beatlemania which I thought was quite good at the time. Now, not so much.
Penn & Teller came to town back in the mid-‘80s; the theater was small, almost intimate, and the show was dynamite (not literally, but with them you never know).
Just remembered another one: Wallace Shawn in his own play The Designated Mourner, directed by Andre Gregory (of My Dinner with Andre fame). It was in a black-box theater small enough that Gregory was there to shake hands with every single audience member on their way in.
The original The Who’s Tommy at the La Jolla Playhouse. I’ve also seen a few local productions, the best of which was by San Jose’s Children’s Musical Theater (the band was excellent and appropriately, quite loud).
I’m so envious! They were stories by Simon Rich. I heard one of the segments on This American Life. It was on Episode 851, “Try a Little Tenderness,” from January 10, 2025, and the segment was Act One: “The Big Nap”. I nearly had to pull my car off the road I was laughing so hard!
Here it is:
I’ve seen Driving Miss Daisy with Julie Harris, Brock Peters, and Stephen Root.
Patrick Stewart doing a one-man-show of A Christmas Carol.
Barefoot in the Park with Richard Thomas, Bess Armstrong, Barbara Barrie, Hans Conried, and James Cromwell.
I’ve seen many many more, but not with big names. A few months ago I saw a production of Ain’t Misbehaving that was better than the filmed Broadway version with the original cast.
Midwestern born and raised, I had to rely on road shows.
It wasn’t Harris’ best night. His voice was hoarse, but he recovered it literally “for one brief shining moment” at the end.
The night I was there, Lane wasn’t. A spirited effort by the understudy, though.
I did manage to see Mary Martin and Carol Channing together in a play called Legends! that played all across the U.S., but never made it to Broadway. Martin was 73 and Channing was 65, so there were no song and dance numbers - it was pretty much a straight play. What I remember most was a little moment of comic stage business Martin did with a twinkle and a grin that showed me how appealing she must have been in a musical when she was in her prime.
I went to a few productions in Seattle by a theater troupe called Greek Active. Mid-'90s, low budget, they did most of their shows in the back room of a bar. In their version of “Romeo and Juliet”, the Montagus and Capulets were rival lesbian softball teams. The troupe was founded by, and some of their shows were directed by Dan Savage before he rose to national prominence.
Been thinking they should change it up a little and maybe wear nothing under chaps and rebrand themselves as Beatlemoonia.
Which is one of the coolest things I’ve heard in some time.
The only two plays I saw I was admittedly dragged to. When I was five ('69) the family trotted ourselves out to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and then a date insisted we go see Grease sometime in the early 80s.
One time mum tried to drag me to the high school across the street to check out Jesus Christ Superstar. I was like - why would I wanna see any more religious crap? Turns out, years later, mum recalling it had Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Andrea Martin and Dave Thomas. I was like - aw MAN. The production had been still a couple years before SCTV came out.
I don’t know if these quite fit the definition of stage shows, but I’ve been to talks by Chuck Yeager, Stephen Hawking, and Buckminster Fuller.
Yeager used to do a talk at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum every year in October, near the anniversary of his first supersonic flight. I happened to go in 1997, the 50th anniversary.
