Mrs. Cheesesteak also worked with Donnie at Beauty and the Beast, he played Gaston. She LOVED Donnie, tremendous work ethic, felt a real responsibility to put on a great show for his fans.
I did get to see him play Gaston at the closing performance of Beauty at the Lunt-Fontanne, just to keep with the theme of the thread.
Ya know, when I think of Gaston, I think of someone … bulkier than Donnie. Hugh Jackman would be a better physical fit.
Broadway costumers have their tricks.
HAIR at the Aquarius Theater L.A. in 1969. Once with best friend and his wife, second time with the soon-to-be Mrs. Cretin. It was hip.
I saw that Leah Thompson Cabaret production, too.
A friend of mine used to work for a company that handled logistics for touring Broadway productions when they came to town. She made connections with various venues, and they’d trade tickets back and forth as a perk.
She took me to see Cabaret, The Producers, Movin’ Out, Spamalot, and others that I can’t think of at the moment.
I forgot a few
Pippin in its initial Broadway run, but Irene Ryan had died and I think Ben Vereen was gone
Jesus Christ Superstar during its initial run, with Jeff Fenholt as Jesus. He later became an evangelist and said he hadn’t been at all religious when he was playing Jesus. Again, I missed Ben Vereen, who was off that day, so I got the guy from Sesame Street.
I was an avid theatergoer and we lived near enough to NYC to go to see plays and musicals there.
Broadway:
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in No Man’s Land
Tony Shalhoub, Brooke Adams, and Anthony LaPaglia in Lend me a Tenor
Chris Rock in The Motherf*er with the Hat
Gilda Radner, Sam Waterston, David Rasche, and Max Wright in Lunch Hour
Yvonne Elliman, Ben Vereen in Jesus Christ Superstar
Jack Cassidy, Linda Lavin in It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman
William Daniels, Howard Da Silva, Ken Howard in 1776
Linda Lavin, Paul Sand, Jo Anne Worley, and Richard Libertini in *The Mad Show
Locally
We get various touring shows here, occasionally with big names.
Richard Thomas and Mary Badham in To Kill a Mockingbird
Richard Thomas in The Humans
Georgia Engel in The Drowsy Chaperone
Maureen O’Hara in Cheaper by the Dozen
Our theater department in high school put on a school trip to London in the early 1970s, and we saw some great plays:
Sleuth with Anthony Quayle and Keith Baxter; Threepenny Opera with Vanessa Redgrave; and I remember loving a quiet little play: Butley…
Found out years later that Harold Pinter directed (we saw him there that night), and Alan Bates starred.
In Chicago, late 80s/early nineties:
The Good Times Are Killing Me, Lynda Barry’s adaptation of her book of the same name, at the Live Bait Theater
Sylvia’s Real Good Advice, Nicole Hollander’s musical based on her comic strip, at Hull House Theater
In L.A., 1979:
Evita with LuPone and Patinkin at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion pre-Broadway tryouts
I worked there for a couple of years in the mid-90s.
While I was there, started the Rent national tour with Niel Patrick Harris. Heard them singing that 5 thousand minutes song so often that I didn’t go to the actual show, just took paint notes at rehearsals.
Penn and Teller did a month long gig that involved flipping giant steel playing cards with forklifts.
World premiers of an Athol Fugard play and a Barry Manilow musical. Can’t remember the Fugard show, but the Manilow was the one about a Jewish band in Nazi Germany. I think it has been turned into a movie.
CCH Pounder in Hedda Gabler at the Old Globe.
John Goodman as Falstaff in Henry IV.
Robert Hays as Mr Roberts. (super nice guy, was Striker in Airplane.)
I dunno how notable any of those are, but I enjoyed them. And being on the “inside” let me meet a bunch of famous people.
Another one for the “before they were famous” file: I saw a student production of Fiddler on the Roof in the mid-90s, then learned about 20 years later that the actor playing Perchik had been a young Josh Groban.
The Guthrie Theater sometimes gets name actors. I saw Courtney B. Vance and Angela Bassett in His Girl Friday. Notable for a drunk guy behind me whooping during the first act. Ricardo Antonio Chavira, better known for Desperate Housewives, was cast as Stanley in Streetcar. Patrick Stewart and Mercedes Ruehl performed in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Apparently I saw Rainn Wilson in The Importance of Being Earnest in the late ‘90s but I don’t remember him at all. And just last Saturday I saw David Strathairn in Waiting for Godot.
When I lived in Kansas, I saw La Belle et la Bete (Cocteau film of Beauty and the Beast, with music by Philip Glass). At the end of the performance Philip Glass came on stage to take a bow.
I am jealous.
I saw Yul Brenner do the King and I, and he owned that stage. Even for the matinee.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in Vegas, but no Zero Mostel, sadly.
Noises Off with some of the film stars. Or were they the broadway stars?
Hair on the Sunset Strip- details are foggy. Aquarius?
Spamalot in the Hollywood bowl.
I saw them live on stage. Small place in Santa Monica, IIRC
But I am not much of a live theatre guy, those were mostly as a guest or comped.
Check
Check
Zero Mostel
Check.
Was that you behind me all those times? I missed you at Fiddler.
Oh, and The King and I with Yul Brenner.
All road company. I’ve never seen a show on Broadway.
Correct.