On April 20, Time magazine released their annual list of The 100 Most Influential People. Divided into five categories (Pioneers, Artists, Leaders, Titans, and Icons), the list highlights leaders in politics, governments foreign and domestic, business, art, entertainment, science, technology, and sports whose words and actions move the needle and change the world around them—for better or worse.
This year’s list champions prominent names in the theatre community as worldwide influencers, and still more theatre talent (like Lin-Manuel Miranda from last year’s Top 100) wrote about their peers.
Oscar and two-time Tony Award winner Viola Davis (Fences, King Hedley II) was named an Icon; fellow actor and Tony nominee Meryl Streep wrote about her dear friend (who introduced Streep at this year’s Golden Globe Awards as the recipient of Cecil B. DeMille Award) saying, “Viola has carved a place for herself on the Mount Rushmore of the 21st century.... Her gifts as an artist are unassailable, undeniable, deep and rich and true.”
Among the most influential Artists were Tony winner and 2016 Tony host James Corden, Dear Evan Hansen's Ben Platt, Emma Stone, who made her Broadway debut in the most recent revival of Cabaret, stage and screen actor Sarah Paulson, and newly minted producer of Broadway’s Jitney John Legend.
Watch: JOHN LEGEND AND THE COMPANY OF JITNEY GREET PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT