Favorite ThingsTHEIR FAVORITE THINGS: Broadway Press Agent and Author Susan L. Schulman Shares Her Theatregoing ExperiencesPlaybill.com's feature series Their Favorite Things asks members of the theatre community to share the Broadway performances that most affected them as part of the audience.
"As a kid, I saw Mary Martin in
Peter Pan from the second balcony and, even from way up there, I knew she was a magical person. I have never been disappointed seeing her on stage – she was a singular presence who seemed to embrace the audience just as they embraced her. To me she was everything a musical performer should be."
"Preston was such a joyful performer – he always seemed about to burst into a song and dance. I worked with him years later when he replaced
George C. Scott in
Sly Fox, and he had that quality off stage, too. Filled with fun and that sly twinkle in his eye."
**George C. Scott in Sly Fox and Death of A Salesman (at the Circle in the Square)
"These two performances showed the diametrically opposite sides of Scott. He was adorable and over the top in
Sly Fox – silly and outrageous, bordering on slapstick. And in
Salesman this big, bold, larger-than-life actor played a small, defeated man with total honesty and broke your heart."
"... Singing and dancing 'The Man I Used to Be,' channeling Gene Kelly with such easy charm and grace. Everyone in the audience fell in love with him. "
"She playing eight roles including the Male Doctor, who had a face-off with Ron Leibman. Kathy learned to sit, stand and think like a man for the role, while also playing the Mormon Mother and Ethel Rosenberg, among others. Astounding."
"She spoke only two or three words yet held you enraptured for the entire act. With only dance and her expressive face, you understood everything this sad and lonely character thought and felt, and you desperately wanted her to find happiness."
"Jim comes from the presentational style of the English Music Hall and has that quality of instant likeability. The minute he steps on a stage you want to go on the journey with him.
Scapino was his Broadway debut, and he got to show off all of his many skills, which led to a new career in America."
"They were incredibly sexy together in this Noel Coward revival. You believed they couldn't keep their hands off each other – on stage or off. Plus, of course, they understood Coward perfectly."
"I handled the show and especially loved Fosse's tribute to Fred Astaire called 'Dancin' Man.' The dancers wore white ice cream suits with striped ties as belts (à la Astaire) and did a smooth and sassy sand dance. I could watch that number once a week for the rest of my life."
"I saw this for the first time when I was ten. I was so engrossed in the story and so mesmerized by Brynner as The King, that I believed he had really died at the end. I was so relieved when he came out for his curtain call."
