By Andrew Gans Randy Graff — June 1987: "I Dreamed a Dream"
Ellen Greene — May 1983: "Somewhere That's Green" and "Suddenly Seymour" (with Lee Wilkof); Jan. 1987: song from Little Shop of Horrors; Feb. 1987: "Suddenly Seymour"; Dec. 1988
Jennifer Holliday — Jan. 1983: "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going"; Sept. 1983: "I Am Love" and "Let Me Wait"; May 1986: "We Can Work It Out" and "Dreams Never Die"
Andrea McArdle — May 1977: "Tomorrow"; Sept. 1977: "Tomorrow" and "Johnny One-Note"; July 1978: "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Tomorrow"; Sept. 1979: "Love Wings" and "Over the Rainbow"
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Ethel Merman — Sept. 1970 (no details for this appearance); Nov. 1972: "It's De-Lovely"; June 1974: "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and "I Get a Kick Out of You"; Oct. 1974: "Someone To Watch Over Me" and "Some People"; Jan. 1975 and June 1975: (no details for these appearances); Aug. 1975: Medley and "I Get a Kick Out of You"; Dec. 1975: "Some People"; May 1976: "Gee, But It's Good To Be Here"; Oct. 1976: "What I Did For Love" and "Sweet Georgia Brown"; April 1977: "Ridin' High" and "Younger Than Springtime"; June 1977: "Nothing Can Stop Me Now"; May 1978: "Gee, But It's Good To Be Here"; April 1979: "Tomorrow"
Bette Midler — Aug. 12, 1970; Aug. 31, 1970; Oct. 1970; Dec. 10, 1970; Dec. 16, 1970; Jan. 1971; Feb. 1971; March 1971; June 1971; Oct. 1971; Dec. 1971; Jan. 1972; March 1972; April 1972; Sept. 1971: "Lullaby of Broadway" and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"; Sept. 1980; Nov. 1983: "Beast of Burden" and "Come Back Jimmy Dean"); Dec. 1985 ("Fat As I Am" and "Skylark"; Dec. 1988: "Under the Boardwalk" and "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today"; Nov. 1991: "Stuff Like That," "Every Road Leads to You" and "In My Life"; May 1992: "Here's That Rainy Day," "One for My Baby"
Liza Minnelli — Aug. 1974: (no details for this appearance); Dec. 1975: "Lucky Lady" and "I Don't Want to Be Lonely Tonight"; April 1980: "I'm Old-Fashioned"; May 1981: "New York, New York"; Oct. 1985: "Boys and Girls Like You and Me"; Oct. 1986: Medley of "My Ship" and "The Man I Love"
Andrea Marcovicci — June 1988: "Two for the Road"
Bernadette Peters — April 1970, Sept. 1970, Dec. 1970, Jan. 1971, March 1971, Sept. 1971 and Nov. 1971: no details on these first appearances; Jan. 1976: Medley and "I Love You Too"; June 1976: "You'll Never Know"; May 1977: "Stepping Out" and "I Don't Know Why"; June 1977: "Everything Old Is New Again" and "Love Story"; Aug. 1977: "Wake Up and Live" and "Mean to Me"; Oct. 1977: "Broadway Baby" and "Ten Cents a Dance"; Dec. 1977: "Everybody's Talking" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"; June 1978: "Not Much" and "Send in the Clowns"; July 1978: "Thank You for Being a Friend" and "You Can Have Him"; Oct. 1978: "Divorce" and "I Love"; Jan. 1979: "Feelin' Groovy" and "I Don't Know Why"; April 1979: "Wake Up and Live" and "Believe in You"; June 1979: "Let the Good Times Roll"; July 1979: "Wake Up and Live" and "Other Lady"; Jan. 1980: "The Boy I Love" and "Pearl's a Singer"; April 1980: "Gee Whiz" and "Other Lady"; Aug. 1980: "Gee Whiz" and "You'll Never Know"; Aug. 1981: "Dedicated to the One I Love" and "Don't"; April 1982: "Dedicated to the One I Love," "Gee Whiz" and "Other Lady"; April 1983: "Broadway Baby"; June 1987: "Broadway Baby" and "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy"; July 1989: "Making Love Alone" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"; July 1991: "I'm Flying" and "Unexpected Song"; April 1992: "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "What'll I Do?"
Frances Ruffelle— Nov. 1987: "On My Own"
Helen Schneider — Sept. 1977: "Until Now" and "You and I"; March 1978: "Valentino Tango" and "Until Now"; Sept. 1978: "Giving It All I Got" and "Let It Be Now"
AVENUE Q
This Sunday evening the Tony-nominated John Tartaglia will offer his final performance as Rod/Princeton in the Tony-winning Best Musical Avenue Q. I had the chance to revisit Q a few weeks ago, and I was again struck by just how engaging a performer Tartaglia is: As entertaining as he was when the show opened, he has grown more and more in his roles, and he now makes each and every moment work beautifully. To celebrate his last weekend in the show, I thought it would be a good time to chat with his wonderful co-stars, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Ann Harada and Jennifer Barnhart, who have all been profiled in this column. I asked the Q gals to share their favorite on or offstage memories of working with Tartaglia — their reminiscences follow:
Stephanie D'Abruzzo:
"A favorite offstage moment: I think it was 2000 or 2001, while we were working at 'Sesame Street,' and we were walking back from lunch on Steinway Street in Queens, and Johnny starts talking about what he wanted for Christmas when he was ten years old. 'Guess,' he said. 'Guess what it was.' And I'm thinking, 'Easy-Bake oven, Malibu Barbie, sequined tube-top, what?' What did little gay-but-not-out-for-years Johnny want? And then he said, 'a fog machine.' And, I literally stopped dead in my tracks on Steinway Street, waited a beat and started laughing hysterically. I suspected it was so he could do his very own production of Cats in his backyard. I wasn't too far from the truth — it was for Phantom!
"My favorite onstage moment, and one of my favorite Q moments of all time: Near the end of our Off-Broadway run at the Vineyard Theatre, we performed a special student matinee exclusively for about 80 high school kids. Needless to say, it was our most boisterous audience to date. During 'Fantasies Come True,' when Kate and Princeton have a sweet little post coital moment, the girls were especially vocal. After Princeton gave Kate the penny and told her, 'Maybe it'll bring you good luck . . . it did for me. I found you,' all of the girls went, 'Awww.' It is at this point that Princeton is supposed to sing, 'I want you to know/The time that we've spent/How great it's been/How much it's meant.' And, it is also at this point that Jen Barnhart is manipulating Princeton while Johnny is working Rod on the other side of the stage. But after the girls all shrieked 'Awwww,' there was no sound coming from Johnny. And Jen is still lip-synching, 'I want you to know/The time that we've spent,' but Johnny isn't singing it! Princeton's mouth is moving, the band is playing, and Jen and I are looking at each other frantically, not knowing what to do. Finally, after lip-synching 'how great it's been,' Jen throws her already deep voice into an even deeper voice and sings out of the corner of her mouth, 'HOW MUCH IT'S MEANT.' And, then I have to start singing after that with tears in my eyes, trying not to bust a rib holding in the laughter! Afterward, Johnny explained what had happened: 'After the girls went "awwww," I thought, "Wow, it'll be tough to hear the next few lines," and then when I heard nothing, I thought, "What's wrong with Stephanie? She's supposed to be singing. What the hell is she doing?"' He never realized until Jen started singing that he was the one who had messed up!"
Ann Harada:
"It's funny because I just saw Avenue Q for the first time from the house on Tuesday night, after doing 500-plus shows and then taking my maternity leave, and I was just so excited by how great it was. You don't really know what it looks like when you're in it. And the whole time I was thinking about Johnny leaving the show and how long we've all been together, and I started to cry when he sang his last little 'everything in life is only for now.' Of course, I also cried during 'Fine Fine Line,' but I always do that. I'm sure I will be a mess at his last show. I will miss our onstage moment when Rod goes to Christmas Eve for advice and she comforts him — that is, for me, one of the sweetest parts of the show and a rare tender moment for Christmas Eve, and Johnny has always been so brilliant at investing Rod with vulnerability. That is one of the times that I don't even see Johnny. I just connect with Rod, and it always moves me. Offstage, there's a moment after the Republican joke when Johnny and I always discuss the audience response to that scene as if we were two old pros — I'm Debbie Reynolds and he's Ann Miller, and if it was a good response, he'll do a little layout and say, 'Debbie, we still got it!'"
Jennifer Barnhart:
"A recent off-stage moment that I think sums Johnny's spirit up pretty quickly. It was the holidays, and all of us were feeling the crunch of doing too many extracurricular activities, both for Avenue Q and elsewhere. Everyone was stressed out, behind in their own holiday preparations, and I, for one, was not feeling much in the holiday spirit. Here it was, a few days before Christmas Eve, and I hadn't done any cards yet, I didn't have a tree up, and I knew I was going to run out of time. I know that several other company members felt the same stress. The Sunday before Christmas, when I walked into the theatre and began the trek upstairs to the dressing rooms, I found that the banister had been strung with Christmas lights, there was garland and snow and more lights up on the first floor. The place was transformed! It was the cheeriest holiday sight I'd seen, and I couldn't imagine who had decorated the place with such care. I found out that it was Johnny, and I wasn't surprised. It's the kind of thing he'd do. He'd gone in early that morning, on a two-show day, having done a two-show day the day before, and shown us all a little holiday love. I know it certainly lifted my spirits. Johnny was always there with a smile, a hug, a joke and boundless energy. I am so proud to have worked alongside him on this amazing show. While I am happy that he's moving on to a new phase in his career and wish him the best, I will miss him at Avenue Q."
Next week: A chat with Tony Award winner Faith Prince, who is currently touring with Tom Wopat in Over the Rainbow: A Concert Celebrating a Century of Harold Arlen.
Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.
