THEIR FAVORITE THINGS: Lincoln Center Theater Artistic Director Andre Bishop Shares His Theatregoing Experiences
By Playbill Staff
and Andrew Gans
January 9, 2013
Playbill.com's new 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.
This week we spotlight the choices of Tony-winning Lincoln Center Theater artistic director Andre Bishop, who selected performances from shows that he did not produce for LCT or Playwrights Horizons.
(Clicking on a name bolded in blue will take readers to that actor or show's entry in the Playbill Vault.)
David Rounds in Herringbone
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"He played about a million different characters and sang and danced his way through this extraordinary one-man (with pianist) musical. He was brilliant." |
John Gielgud in Forty Years On
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"A satiric review and nostalgic look at English life by Alan Bennett, yet to be done in New York. Gielgud played the befuddled headmaster of a second-rate boy's school, and it was comic acting at its greatest." |
Elaine Stritch in Sail Away
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"I happened to be at the closing night of this Noel Coward musical, and Ms. Stritch gave the most charming, wry, heartfelt and hilarious performance in a musical I have ever seen." |
Peter Evans in Streamers
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"Peter died much too young, and this incredibly touching and sensitive performance was one of his finest." |
Zoe Caldwell in The Devils
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"Anne Bancroft was ill, and they announced that her understudy would be going on. Lots of groans and departures. Then Ms. Caldwell came on and tore up the stage. I could not believe how great this 'unknown' actress was." |
Mary Martin in Peter Pan
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"The first Broadway show I ever saw, and I loved her." |
Alec Guinness in Dylan
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"Guinness was completely unsuited to playing the wild and drunken poet Dylan Thomas, but his performance was so delicate and plummy that it didn’t matter." |
Vivien Leigh in Tovarich
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"She couldn't sing and, despite a lovely Charleston number, she couldn’t really dance. But this was the most charming performance I have ever seen." |
Rosemary Murphy in Any Wednesday
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"A classy, stylish performance in this light and funny play." |
Barbara Harris in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
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"She was buoyant in everything she did, but in this odd version of the Brecht/Weill opera, she bobbed above every wave." |
Phyllis Newman in Subways Are for Sleeping
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"I went to a rainy matinee. The house was half full; the entire cast was walking, sleep walking through the show. Except for Phyllis Newman whose radiant, energetic, hilarious performance as a former Beauty Queen (dressed mostly in a towel) was unforgettable." |