(Clicking on a name bolded in blue will take readers to that actor's entry in the Playbill Vault.)
Gregg Edelman
Hard question. There are so many artists and productions that I would have loved to have seen, but two productions that are likely never to be matched are the original Broadway productions of Follies and Pacific Overtures. I feel that I missed something truly great by not seeing those shows.
Sarah Stiles
Mack & Mabel. Who wouldn't want to see a baby Bernadette sing that score?!
Lauren Molina
The original Sweeney Todd
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| John Gallagher, Jr. | ||
| Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
The original cast of Rent; I played that record until it wouldn't play anymore when I was 14. I'm excited about Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal returning to their roles because it'll give me a slight taste of what the original experience of that show must have been, if I should be lucky enough to catch them while they're in it. I also would give anything to have been in the audience at the opening night of West Side Story.
Elizabeth Stanley
To see anything in Broadway’s true Golden Era would be really thrilling… But, I must say I am a big Julie Andrews fan and I would love to have seen her in My Fair Lady (ironically on Broadway in 1956, when the actual Million Dollar Quartet was meeting up at Sun Studios!).
Bruce Dow
I can't pick just one. I am a total theatre history geek. Plays: The Glass Menagerie with Laurette Taylor; The Rose Tattoo with Maureen Stapleton; David Belasco's original drama of Madame Butterfly, which inspired the Puccini opera.
Musicals: Kurt Weill and Elmer Rice's Street Scene. It's my favourite score. A mad blending of opera, Broadway and jazz.
Michael Cumpsty
I would love to have seen Olivier at his peak. Any of his celebrated productions, really. On Broadway, similarly, I'd have loved to have seen Barrymore live.
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| Rebecca Naomi Jones |
That's a toughie. I missed out on seeing Ruined last year and I'm still disappointed. I know that was Off-Broadway, and therefore I'm not answering the question, but it's what comes to mind.
Jessica Hecht
A Streetcar Named Desire, the original
Nikki Renee Daniels
I would love to catch the original Dreamgirls.
Sarah Uriarte Berry
I wish I had seen A Chorus Line, Patti LuPone in Evita and Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd.
Randy Graff
The Miracle Worker with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke
Frank Wood
I would like to see the original Nicholas Nickleby or Eleonora Duse in something.
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| Ann Harada | ||
| Photo by Aubrey Reuben |
Gypsy with either Ethel Merman or Angela Lansbury
Terri White
Annie Get Your Gun with Ethel Merman
Kerry O'Malley
The Glass Menagerie, to see Laurette Taylor in a performance many say was unsurpassed. I also wish I could have seen Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun or Gypsy.
Corbin Bleu
I would have loved to see an original production of Hair in the 60's in the middle of the revolution it was fighting for.
Plus I would get to see Ben Vereen, or Tim Curry on the West End, or get to see Kenny Ortega do his thing as Berger in San Fran.
Rachel de Benedet
The original cast of Mame or Barbara Cook in She Loves Me.
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| Michael Esper | ||
| Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
Maybe Long Day’s Journey or Moon For the Misbegotten with Jason Robards. Any of the O’Neill plays he did. Some of those are on DVD and they're amazing. Duvall in American Buffalo. Ugh, so, so many.
Anthony Warlow
The original production of Sweeney Todd with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury
Jennifer Damiano
Hm... it might be The Who's Tommy, with Alice Ripley as Mrs. Walker. Oh yeah!
Yul Vazquez
Anything with Montgomery Clift.
Nicole Parker
Either the original company of Sweeney Todd, Angela Lansbury in Mame or Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl.
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| Adam Godley |
Al Pacino in American Buffalo
Adam Chanler-Berat
It's unfair to pick only one. The list gets longer the more plays I read and the more shows that close without having seen. I'll name a few: Awake and Sing with Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner, the original company of Hair, True West with Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly, Side Show with Alice Ripley.
Alan Campbell
The original West Side Story.
Norm Lewis
Dreamgirls
Meredith Patterson
This is the hardest question to answer! After some thought, I would love to have been in the audience of the history-making performance of The Pajama Game where an unknown chorus girl/understudy Shirley MacLaine went on for Carol Haney.
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| Carolee Carmello |
I'm such a huge fan of Judy Holliday. I would love to see her do Bells Are Ringing, one of my very favorite shows. I can't promise I wouldn't steal some of her bits.
Stark Sands
Probably Cats. I saw it when I was little, but every time I see photos from that show I wish I could see it again, for pure hilarity's sake.
Christopher Sieber
1st ever of West Side Story....oh, to hear that!!
Ron Bohmer
I'm a big Superman fan, so I would have loved to have seen It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's Superman. And Angela Lansbury as Mame - I got to do the show with Juliet Prowse who was phenomenal. Still, I'd love to soak up the whole 60's vibe on Broadway.
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| Malcolm Gets |
Funny Girl with Streisand at the Winter Garden, or A Chorus Line Off-Broadway at the Public
Marissa Jaret Winokur
Anything Ethel Merman was in.
John O'Hurley
Lee J. Cobb in Death of a Salesman
Beth Leavel
Would love to catch opening night of Funny Girl. Can you imagine?
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| Robin de Jesus |
Honestly there are several; Follies, Merrily We Roll Along and even though I saw it 5 times, Caroline or Change. Caroline changed my life.
Levi Kreis
The original production of The Who's Tommy
Kristen Johnston
Carrie: The Musical. Any show that has a song where a bunch of women throw tampons at someone, while singing "plug it up!"...that's my kind of show. Seriously, I'd love to have seen Colleen Dewhurst in Moon for the Misbegotten or Tallulah in Skin of Our Teeth.
Heidi Blickenstaff
Andrea McArdle in Annie. Duh.
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| Matthew Modine |
Lawrence Olivier's Othello
Mara Davi
Love! Valour! Compassion!
David Cromer
Dead End by Sidney Kingsley
Josh Gad
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Zero Mostel
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| Mary Catherine Garrison |
Oh, that's easy, that would be Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards in A Moon for the Misbegotten.
Tony Yazbeck
The original Sunday in the Park with George (even though the revival was pretty amazing!)
Danny Burstein
Hamlet with Richard Burton and The Music Man with Robert Preston.
Michael Urie
Vanessa Williams in Kiss of the Spider Woman; Terrence McNally told me she was so hot, people gasped when she entered. I gasp every time she comes on set at "Ugly Betty."
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| Jill Paice |
Me and My Girl (1986)
Andre De Shields
For its complexity of human emotion, big soul, giant pathos, immensely credible performances and tremendously satisfying coup de théâtre finale, I would catch, for a second time Coram Boy, arguably one of the most misunderstood and under appreciated contemporary plays to ever grace a Broadway stage.
Bill Irwin
An appearance by the Nicholas Brothers.
Will Swenson
The Robber Bridegroom
Josh Grisetti
The musical 1776 starring Brent Spiner. (Could I have come up with something more profound for the sake of this interview? Yes. But I'm a huge fan of "The Next Generation," and I would follow Brent Spiner to the ends of the earth.)
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| Alexander Gemignani |
Really tough question, so I'll ignore it and answer with a few...Lee J. Cobb in Death of a Salesman, Len Cariou in Sweeney Todd, Ethel Merman in Gypsy and On The Twentieth Century, my favorite show album.
David Pittu
All the original productions of the Prince/Sondheim shows from the 70s and anything with Gwen Verdon
Aaron Lazar
Brando in Streetcar, Burgess Meredith in Liliom, George Hearn in Sweeney Todd.
Hunter Bell
I think it would have been cool to see Streisand in Funny Girl and Ray Bolger in Where's Charley? and I often think about how crazy and exciting it must have been to see Oklahoma! without knowing anything about it, so my answer is original cast, Follies.
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| Daniel Breaker | ||
| Photo by Ernio Hernandez |
Anything James Earl Jones was doing...anything.
Sam Robards
I would like to have seen my grandfather on stage or anything that John Wilkes Booth was in.
Drew Lachey
Original Damn Yankees (I am a huge sports fan)
Mary McCormack
Any of the Odets plays by The Group Theatre at the Longacre where we're doing Boeing-Boeing. It's amazing to think about what happened in this gorgeous old theatre.
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| Colman Domingo |
A Raisin in the Sun with Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee.
Kerry Butler
Baby. I love that music so much and have never seen the show. I did get to do a concert version of it for Reprise, so that was fun.
Laura Benanti
I would go back in time and see all the original R and H shows...and I would want to see the original West Side Story and Gypsy.
Elisabeth Moss
Marlon Brando in Streetcar, which was done at the Ethel Barrymore where we're doing Speed-the-Plow
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| Jesse Tyler Ferguson | ||
| Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
The original cast of A Chorus Line or Hair
John Tartaglia
Three way tie: Ethel Merman in Gypsy, Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof and Jennifer Holliday in Dreamgirls.
Kristin Chenoweth
Candide
Kristine Nielsen
A Streetcar Named Desire, but any of the original Marx Brothers' shows. My dad had the time of his life as a young naval officer experiencing one of their events and I've always been envious.
Melora Hardin
Gwen Verdon in Sweet Charity
