When I did ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie,’ it was almost every ‘first’ I could have imagined: I dreamt someday being on Broadway, and then dreamt someday playing a lead on Broadway, and then dreamt someday of getting to originate a role, and then getting a Tony nomination. It all happened at once. I was just terrified.
There’s no better feeling than being on a Broadway stage for me.
When I was at Lakeridge High School, in my junior and senior years, my choir and theater department raised money so we could go to New York and see Broadway shows. It really changed my life.
The whole cast and creative team were definitely aware of the ‘This is the death of Broadway!’ kind of thing about ‘SpongeBob,’ but we’ve been really ready to change people’s minds. I’m really proud of being part of something that took the most creative route to a commercial entity.
I like pop, rock n’ roll, big band, Broadway – I like all those elements.
The first role that I got on Broadway was supposedly for a white man. But I had some producers who fought for me and allowed me to come in.
Sometimes on Broadway, you don’t know who the investors are, and you end up making a million dollars for somebody awful.
I’ve been in leadership roles on Broadway, and it’s one thing to lead a Broadway company – you’re with those people for a year straight, and you’re doing that same show, eight shows a week. It’s quite another when you carry on the story… You go beyond that, and you ride the wave of a character.
I have to say, speaking from experience, just because an actor starts out in a role in the workshop, they won’t necessarily play it when it goes to Broadway.
I saw ‘Hairspray’ at the Pantages in L.A. It came to the Pantages right before I did the movie, and just being in New York sometimes and seeing the marquees and everything like that, I’m like, ‘I really, really have to go experience a Broadway play.’
If I had maintained my athletic fantasy, I probably would have ended up as a fat football coach somewhere in central Pennsylvania. I’m really glad I’m starring in a Broadway musical instead.
There’s nothing more romantic after not seeing your husband for four months than to have our first night back together, on a Broadway stage, with 12 million people watching.
I never got to Broadway. I would love to do that.
I thought it was all a flash in the pan. It wasn’t until Broadway came along that I felt I had really made it.
Other theaters exist here solely to entertain the white audience and keep South Africa on a par with what’s going on in the West End or Broadway. The Market concerns itself with theater of this country, for this country.
When I was growing up in the Isle of Man with ambitions of being a performer, I really wanted to go to see a Broadway show.
You know, they wanted to do a Broadway album and every show was kind of a bomb. There was no music at all.
When I’m in the audience of Broadway shows, I feel like I’m in the presence of something really special with artists working at the height of their craft and doing the best work that they possibly can.
There’s something about that relationship between actor and audience. Whether you get it on Broadway or in a fine local playhouse, there’s no greater drug. Every time I get to do TV, film and a play in the same year, it’s my dream come true.
What I particularly like about Broadway is the camaraderie and the friendship of other people in other shows. Everybody knows you’re opening and cares about you. There’s a real village atmosphere.
We all know that on Broadway you need to have stars to do a play.
I don’t think just funny is enough on Broadway.
I sing a mixture of everything from opera, folk music, Broadway. It’s a mix of things.
Nowadays, most educated people would just as soon stay home and watch ‘Breaking Bad’ as shell out a hundred bucks to see a Broadway play – assuming that there are any plays on Broadway worth seeing, which long ago ceased to be a safe bet.
I really wanted to be a Broadway kid.
I’ve been to London twice. I saw the Broadway show ‘Billy Elliot’ there – phenomenal. I was crying through the entire thing.
When you’re trying out on Broadway, it’s very hectic, and you’re making changes night after night. There’s a lot of pressures from producers to make some changes, and you’re writing for actors who are in it – and sometimes the limitations of actors who are in it.
I would love to do a talk show. Naturally, I would love to do more films. I’d love to be able to see casting directors more willing to put in a character who happens to be deaf. I’m not talking about doing deaf storylines, but putting in deaf characters. I’d love to be able to do Broadway.
A lot of Broadway has that immigrant narrative of America as a place where you can become something else against all odds.
I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to work on Broadway, but it doesn’t give me an outside life. So I decided to go into the concert world. I do 40 to 50 shows. That takes one to three days a week, and I’m home the rest of the time.
Though I acted in hundreds of productions, appeared at the Guthrie Theatre and on Broadway in Amadeus, I discovered in my thirties that I didn’t really like stage acting. The presence of the audience, the eight shows a week and the possibility of a long run were all unnatural to me.
I’m a Broadway baby, through and through. It’s my first love, and it’s what brought me to New York in the first place.
I would love a career on Broadway. It’s always been my dream ever since I was a little girl and some of my biggest idols are on Broadway right now, like Melanie Moore and Ricky Ubeda.
Professional wrestling… is no different than a Broadway play except that in a Broadway play, actors are using dialogue to tell a story and establish their characters, while in WWE, they’re using a physical dialogue to tell their story and build their characters. That’s a very unique art; it really is.
The fact that ticket prices are way too expensive, and there’s only one bunch of people going to see Broadway shows, is something I’ve never liked.
When you’re a kid, you think ‘Oh, it’s so great. I’m going to go to Hollywood. I’m going to go to Broadway.’ For a long time, it was such a novelty.
Essentially I’m a melody person in a rhythm age, and that’s what Broadway is really about, the songs.
I’m definitely nervous and excited. I feel like I’ve been playing off-Broadway, not to say that Boston doesn’t have a great theatre district or great theatre, but it’s not going to Broadway; it’s just a different city.
I wanted to be on Broadway, but in musical comedy.
People see a lot of huge stuff on Broadway, but there’s always Off-Broadway energy and also shows that you can work in.
As a kid, I was obsessed with Broadway cast recordings, and I would totally mimic and memorize every little choice that these actors made.
I auditioned for the part of Cosette in ‘Les Miserables’ on Broadway. It didn’t work out.
There are values on Broadway that are dangerous: it’s got to be Best Musical, it’s got to make money, it’s got to run a certain amount of time. Nowhere in this, of course, is there any mention of quality.
I grew up in a crazy, gypsy-like household of actors, dancers and loony Broadway people. It was their way of life, and I didn’t know anything else.
I did green screen for the first time! I wouldn’t like to do a whole movie of green screen, though. You kind of forget the plot a little – like being in a Broadway play and doing it over and over and forgetting your line halfway through.
I was in my last year in high school when I began to think of becoming a dancer. I had never seen a Broadway show; we never even read the theatrical reviews.
I began modeling in N.Y. and doing commercials. That led to regional theatre and then Broadway and then movies.
‘American Psycho’ reminds me of my track in ‘Tommy,’ my first Broadway show. It’s similar conceptually and has that rock n’ roll streak.
I did find it particularly difficult to do Broadway. It was not my favourite way to perform. When I do theatre, I like it to be smaller. I like the audience to be closer; I like it to be less presentational.
Theater in New York is nearer to the street. In London, you have to go deep into the building, usually, to reach the place where theater happens. On Broadway, only the fire doors separate you from the sidewalk, and you’re lucky if the sound of a police car doesn’t rip the envelope twice a night.
I didn’t have an agent until I got ‘Hairspray.’ I had to get a Broadway show without an agent to get an agent.
Sometimes it should be the job of Broadway to introduce stars as well as cast them.
But to me, Broadway has always had more a ‘village’ feeling than London’s West End. The theaters here are clustered together, the staff and many people in the business know each other – it’s like a little village all to itself, whereas in London everything is more spread out.
In ’75, the year both A Chorus Line and Chicago hit Broadway, my head spun around and I became the ultimate theater queen for life.
I love and respect theatre, so I am truly honored to have the opportunity to take my voice to the Broadway stage.
In Broadway, we do love jazz hands.
‘The Little Mermaid’ is my favorite of the Disney animated features. And, I could not wait to see it on Broadway.
