I don't know why, but I recently got to thinking about some of the remarkable theater I've seen over the years, particularly the original Broadway casts of some classic shows. To wit: Angela Lansbury in
Mame. And
Sweeney Todd. Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon in
Chicago. Ben Vereen in
Pippin. Elaine Stritch in
Company. Glynis Johns and Hermione Gingold in
A Little Night Music. The whole original cast of
A Chorus Line. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in
The Producers. As for straight plays: Alan Bates in
Butley. John Lithgow in
M. Butterfly. Katharine Hepburn and Christopher Reeve in
A Matter of Gravity. George C. Scott in
Sly Fox. Glenn Close, Laura Dern and Woody Harrelson in something called
Brooklyn Laundry in LA. (And by the way, why don't actresses have names like Hermione Gingold anymore?)
And, while not original casts I was also lucky enough to have seen Ben Gazzara and Colleen Dewhurst in
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (New York)
; Glenda Jackson and John Lithgow in
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Los Angeles)
; Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst in
A Moon for the Misbegotten; and Tyne Daly in a smashing revival of
Gypsy.
I saw a young actress named Olympia Dukakis in a play called
Nourish the Beast in the Village in, oh... 1973?
I heard Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland sing
I Puritani the Met, and Magda Olivero in
Tosca in, of all places, Newark, NJ.
I saw
Hair in West Berlin. In German.
And then there was that beautiful young man playing the Bach cello suites, in a light rain, on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village.
That's still one of my favorite performances. Ever.
