Broadway.com at 10: Top 10 Stage Superstars of the Decade
In the same way that Angelina or Clooney can “open” a movie, a very short list of theater actors have the star power to attract producers (and audiences) on the strength of their name and talent alone. Broadway.com’s tenth anniversary is the perfect time to pay tribute to 10 stage superstars of the past decade—and to thank them for their loyalty to the Great White Way.
1. Nathan Lane
To borrow a lyric from his Tony-winning character Max Bialystock, Nathan Lane reigns as “the king of old Broadway.” After his triumph in The Producers (2001), Lane could have coasted through his pick of musical revivals, but he's insisted on stretching his outsize talent in an impressive series of shows with nothing in common beyond his desire to bring them to Broadway: his own adaptation of The Frogs (2004), a smash-hit revival of The Odd Couple (2006), a black-comedy turn in Butley (2006), David Mamet’s satirical November (2008), an acclaimed revival of Waiting for Godot (2009) and now an irresistible performance as Gomez in the new musical The Addams Family. Wow! Where Nathan goes, audiences follow.
2. Patti LuPone
“Iconic” is one of those clichéd adjectives that gets slapped on all kinds of performances, but it’s tailor-made for the work of Patti LuPone. In the 30 years since she thrust her arms skyward in Evita Peron’s victory pose, LuPone has put her mark on plenty of larger-than-life dames. This distinctive actress disappeared from Broadway for much of the 1990s, then came roaring back in a pair of revivals perfectly suited to her brassy persona. After playing a proudly tarted-up, tuba-playing Mrs. Lovett in the 2005 revival of Sweeney Todd, she earned a Best Actress Tony Award in 2008 as Momma Rose in Gypsy—putting the fear of God in her stage kids and camera-wielding audience members at the same time.
3. Kristin Chenoweth
Broadway fans can count themselves lucky that Kristin Chenoweth turned down a Metropolitan Opera scholarship to pursue her passion for musical theater. After stealing the show (and winning a Tony) as Sally in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, the Oklahoma-born soprano put her stamp on a role that dozens of actresses have played since—with her performance as their model—popular witch Glinda in the megahit Wicked. Though she’s achieved Hollywood success, including a sly turn as drunken nympho April on Glee, Chenoweth has continued to stretch herself onstage in The Apple Tree, Music in the Air (at Encores!) and now an utterly endearing star turn in Promises, Promises. Here’s hoping she’s back in New York to stay.
4. Harvey Fierstein
A true man of the theater, Harvey Fierstein makes everything he does look easy, an impressive feat when you consider that his four Tony Awards include Best Play and Best Actor in a Play (Torch Song Trilogy), Best Actor in a Musical (Hairspray) and Best Book of a Musical (La Cage aux Folles). Fierstein has kept up his prolific pace for almost 30 years, most recently as book writer and star of A Catered Affair and on tour as Teyve in Fiddler on the Roof. (Heck, he even missed opening night of Broadway's acclaimed La Cage revival because he was working in D.C.!) In addition to his gifts as a writer and actor, Fierstein has mentored countless young stage artists—he’s a superstar and a mensch.
5. Hugh Jackman
Just call him Broadway’s ambassador to the world. Hugh Jackman got his start onstage in his native Australia, conquered London in Oklahoma!, then proved his star power in The Boy from Oz, never missing a Broadway performance in the exhausting role of song-and-dance man Peter Allen. Inevitably, this sexy Tony winner became a big movie star, but Jackman continued his one-man campaign to keep theater on the cultural front-burner, hosting the Tonys and inserting Broadway-style razzmatazz as host of the Oscars. Producers would gladly mount any show starring Jackman, but the actor surprised everyone last fall by choosing to play a violent Chicago cop in an unknown play, A Steady Rain, raking in $1 million a week alongside Daniel Craig. Plus, in real life, he’s a sweetheart!
6. Liev Schreiber
When you've mastered Shakespeare before age 30, with Hamlet, Iago, Henry V and Macbeth among the notches in your Bard belt, what's left? For Liev Schreiber, the answer has come in a series of high-stakes, high-profile Broadway play revivals offering roles tailor-made for his distinctively deep voice and dangerous stage presence. Schreiber won a Tony for David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross as fast-talking real estate huckster Ricky Roma, then revived Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio as a morally bankrupt deejay. This season, he turned Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge into a red-hot ticket as tragic dockworker Eddie Carbone opposite Scarlett Johansson. With each role, Schreiber (also a busy movie actor) sets the bar higher for himself.
7. Laura Linney
A child of the theater (she’s the daughter of playwright Romulus Linney), Laura Linney has shown a steadfast loyalty to the stage for 20 years. While racking up three Oscar nominations and winning three Emmys, most recently for her strong-willed Abigail in John Adams, she also managed to earn three Tony nominations (for The Crucible, Sight Unseen and now Time Stands Still). Linney doesn’t hesitate to venture out of her comfort zone, donning French finery to play Marquis de Mertueil in a 2008 Broadway revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. And after making her TV series debut as a cancer patient in Showtime’s The Big C, she’ll be back on Broadway in the fall for a return engagement as a battle-scarred photographer in Time Stands Still. Now that’s loyalty!
8. Angela Lansbury
“I’m still here! Look who’s here!” Okay, Angela Lansbury didn’t sing this particular Sondheim ditty, but it certainly applies to her remarkable theatrical career. A full review would take pages (and, in fact, Broadway.com did that last year, before she won her fifth Tony for Blithe Spirit), so let’s just cover the current decade: At age 82, Lansbury returned to Broadway in 2007 for her first full production in more than 20 years, nabbing a Tony nomination opposite Marian Seldes in the demanding two-hander Deuce. Last June, she tied Julie Harris’ record for Tony wins with a priceless performance as Noel Coward’s Madame Arcati. Now she’s up for Tony #6 as another Madame (Armfeldt) in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. Broadway is Angela’s kingdom, and we’re delighted to be her subjects.
9. Audra McDonald
She sings like an angel, she can break your heart at a glance, she’s equally excellent in plays and musicals, she’s a Tony magnet—that about sums it up for Audra McDonald! Although three of her four Tonys were won in the ’90s, McDonald belongs on our millennial list because of the range she’s shown in the past decade: the tragic musical heroine in Marie Christine, Lady Percy in Henry IV, a Tony win as Ruth Younger opposite Sean Combs in A Raisin in the Sun, a thrilling performance as Lizzie Curry in 110 in the Shade and a sweetly romantic Olivia in Twelfth Night, during her 2009 summer hiatus from TV’s Private Practice. What’s next? With Audra, the sky’s the limit.
10. Mary-Louise Parker
An actress who defies easy labels, Mary-Louise Parker brings an unpredictable quality—in a good way!—to every part she plays. TV audiences have warmed to her cool charisma as Nancy Botwin in Weeds and her Emmy-winning performance as Harper Pitt in the miniseries version of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. But Parker comes fully and quirkily alive onstage, as she proved in a Tony-winning turn as a math genius in Proof, a wife on the run in Reckless and the finder of a Dead Man’s Cell Phone. Even when a production misfires, as in a 2009 Hedda Gabler revival that divided critics, audiences can’t get enough of Mary-Louise. Won't somebody please send her the next Pulitzer Prize-quality script?
