100 Theatre Performers To See Before You Die
Aaron Netsky
- OnStage New York Columnist
- @AaronNetsky
Seems like every day on facebook there’s a new list by which to measure how culturally informed you are, whether it’s some form of “100 Books You Must Read Before You Die” or “100 Movies Your Must See Before You Die” or, more rarely, “100 Musicals To See Before You Die” or, even more rarely, “100 Plays To See Before You Die.”
My list is less judgmental, and in fact is more a measure of how much fun you have had or could have before you die. It is a list of performers you should see live, whether on Broadway or in concert, or in a small off-off Broadway space or cabaret room. It’s also arguably harder to complete, since unlike books and movies, which are there for you to pick up or put on at your leisure, some of these people may not give you the opportunity to see them perform live, although you might be surprised. Even the oldest among them are still quite active.
For the record, I’ve seen sixty-seven of them, mostly in big musicals with ensemble casts, but sometimes in significantly smaller settings. I don’t know how many more of them I will manage to see before I die, and then there are the people not listed, and then there are the stars of tomorrow…like any list, it’s really far larger than any blog post can convey, and always growing, but here, at least, is a start:
1) Chita Rivera
2) Bernadette Peters
3) Kristen Chenoweth
4) Audra McDonald
5) Joel Grey
6) John McMartin
7) Patti LuPone
8) Idina Menzel
9) Norm Lewis
10) Raúl Esparza
11) Brian Stokes Mitchell
12) Laura Benanti
13) Jane Krakowski
14) Sutton Foster
15) Hunter Foster
16) John Cullum
17) George Hearn
18) Carolee Carmello
19) Greg Edelman
20) Terrence Mann
21) Rebecca Luker
22) Melissa Errico
23) Linda Eder
24) Judy Kuhn
25) Will Chase
26) Robert Cuccioli
27) Michael Crawford
28) Jessie Mueller
29) Andy Karl
30) Andrew Samonsky
31) Lea Salonga
32) Stephanie J. Block
33) Faith Prince
34) Kevin Chamberlin
35) Nathan Lane
36) Matthew Broderick
37) Bebe Neuwirth
38) Jackie Hoffman
39) Angela Lansbury
40) James Earl Jones
41) Seth Rudetsky
42) Billy Porter
43) Christian Borle
44) Andrew Rannells
45) Norbert Leo Butz
46) Hugh Jackman
47) Neil Patrick Harris
48) Peter Benson
49) Robert Creighton
50) Jill Paice
51) Maria Friedman
52) Michael Ball
53) John Barrowman
54) Joshua Henry
55) Tonya Pinkins
56) Anika Noni Rose
57) Tom Hewitt
58) Michael Cerveris
59) Donna Murphy
60) Lillias White
61) Kerry Butler
62) Adam Pascal
63) Anthony Rapp
64) Nikki M. James
65) Michael Park
66) Kelli O’Hara
67) B. D. Wong
68) Roger Bart
69) Michael K. Lee
70) Lin-Manuel Miranda
71) Christopher Jackson
72) Ruthie Ann Miles
73) Victoria Clark
74) Patina Miller
75) Matthew Morrison
76) Brian d’Arcy James
77) Laura Osnes
78) Renée Elise Goldsberry
79) Phillipa Soo
80) Ann Harada
81) Robin de Jesús
82) Douglas Hodge
83) Priscilla Lopez
84) Celia Keenan-Bolger
85) Andrew Keenan-Bolger
86) Sierra Boggess
87) Keala Settle
88) Jason Danieley
89) Marin Mazzie
90) Rob Bartlett
91) Jesse Tyler Ferguson
92) Tracee Chimo
93) Jessica Hecht
94) Danny Burstein
95) Darryl Winslow
96) Jim Norton
97) Lily Rabe
98) Michael McCormick
99) Jefferson Mays
100) Mandy Patinkin
Aaron Netsky writes the 366 Days/366 Musicals blog on tumblr (http://366days366musicals.tumblr.com), now in it's final month of daily posts, and he writes about culture and politics on his personal blog (http://cantonaut.blogspot.com). His writing has been published on ThoughtCatalog.com and TheHumanist.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @AaronNetsky.