Favorite Broadway Memories

Playbill regularly does a feature where they ask different members of the theater community to reflect on their favorite performances and theater-going moments through the years.  Though I don't get to genuflect on it as much as I do on film, television, and politics (all of those passions being readily available), I have a complete and total love of Broadway and the theater.  I used to live in NYC, and though I don't live there anymore (my heart is always lost there, though, somewhere near the Ravine in Central Park), I do travel out there twice a year and partake in 4-5 shows (I've already got this spring's tickets, and could not be more excited).  In my Playbill binder, I've hit some thirty Broadway plays, which I think is a strong enough roster to be able to pull something together.  In no particular order, here are some of my favorite Broadway memories:

Mark Rylance, Jerusalem

I cannot quite tell you what I was thinking when I decided to randomly buy a ticket to this play-War Horse was destined to win more Tony Awards, but for some reason I decided to spend one of my last Sunday afternoons in New York partaking in an actor I admittedly hadn't heard of before.  Lo and behold, it was a night and an experience I'll never forget-all actors essentially become their characters, it's their job.  Rylance was doing something else entirely; over the course of the (quite long) play, he brought me on stage with this rough-and-tumble man, so that when, by the play's end, he begins summoning the giants, you almost feel as if they were going to rumble through the stage, brought to life by his sheer magnitude.  A performance for the ages.

Audra McDonald, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess

One of my most prized possessions is a photo I have with Ms. McDonald after this play-I was totally smitten by her Bess, and that voice.  The cliche is that it's one in a million, but in Audra's case, it's more like 1 in 7 billion.  There is literally no one else in the world who can do what she can do.  The fifth Tony Award was a start, but it wasn't enough.  They should have given her a Nobel Prize or a unicorn or something.

The Book of Mormon

Easily the funniest, best production I've ever seen on Broadway, original or revival, play or musical.  Trey Parker and Matt Stone started on all cylinders and wouldn't let go-I was lucky enough to see this with the original cast, before Andrew Rannells became a big TV star (though I wish he'd go back to playing Elijah rather than staying on the increasingly preachy The New Normal).  The musical manages to be the smartest kind of offensive, poking fun at nearly everyone, and mining laughs in every single song.  A triumph from beginning to end.

The Phantom of the Opera

I saw this for the first time in London's West End when I was seventeen, and it was like having a childhood dream come true.  I grew up in a rural community, and my one introduction to Broadway was my cousin's Phantom of the Opera CD which I had memorized by the time I saw the play.  This was the musical that made me an eternal devotee to the theater.

Steve Kazee, Once

I wasn't entirely expecting much when I went into this one-yes, it had just swept the Tony Awards, but there was no way it could be as lyrical and beautiful as the film it was based upon, and so it was a last choice amongst my plays that fall.  And overall, while I didn't like the changes to the book (too many cheap jokes, and the side characters added little), Steve Kazee's troubadour poet was just stunning.  Before the show, they let you stand on the stage briefly, and I stood up there for a second at the same time as Kazee, and his performance made me feel like I'd never left.

Topol, Fiddler on the Roof

He'd done it a thousand times at that point, but seeing Topol appear on-stage, I had one of those surreal, out-of-body experiences where you feel like you're dreaming and have suddenly landed in one of your favorite movies.  It's the only time I've seen two standing ovations in the middle of a play (once when he entered, and once at the end of "If I Were a Rich Man").  To get to see him in his farewell tour, knowing what he had done with this role-I well up still just thinking about it.

"Anything Goes," Anything Goes

Everything in this play was top drawer, but it was the title song, with the incomparable Sutton Foster at the lead, that had me in awe.  Every tap, step, hop, and note was like a Swiss watch-beautiful, perfect precision and completely memorable.  The standing ovation afterwards was totally deserved.

"Don't Cry for Me Argentina," as sung by Ms. Patti LuPone

Listen, I saw the Ricky Martin/Elena Roger production of Evita, and the only thing worth mentioning from it is Michael Cerveris.  Thankfully, I had my proper moment with Ms. Peron when I saw Patti LuPone in Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda and she, after a typicaly sassy Patti anecdote, flung her arms in the air, was greeted by adoring, rapturous applause, and belted out the song she was born to sing.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The final play on this list earns its spot through sheer joy-is there a more entertaining, thrilling way to spend an evening than a mystery, tons of audience jokes (this play lives or dies off of audience participation), and of course a beautiful songbook?  I challenge there is not, and throwing Chita Rivera, Jessie Mueller, and Will Chase in with completely game work keeps this play on its toes.