‘Good God, It Was Fun!’

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Its here and then its gone.

When the run of a play or musical ends, thats it.

Plus, of course, revivals.

Much of this art form, instead, is retained in living memory, and that is finite.

Theres barely anything else for us to see.

Some of these performances were career breakthroughs, turning working-stiff actors into above-the-title stars.

All were roles these actors felt strongly about and were eager to inhabit in the studio.

Its likely the only time youll ever see most of them return to these characters.

Christopher Bonanos

1964

BarbraStreisandAsFannyBriceinFunnyGirl

I wondered, What if Im not great some night?

I was staggered by how much we were alike, down to the colors we liked to wear.

I think what I related to the most was her vulnerability.

When you grow up poor, you never forget it.

I still use a tea bag twice when I make tea.

But I didnt relate to her style of broad comedy.

I wanted to play serious roles Joan of Arc, Hedda Gabler.

But you have to inhabit the character.

Once we opened, I felt trapped.

This is why movies are perfect for me: You do as many takes as you need.

But now I had to do a year and a half of the same performance every night.

Of course, I was gratified by the way audiences responded.

Actors I admired, like Bette Davis and Audrey Hepburn, were coming to see me.

One night, I heard Greta Garbo was in the audience and I did the show basically for her.

People say success changes you, but I think it just makes you more of who you are.

Im still the same person I was then a combination of confidence and insecurity.

When theFunny Girlreviews said I was great, I wondered,What is great?

And what if Im not great some night?I was always worried about disappointing the audience.

1979

PattiLuPoneAsEvaPeroninEvita

Superman got me out!

They were impressed, and I told them the story: Superman got me out!

The pressure doing the show was excruciating.

I muscled my way through.

If you take a rubber band and stretch it, theres a point where its the weakest.

I was young, and I wanted people to see who I was.

Hal Prince he berated me a lot, and it was painful.

And I got them all.

1966

JoelGreyAstheEmceeinCabaret

I was disgusting!

I had no idea how to do it or what the character was going to be.

I knew it would be complex and dark and funny and entertaining and terrifying thats all.

There was no script.

It was just from a conversation with John Kander and Fred Ebb and Hal Prince.

The girls all have to prove themselves to him.

And then he goes home at the end of the day to milk and cookies.

One day, I said to Hal, Let me try something at rehearsal today.

I was very lewd with all the girls, touching and feeling them I was disgusting!

And they were all looking at me like Id lost my mind.

Afterward, I went and hid behind a flat in the theater because I thought my career was over.

It was so vulgar.

And I thought to myself,Oh my God.

Once you began the show, you never stopped.

I became very friendly with that creep.

You know, the thing that actors do is show a part of themselves, ultimately.

For better or worse.

1975

DonnaMcKechnieAsCassieinAChorusLine

Everyone had their own particular secrets.

The show ran on Broadway for almost 15 years, breaking every longevity record.

It was interesting to hear dancers speak, because dancers dont speak.

Their job is movement, and their vocabulary is dance.

They thought they knew each other, but everyone had their own particular secrets.

That seemed to be our pattern.

When the 2006 revival came around, there were questions about what we deserved financially from it.

We sat down with the executor of Michael Bennetts estate.

I thank the dancer and choreographer Tony Stevens for that.

He was so eloquent, everyone saw the light.

Its not much just a fraction of a percent but it was the principle that meant something to us.

AndreDeShieldsAstheWizinTheWiz

Thats my Wiz.

Fortunately, the fashion trend was tight bell-bottom jumpsuits.

It made this character the foil for Dorothy and her three friends on their visit to Oz.

It also made him very attractive to the audience in an ambisexual way.

And thats why I begged for an opportunity to audition: because I knew I was the chosen one.

I initially auditioned as the Scarecrow, and I was cut.

Then they allowed me to audition for the Lion, and I was cut.

They allowed me to audition for the Tin Man, and I was cut a third time.

And this is what I did which doesnt happen any longer.

At the Majestic, it was dark.

Will you let me audition for the Wiz?

I begged him, and he relented.

Now remember, Im a hippie coming in from Chicago.

I put on my five-inch silver platform shoes.

I put on my blue hot pants that hadL-O-V-Estenciled across them.

I put on my red halter shirt, which hadL-O-V-Estenciled across it.

I went in and sang Wilson Picketts In the Midnight Hour.

Ken Harper was one of the first producers to invest in live-action commercials on television.

Dont become a couch potato.

Theres something happening on Broadway about you.

And people did, and from that, the momentum built.

And the recent revival was so spare it wasnt reminiscent ofThe Wizfrom 75, which was so classy.

1992

NathanLaneAsNathanDetroitinGuysandDolls

If I try any harder, theres going to be internal bleeding.

Its the quintessential New York musical comedy.

Everybody pretty much said to you, Dont fuck it up!

Everyone kept bringing up the fact that I wasnt Jewish.

Now Im an honorary Jew!

Ive played more Jewish characters than any other kind.

Somewhere along the way, I got a pass.

It all started with Nathan Detroit.

Even though it was great material, that production took a while to figure out the right tone.

After we finished one night, Jerry called us out and said there had been walkouts at intermission.

He said, I dont think youre trying hard enough.

I said, Really?

Because if I try any harder, theres going to be internal bleeding.

I just understood more about everything life, and the show itself.

1996

BebeNeuwirthAsVelmaKellyinChicago

There was a metaphysical bond.

There were personal alliances; there were best friends; there were husbands, wives, ex-lovers, ex-husbands.

I had known Annie for a while.

We got so close doing this.

Words fail me because she was my partner.

She said, Were like salt and pepper, but I dont know which is which.

When we danced together, our connection made us more than a couple of great dancers wiggling together.

Just remember what it felt like to feel the wind on my face as I traveled around the stage.

1972

LizaMinnelliAsHerselfinLizaWithaZ

I want to be buried in Halston no cremation, baby!

You cant speak about my past without celebrating John Kander and Fred Ebb.

They understood that I was desperately trying to carve my own lane.

It gave me an opportunity for people to know me outside of my parents and outside of Sally Bowles.

I didnt have hit records, butLiza With a Zgave me the equivalent of multiple hits.

Everybody wanted to know: Did we or didnt we?

Ill just keep you guessing.

There were more moods in rehearsal than there are colors in any rainbow.

There were tears and something I hate there was a little bit of shouting.

Although Id been around TV forever, most of these great artists had not.

When we got down to the last minute, everybody was worried about it and so tired.

When it was over, I had one overwhelming thought:The material was great.

The artistic team, amazing.

But was I any good?When I see it today, Im proud of everybody.

And finally, I realized I was okay.

We were hiding from the censors how sexy that red sequined dress was gonna be.

How far could we go?

How short could we get it?

Halston was such a genius decades later, I still wear his clothes all the time.

I want to be buried in Halston, but no cremation, baby why ruin an exquisite outfit?

2001

JeffreyWrightAsLincolninTopdog/Underdog

I found myself saying Dont fall over.

He helped transfer as much of that ability onto me as he could.

It was a real test.

There were some nights when I just couldnt conjure it.

And before the applause started, I heard this woman say, He shot his brother!

I just lost it.

She was so surprised and appalled and intrigued.

She was fully there.

1984

MandyPatinkinAsGeorgeinSundayintheParkWithGeorge

Every night, I would draw Bernadette.

James said, Do you draw?

I said proudly, Well, thats all I can draw.

He said, Would you be willing to go to the Art Students League and take some classes?

At that time, they were working on the first act.

Thats all we had.

I was freaked out because I wasnt an improviser.

Were doing a run-through, and a lot of my stuff isnt written.

I said, Well, first of all, he shouldnt be crying.

I was just trying to clean out my nerves.

2024

AudraMcDonaldAsMadamRoseinGypsy

I finally figured it out: Oh, shes leaving me.

I started singing Roses Turn in concert a couple of years ago, just to see if I could.

Id had an experience with my older daughter the summer before she went off to college.

I was snippy and couldnt figure out where this irrational rage was coming from.

Even though thats what you prepare your children for, so that they can walk away.

That was the beginning of my understanding of Rose.

Once I figured it out, then I was fine.

Then the rage went away.

I was overwhelmingly proud of her and excited for her to start this journey.

Then I was crying all the time.

Shes not going to abandon her children that ends with her mother.

Shes trying to stop that generational trauma.

1982

BettyBuckleyAsGrizabellainCats

I cannot turn a cartwheel to save my life.

She sang the definitive version of Memory, one of the most recognizable show tunes ever, inCats.

There was a lot of laughter and humiliation involved.

Then wed do improv exercises.

Sometimes I would lollygag in, and people started getting mad at me.

I was like, You guys, it only takes me nine minutes!

The joke was that I would just toss my makeup in the air and run under it.

Marcie and I won.

MatthewBroderickAsEugeneMorrisJeromeinBrightonBeachMemoirs

Neils note was to stop that.

I was 19 when I was cast.

He was mercurial, in a way.

I dont think Ive ever seen anybody do that.

So his note was to stop that.

Theres a scene early on where my brother, played by Zeljko Ivanek, has a long monologue.

A few months into the run, Zeljko forgot his lines really badly.

So he looked to me to help him out.

He even grabbed me like a hug, and I realized he wanted me to say whats up next.

And I said, I dont know.

It was absolutely terrifying.

HarveyFiersteinAsArnoldBeckoffinTorchSongTrilogy

Originally, the gay men came in disguise.

Fierstein wrote and starred inTorch Song Trilogy,an early mainstream depiction of gay relationships without stereotypes of self-destruction.

Gay people came to see our show, but they came with women, in disguise.

Cher I could have dinner with in public.

Rock Hudson and I did not have dinner in public.

One night, Debbie Reynolds got up to the piano and did her nightclub act.

I left at 4:30 in the morning.

I called her daughter, Carrie, and said, Dont worry about it.

Its just a hangover.

It was freaky for me when they did the revival ofTorch Songin 2017.

Originally, the gay men came in disguise.

When we did it again, they came to the theater owning the show.

There was no shock to the back-room scene.

They knew every joke, every one of the mothers lines.

It was lovely because they had taken ownership of it.

But also it lost that surprise.

The bunny slippers I wore in the show are in the Smithsonian.

I made every pair for every understudy, every company, hand-crocheted, until I couldnt keep up anymore.

2000

Mary-LouiseParkerAsCatherineinProof

I regretted having left when I did.

Her last performance inProofwas two days before 9/11.

He said, Oh, this isnt the kind of play thats going to transfer.

Its deceptive, that play.

I oddly didnt anticipate people enjoying it.

Off Broadway, the first couple of weeks, the ending wasnt really working.

Once it got to Broadway, it was in the right shape.

When everybodys aligned and the audience is really listening, its pretty hard to beat that.

If we went out, wed go to Joe Allen.

I liked to go home; I used to go out the back of the theater.

I get awkward, and I dont know what to say, especially after a play.

I can be kind of a loose cannon.

I dont want to subject anybody to it.

I regretted having left when I did.

One time, I was on a plane and this woman next to me said, Im so excited.

Im going to seeProof.

My heart sank I had left the show six months earlier.

But then she said, I read about it.

And I heard this girl meaning me is really great.

I felt a little bit better after that.

I realized that thats what happens when you set up a play.

Its like getting a boyfriend ready for his next relationship.

You did all that work for whoever is next.

1983

TommyTuneAsBillyBuckChandlerinMyOneandOnly

But Im in the show how can I direct the show?

The show won him two (of his ten) Tony Awards.

We want you to take over.

I said, But Im in the show how can I direct the show?

And they said, You take over the direction of this show or were closing it.

So I said okay.

I called in everybody I knew, including Mike Nichols, who was hugely helpful.

And then Id run back in and fix it.

And then Mike would take a look at it and fix it further.

It was really hard, but we had that great Gershwin music to see us through.

But she was an unseasoned stage performer, so it was my job to protect her.

She was frightened, but she never let it get her down.

We were late getting back to the theater, and people were waiting out on the sidewalk.

WhoopiGoldbergAsFontaineinWhoopiGoldberg

I always liked it when he said Ms. Goldberg.

That weekend, Mel Gussow, the New YorkTimescritic, came.

He wrote an amazing review it was like he was my boyfriend.

The next thing you know, there were all kinds of people coming.

He didnt think I was weird.

He offered to bring the show to Broadway.

Id thought he was kidding, just being nice.

I found a theater.

And I said, For what?

He opened the world to me.

That was important, because people havent always understood why I am where I am.

How did you get here?

Because somebody thought I was good enough.

RitaMorenoAsGoogieGomezinTheRitz

I mooned him once.

It was a thing I made up based on a Puerto Rican singer I thought was hilarious.

I wont mention her name, but a lot of Puerto Ricans knew who I was doing.

When Terrence left that evening, he told me he was going to write a part for that character.

I just adored playing her on Broadway.

I could never get away with that now I dont know if you could doThe Ritz.Well, maybe.

Jack Weston was an insanely funny comic actor, and he and I just hit it off like crazy.

They were always doing that line for me.

As Googie, I said, The only thing I support in my show is my beads.

The audience loved it, but the producer of the Tonys, Alexander Cohen, was furious.

He was not a nice man.

He said, You will never do the Tonys again.

And I didnt as long as he was in charge.

There were lots of gay people who came to seeThe Ritz,needless to say.

They kept the show running.

There are still so many gay guys I run into who tell me they love Googie.

Andy Warhol showed up one night.

Barry Manilow came because he used to play the piano for Bette Midler at the baths.

Ill never forget that as long as I live.

I had my little daughter onstage with me, and she said, Why are they doing that?

I said, Because they love me, and they dont want me to leave!

We took all these bouquets home to our apartment, and they were everywhere.

They were in the toilets.

You had to take out at least five bouquets if you wanted to pee.

2008

Lin-ManuelMirandaAsUsnaviinIntheHeights

Play it for now, and well find a real actor later.

In my college 80-minute one-act version ofIn the Heights,Usnavi was comic relief kind of the third friend.

She deserves the credit for making the show more about the neighborhood and the community.

So Tommy was like, Play it for now, and well find a real actor later.

And that never happened.

I was doing my best, man!

1991

LeaSalongaAsKiminMissSaigon

Demonstrators barged into the mezzanine.

I was 18, and I was woefully inexperienced with a lot of things.

I had to watch him make out ish with somebody.

Not in a weird, creepy, icky way he just needed to jump-start my brain.

It was not enough for him to verbally say, I need passion.

I did not understand that.

As far as the emotion, the Vietnam War had ended maybe 15 years prior.

It was still very fresh in a lot of peoples minds.

Are they going to feel anger, guilt especially an American audience?

Theres going to be all these conflicting feelings.

My job was to move the audience, and they can project whatever their emotions are onto me.

I got distracted for maybe five seconds and just tried to stay focused on why I was there.

Now theyre coming correct, to use the modern parlance.

1978

EstelleParsonsAsMissMargaridainMissMargaridasWay

I would be afraid to do this play now.

Roberto said, We have to have an audience for the rehearsals.

You cant rehearse this play in an empty room.

So the stage manager went around and put up signs saying FREE SHOW, and the place filled up.

I was just reading the play off the page, and people just loved it.

You probably need another three weeks.

And of course, we were rolling our eyes.

Once, I came back from the intermission and there were 32 people onstage.

People have said to me, Why dont you redo it?

But I would be afraid to do this play now.

People were more civilized then.

2025

BernadettePetersAsSondheimsWomeninStephenSondheimsOldFriends

You follow the map and be as truthful as you’re able to.

When Im singing Not a Day Goes By, Im thinking about Steve.

There are two versions of that song inMerrily We Roll Along: a happy version and a sad version.

Ive always sung the sad version in concert, so now I have to relearn the lyrics.

He was very kind to actors.

I remember once when I was singing Children Will Listen inInto the Woods,I forgot the lyric.

He was just so kind about it.

1969

WilliamDanielsAsJohnAdamsin1776

I forgot the lyrics.

Before he was Mr. Feeny onBoy Meets World,orSt.

I blew the lyric of a song I knew.

And I went to the wrong theater:Nobodys here.

So by the time I got in, they were all waiting for me.

I didnt laugh; I was embarrassed.

But I think they had it in their minds that they were interested in me doing the role.

It was not so much an audition as they wanted to hear if I could sing it.

Well, Ive been singing since I was a kid, so that was okay.

John Adams was my most challenging part.

Not anybody else, not Mr. Feeny.

First of all, I didnt look anywhere near like him.

I did background, went and read quite a bit about John and Abigail Adams.

But I had my doubts about what this was going to be.

I was negative about so many things.

And then I heard the chorus sing, Sit down, John.

Sit down, John.

For Gods sake, John, sit down!

I thought to myself,Maybe we got something here.Idiot!

And we were off and running, and I did it for two years and two months.

I met Lin-Manuel Miranda at a performance ofHamilton.

He wanted to know, Where was your dressing room?

So I said, Stage left.

He said, No, cant be.

I said, No, come, Ill show you.

And I took him to the room, and it all had changed.

It wasnt a dressing room any longer the electricians had all their stuff there.

1987

JoannaGleasonAstheBakersWifeinIntotheWoods

There was just this feeling of us-ness.

Shes not elegant, but she is thoughtful.

Lar Lubovitch, the great choreographer, came in to choreograph sections.

I have to do a lot of traveling running down across the stage, underneath, coming up.

It was very physical to get where I needed to be all the time.

One delightful night was when Leonard Bernstein was in the audience.

He was in a house seat about five rows back on the aisle.

One composer signaling another, one lyricist signaling another: Nice job.

Wed all sit at a big round table between shows.

There was just this feeling of us-ness.

1977 and 1979

AndreaMcArdle and SarahJessicaParkerAsAnnieinAnnie

Andrea was and remains the queen, says Parker.

They were trying everything.

We used to have 17 pages of rewrites a day.

Thered be characters like Eleanor Roosevelt, and youd come in the next day and hear shes dead.

Opening night was four and a half hours.

The orphanage set fell down and almost killed the conductor.

The little girl who had been playing Annie was so beautiful and winsome.

So one night he comes back and says, Sinatra is over there.

I go, What?!

Because for me, everything I learned, I learned from Sinatra.

He goes, Yeah, hes asking for the kid.

I said, Whos the kid?

He said, You!

I slipped right out the stage door.

And all of a sudden the scene is going into Tomorrow and theyre like, Wheres Andrea?

One of the stagehands says, Uh, she might have gone into Jillys to talk to Sinatra.

The orchestra had to hold for I cant imagine how long.

Because I didnt know I could sing.

One night, my second-grade teacher, Joan Ryder, came all the way from Cincinnati to see me.

By intermission, it was very clear I couldnt get through it.

I was just devastated.

We were regulars at Studio 54, which makes absolutely no sense.

We would just walk around, mouths agape.

But we were also very normal kids.

It had a stand with nuts, candies, Skee-Ball, and pinball.

My nickname became Pinball Parker.

2005

CherryJonesAsSisterAloysiusinDoubt

Five minutes in, you could feel the audience sit up.

When I first readDoubt,I was really excited, and I dont often feel that way.

It was 90 minutes long, and five minutes in you could feel the audience sit up.

It was me, the system, persecuting this young man.

Everybody who wasnt a young mother or an elderly Jew was up for grabs.

I could hear people almost hiss at me.

In 2010, I was doingMrs.

He said, Of course.

What do you think it is?

And Doug said, Youre half-right.

You could have blown me over with a feather.

I felt my pulse drop.

I had never thought that.

It made me really proud of Sister Aloysius, defending her flock from the wolf.

IdinaMenzelAsMaureeninRent

A lot of us wore our own clothes.

Menzel is now starring inRedwood,which likeRentis at the Nederlander Theatre.

I sang When a Man Loves a Woman and Something to Talk About, by Bonnie Raitt.

I didnt know when we were going to stop.

I was trying to end it with a big riff.

I came in the patchwork suede skirt that I actually wore in the show.

A lot of us wore our own clothes.

Now the costumes are made to look like our real clothes.

I never imagined that it was going to move to Broadway.

It seemed very alternative and East 4th Street.

1960

DickVanDykeAsAlbertPetersoninByeByeBirdie

“Good God, it was fun!”

Id always been limber and loose, but Id never danced before.

And he came up and said, You have the part.

I said, Sir, I dont dance.

He said, Ill show you.

It was like learning to fly.

My God, yay.

I was all over that stage.

In Philadelphia for the tryouts, I was not a big hit.

The show got rave reviews, and at the end, theyd say, Dick Van Dyke is adequate.

And I thought,Ive got to go to work,on the dance particularly.

Chita had physical prowess like I never saw.

One day, they came down with a new song theyd written for Chita.

Why dont we let him do it?

It was Put on a Happy Face.

And thats what won me the Tony.

She just handed me that song.

The finale was just Chita and me dancing, and one night we fell down, both of us.

I dont know what it was our belt buckles got caught on each other?

and then we jumped up and took a bow and got a big hand.

Audiences love to see mistakes.

And I just hung there till the number was over.

I started to turn.

I thought,Im either going to kill myself or a dancer,and it held.

When they let me down, I was so dizzy I fell on my face.

Back in those days, the Tony Awards were just a dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria.

I was in L.A., where I had startedThe Dick Van Dyke Show.I didnt know I had won.

They sent me a telegram, which the guy stuck under the welcome mat.

It was days before I saw it.

I wore all my own clothes inBirdie.I had my own suits made.

Another night, they told me Fred Astaire is in the front row.

Naturally, I was a wreck.

My whole life was unplanned.

Just the next opportunity that came along one great thing after another.

I never planned anything.

One job led into another one, and I just kept working and enjoying it.

I dont know, something happens and I come alive and I want to perform.

I would have starved in any other business.

Being on the stage theres nothing like it in the world for anyone who can experience it.

I pity the people who cant get on the stage.

Good God, it was fun!

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