While new casts and revivals have long captivated theatre audiences, bringing new life to classic works, for many fans the original productions hold a fond place in theatre lovers’ hearts. Ahead of the Spring Awakening benefit concert for the Actors Fund, check out the other original casts Playbill social media followers dream they could see onstage.
![Ragtime_Broadway_Production Photos_Brian Stokes Mitchell_Audra McDonald_HR](http://assets.playbill.com/editorial/_embeddedGallerySize/c78034a3a060bf2495d62361ecab902f-audra-mcdonald-stokes.jpg)
![HR - Ragtime - Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald](http://assets.playbill.com/editorial/_embeddedGallerySize/cbffe38e8c69566660fe65ae3511afb6-ragtime-stokesaudra-hr.jpg)
Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald in Ragtime.
Catherine Ashmore
Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in Wicked
Joan Marcus
LaChanze with the original cast of Once on This Island.
Martha Swope / The New York Public Library
Ben Platt
Matthew Murphy
Cast of Company
The company
Deen van Meer
Jessie Mueller in Waitress
Jeremy Daniel
Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters in the original Broadway production of Sunday in the Park with George
Martha Swope/©Billy Rose Theatre Division, NYPL for the Performing Arts
Christy Altomare
Matthew Murphy
Erika Henningsen, Krystina Alabado, Taylor Louderman, Kate Rockwell, Barrett Wilbert Weed
Joan Marcus
Lauren Bacall in Applause
Les Misérables
Michael Le Power Trench
Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman in The Phantom of the Opera.
Victoria Clark and Kelli O'Hara
Joan Marcus
Lin-Manuel Miranda and company of In The Heights.
Joan Marcus
Stephanie Mills in The Wiz
Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera in Chicago.
Martha Swope / The New York Public Library
Laura Bell Bundy and cast of Legally Blonde
Paul Kolnik
Judine Richard, Vernel Bagneris, Lillias White, and Katy Grenfell
Carol Rosegg
Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley in the 1997 Broadway musical Side Show
Joan Marcus
Gwen Verdon and Stephen Douglass
Robert Preston and Barbara Cook in The Music Man.
Friedman-Abeles / The New York Public Library
Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Loretta Devine in Dreamgirls
Martha Swope
Cast of The Prom
Deen van Meer
Ethel Merman
The Irving Berlin Music Company
Michael Rupert, Chip Zien, Barbara Walsh, Jonathan Kaplan, Heather Mac Rae, and Carolee Carmello in Falsettos
Josh Groban and the cast
Chad Batka
A Chorus Line
John Cariani and Brian d'Arcy James in Something Rotten!
Joan Marcus
John Gallagher, Jr., Jonathan Groff, and Lea Michele in Spring Awakening
Laura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan in Bonnie & Clyde
Nathan Johnson
Barbra Streisand in the Broadway production of Funny Girl
Friedman-Abeles/NYPL
A scene from the original Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert in a promotional photo for West Side Story.
Martha Swope/©NYPL for the Performing Arts
Ethel Merman
Terrence Mann (center) in the original Broadway production of Cats.
Martha Swope / The New York Public Library
Cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Joan Marcus
The original Broadway cast of Rent.
Joan Marcus
James Naughton, Kay McClelland, and Greg Edelman
Martha Swope
Terrence Mann and Susan Egan in the original Broadway cast of Beauty and the Beast
Joan Marcus
Carol Burnett in Once Upon a Mattress
Nikki M. James, Andrew Rannells, Josh Gad, and the cast of The Book of Mormon
Joan Marcus
Yvonne DeCarlo, Alexis Smith, and Michael Bartlett
Martha Swope/©NYPL for the Performing Arts