(Clicking on a name bolded in blue will take readers to that actor or show's entry in the Playbill Vault.)
"There are a few shows that change everything! One of them is In the Heights... with a game changing performance by Lin-Manuel Miranda! Suddenly musical style and cultural barriers are broadened forever and at last!"
"Another breakthrough show is The Book of Mormon... Wonderful performances by many great actors, but I especially loved Michael Potts as Mafala Hatimbi! Hasa Diga Eebowai!"
"I am going way back to a performance I have only seen on film but influenced me greatly.... I grew up listening to shows on LP's and loved The Music Man and, of course, Robert Preston and Barbara Cook doing brilliant work... So clear and direct..."
"Another show that I grew up listening to on vinyl and that had a huge impact on me was the 1956 production of Waiting for Godot... with Alvin Epstein as Lucky... Alvin would be one of my great teachers and a mentor when I trained at the Yale School of Drama... Bert Lahr, E. G. Marshall, Kurt Kasznar also! An incredible cast..."
"One of the most brilliant comic performances I have ever seen was Danny Burstein playing Aldolfo in Drowsy Chaperone..."
"I loved Tony Shalhoub in Act One... He brought such depth of character to several major roles and moved seamlessly between them all! He showed such a wonderful ease while doing some heavy lifting!"
"While I was doing the Woody Allen one act in Relatively Speaking, I would take the time each night to watch Marlo Thomas in Elaine May's George is Dead. So nuanced, solid, deeply moving, and Marlo delivered it all deliciously every performance! And I mean EVERY performance because I saw them all!..."
"I will never forget Randy Graff in her Tony-winning performance in City of Angels... What a warm, sexy voice and a grand gal!"
"I loved the cast of Laughter on the 23rd Floor! I think I was in it! Nathan Lane gave a brilliant performance and the ensemble around him was a sharp, witty, and skilled group of actors if I do say so myself.... (Randy Graff again!!!)"
"There are many other great performances, but one of the special moments I have enjoyed in a Broadway theater was seeing my friend Lewis Black in NYC and on Broadway where he belongs and doing his show Running on Empty at the Richard Rodgers Theater...."
