Tonys: Soap Stars You’ve Seen on Stage/Broadway

[Faulkner]

The Tony nominations came out earlier this week, so it made me think about the various soap stars I’ve seen on stage over the years. I saw the Broadway production of The Boys in the Band last summer with Tuc Watkins and Matt Bomer, Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike years ago with Billy Magnussen, and Arcadia with Margaret Colin (who was delightful). My friend did a reading of a play, and none other than Michael Lowry (Jake, AMC) and Ilene Kristen (Delia, RH; Roxy, OLTL) took part, which was fun, and I got to meet them both.

 

Have you gotten the opportunity to see any soap actors on stage? 

 

Here’s a selection of various soap stars (some of whom have, of course, gone on to great primetime or film fame) who’ve won or been nominated for Tonys:

 

Charles Keating (Carl, AW)

Featured Actor in a Play, nominee

Loot, 1986

 

Larry Bryggman (John, ATWT)

Featured Actor in a Play, nominee

Picnic, 1994

Proof, 2001

 

Billy Magnussen (Casey, ATWT)

Featured Actor in a Play, nominee

Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, 2013

 

Kathleen Widdoes (Emma, ATWT)

Best Actress in a Play, nominee

Much Ado About Nothing, 1973

 

Anne Heche (Vicky/Marley, AW)

Best Actress in a Play, nominee

Twentieth Century, 2004

 

Mary Fickett (Ruth, AMC)

Featured Actress in a Play, nominee 

Sunrise at Campobello, 1958

 

Lynne Thigpen (Grace, AMC)

Featured Actress in a Play, winner

An American Daughter, 1997

 

 

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Featured Actress in a Musical, nominee

Tintypes, 1981

 

Judith Light (Karen, OLTL)

Featured Actress in a Play, nominee

Lombardi, 2011

 

Featured Actress in a Play, winner

Other Desert Cities, 2012

 

 

 

Featured Actress in a Play, winner

The Assembled Parties, 2013

 

 

 

Obba Babatundé (Julius, B&B)

Featured Actor in a Musical, nominee

Dreamgirls, 1982

 

Jonelle Allen (Doreen, Generations)

Best Actress in a Musical, nominee

Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1972

 

Tonya Pinkins (Livia, AMC)

Best Actress in a Musical, nominee

Play On, 1997

Caroline, or Change, 2004

 

 

 

Best Featured Actress in a Play, winner

Jelly’s Last Jam, 1992

 

 

 

Helen Gallagher (Maeve, RH)

Featured Actress in a Musical, nominee

Sweet Charity, 1966

 

Patricia Elliott (Renee, OLTL)

Featured Actress in a Musical, winner

A Little Night Music, 1973

 

Valarie Pettiford (Sheila, OLTL)

Featured Actress in a Musical, nominee

Fosse, 1992

 

Jane Krakowski (T.R., SFT)

Featured Actress in a Musical, winner

Nine, 2003

 

 

 

Featured Actress in a Musical, nominee

Grand Hotel, 1990

She Loves Me, 2016

 

Tammy Blanchard, (Drew, GL)

Featured Actress in a Musical, nominee

Gypsy, 2003

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, 2011

 

Renée Elise Goldsberry (Evangeline, OLTL)

Featured Actress in a Musical, winner 

Hamilton, 2016

 

 

[j swift]

The one that always sticks in my memory is Sarah Glendening who was one of the hundreds of actresses to play Lucy Montgomery (ATWT) and was a recast for Marissa (AMC).  She was neither well reviewed nor memorable to most in both parts.   However, in 2010, I saw her in a musical adaption of the film noir Nightmare Alley at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, Ca and she was marvelous.  She had a lovely voice, I don't think the musical went to Broadway because it was very macabre, but she was the star of that show.  She's become the example that I think of when I remember that even the greatest actress can't be good if the words in the script are not well written. Seeing her as Marissa I would never have expected her complex performance on stage.

 

Also, I was never a fan of Ron Raines on GL (until the final week) because I thought his Alan was too mannered and bellicose.  Then, I saw him in this amazing Ahmonson revival of Follies as Ben and when he sang "The Road You Didn't Take", in his deep baritone, it made me wish that he could have sung all of his scenes in Springfield. 

 

All of my soap to stage experiences on Broadway were not as successful.  Most of these were touristy shows that I saw at 1/2 price matinees, so I did not have high expectations.  La Lucci in Annie Get Your Gun paled in comparison to both Bernadette Peters and Reba who preceded her.  That was a huge production of sets and a huge chorus that carried her (literally at some points in the choreography) through the show.  But Mario Lopez (B&B) in the cheap revival of A Chorus Line was not able to act and dance at the same time.  If you've ever watched the doc on child ballroom dancers, the kids learn to smile no matter what happens in the performance.  It felt like Mario had not moved beyond that initial direction.  And Jekyll & Hyde was an overwrought mess that was not helped by Jack Wagner's thin and tinny voice, (his All I Need days were behind him).   

 

 

[Faulkner]

Oof. Lucci in Annie Get Your Gun. Never saw it, and I love her, but it just sounded... odd as a concept.

 

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Ron Raines in Follies (BTS interview/performance)

 

 

[Fevuh]

Michael Park Dear Evan Hansen

[YRfan23]

I also saw Michael Park in Dear Evan Hansen and How to Succeed in Business...with Daniel Radcliffe!

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Oh yeah, also I saw Jason Tam in If/Then.

[Khan]

I love Susan Lucci (and Erica Kane), and even I thought casting her as Annie Oakley was a bad idea.  It's just too bad she's too old now to portray young Gypsy Rose Lee in "Gypsy," or Maria in "West Side Story."

 

I also love Judith Light, but her amazeballs reaction at winning every award is too fake to be believed, lol.

[DramatistDreamer]

As a grad student, I met one of the women in my AV, Tonya Pinkins (who I was more familiar with from her work on ATWT) at The Public Theater when Caroline or Change was still in invited previews.  I also got to meet the rest of the cast, which included Anika Noni Rose and Chandra Wilson (who makes frequent guest appearances on GH).  I also got to meet Tony Kushner that night.  I crossed paths with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Angela Bassett smiled at me!

 

Yes, I'm bragging, LOL.

 

I saw Lea Salonga (Lien Hughes #2, ATWT) on her last night in Miss Saigon on Broadway.

 

I've seen Marian Seldes (who although I never saw her on a soap, I understand she once played Dorian Lord's mother on OLTL) in Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby.

 

I don't think I'd call Philip Bosco a soap star, per se, but I heard that he did some work on soaps (GL/AMC) and I once saw him on Broadway, in a production of Copenhagen.

 

I'm not as familiar with Another World as some of you here might be, so I'll ask you-- is anyone familiar with a character by the name of Henrietta Morgan?  Apparently, I saw the actress Michele Shay alongside Viola Davis, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Keith David in the August Wilson production of Seven Guitars on Broadway.  Mr. Wilson was there in the house too!

 

I've seen a LOT of plays, lol.  Not as many musicals though.

[Khan]

 

Yep, although Robin Strasser contends that woman was not, in fact, her mother.

[BuckyB12]

While I have seen a few soap actors on Broadway, I generally didn't know they were in the cast until I got there. One that I did know beforehand was Burke Moses (ATWTs first Sean Baxter) in Kiss Me, Kate. I also went specifically to see Van Hansis in Charles Busch's off-Broadway Die, Mommie, Die! But when I saw Titanic I didn't know that John Cunningham (SFT's Wade Collins), Larry Keith (AMC's Nick Davis), and Judith Blazer (ATWT's Ariel Aldrin) were going to be in it. In San Francisco I saw Kathleen Widdoes in The Rose Tattoo.

 

When I was growing up in lower upstate NY there was a nearby summer stock theater that often featured Edge of Night stars in various plays - I saw Maeve McGuire, Joel Crothers, Forrest Compton, and John LaGioia at least, and some more that I can't recall at the moment. A few years later, I saw Lois Kibbee and Louis Turenne (Tony Saxon) in NYC in an off-Broadway two-hander called Dear Liar about George Bernard Shaw and his correspondence with Mrs. Patrick Campbell.

[Broderick]

I saw "Sweet Bird of Youth" in DC back around 2000, and Scott Palmer (Tim Sullivan from Y&R) had a small role.   Also saw the touring version of "Soldier's Play" in Arkansas, and Ben Watkins (Wesley Carter from Y&R) was a lead.  I met Anthony Herrera several times between ATWT stints, when he was traveling around the South doing his one man show or reading "Love Letters".   I never was sure how to pronounce his last name, so I always just called him "Mister Stenbeck". 

[robbwolff]

On and off Broadway, I’ve seen Paul Anthony Stewart in Beautiful, Burke Moses in Beauty and the Beast, Kim Zimmer in Wicked. Plus the sublime Helen Gallagher in a local production.