Broadway Beat Priceless Moments - Page 2

The ever charming Brian Stokes Mitchell is the Tony Award winning stage star of Ragtime. He is also a renowned recording star and is the president of the Actor's Fund of America. We take you back to 1994 when we caught up with Stokes during his run in the Broadway production of Kiss of the Spider Woman to talk about stepping into that show and replacing Gregory Hines in Jelly's last jam.

Television star John Schneider has enjoyed quite a musical theater career. He is back on Broadway as slick talking lawyer Billy Flynn in the hit revival of Kander and Ebb's Chicago. We take you back to 1990 when he stepped into the role of the Baron in the Broadway musical, Grand Hotel.

The ever lovely Leslie Uggams won her Tony Award in 1969 for the Julie Styne-Comden and Green and Arthur Laurent's musical Hallelujah Baby! Here she talks about the show and how it was ahead of its time.

Acclaimed star Celeste Holm worked seamlessly between stage and screen. One of her most famous stage roles was Ado Annie in Rodgers and Hammerstein's landmark 1943 musical Oklahoma! Here she talks about her audition for that career changing role.

Producer-director Harold Prince has won an unprecedented 20 Tony Awards throughout his career. In 1994, one of those was for his ground breaking revival of the classical musical SHOWBOAT. During rehearsals for that production, Broadway Beat caught him for a rare moment.

One of the American theater's greatest actresses and one of the finest teachers was the late Uta Hagen. She electrified Broadway audiences as Martha in the original production of Edward Albee's, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? Here she talks about playing Blanche Du Bois opposite one of her Stanley's Anthony Quinn in the national tour of A Streetcar Named Desire.

One of the theater's most respected librettist's is Arthur Laurents. He helped create two of the theater's greatest musicals West Side Story and Gypsy. He is about to return to Broadway directing Gypsy with Patti Lupone and next season will direct the Broadway revival of West Side Story. Here he talks about one of the finest Mama Rose's the legendary Angela Lansbury, who he directed in the 1974 revival.

Before she became a house hold name as Karen Walker on the hit TV show Will and Grace, Megan Mullally was a Broadway baby. She co-starred as Rosemary opposite Matthew Broderick in the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. She is back on Broadway in Mel Brooks' new musical Young Frankenstein. We take you back to the How to Succeed without Really Trying recording session.

In the mid-1960's it was the multi-talented Mimi Hines, who was chosen to step into the role of Fanny Brice in the Broadway musical Funny Girl, when Barbara Streisand left the show to take it to London. The wonderful thing is, Mimi made the role her own and enjoyed a tremendous Broadway run.

Broadway has watched the delightful Matthew Broderick grow up in front of their eyes. He has won two Tony Awards for his work in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and in the 1996 hit revival of Frank Loesser's How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Broadway beat caught up with Broderick during the recording of How to Succeed without Really Trying to talk about the role of Finch.

One of Broadway's most distinctive stars is none other then Carol Channing. She won her Tony as everyone's favorite matchmaker, Dolly Gallagher Levi in the Jerry Herman classic, Hello Dolly. Broadway Beat caught up with Miss Channing during her 1995 return to the role.

John Glover won his Tony Award for playing twins in Terrence McNally's 1995 groundbreaking play, Love! Valour! Compassion! He talks about playing those two different siblings.

Tom Jones and Harvet Schmidt have given us such musicals as 110 In the Shade and I Do, I Do- but will always be known as the team that gave us the world's longest running musical, The Fantasticks. They reminisced about some of the stars who have a connection to that show including Liza Minnelli and Barbara Streisand.

Lyricist Fred Ebb, who along with his partner John Kander, gave us some of Broadway's most beloved musicals including Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Curtains to name just a few. When you listen to these scores you know it is undeniably Kander and Ebb. Fred shared his thoughts on the first performance of the groundbreaking 1966 musical, Cabaret.

One of the American theater's greatest actresses is six-time Tony Award recipient Julie Harris. She dazzled audiences in The Lark, Forty Carats, I Am a Camera, The Belle of Amherst, The Last of Mr. Lincoln and of course The Member of the Wedding. Miss Harris reminisces about working with Ethel Waters and the impact that the young up and coming Brandon De Wilde had on her in The Member of the Wedding.

Broadway's greatest dancer, four-time Tony Award winning legend, Gwen Verdon, electrified audiences in Can Can, Damn Yankees, New Girl In Town, Redhead, Sweet Charity and Chicago. She tells of her early childhood when she almost didn't get to dance at all.

Nine time Tony award winning director, choreographer and performer, Tommy Tune, has put his personal stamp on some of Broadway's biggest musicals including My One and Only, The Will Rogers Follies and of course Grand Hotel. Here he talks about a magical moment from Grand Hotel that he just couldn't get right.

We caught up with two-time Tony award winning legend Chita Rivera when she was on tour with her show Chita and All That Jazz. When asked if she ever had a plan for her career, Rivera responds of almost turning down one of her most successful shows Bye, Bye Birdie.

Before the world fell in love with Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex in the City on TV, she was a theatre baby. She starred as Annie and co starred opposite her husband, Matthew Broderick, in How to Succeed in Business... She also headlined as Princess Winnifred in the 1996 Broadway revival of Once Upon A Mattress. We take you back to 1996 when she spoke of how she first caught the theatre bug!

World Renowned Star, Julie Andrews returned to Broadway in 1995 with the stage version of one of her biggest films, 'Victor/Victoria.' She was the sole Tony nominee from the show and what follows is her now classic 1996 Tony decline.