Bucket list

Over the past (almost) four years, I've seen an absurd awesome amount of theater (365 performances and counting). So perhaps it's unsurprising that I'm making headway on my theater bucket-list. I just will not die happy unless I see certain people on stage in person. (Let me know if you think someone is missing from my list.)

People I've seen in plays but really need to see in a musical:
Victoria Clark
Raúl Esparza
Frederick Weller

I've never seen but really need to:

(So many from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, X-Men, Doctor Who!)
Joan Allen, Josh Charles, Glenn Close
Alan Cumming, Sinéad Cusack, Blythe Danner
Viola Davis, Judi Dench, Christine Ebersole
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Fovah Feldshuh, Colin Firth
Martin Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rupert Graves
Anthony Stewart Head, Philip Seymour Hoffman [SOON!], Cherry Jones
James McAvoy, Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren
Brian Stokes Mitchell, Debra Monk, Donna Murphy
Denis O'Hare [SOON!], Faith Prince, Sara Ramirez
Phylicia Rashad, Roger Rees, Alan Rickman
Chita Rivera, Amanda Root, Tim Roth
Andrew Scott, Fiona Shaw, Michael Sheen
John Simm, Maggie Smith, Meryl Streep
David Tennant, Russell Tovey, Dick Van Dyke
Julie Walters, Sam Waterston, Ben Whishaw, Julie White

NOT on my list: Mandy Patinkin

People I've already seen and now want to see in everything they ever do:
Kate Baldwin, Laura Benanti, Declan Bennett
Eve Best, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch
Colman Domingo, Linda Emond, Michael Esper (you're shocked, I know!)
Raúl Esparza, Mary Faber, Katie Finneran, Boyd Gaines
(John Gallagher Jr., as not that one angsty character he. always. plays.)
Neil Patrick Harris, Joshua Henry, Rose Hemingway (singing, always singing)
Ciarán Hinds (I literally swooned when I passed him on the street)

Allison Janney (not in a musical), Frances McDormand
Janet McTeer, Jonny Lee Miller, Karl Miller, Lin-Manuel Miranda
Carey Mulligan, Lee Pace, Rebecca Naomi Jones
Eddie Redmayne, Linus Roache, Mark Rylance
Bryce Ryness, Stark Sands, Stephen Spinella
Bobby Steggert (sad I missed Ragtime and A Minister's Wife)
Alan Tudyk, (Aaron Tveit, as long as he sings)
Frederick Weller, Bradley Whitford, Patrick Wilson

Now, imagine how long the list would be if I hadn't already seen all the people below! (Multiple shows but not multiple performances of the same show are noted.) These are in no sane, reasonable order.


Theater legends:
Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone, F. Murray Abraham twice, Patrick Stewart, Jim Norton twice, Stockard Channing, Bernadette Peters in August, Joel Grey also in August.

Some of the NY theater stars and rising stars:
Audra McDonald in September (cannot wait to hear her sing!), Cate Blanchett, David Hyde Pierce, Mark Rylance three times, Raúl Esparza thrice but sadly not in a musical, Brian d'Arcy James in two plays and a musical, Laura Benanti in a play and a musical, Michael Cerveris in a musical and two plays (I had forgotten he was in that terrible Hedda Gabler with Mary Louise Parker), Norbert Leo Butz in a musical and a play, Neil Patrick Harris in a musical (with bonus Stephen Colbert, aka my secret husband), Kate Baldwin in two musicals, Boyd Gaines in a play and a musical, Sutton Foster as a dominatrix and in a musical in August, Rebecca Naomi Jones twice, Katie Finneran, Joshua Henry for a third time in August, Eve Best, Bryce Ryness twice, Curtis Holbrook twice, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Van Hughes twice, Celia Keenan-Bolger in a play and a musical, Alice Ripley, Bobby Steggert in a play and a musical, Adam Chanler-Berat twice, Jennifer Damiano twice (no, not in Spider-Man), Kelli O'Hara, Aaron Tveit twice, Alison Pill, Victoria Clark twice but not in a musical, Colman Domingo twice, Jeremy Piven (well cast, even though he "poisoned himself with sushi"), Reed Birney, Brooks Ashmanskas in a play with music and a musical, Linda Emond, William H. Macy, Bobby Cannavale twice, Lily Rabe, Gavin Creel twice, Will Swenson twice, Tracee Chimo twice, Harriett Harris thrice (is enough), Kate Burton in two plays and a musical in which she did not sing, Stephen Spinella in a play and the same musical in which he also did not sing. The winners, though, are both from American Idiot: Michael Esper in two plays and two musicals, and Mary Faber in three musicals and a play.

Famous for being in Rent, but that's not what I saw them in:
Idina Menzel, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Anthony Rapp.

From film and TV:
Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe in a musical and a play, Olympia Dukakis, Diane Wiest, John Lithgow, Lee Pace (with a porn 'stache, no less!), Ciarán Hinds, Simon Russell Beale (in August), Anna Deveare Smith, Carrie Fisher, Allison Janney, Marshal Marshall Frederick Weller (not in a musical yet), Jonny Lee Miller (and in the broadcast Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch), Ethan Hawke (Born Yesterday closed before I got to see fellow Dead Poet Robert Sean Leonard), Laura Linney twice , Fat Pat Shitbrick Eddie Kaye Thomas, CHRISTOPHER WALKEN, Josh Lyman Bradley Whitford, Dr. Addison Montgomery (sometimes Shepherd) Kate Walsh, Alan Tudyk, Geoffrey Rush, Lauren Ambrose, Susan Sarandon, Eddie Redmayne, Andrea Martin, Chris Noth, Jeff Daniels, Frances McDormand, Martha Plimpton twice (who knew she could sing?), Tom Lenk, John Cullum twice, Michael McKean, Ian McShane, Frank Langella, Janet McTeer twice, Billy Crudup twice, Kathleen Turner, John Benjamin Hickey, Carey Mulligan, Bill Pullman, Laurie Metcalf, Jonathan Groff in a play and a musical (so weird to think of him as a TV star now), Lea Michele (also weird to think of her as a TV star), Victor Garber, James Spader, Alfred Molina, Zachary Quinto, Michael Urie twice (and perfect in both), David Morse, Matthew Broderick, Maura Tierney, Chris Sarandon, Ken Howard, Natasha Lyonne (three times), Eric Bogosian, Christina Ricci (baaaaaad, and that makes me sad), SALLY STRUTHERS.

Musicians in musicals:Suzanne Vega, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls, Melissa Etheridge

Famous people I never wanted to see but got stuck with anyway:
Tom Wopat (phenomenal!), John Larroquette (fun! and they gave him a Tony!), Amanda Peet (excellent!), Zach Braff (good!), John Stamos and Gina Gershon (yes, both as bad as you would expect), Katie Holmes (twice as dreadful as you'd imagine), Catherine Zeta Jones (A WORLD OF UGH! AND THEY GAVE HER A TONY!), Justin Guarini from American Idol (I thought he was supposed to be a good singer? Well, I guess compared to his acting his singing was stellar), Lucy Liu (so, so, so bad), Sienna Miller (blah), Agent Mulder David Duchovny (not so good), Constantine Maroulis (better than expected in a show that was much better than expected).

Nonfamous people I wouldn't have chosen to sit through more than once but were, alas, cast in things I wanted to see:
Zoe Kazan twice. And Halley Feiffer four times!!!!