Weird. I just realized what I wrote this morning about TOD didn't post, but then I was doing a lot of strange things on my PC in work today, so I probably neglected a little detail like clicking the "Post" button".
As far as B'way stars are concerned, I am pretty much unimaginatively a fan of the big names like Patti Lapone, Bernadette Peters, Audra McDonald, Nathan Lane, Donna Murphy, Bebe Neuwirth and Kristin Chenoweth (though before Wicked I was most definately not a fan.)
It's difficult to come up with any up-and-comers because, lately, they all seem to make a splash and then make the move to other areas. The only ones I can think of are from relatively recent shows: Marissa Jaret Winokur, Kerry Butler, Jennifer Westfeldt, the cast of Avenue Q.
There's a slew of terrific people who haven't strayed too far away from doing musical theatre and keep coming back to do more: Karen Ziemba, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Alice Ripley, Emily Skinner, Rebecca Luker. But overall, as talented as these people are, they've never clicked for me. I see finely tuned performances from these people, but they lack that big personality that I like to see fill a stage.
