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Post by Jon on Apr 28, 2023 20:24:06 GMT
Many actors who are now very famous obviously had to start somewhere and was looking through some of my old programmes and realised how many of them I've seen in my time before they became super famous. I'm not going to name all of them but a few I can think were Hannah Waddingham who I saw in Spamalot, Jonathan Bailey in American Psycho and Olly Alexander in Peter and Alice.
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Post by anxiousoctopus on Apr 28, 2023 20:30:18 GMT
I haven’t had the honour yet but I can think of so many that I hope make it to that kind of status.
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Post by alece10 on Apr 28, 2023 20:51:40 GMT
As I've been going to the theatre since the mid 70s there have been many, but the ones that spring to mind are:
Tom Hardy in Man of Mode at the NT
Hugh Jackman in Oklahoma at the NT
Sheridan Smith in Into The Woods at Donmar
Caroline Quinten in Les Mis at The Palace
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Post by Jon on Apr 28, 2023 20:56:50 GMT
I just remembered that I saw Luke Evans in Avenue Q, he was the understudy for Jon Robyns.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 28, 2023 20:58:47 GMT
I saw Richard Madden play Romeo when the Globe was first touring.
He didn't make a huge impression...
I guess having directed Gabriel Vick in his first student show counts.
I also acted alongside James Corrigan who has gone on to do good stuff. That same production also featured Morgan and West the magicians
Oxford is a bit of a breeding ground for those who go into the profession.
Gethin Anthony (Game of Thrones) was another colleague when he was a student. Also reviewed Harry Lloyd a couple of times.
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Post by nottobe on Apr 28, 2023 21:02:45 GMT
I don’t think I’ve seen many people before they were mega famous (yet...) but some of them would be Ncuti Gatwa in A Midsummer Nights Dream, Omari Douglas in Wise Children and Joesph Quinn in Mosquitos.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 28, 2023 21:11:34 GMT
Recently-ish, Erin Doherty and Joseph Quinn, immediately obvious they both had real star quality and it's been lovely watching them get their big breaks in The Crown and Stranger Things. I hope Streetcar does something similar for Patsy Ferran, who has been another must-see on stage. Going way back to my teenage theatregoing, Complicite's first shows (after seeing them on Wogan!), the War Plays at the Barbican, where film director Alex Cox saw a young Gary Oldman when casting Sid and Nancy, and Oldman and Alex Jennings a year or so later in Nicholas Hytner's production of The Country Wife (my neighbours were lawyers and knew Hytner's parents through that, and they'd take their kids and me over to see shows he'd directed in Manchester, so I got a great introduction to some fantastic shows that way). Also at the Royal Exchange, Steve Coogan's stage debut as a spear carrier in Oedipus, though of course I can't say we noticed him at the time!
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Post by Jon on Apr 28, 2023 21:17:24 GMT
It's slightly cheating but the original cast of The History Boys is my ultimate before they hit the big time experience.
Does Matilda count for Bertie Carvel?
In regards to Patsy Ferran, I've not seen her do much screen work aside from a small role in the recent Tom & Jerry film. My first experiences of her on stage was Blithe Spirit and Treasure Island.
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Post by ruthieh on Apr 28, 2023 21:21:40 GMT
Jonathan Bailey in an am dram production of Oliver! At Wallingford when he was a teenager…
Neil Pearson, fresh from RADA in Loot.
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Post by crowblack on Apr 28, 2023 21:28:15 GMT
In regards to Patsy Ferran, I've not seen her do much screen work aside from a small role in the recent Tom & Jerry film. My first experience of her on stage was Treasure Island at the National which I only booked at the time because Arthur Darvill was in it. Patsy Ferran was named along with Erin Doherty and Joseph Quinn in the Screen International Stars of Tomorrow list a few years ago (2018) so she's on that radar - she said in a recent interview that she'd been filming something she wasn't allowed to talk about when she got the call for Streetcar, which sounded possibly US franchise-y? |
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Post by bimse on Apr 28, 2023 21:42:15 GMT
Kate Winslet in What The Butler Saw, at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, 1994.
Years later, when the film Titanic was made, I was in a taxi, in Luxor, Egypt, going to the Valley of The Kings. The driver was a huge Kate Winslet fan and had newspaper cuttings of Kate and the film sellotaped all over the inside of his taxi windows. I asked if I could remove one or two so I could see out. He agreed, and I mentioned to the driver and my travelling companion, who were both suitably impressed, that I’d seen Kate Winslet in the above Joe Orton play in Manchester. However the driver didn’t quite understand I was in the audience at a play, and hadn’t actually met Kate in person. Despite my protestations to the contrary he took it that I knew Kate personally, and could affect an introduction for him. For the next week, every time I left my hotel he was there, waiting to see if I’d been in contact with Kate , and if I’d mentioned him . I had real trouble shaking him off .
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Post by Peter on Apr 28, 2023 21:54:02 GMT
Luke Evans in La Cava (and possibly Taboo a year or so later?)
Hannah Waddingham in The Beautiful Game
Matt Smith in The History Boys
Not quite the same, but Jennie Dale in The Witches of Eastwick and Cats - she’s now big on CBeebies which is on constantly in our house thanks to having two young children (neither of whom are impressed by the fact)…
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Post by mkb on Apr 28, 2023 21:56:09 GMT
Late 70s, I had to write an essay at junior school about something I'd done in the summer holidays. I wrote about the brilliant comedy my parents took me to see in Scarborough written by someone called Alan Ayckbourn, and I enthused over a young actress named Alison Steadman.
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Post by theatregoer22 on Apr 28, 2023 22:03:58 GMT
Back in 2003 I saw Anna Maxwell Martin, Dominic Cooper and Russell Tovey in His Dark Materials at the National Theatre.
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Post by Dawnstar on Apr 28, 2023 22:13:45 GMT
The only person who comes to mind is Michelle Dockery in tours of Pygmalion & Uncle Vanya, a couple of years before Downton Abbey. I'm sure there must be others but because I watch very little TV (apart from some sports) I might not even be aware that people have become famous! I only vaguely realised fairly recently that Hannah Waddingham is now really well known. To me she's still an MT actress who was very good as Desiree Armfeldt at the Menier.
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Post by marob on Apr 28, 2023 23:01:41 GMT
Keep meaning to have a look through my old programmes, but they’re all so disorganised it never happens.
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone super-famous but ones that stand out would be Jack Lowden in Ghosts at Trafalgar Studios, Daniel Kaluuya in Blue/Orange at the Young Vic and Cynthia Erivo as a gravity-defying (sorry 🤦🏻♂️) Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Liverpool Everyman. Already referenced above, but Wish List with Joseph Quinn and Erin Doherty, and also saw her in Junkyard and The Glass Menagerie.
Stage-wise… Patsy Ferran was already great and stealing scenes when she was the maid in the Angela Lansbury Blithe Spirit. I saw a very baby-faced Laurie Kynaston in The Winslow Boy, and Jumpy a few years later, both at my local theatre, but annoyingly I haven’t managed to catch him in anything in London. (Had a ticket for the Spring Awakening extension that then got cancelled 😠 )
Andrew Burnap from The Inheritance seems to be doing well for himself with Camelot on Broadway and Disney’s Snow White movie.
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Post by FairyGodmother on Apr 28, 2023 23:31:19 GMT
I saw Danny Mac in Wicked in 2010.
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Post by sph on Apr 29, 2023 0:58:26 GMT
I've probably seen a few over the years, but the first that springs to mind is Cynthia Erivo in the Sister Act tour.
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Post by Mark on Apr 29, 2023 1:42:11 GMT
Tom Holland in Billy Elliot
Luke Evans in Rent Remixed
Cynthia Erivo in Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Jeremy Jordan as Drew in Rock or Ages (he was the understudy!)
Eddie Redmayne in Red (I guess this was before most of his film work)
Benedict Cumberbatch in After the Dance (similar to Eddie I guess, he wasn’t really well known at the time I don’t believe)
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Post by chadexx on Apr 29, 2023 6:06:43 GMT
I am old enough to have seen the late great Barry Humphries as the undertaker Mr Sowerbury in the original production of Oliver!
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Post by peggysue on Apr 29, 2023 7:16:25 GMT
Jeremy Irons and David Essex in Godspell 1973. Elaine Paige with Michael Crawford in Billy 1974
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Post by karloscar on Apr 29, 2023 7:54:08 GMT
The original production of Another Country was similar to The History Boys in giving a lot of young actors their first big roles. I saw Daniel Day Lewis, Colin Firth and James Wilby before they were well known. It was obvious Hugh Jackman would be a star after Oklahoma, not so much Luke Evans in the chorus of various musicals. Julian Ovenden had done very little before he played Franklin Shepherd brilliantly in Merrily at the Donmar. In New York, Kristen Chenoweth in A New Brain, Brian d'Arcy James in Titanic and Lea Michele in Ragtime come to mind.
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Post by karloscar on Apr 29, 2023 8:02:19 GMT
If I remember correctly I saw Bertie Carvel in a student production of Assassins (or some other Sondheim) at the Edinburgh fringe many years ago. It was obvious he was going to have a career on stage immediately.
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Post by fiyerorocher on Apr 29, 2023 8:06:21 GMT
Gaten Matarazzo as Gavroche in Les Mis is the only one that comes to mind, but there are probably others I'm forgetting!
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Post by billy on Apr 29, 2023 8:11:27 GMT
Michelle Dockery is one for me too, during the Old Vic run of Pygmalion in 2008. Otherwise it’s Matt Smith in That Face the same year, just before he got the Doctor Who job. As a 19 year old Skins fan at the time I was far more excited to see Hannah Murray in the cast!
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Post by Dave B on Apr 29, 2023 8:42:42 GMT
Matt Smith back in 2007, Swimming With Sharks in the... Vaudeville maybe it was.
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Post by clarefh on Apr 29, 2023 10:52:02 GMT
James Norton and Kit Harrington in the original staging of Posh I guess ( I didn’t particularly like the play, did recall JN when I saw him years later in Bugs but can’t remember Kit Harrington at all!).
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Post by Jon on Apr 29, 2023 11:12:30 GMT
James Norton and Kit Harrington in the original staging of Posh I guess ( I didn’t particularly like the play, did recall JN when I saw him years later in Bugs but can’t remember Kit Harrington at all!). Didn't realise that James Norton was in Posh. Kit Harrington I have seen pictures from that original production. It is fun seeing actors go onto bigger things not just from watching theatre but also TV shows. I remember when Chris Hemsworth did the 2009 Star Trek film, I was the only person in my group who recognised him because he was in Home and Away a few years prior and likewise Margot Robbie when she did The Wolf of Wall Street. |
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Post by profquatermass on Apr 29, 2023 11:52:45 GMT
Tom Holland in Billy Elliot Luke Evans in Rent Remixed Cynthia Erivo in Umbrellas of Cherbourg Jeremy Jordan as Drew in Rock or Ages (he was the understudy!) Eddie Redmayne in Red (I guess this was before most of his film work) Benedict Cumberbatch in After the Dance (similar to Eddie I guess, he wasn’t really well known at the time I don’t believe) After the Dance sold out because of Cumberbatch - Sherlock had just started. He'd done a load of stage by then. I remember him in Rhinoceros at the Royal Court and Love's Labours Lost a the Open Air Tracie Bennett was Mary in the first Merrily We Roll Along I saw in Manchester c1985 (think it was the first British production). And Sarah Lancashire in Pacific Overtures David Tennant and Desmond Barrit (at that point the more famous of the two) in The Real Inspector Hound and Black Comedy at, I think, the then Comedy Theatre Matt Smith in an absolutely dreadful play by Polly Stenham where he was in a lady's nightdress the whole time. And in Chatroom with Andrew Garfield at the National around the same time |
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Post by emsworthian on Apr 29, 2023 11:55:07 GMT
I am old enough to have seen the late great Barry Humphries as the undertaker Mr Sowerbury in the original production of Oliver! Snap! I was taken by my parents as a child with a couple of school friends as a birthday treat. With one of the friends we've been trying to work out which year it was. If it was 1962 then the Artful Dodger would have been Davey Jones (of Monkees fame). If 1963 then it would have been Leonard Whiting (of Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet). |
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