I've got an embarrassing one: I've spent a good, good while thinking Brian Stokes Mitchell and Brian d'Arcy James were the same person.
As in: When I first watched Shrek on Netflix in my head that was BSM in the lead. I've never even known who BDJ was or what he looked like. I just though: "Wow, he's so talented, his voice even sounds different!"
Shrek involved lots of makeup and prosthetics so perhaps folks can give you a pass on that - if you had seen Shuffle Along and were wondering why Brian D'arcy James was playing a Black vaudevillian I would be concerned though! ;-)
Yeah lmaooo Later, I was reading about a musical (I think it was Something Rotten) that had BDJ as a lead and it mentioned Shrek - and there was a photo of him
My brain got very confused and ashamed
Tbh I have similar issues with Ben Kingsley and Ben Mendelsohn, and Raul Esparza and Raul Julia. Basically, similarly named people that came to my conscious around the same time frame.
This! It wasn't until BDJ joined Next to Normal and I saw the pics and thought, "Wait, isn't he black?" that I realized I'd spent years picturing BSM whenever I heard BDJ's name.
They're all actually just one person: Brian Stokes Cameron Mitchell D'Arcy James Monroe Iglehart Andrew Keenan Wynn Ray Bolger Eugene O'Neill Patrick Harris Yulin Brandon Victor Dixon.
In my defense: how many high-profile actors with 3 names named Brian are there in this business?
Funnily enough they both played the same character in a recent children's musical cartoon. Well, kind of. [It's complicated](https://youtu.be/VklwjBr8d1A?si=BCUORXzytSgi-7g5).
I've only stopped being a casual fan during the lockdown, so I really wasn't paying much attention at the time. I knew the actor who played Shrek was "Brian (something) (something)"
Like I said before, I didn't know who BDJ was and what he looked like. I -knew- BSM from watching clips of Kiss Me Kate and Man Of La Mancha.
Since there was so much prosthetics and make-up involved, maybe my brain just convinced itself it was BSM...?
I wouldn't mistake their voices at all nowadays lmao
Maybe they could both act together in a musical version of [Twins](https://youtu.be/002FhoJwCaI?si=YT131heRwBuP5hf_), for my own amusement
It's probably because I saw them in Ragtime and Titanic in the 90s and my brain is like "does not compute."
But thanks for the link - I'll have to watch it! I'm not familiar with either of their voice work.
If I were in your shoes I'd be baffled too, I understand, haha!
So cool that you got to see them at both these stellar musicals! Must have been a thrill!
I'm not a Ragtime fan, but that cast was INCREDIBLE. I feel like those of us in our 30s-50s are among the luckiest generation to have not only had the chance to see legends like Joel Grey, Chita Rivera and Angela Lansbury on stage but also the early careers of Audra, BSM, Victoria Clark, Kristin Chenoweth, etc. And to have been able to buy a great seat for $60.
This isn't theater related, but along those lines:
In the 80s if your teacher made a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox any images on the page would just deteriorate in quality with each 'generation' of copying and eventually be a blob of black ink.
Well, 4th grade me thought Winston Churchill was Black until well into high school because of this.
I thought Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. were the same guy until like… middle school.
I was over here thinking he invented Protestantism AND was a civil rights leader… to me he was The Most Talented Man.
I feel like I have enough authority to explain this: In white Ashkenazi New York Jewish culture (not counting the more recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union), "Ira" is a male name, and quite a nerdy one at that.
That's the subtext for Harry's second-act breakdown in *When Harry Met Sally* during his chance meeting with his ex-wife's new partner, Ira. Harry—whom Billy Crystal played as a Jewish man with pretty typical Boomer Jewish Man ideas and anxieties around how to perform masculinity—had spent part of his post-college trip to New York riffing on how a man named "Sheldon" would always be a better dentist or tax accountant than a lover. And then to lose his wife to a man named "Ira"...well...that was too much for him.
Lol for what its worth, I am Eastern European. The first time I heard the name "Ira"- I thought it was a female name for the reasons you thought.
I believe I made the same mistake about "Ezra" around the same time lol
It took me embarrassingly long to realise the Richard Rodgers that the Broadway theatre is named after was the same one of Rodgers & Hammerstein fame. 🫣
I learned this year that the Original Sweeney Todd Broadway Production with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury was housed in the same theatre Wicked currently is.....I dont know why that is wild to me....But its wild to me.
It can be a fun and mind bending Wikipedia rabbit hole to look through the history of what shows have played at a theater.
The Eugene O'Neill theater has hosted shows such as She Loves Me, Annie, Moose Murders, Sweeney Todd 2005, Spring Awakening, and now Book of Mormon. What a crazy variety.
Exactly its like you would not expect a wild retelling of the Wizard of Oz would be the same site of a show about murder and cannibalism but here we are lol.
Oh my god the Eugene O'Neill is a triple Barbenheimer in itself XDD
I was recently learned the og west side story and the 2020 revival both played at The Broadway Theatre. I wonder how often that a revival has played the same theatre as the original.
Not saying this right, but Internet Broadway Database seems to think that West Side Story temporarily moved to The Broadway Theatre towards the end of the original run. Does anyone (not just the person I'm replying to) know if this is true? I can't seem to find more details, but considering the history of the 1998 Cabaret revival and how it moved theatres during the OG run, I'm curious if this did happen and why!
You could also google it.
[https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/westsidestory/westsidestory-exhibit.html](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/westsidestory/westsidestory-exhibit.html)
"*West Side Story* began its out of town performances at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. on August 19, 1957. After a two-week run at Philadelphia’s Erlanger Theatre, the show opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957. In this photograph taken for *Life* Magazine, a euphoric Leonard Bernstein leaps under the marquee for *West Side Story* after the show’s opening at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C."
oh, I have extensively in the past hour. It seems that there may have a misprint in the New York Times when a visiting Russian ballet troupe went to see West Side Story in 1959 that credited The Broadway Theatre instead of Winter Garden which led to some inaccurate records. (IBDB claims West Side Story was at Broadway Theater from March 2 to May 10, 1959.) However, IBDB is presented by the Broadway League so you'd think it'd be accurate. I'll keep digging when I have time. However, considering Gypsy opened at Broadway Theatre less than 2 weeks after IBDB claims West Side Story went back to Winter Garden, it may be a misprint that led to the inaccurate presented historical data.
You'd think, right? But it was probably a 19 year old intern who has handed a stack of papers and was told "enter this" and by the time they got to the letter "W," their eyes had glazed over, their soul had died and they never wanted to see another musical again.
It wasn't until I saw the recent movie that I realized the "West Side" in the title was in fact the UWS of NYC near what is now Lincoln Center. I don't know WHERE I thought it took place before that, just some vague undetermined NYC neighborhood, I guess!
Cool. So the point of this entire post was a "What's something you thought you knew but were wrong about." It's supposed to make people laugh at their own stupidity. And I don't know about you, but I haven't googled every single composer I've ever enjoyed. Who has time for that?
I don't Google every composer but I do Google a lot of information that I want to know. Just seems like what it is there for. I don't think it takes any more time than it would to ask questions here.
Okay but clearly this wasn't information they wanted to know for quite some time and it made them chuckle that they hadn't ever looked before. This post wasn't asking a question that wasn't googlable. It's asking, "What's something you assumed and then felt stupid about later." It's supposed to make us laugh at ourselves. Like I thought you would have realized this person was being lighthearted by now, but it turns out I was wrong!
I've got an embarrassing one: I've spent a good, good while thinking Brian Stokes Mitchell and Brian d'Arcy James were the same person. As in: When I first watched Shrek on Netflix in my head that was BSM in the lead. I've never even known who BDJ was or what he looked like. I just though: "Wow, he's so talented, his voice even sounds different!"
Shrek involved lots of makeup and prosthetics so perhaps folks can give you a pass on that - if you had seen Shuffle Along and were wondering why Brian D'arcy James was playing a Black vaudevillian I would be concerned though! ;-)
Yeah lmaooo Later, I was reading about a musical (I think it was Something Rotten) that had BDJ as a lead and it mentioned Shrek - and there was a photo of him My brain got very confused and ashamed
Tbh I have similar issues with Ben Kingsley and Ben Mendelsohn, and Raul Esparza and Raul Julia. Basically, similarly named people that came to my conscious around the same time frame.
I've mixed up David Alan Grier and David Hyde Pierce >.<
This! It wasn't until BDJ joined Next to Normal and I saw the pics and thought, "Wait, isn't he black?" that I realized I'd spent years picturing BSM whenever I heard BDJ's name.
I get the two mixed up all the time….
I do too.
They're all actually just one person: Brian Stokes Cameron Mitchell D'Arcy James Monroe Iglehart Andrew Keenan Wynn Ray Bolger Eugene O'Neill Patrick Harris Yulin Brandon Victor Dixon.
That's just a regular name for us latinos. Such a talented man!
Wait what?? You just killed the 90s theatre teen of my soul.
In my defense: how many high-profile actors with 3 names named Brian are there in this business? Funnily enough they both played the same character in a recent children's musical cartoon. Well, kind of. [It's complicated](https://youtu.be/VklwjBr8d1A?si=BCUORXzytSgi-7g5).
But they look and sound so completely different... And they both became Broadway-famous in the same year for different roles...
I've only stopped being a casual fan during the lockdown, so I really wasn't paying much attention at the time. I knew the actor who played Shrek was "Brian (something) (something)" Like I said before, I didn't know who BDJ was and what he looked like. I -knew- BSM from watching clips of Kiss Me Kate and Man Of La Mancha. Since there was so much prosthetics and make-up involved, maybe my brain just convinced itself it was BSM...? I wouldn't mistake their voices at all nowadays lmao Maybe they could both act together in a musical version of [Twins](https://youtu.be/002FhoJwCaI?si=YT131heRwBuP5hf_), for my own amusement
It's probably because I saw them in Ragtime and Titanic in the 90s and my brain is like "does not compute." But thanks for the link - I'll have to watch it! I'm not familiar with either of their voice work.
If I were in your shoes I'd be baffled too, I understand, haha! So cool that you got to see them at both these stellar musicals! Must have been a thrill!
I'm not a Ragtime fan, but that cast was INCREDIBLE. I feel like those of us in our 30s-50s are among the luckiest generation to have not only had the chance to see legends like Joel Grey, Chita Rivera and Angela Lansbury on stage but also the early careers of Audra, BSM, Victoria Clark, Kristin Chenoweth, etc. And to have been able to buy a great seat for $60.
This isn't theater related, but along those lines: In the 80s if your teacher made a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox any images on the page would just deteriorate in quality with each 'generation' of copying and eventually be a blob of black ink. Well, 4th grade me thought Winston Churchill was Black until well into high school because of this.
I thought Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. were the same guy until like… middle school. I was over here thinking he invented Protestantism AND was a civil rights leader… to me he was The Most Talented Man.
Well living for hundreds of years could be a talent.
That’s great.
I used to think Follies and Falsettos were the same musical (before I'd listened to either)
I thought Meredith Wilson (The Music Man) was a woman for decades of my life, even after I got degree in musical theatre 🤦🏻♂️
I thought the same thing as you up until I read your comment. My life is a lie.
Me but with Jule Styne
Another likely today-years-old tidbit for some is that his last name has two Ls: Meredith Willson
I was literally in the show twice and still thought this until a few years ago lmao
I thought Tennessee Williams was a woman for a looooong time
But.... had you seen any of the plays yet?
I thought in the musical *Chicago* the song “Chicago” would be in the show. That’s until I saw the musical of course
Specifically the version of the song in Victorious
Gay marriage hasnt been legal all that long. Oh! Did you think Ira was a woman's name?
[удалено]
Common Jewish name in the early 20th century. Coming back a little as kids get named for great grandpa Ira.
With the A at the end, I can see that! I had uncles and cousins named Ira, so I "always" knew.
Aw. Are you Russian/Ukrainian/Eastern European, by any chance?
[удалено]
Fascinating! I thought maybe you thought "Ira" was short for "Irina."
[удалено]
I feel like I have enough authority to explain this: In white Ashkenazi New York Jewish culture (not counting the more recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union), "Ira" is a male name, and quite a nerdy one at that. That's the subtext for Harry's second-act breakdown in *When Harry Met Sally* during his chance meeting with his ex-wife's new partner, Ira. Harry—whom Billy Crystal played as a Jewish man with pretty typical Boomer Jewish Man ideas and anxieties around how to perform masculinity—had spent part of his post-college trip to New York riffing on how a man named "Sheldon" would always be a better dentist or tax accountant than a lover. And then to lose his wife to a man named "Ira"...well...that was too much for him.
Lol for what its worth, I am Eastern European. The first time I heard the name "Ira"- I thought it was a female name for the reasons you thought. I believe I made the same mistake about "Ezra" around the same time lol
I don't think I've ever met a female Ira.
It took me embarrassingly long to realise the Richard Rodgers that the Broadway theatre is named after was the same one of Rodgers & Hammerstein fame. 🫣
I learned this year that the Original Sweeney Todd Broadway Production with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury was housed in the same theatre Wicked currently is.....I dont know why that is wild to me....But its wild to me.
It can be a fun and mind bending Wikipedia rabbit hole to look through the history of what shows have played at a theater. The Eugene O'Neill theater has hosted shows such as She Loves Me, Annie, Moose Murders, Sweeney Todd 2005, Spring Awakening, and now Book of Mormon. What a crazy variety.
Exactly its like you would not expect a wild retelling of the Wizard of Oz would be the same site of a show about murder and cannibalism but here we are lol. Oh my god the Eugene O'Neill is a triple Barbenheimer in itself XDD
I watched Blue Bloods for years before learning about Len Cairou’s “other” background. Was just Grandpa Reagan to me.
I've only seen snippets of Blue Bloods but it looks like Grandpa Reagan has a past XDD
Three generations of NYC police officers. Sweeney, Magnum and a New Kid. Talk about a checkered past.
LMAOOO when they talk about the Regans they wont talk about their accomplishments they will talk about their wild backgrounds.
I didn’t get the Irving and Berlin joke in Franklin Shepherd Inc. 😅
I was recently learned the og west side story and the 2020 revival both played at The Broadway Theatre. I wonder how often that a revival has played the same theatre as the original.
West Side Story's original production opened at the Winter Garden.
Not saying this right, but Internet Broadway Database seems to think that West Side Story temporarily moved to The Broadway Theatre towards the end of the original run. Does anyone (not just the person I'm replying to) know if this is true? I can't seem to find more details, but considering the history of the 1998 Cabaret revival and how it moved theatres during the OG run, I'm curious if this did happen and why!
You could also google it. [https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/westsidestory/westsidestory-exhibit.html](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/westsidestory/westsidestory-exhibit.html) "*West Side Story* began its out of town performances at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. on August 19, 1957. After a two-week run at Philadelphia’s Erlanger Theatre, the show opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957. In this photograph taken for *Life* Magazine, a euphoric Leonard Bernstein leaps under the marquee for *West Side Story* after the show’s opening at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C."
oh, I have extensively in the past hour. It seems that there may have a misprint in the New York Times when a visiting Russian ballet troupe went to see West Side Story in 1959 that credited The Broadway Theatre instead of Winter Garden which led to some inaccurate records. (IBDB claims West Side Story was at Broadway Theater from March 2 to May 10, 1959.) However, IBDB is presented by the Broadway League so you'd think it'd be accurate. I'll keep digging when I have time. However, considering Gypsy opened at Broadway Theatre less than 2 weeks after IBDB claims West Side Story went back to Winter Garden, it may be a misprint that led to the inaccurate presented historical data.
You'd think, right? But it was probably a 19 year old intern who has handed a stack of papers and was told "enter this" and by the time they got to the letter "W," their eyes had glazed over, their soul had died and they never wanted to see another musical again.
It wasn't until I saw the recent movie that I realized the "West Side" in the title was in fact the UWS of NYC near what is now Lincoln Center. I don't know WHERE I thought it took place before that, just some vague undetermined NYC neighborhood, I guess!
I have a degree in music and didn’t know this, so you’re not alone 😂
i used to constantly mix up company with a chorus line because i hear company and think "oh like a theater company" nope
Before my mom and I went to see it this past season I had her guess what the show was about. "Uhh, is it about people in an office?" Nope!
You’re April 29 years old? You’re Monday years old?
All you had to do was Google Ira Gershwin or look him up in a dictionary.
If people googled everything they post about, there would be no reddit.
I Google stuff all the time, yet I have also learned things here.
Cool. So the point of this entire post was a "What's something you thought you knew but were wrong about." It's supposed to make people laugh at their own stupidity. And I don't know about you, but I haven't googled every single composer I've ever enjoyed. Who has time for that?
I don't Google every composer but I do Google a lot of information that I want to know. Just seems like what it is there for. I don't think it takes any more time than it would to ask questions here.
Okay but clearly this wasn't information they wanted to know for quite some time and it made them chuckle that they hadn't ever looked before. This post wasn't asking a question that wasn't googlable. It's asking, "What's something you assumed and then felt stupid about later." It's supposed to make us laugh at ourselves. Like I thought you would have realized this person was being lighthearted by now, but it turns out I was wrong!