Bob Gunton & Beth Fowler as Sweeney Todd & Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (1989). “You have to love a character to play him” — Bob Gunton. And yes, that of course includes playing a character like Sweeney Todd. The first Broadway revival in 1989 of Stephen Sondheim’s magnum opus was a scaled-back version, far different from the original staged by Harold Prince eleven years earlier. Satirically dubbed “Teeny Todd” by Gerard Alessandrini in the 1990 edition of his long-running For

Bob Gunton as Juan Peron and Patti LuPone as Evita in Evita (1979). When he was a young man, the actor Bob Gunton took joy in settling in front of the TV with his dad to watch reruns of the one and only season of Jackie Gleason’s The Honeymooners. And as much as Gunton adored Gleason’s antics, it didn’t create any desire in him to consider a life on the stage. Instead, Gunton set his sights for the priesthood and, after time at the seminary, was drafted into the United States

Judy Kaye and Kevin Kline in On the 20th Century (1978). For part three of the saga of On the 20th Century, we begin with the Variety review dated February 20, 1978 which stated (rather unfairly) that “It’s ominous when an audience leaves a musical whistling the scenery.” This was due to the remarkable achievement of Robin Wagner’s scenic design, one of the most ingenious ever to inform a Broadway musical (and oh, how it fit so beautifully on the St. James stage). In extraord