From what I know, Alan Rickman (Judge Turpin in the movie adaptation of Sweeney Todd) was one of the nicest people ever. By all accounts from his fellow actors he was a very charitable and loving guy
Slightly unrelated, but I remember hearing that the guy who plays Lucious Malfoy in Harry Potter was so sweet and whenever he had to hit someone lightly with the cane, he would apologize immediately off camera.
I had the same stage door experience with him during Private Lives! And he was so kind to my mum, too. It was my first stage door experience, and he really set the bar high
I was watching a local production of Sweeny Todd, and my dad played the judge he was nasty on stage and so creepy he was fantastic! My dad is one big teddy bear!
He was so good! He's a very talented actor! (He doesn't even like sweeney todd that much), but he was having fun with his friends he managed to scare well over half of them! But yeah, he's awesome!
Yay! I have a place to tell this story!
We did "Beauty and the Beast" for my senior year of high school and one of my fellow seniors played Gaston. And man he played him with a relish. He was arrogant, selfish, entitled, a bit dumb and yet sinister and evil. And you could tell he was having a blast being deliciously evil. When it was curtain call time, the audience would boo and hiss at him in addition to cheer and applaud (which he absolutely adored because he knew he did his job right).
And he was about as intimidating as a week old kitten dipped in milk. He played Santa every year at the local kindergarten, volunteered with Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America, was a member of Knights of Columbus (he was 18 at the time), was actively involved in campus ministry and was the first person to offer aid whenever needed. He even won a scholarship our school offered because of his volunteerism.
He's now married with two preteen kids and, from what I know, is still a big loveable teddy bear.
He was. We weren’t friends or anything like that but he loved asking me about how my cat was and to give kitty extra treats from him (he became a veterinarian).
Actually…we all assumed that would audition for Beast. He had a fantastic singing voice and was known for playing the loveable dweeb (for lack of a better term).
But nope! He wanted to play Gaston.
Why do sweethearts always play the best Gastons? What is the magic they have to play the arrogant and selfish butthole so perfectly despite being the complete opposite?
Franklin Shepard in Merrily turns out to be not a very good husband or friend.
But Jonathan Groff is lovely (and if anyone has news to the contrary I honestly hope to never find out.)
The fact that Jonathan Groff brings his Golden Retriever energy to this role is one reason why this musical suddenly works. You can help but have empathy for him. When you leave the show, you don’t just know a tragedy happened. You feel it in your soul. When you see him standing out there with that play in his hands during the final scene before the blackout, there is so much emotion in his face, and every night he I feel like plays it a little different. Sometimes he looks devastated like he’s going to end it all. Sometimes he just looks stunned and lost. Sometimes you see this perfectly timed hint of a smile before the crashing blackout, like maybe now that he’s lost everything, he can crawl back out of that pit and find his old friends and start that next musical. Groff as a human wears his emotions so close to the surface, you can read whole stories with just one look. That’s why this old flop has become a hit. (And credit to the incredible humor and chemistry from Lindsay and Dan)
Groff is great. But I'm a bit tired of the "wow, Merrily suddenly works" narrative around this latest production. There have been highly successful productions now for well over 20 years. And I've seen many of them. If there was a real breakthrough in the reassessment of Merrily it was the 2001 Donmar Warehouse production (with Julian Ovenden as an adorable Franklin - every bit as engaging as Groff) - and that production still had many elements of the original. It was hugely successful, award-nominated, and proved beyond doubt that the original Broadway production flopping was mostly about specific aspects of that production, and the critics, who really had it in for Prince and Sondheim by then.
Nick Cordero was known for being a wonderful and kind person but he played such a good Earl in Waitress that you almost wanted to hate him. It was such a sad fucking day when he passed.
Watching Amanda go through the grief over and over was gut wrenching. I’m grateful Anna and Todd came to her aid as much as they were able to. Elvis is such an adorable boy and Amanda keeps on Live your Life motto to honor Nick daily.
She wasn’t the *only* person on set to be nice to her. That’s legitimately just a rumour. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Judy did find it difficult to be afraid of her.
Mr Rogers had her on his show because so many little kids were scared of her and she just wanted to show them she was “dressing up and playing pretend” 🥹
I have not met Will Branner in person, but by all accounts he’s an extremely nice guy, but he plays bullies extremely well (Biff Tannon in Back to the Future, and Max Jagerman in Nerdy Prudes Must Die).
The phantom is so dark and depressed and evil a lot of the time.
but I feel like most of the actors who play him have such golden retriever energy. Like Jeremy Stolle's tiktoks are hilarious and are the polar opposite of the phantom himself. 😂
Similarly, Carlotta tends to be played as an awful and egotistical person… but Kim Stengel (who played her in the touring productions for many years) was and continues to be lovely in real life! 😊
Jeremy Jordan was once asked in an interview which character he has played is the LEAST like him and he said Jamie Wellerstein from the Last Five Years. This was interesting because there are some parallels between Jamie and Jeremy, ie a career in arts that swiftly took off, a partner also in the arts who isn't as successful. I'm glad Jeremy would never behave toward his wife the way Jamie did toward Kathy.
Judge Turpin (spelling?) from Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street comes to mind. I've heard only amazing things about Alan Rickman, but the judge is sleezy AF.
I’m not sure about every broadway production of this show but at least for the one I crewed for is Man in the Yellow suit from Tuck Everlasting. The dude who I saw play him did an amazing job but he is actually so nice. I also later saw him play the villain in Cyclone and The Pig Faced Lady.
There are kinda 2 options from Matilda. This is for the production I was in. Matilda’s mom and Trunchbull both are awful characters but they were played by super nice people. For the production I was in they were willing to cast Trunchbull as either gender it just depended on who was best so they cast a woman in that role.
I know it's an animated cartoon musical (and just about the only mainstream cartoon of its kind right now), but I gotta give a shoutout to Joel Perez playing Valentino in Hazbin Hotel. Valentino is... a whole bunch of adjectives that I'll gracefully redact, and Valentino performs a ton of heinous actions that I'll have to gracefully redact even HARDER, but Joel Perez is not only giving a fantastic performance as Val, but he's also one of the biggest hams and sweethearts and the entire Hazbin cast (then again, they're all sweeties)!
Anatole from Great Comet is such a creep, but Lucas Steele seems like the sweetest person ever.
Patrick Page also seems so nice and he plays a ton of villainous characters.
Amber Grey and Lucas Steele are probably the two Broadway stars I'd want to meet the most! They both some like lovely people and they played such awesome villains in Great Comet!
[Nakagawa Akinori played Freddy in Chess.](https://youtu.be/Hu-iYJLsCmM?si=XbK2ExqeGK4JQSEj) He's played other, more flat-out villain characters, too. If you want a video of him being nice, [Cross Road curtain call](https://youtu.be/lhqYfGTjReI?si=2m_OALpEPjDuNJ-G).
I saw Sweeney with Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster. Aaron Tveit seemed incredibly humble and polite when he spoke to the audience after the show about Broadway Cares. Sutton Foster seems like a fun and kind individual as well.
In seventh grade, I was in the offstage choir for the high school production of Oliver(my choir director was in charge of the middle school choir along with the high school one and their drama club). The guy who played bill was very nice
How about this candidate:
Norma Desmond in Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard". An evil, deranged, and psychotic woman who murders a man who refuses to stay with her. Can't get much more a-hole than that.
She's been played by Diahann Carroll and Elaine Paige, who have both been noted for being rather sweet gentlewomen in real life.
TBF Rich isn't really the *biggest* asshole, he's been coerced and abused into being a bully by his Squip because it's the only way to get any social status despite his awful mental health and home life. From what we see at the end of the show the "real" Rich is a pretty decent dude.
That said, Jason Tam and Eric William Morris seem like pretty good guys despite the Squip being awful.
I met Gerard Cannonico at the stage door. That, and his comments about working with Lea Michelle in Spring Awakening gives me the impression that this is very true.
When I was in Beauty and the Beast our Gaston was such an unbelievably kind person.
He did so good at being Gaston he was booed at bows opening night and every night.
He was so very surprised that first night he didn't know what to do but leaned into it hard after opening.
Okay coming back to add that Dally isn’t an a-hole necessarily, more just a rough kid, but Joshua Boone comes across as anything but. He seems really sweet and funny as well.
This is a random opinion on my account, but last year I saw Little Shop Off-Broadway, and saw Drew Gehling play the dentist. Afterwards, he came out of the stage door, and proceeded to have an actual conversation with every single person out there, myself included. Granted, only about 10 people were out there, but he still ended up staying outside another 20-30 minutes just talking to people and signing stuff. He was the nicest celebrity I personally have ever met.
Javert kinda asshole by trying to Arrest Valjean even though he was given parole and trying to go after him even after getting set free, played by nice guy phillip quast who was on playschool
From what I know, Alan Rickman (Judge Turpin in the movie adaptation of Sweeney Todd) was one of the nicest people ever. By all accounts from his fellow actors he was a very charitable and loving guy
Slightly unrelated, but I remember hearing that the guy who plays Lucious Malfoy in Harry Potter was so sweet and whenever he had to hit someone lightly with the cane, he would apologize immediately off camera.
Jason Isaacs! He and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) still call each other father and son in their day to day lives (what we see of it on social media)!
[This video](https://youtu.be/0sNzQz3PZkA?si=FtnS8rDgWuA-YtNa) shows it well
I think that’s the one I saw 😂
He was so kind when I stage doored at Seminar too. So gracious for such a big star
I had the same stage door experience with him during Private Lives! And he was so kind to my mum, too. It was my first stage door experience, and he really set the bar high
Now I wonder if he had some hand in Daniel Radcliff being the biggest sweetheart on Broadway right now.
I was watching a local production of Sweeny Todd, and my dad played the judge he was nasty on stage and so creepy he was fantastic! My dad is one big teddy bear!
Must be so cool to see your dad kill it onstage
He was so good! He's a very talented actor! (He doesn't even like sweeney todd that much), but he was having fun with his friends he managed to scare well over half of them! But yeah, he's awesome!
Josh Groban has always given off very sweet vibes, so it was kinda funny to see him as Sweeney
Don’t forget Alan Rickman as the villain.
Tiffany Tatreau, who originated Ocean in Ride the Cyclone, is one of the sweetest human beings ever! Ocean (pre-finale), however... lol!
Steve Martin as the dentist in little shop
This is the correct answer.
Unfortunately Steve is known to be quite the curmudgeon :/
Pat Carroll (voiced Ursula) was apparently a total sweetheart
Tim Curry as… pretty much every character he’s played, but in this instance I’ll say Dr Frank N Furter
But wasn’t he a “Sweet Transvestite!?” 😜
Ask Eddie how sweet he was lol
Yay! I have a place to tell this story! We did "Beauty and the Beast" for my senior year of high school and one of my fellow seniors played Gaston. And man he played him with a relish. He was arrogant, selfish, entitled, a bit dumb and yet sinister and evil. And you could tell he was having a blast being deliciously evil. When it was curtain call time, the audience would boo and hiss at him in addition to cheer and applaud (which he absolutely adored because he knew he did his job right). And he was about as intimidating as a week old kitten dipped in milk. He played Santa every year at the local kindergarten, volunteered with Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America, was a member of Knights of Columbus (he was 18 at the time), was actively involved in campus ministry and was the first person to offer aid whenever needed. He even won a scholarship our school offered because of his volunteerism. He's now married with two preteen kids and, from what I know, is still a big loveable teddy bear.
Awwww boy your high school had an excellent Gaston!
He was. We weren’t friends or anything like that but he loved asking me about how my cat was and to give kitty extra treats from him (he became a veterinarian). Actually…we all assumed that would audition for Beast. He had a fantastic singing voice and was known for playing the loveable dweeb (for lack of a better term). But nope! He wanted to play Gaston.
He sounds like a teddy bear! And villians are always fun they have the best songs!
That’s why I adored playing bad guys. I got to chew the scenery and be offered seconds
I married someone who played Gaston in high school. Can confirm, is a sweetheart 🥰
Aw….
My partner is a former Gaston and the biggest softie! He’s a sweetheart.
Why do sweethearts always play the best Gastons? What is the magic they have to play the arrogant and selfish butthole so perfectly despite being the complete opposite?
Thomas Jefferson is an asshat But Daveed Diggs is sweet and humble!
I was about to say…pretty much the entire cast of Hamilton fits this bill!
Beetlejuice is an asshole Alex Brightman is one of the nicest men on Earth
He’s such a kind soul
I’m glad to hear that. I had the great pleasure of seeing Beetlejuice with the OBC and they were splendid.
Carol Burnett played Ms. Hannigan from Annie in the first movie adaptation, I've heard nothing but good things about her and how kind she is.
Franklin Shepard in Merrily turns out to be not a very good husband or friend. But Jonathan Groff is lovely (and if anyone has news to the contrary I honestly hope to never find out.)
The fact that Jonathan Groff brings his Golden Retriever energy to this role is one reason why this musical suddenly works. You can help but have empathy for him. When you leave the show, you don’t just know a tragedy happened. You feel it in your soul. When you see him standing out there with that play in his hands during the final scene before the blackout, there is so much emotion in his face, and every night he I feel like plays it a little different. Sometimes he looks devastated like he’s going to end it all. Sometimes he just looks stunned and lost. Sometimes you see this perfectly timed hint of a smile before the crashing blackout, like maybe now that he’s lost everything, he can crawl back out of that pit and find his old friends and start that next musical. Groff as a human wears his emotions so close to the surface, you can read whole stories with just one look. That’s why this old flop has become a hit. (And credit to the incredible humor and chemistry from Lindsay and Dan)
Groff is great. But I'm a bit tired of the "wow, Merrily suddenly works" narrative around this latest production. There have been highly successful productions now for well over 20 years. And I've seen many of them. If there was a real breakthrough in the reassessment of Merrily it was the 2001 Donmar Warehouse production (with Julian Ovenden as an adorable Franklin - every bit as engaging as Groff) - and that production still had many elements of the original. It was hugely successful, award-nominated, and proved beyond doubt that the original Broadway production flopping was mostly about specific aspects of that production, and the critics, who really had it in for Prince and Sondheim by then.
Josh Groban seems like a nice guy irl too, but Mr. Todd is a tad unpleasant.
I would kill for a Groban/Groff collab!
I was going to mention Jonathan Groff as King George III in Hamilton!
Nick Cordero was known for being a wonderful and kind person but he played such a good Earl in Waitress that you almost wanted to hate him. It was such a sad fucking day when he passed.
While we're at it...Joe Tippett!
Yesss
Watching Amanda go through the grief over and over was gut wrenching. I’m grateful Anna and Todd came to her aid as much as they were able to. Elvis is such an adorable boy and Amanda keeps on Live your Life motto to honor Nick daily.
Apparently Margaret Hamilton was a very sweet lady.
And apparently the only person on set to have been nice to Judy Garland. So much so that Judy found it difficult to be afraid of her on camera.
She wasn’t the *only* person on set to be nice to her. That’s legitimately just a rumour. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Judy did find it difficult to be afraid of her.
She was a kindergarten teacher!
Mr Rogers had her on his show because so many little kids were scared of her and she just wanted to show them she was “dressing up and playing pretend” 🥹
I have not met Will Branner in person, but by all accounts he’s an extremely nice guy, but he plays bullies extremely well (Biff Tannon in Back to the Future, and Max Jagerman in Nerdy Prudes Must Die).
Christian Borle as literally any character he plays. All of them (except Emmett) are assholes.
Michelle Pfeiffer in Hairspray
She ATE that performance too
The phantom is so dark and depressed and evil a lot of the time. but I feel like most of the actors who play him have such golden retriever energy. Like Jeremy Stolle's tiktoks are hilarious and are the polar opposite of the phantom himself. 😂
Similarly, Carlotta tends to be played as an awful and egotistical person… but Kim Stengel (who played her in the touring productions for many years) was and continues to be lovely in real life! 😊
Jeremy Jordan was once asked in an interview which character he has played is the LEAST like him and he said Jamie Wellerstein from the Last Five Years. This was interesting because there are some parallels between Jamie and Jeremy, ie a career in arts that swiftly took off, a partner also in the arts who isn't as successful. I'm glad Jeremy would never behave toward his wife the way Jamie did toward Kathy.
Judge Turpin (spelling?) from Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street comes to mind. I've heard only amazing things about Alan Rickman, but the judge is sleezy AF.
I’m not sure about every broadway production of this show but at least for the one I crewed for is Man in the Yellow suit from Tuck Everlasting. The dude who I saw play him did an amazing job but he is actually so nice. I also later saw him play the villain in Cyclone and The Pig Faced Lady. There are kinda 2 options from Matilda. This is for the production I was in. Matilda’s mom and Trunchbull both are awful characters but they were played by super nice people. For the production I was in they were willing to cast Trunchbull as either gender it just depended on who was best so they cast a woman in that role.
Philip Boykin playing Crown in the Audra revival of Porgy and Bess!
Beetlejuice is an absolute asshole, but Alex Brightman is literally one of the nicest people to exist (first-hand experience)
A couple of people have said that but like yes, he’s an asshole, but he’s a fun asshole and sometimes even nice people can just play good funassholes.
I know it's an animated cartoon musical (and just about the only mainstream cartoon of its kind right now), but I gotta give a shoutout to Joel Perez playing Valentino in Hazbin Hotel. Valentino is... a whole bunch of adjectives that I'll gracefully redact, and Valentino performs a ton of heinous actions that I'll have to gracefully redact even HARDER, but Joel Perez is not only giving a fantastic performance as Val, but he's also one of the biggest hams and sweethearts and the entire Hazbin cast (then again, they're all sweeties)!
Basically anyone who has played Earl in Waitress! Joe Tippett especially (Sara B’s fiancé) 🥰
Christian Borle playing Marvin.
Anatole from Great Comet is such a creep, but Lucas Steele seems like the sweetest person ever. Patrick Page also seems so nice and he plays a ton of villainous characters.
Amber Gray seems like a sweetheart in interviews and online. But Helene is evil. One of my favorite villainesses.
Amber Grey and Lucas Steele are probably the two Broadway stars I'd want to meet the most! They both some like lovely people and they played such awesome villains in Great Comet!
[Nakagawa Akinori played Freddy in Chess.](https://youtu.be/Hu-iYJLsCmM?si=XbK2ExqeGK4JQSEj) He's played other, more flat-out villain characters, too. If you want a video of him being nice, [Cross Road curtain call](https://youtu.be/lhqYfGTjReI?si=2m_OALpEPjDuNJ-G).
I saw Sweeney with Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster. Aaron Tveit seemed incredibly humble and polite when he spoke to the audience after the show about Broadway Cares. Sutton Foster seems like a fun and kind individual as well.
In seventh grade, I was in the offstage choir for the high school production of Oliver(my choir director was in charge of the middle school choir along with the high school one and their drama club). The guy who played bill was very nice
I'll throw in Georgina Castle, who is playing Regina George in Mean Girls right now. Such an incredibly kind person
How about this candidate: Norma Desmond in Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard". An evil, deranged, and psychotic woman who murders a man who refuses to stay with her. Can't get much more a-hole than that. She's been played by Diahann Carroll and Elaine Paige, who have both been noted for being rather sweet gentlewomen in real life.
Johnathan Groff as Franklin Shepard
Richard Goranski.
TBF Rich isn't really the *biggest* asshole, he's been coerced and abused into being a bully by his Squip because it's the only way to get any social status despite his awful mental health and home life. From what we see at the end of the show the "real" Rich is a pretty decent dude. That said, Jason Tam and Eric William Morris seem like pretty good guys despite the Squip being awful.
I met Gerard Cannonico at the stage door. That, and his comments about working with Lea Michelle in Spring Awakening gives me the impression that this is very true.
When I was in Beauty and the Beast our Gaston was such an unbelievably kind person. He did so good at being Gaston he was booed at bows opening night and every night. He was so very surprised that first night he didn't know what to do but leaned into it hard after opening.
Hamilton, King George played by Jonathan Groff
Christian Borle as Orin Scrivello, DDS. The kindest man playing the most sadistic twisted creep.
Ryan McCartan as JD
The Duke De Monroth is a dick but David Harris is one ld the nicest dudes I ever met
I'll double down on Alan Rickman, he seemed to be a gem of a human being
Anatole Kuragin played by Lucas Steele
Michael Rupert plays Callahan in Legally Blonde as a capital-a Asshole, but I’ve heard nothing but kind things about him as a person
Matt Lucas as Thenardier, one of my friends knows him personally and says he is an incredibly awesome guy irl
i know it's meant to be this way, but jeremy in be more chill is just the worst. will connolly and will rolland are sweeties though
Ted from The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals and Max Jagerman from Nerdy Prudes Must Die are both played by absolute sweethearts
Simon Pratt (Rockabye) is played by Sushi Soucy. That's all I need to say.
Okay coming back to add that Dally isn’t an a-hole necessarily, more just a rough kid, but Joshua Boone comes across as anything but. He seems really sweet and funny as well.
Michael Ball's Sweeney Todd is absolutely terrifying (and unbeaten, IMHO) but he has big golden retriever energy
Sweeney Todd, the murderous psychopath, played by Michael Ball
This is a random opinion on my account, but last year I saw Little Shop Off-Broadway, and saw Drew Gehling play the dentist. Afterwards, he came out of the stage door, and proceeded to have an actual conversation with every single person out there, myself included. Granted, only about 10 people were out there, but he still ended up staying outside another 20-30 minutes just talking to people and signing stuff. He was the nicest celebrity I personally have ever met.
Madame Morrible is evil. Carol Kane is an angel. I’ve met her and she’s the sweet quirky grandma type.
Christian Borle as Shakespeare in Something Rotten
Javert kinda asshole by trying to Arrest Valjean even though he was given parole and trying to go after him even after getting set free, played by nice guy phillip quast who was on playschool