Both the glory and the sadness of stage acting is that it is so ephemeral. Great paintings last for centuries, great books will always be there to be read, great musical performances have been recorded for almost a century. With theatre, however, a great stage performance has gone for good once a show closes, unless it has been filmed – and that is a recent and still relatively rare phenomenon, and no video recording can quite do justice to the “liveness” of theatrical performance.
The greatest stage actor ever according to a poll run by the actor's newspaper Stage. Not arguing with No 1, Dame Judi and am also delighted to see the peerless Dame Maggie as No. 2
