Title Roles

[marcusmarcusrc]

A train of thought: "I mostly played minor characters in my theatre performances. The biggest role I had was probably that of Dr Chumley in Harvey. Not that he was the title role or anything. Hmm. Come to think of it, the title role never actually appeared on stage. I wonder how common that is?"

So: A question: In which plays (or movies, or even books) does the title role never appear on stage?

My starting list:
Harvey, by Mary Chase: (Technically, Harvey _is_ on stage, but no one in the audience can see him, so I think this counts for my list): A great play, I highly recommend seeing it. I hear the movie is good too, though I have not yet seen it.
Waiting for Godot (of course)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? A very emotionally gut wrenching play. I am curious as to the title - I mean, it is a quote in the play, but why was it chosen to represent the whole thing? Perhaps if I was willing to re-read it, it might come clear...

Comments

[naiaha.livejournal.com]

The movie of Harvey is awesome!!!

[schnerf.livejournal.com]

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (and Hitchcock movie) comes to my mind.

[remcat.livejournal.com]

Oh, you beat me to it!

[tanatoes.livejournal.com]

Boy, that's a tough one. The closest I can come is Lilly Tomlin's one-woman show "The Search For Signs of Inteligent Life in the Universe."

My related thread is this: What songs are there that do not feature the title in the song lyrics. Some examples:

The 59th Street Bridge Song by Simon and Garfunkle
Babba O'Reilly by The Who

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

I think The Thin Man does that. And then of course, all the sequels mention the Thin Man, but he died back in the first movie, so is unlikely to show up. Not that I've seen them to be sure.