Editing Chris Noth (section)

===Theatre===
Noth "did [[off-off Broadway]] and was a bad waiter in a dozen different restaurants for five years."<ref name="chitrib-19930929" /> He was fired from a number of restaurants, once for forgetting to return Governor [[Hugh Carey]]'s credit card with the bill, and settled into cater-waitering bar mitzvahs and weddings.<ref name="backstage-20040211" /><ref name="ysda2015p29" />{{sfn|Douglas|2017|loc=time 34:14}} Noth got his [[Actors' Equity]] membership while at the [[Circle Repertory Company#Projects|Circle Rep Lab]].{{sfn|Douglas|2017|loc=time 36:38}} In [[Circle Repertory Company]]'s 1980 production of ''Innocent Thoughts, Harmless Intentions'' he played soldier James "Duke" Wade in an Alaskan army [[outpost (military)|outpost]] in 1951–52, part of what the ''[[Christian Science Monitor]]'' called a "convincing squad of Actors' Equity [[enlisted men]]" in a play that was "impressively acted".<ref>{{cite book |last=Heuer |first=John |date=1980 |title=Innocent Thoughts, Harmless Intentions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6CW-reTHXcQC&pg=PA3 |publisher=Dramatists Play Service, Inc. |page=3 |isbn=0822205718}}
* {{cite web |last=Beaufort |first=John |title=One of the Off Broadway's season's funniest; Innocent Thoughts, Harmless Intentions Drama by John Heuer. Directed by B. Rodney Marriott. |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0312/031207.html |website=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |date=March 12, 1980}}
* {{cite news |last=Gusso |first=Mel |title=Stage: Circle Rep Offers A Drama About a Loner; Pianist Replaces Rodney At Crawdaddy The Cast  |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1980/03/08/archives/stage-circle-rep-offers-a-drama-about-a-loner-pianist-replaces.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 8, 1980}}</ref> He auditioned for [[Juilliard School|Juilliard]] and [[Yale University]] and was accepted by both.<ref name="ysda2015p31">{{cite magazine |last=Kaplan |first=Barry Jay |date=Fall 2015 |title=Christopher Noth...on a role |url=https://issuu.com/yalerep/docs/ysd_annual_magazine_2015/32 |magazine=Yale School of Drama Annual Alumni Magazine 2015 |via=[[issuu]] |publisher=[[Yale School of Drama]] | pages=31 |volume=LVV |access-date=January 6, 2020}}</ref> He chose the shorter three-year degree at [[Yale School of Drama]], where he got a scholarship.<ref name="backstage-20040211" /><ref name="ysda2015p31" />

Noth acted in 25 or more plays while studying at Yale School of Drama,<ref name="tvg" /><ref name="wetvLNO">{{cite web |title=Law & Order -- Chris Noth |url=https://www.wetv.com/shows/law-order/cast/detective-mike-logan |website=[[WEtv]] |access-date=January 27, 2020}}</ref> attending classes during the day and acting in plays at night.<ref name="broadway-20081110" /> Noth's first-year acting project at Yale was the [[Maxim Gorky]] play ''[[The Lower Depths]]'' in 1982–1983.<ref name="ysda2015p29" /><ref name="nyt-20001112" /> In 1984, [[Frank Rich]] of ''The New York Times'' wrote that of the supporting cast, only Noth's and [[Ray Aranha]]'s performances "leaves firm impressions" in the world premiere of the [[Wole Soyinka]] political satire ''A Play of Giants'' at [[Yale Repertory Theatre]], where Noth played a sculptor creating a portrait of African dictators gathered at a [[United Nations]] embassy.<ref name="nyt-19841211">{{cite news |title=STAGE: 'A PLAY OF GIANTS' BY SOYINKA |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/11/arts/stage-a-play-of-giants-by-soyinka.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |last1=Rich |first1=Frank |author-link1=Frank Rich |date=December 11, 1984}}</ref> In 1985, Noth acted in Keith Reddin's ''Rum and Coke'' at Yale Repertory Theatre, a play about the orchestration of the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]].<ref>{{cite web |title=A #tbt from the Yale Rep archives |url=https://www.facebook.com/yalerep/photos/a.418028506383/10155482794751384/?type=3  |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/facebook/42441466383/10155482794751384 |archive-date=2022-02-26 |url-access=limited|publisher=[[Yale Repertory Theatre]] |date=August 30, 2018 |quote=Christopher Noth...in Keith Reddin's RUM AND COKE...1985. |via=[[Facebook]]}}{{cbignore}}
* {{cite news |title='Rum and Coke,' A New Play by Keith Reddin, Opens Off-Broadway |url=https://apnews.com/6dad29672727ca42c91a127cf6029aad |work=[[Associated Press]] |last1=Kuchwara |first1=Michael |date=January 27, 1986}}
</ref> By Noth's third year, he signed with an agent who saw him in a YSD production of [[Brendan Behan]]'s ''[[The Hostage (play)|The Hostage]]''.<ref name="ysda2015p31" /> Noth was also in [[Anton Chekhov]]'s ''[[Three Sisters (play)|Three Sisters]]'' and [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Pericles, Prince of Tyre]]'' at YSD.<ref name="ydn-20080418">{{cite web |last1=Gunnison |first1=Liz |title=TV star talks |url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2003/04/18/tv-star-talks/ |website=[[Yale Daily News]] |date=April 18, 2003}}</ref>

After graduating with an [[Master of Fine Arts|MFA]] in 1985,<ref name=tvg /> Noth told his agent he would not do television and went on the theater circuit.<ref name="ap-19920710"/> His preference to work in theater informed his decision to live in New York instead of Los Angeles.<ref name="ydn-20080418" /> However, roles were slow to come and he decided he could do television to survive.<ref name="nj-20100523" /><ref name="ysda2015p31" /> In 1986, while working on the TV series ''[[Hill Street Blues]]'' in Los Angeles, Noth heard that [[Zoe Caldwell]] would be directing ''[[Hamlet]]'' at the [[American Shakespeare Festival]] at [[Stratford, Connecticut]] and successfully auditioned for the title role.<ref name="broadway-20081110">{{cite news |title=Chris Noth|url=https://www.broadway.com/buzz/11269/chris-noth/ |work=[[Broadway.com]] |last1=Henderson |first1=Kathy |date=November 10, 2008}}</ref> The play was performed for student groups in the spring season that year and Noth felt the enthusiastic response of students from the inner cities to Hamlet's [[Soliloquy|soliloquies]] made it one of his greatest experiences.<ref name="ap-19920710" /><ref name="nyt-19860511">{{cite news |title=THEATER; FOR TWO SUMMER THEATERS, A CONTRAST IN FORTUNES |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/11/nyregion/theater-for-two-summer-theaters-a-contrast-in-fortunes.html |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York City|last1=Klein |first1=Alvin |date=May 11, 1986}}</ref> In the 1988/89 season of [[Milwaukee Repertory Theater]], he played a murderous bandit in the experimental Chilean play ''The Torch''.<ref name="nydn-20000908" /><ref>{{cite web |title=1988–1989: The Torch |url=https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/mkerep/id/1040 |website=Milwaukee Repertory Theater Photographic History |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee#Libraries|University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries]] |quote=Christopher Noth as El Hachon. |access-date=January 23, 2020}}</ref> In April 1989, Noth played "[[bohemianism|bohemian]]--out of place, angry with the world" Frank Shabata in Darrah Cloud's adaption of the [[Willa Cather]] novel ''[[O Pioneers!]]'' in the Other Season at [[Seattle Repertory Theatre]], co-produced by [[Women's Project]].<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Miles |editor1-first=Julia |title=Playwriting Women : 7 Plays from the Women's Project |publisher=[[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann]] |location=Portsmouth, New Hampshire|year=1993 |isbn=0435086170 |pages=55, 56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZA1aAAAAMAAJ&q=shabata+%22christopher+noth%22}}
* {{cite news|last=Rousuck |first=J. Wynn |title='O PIONEERS!' PLOWS FERTILE GROUND |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1990-11-18-1990322099-story.html |newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |publisher=[[Tribune Publishing]]|location=Baltimore, Maryland|date=November 18, 1990 |quote="After nearly three years of work, including workshops in New York and Seattle..."}}
</ref> He also appeared in [[George Bernard Shaw]] play ''[[Arms and the Man]]'' at the [[Roundabout Theatre]] in 1989 as Sergius Saranoff. ''The New York Times'' wrote that Noth's acting "captures the strutting buffoon in the character" but lost "the more pitiable side", while ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'' wrote if "Noth's swaggering Sergius were any more Sergius-like, he would burst out of his uniform".<ref name="nyt-19890605">{{cite news |title=Review/Theater; Shaw's Mockery of Victorian Society |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/05/theater/review-theater-shaw-s-mockery-of-victorian-society.html |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York City|last1=Hampton |first1=Wilborn |date=June 5, 1989 }}</ref><ref name="csm-19890619">{{cite web |last1=Beaufort |first1=John |title=Shaw's Anti-Heroic, Anti-War Relic Is Anti-Climactic Today |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1989/0619/larm.html|website=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |publisher=[[Christian Science Publishing Society]]|location=Boston, Massachusetts|date=June 19, 1989}}</ref> Noth acted in plays for [[La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club]] and L.A.'s [[Mark Taper Forum]].<ref name="backstage-20040211" />

In 1997, Noth played an opera composer in the [[Romulus Linney (playwright)|Romulus Linney]] play ''Patronage'' at [[Ensemble Studio Theatre]]'s 20th Annual Festival of New One-Act Plays.<ref name="nyt-19970528"/> ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote "the actors are so good that they may have put more flesh on the characters than even Mr. Linney intended" and that Noth and co-star [[Dana Reeve]] were "amusingly synchronized as they purred in unison...to the strains of [[Schubert]]".<ref name="nyt-19970528">{{cite news |title=Adultery and Regrets, in One-Acts |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/28/arts/adultery-and-regrets-in-one-acts.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|last1=Marks |first1=Peter |date=May 28, 1997}}</ref> Linney became friends with Noth when they worked together on ''Patronage'' and Noth encouraged him to write a play about [[Delmore Schwartz]]<ref name=lat-20020726 /> as Noth "is a poet himself and loves the poetry of Delmore Schwartz", according to Linney.<ref name="linney-200404">{{cite journal |last1=McGregor |first1=Michael |title=Profiles: Romulus Linney: Under the Radar |journal=[[American Theatre (magazine)|American Theatre]] |date=April 2004 |volume=21 |issue=4 |page=67 |id={{ProQuest|220588389}} }}</ref> Noth performed in the 2002 [[staged reading]] of Linney's play ''Klonsky and Schwartz'' at the [[Eugene O'Neill Theater Center]]'s annual Playwrights Conference<ref name=lat-20020726>{{cite web |last1=Kuchwara |first1=Michael |title=At the O'Neill Center, the Process Is the Thing |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jul-26-et-kuchwara26-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=July 26, 2002}}</ref> and helped [[workshop production|workshop]] the play at the 2003 [[Last Frontier Theatre Conference]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Klonsky and Schwartz |url=https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/exhibits/show/romulus-linney/history-plays/klonsky-and-schwartz |website=Romulus Linney - Appalachian State University Libraries Digital Collections |publisher=[[Appalachian State University]] |access-date=February 7, 2020}}</ref> In 1998, while working on ''Sex and the City'' before its TV debut, Noth did his first [[radio play]] as fortune-hunter Morris Townsend in the [[Voice of America]] production of ''[[The Heiress (1947 play)|The Heiress]]'', an adaptation of the [[Henry James]] novel ''[[Washington Square (novel)|Washington Square]]'', opposite [[Amy Irving]] in the title role.<ref name="wp-19980218">{{cite news |last1=Fisher |first1=Marc |title=TUNING IN TO THE DRAMA OF YESTERYEAR |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1998/02/18/tuning-in-to-the-drama-of-yesteryear/5d861382-c509-4bda-8851-1bc095bb5173/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=February 18, 1998}}</ref>

In 2000, Noth made his [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] debut<ref name="backstage-20010529" /> in a revival of [[Gore Vidal]]'s 1960  play ''[[The Best Man (play)|The Best Man]]'' at [[Virginia Theatre]] as the conniving Senator Joseph Cantwell.<ref name="nydn-20000908">{{cite web |last1=Connelly |first1=Sheryl |title=BEST MAN FOR THE JOB Chris Noth brings some serious charm to Broadway |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/best-man-job-chris-noth-brings-serious-charm-broadway-article-1.883178 |newspaper=[[New York Daily News]] |date=August 13, 2000}}</ref><ref name="variety-20000918">{{cite web |last1=Isherwood |first1=Charles |title=Gore Vidal's The Best Man |url=https://variety.com/2000/legit/reviews/gore-vidal-s-the-best-man-2-1200464222/ |website=Variety |date=September 18, 2000}}</ref><ref name="nyt-20000918">{{cite news |title=THEATER REVIEW; A Timeless Morality Tale Cloaked in Politics |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/18/theater/theater-review-a-timeless-morality-tale-cloaked-in-politics.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |last=Brantley |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Brantley |date=September 18, 2000}}</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' wrote that Noth "plays the role capably but without the seething edge required"<ref name="variety-20000918" /> and ''The New York Times'' wrote Noth "never gives Cantwell the all-consuming, compulsive drive" and the "variations on Nixonian tics..have the imposed feeling of a director's suggestions."<ref name="nyt-20000918" /> A few months later ''The New York Times'' wrote the cast's performances improved significantly with Noth improving the most, having "achieved a fine balance between [[editorial cartoon]] and [[Neuroticism|neurotic]] case study as the Nixonian man who would be president."<ref name="nyt-20001229">{{cite news |title=THEATER GUIDE |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/29/movies/theater-guide.html?pagewanted=3 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |last=Brantley |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Brantley |date=December 20, 2000 |page=3 |quote=GORE VIDAL'S 'THE BEST MAN.'}}</ref> The revival went on to win a [[Drama Desk Award]] and [[Outer Critics Circle Award]] for outstanding revival of a play and was nominated for [[Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play]].<ref name="playbill-bestman2000">{{cite web |title=The Best Man Broadway @ Virginia Theatre |url=http://www.playbill.com/production/the-best-man-virginia-theatre-vault-0000005233 |website=[[Playbill]] |access-date=January 19, 2020}}</ref> In the 2002 premiere of [[Christopher Shinn]]'s play ''What Didn't Happen'' at [[Playwrights Horizons]], Noth's portrayal of Peter was described as "an enjoyably robust portrait" by ''The New York Times'' and "an endearing, minor-key star turn" by ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]''.<ref name="nyt-20021211">{{cite news |title=THEATER REVIEW; Eloquent Silences Among the Words |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/theater/theater-review-eloquent-silences-among-the-words.html |newspaper=The New York Times |last=Brantley |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Brantley |date=December 11, 2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=What Didn't Happen |url=https://variety.com/2002/legit/reviews/what-didn-t-happen-1200544425/ |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |last1=Isherwood |first1=Charles |authorlink=Charles Isherwood|date=December 10, 2002}}</ref>

Noth played Colonel Thayer in a 2005 staged reading of a revival of another Gore Vidal play, the 1961 drama ''On the March to the Sea'', presented by Theater Previews at Duke at [[Duke University]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Kenneth |title=World Premiere Revision of Gore Vidal's On the March to the Sea Gets Starry Concert-Style Run in NC |url=http://www.playbill.com/article/world-premiere-revision-of-gore-vidals-on-the-march-to-the-sea-gets-starry-concert-style-run-in-nc-com-124258 |website=[[Playbill (magazine)|Playbill]] |date=February 18, 2005}}</ref><ref name="var-20050301">{{cite web |last1=Page |first1=Robert C. III|title=On the March to the Sea |url=https://variety.com/2005/legit/reviews/on-the-march-to-the-sea-1200527513/ |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=March 1, 2005}}</ref> According to reviews of his portrayal, "Noth effectively conveys a jaded, command soldier tired of war, sometimes ruthless, yet often philosophical and sympathetic",<ref name="var-20050301" /> a contradictory character "beautifully evoked" as "fully and pitiably human" and comparable to [[Stanley Kowalski]] in his "deliberate malice";<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ross |first1=Scott |title=REVIEW: Theater Previews at Duke: Gore Vidal's On the March to the Sea Is an Invigorating Civil War Drama |url=https://cvnc.org/reviews/2005/022005/March.html |website=Classical Voice of North Carolina |access-date=February 7, 2020}}</ref> although Noth "followed the script" when it occasionally turned melodramatic.<ref>{{cite web |last=Woods |first=Byron |title=Forgiving Frame; Problematic Picture |url=https://indyweek.com/news/archives/forgiving-frame-problematic-picture/ |website=[[Indyweek]] |date=March 9, 2005}}</ref> Noth received glowing reviews as petty criminal "Teach" in [[David Mamet]]'s play ''[[American Buffalo (play)|American Buffalo]]'' at the 2005 [[Berkshire Theatre Festival]].<ref name="broadway-20081110" /><ref name="var-20050801">{{cite web |last1=Rizzo |first1=Frank |title=American Buffalo |url=https://variety.com/2005/legit/reviews/american-buffalo-8-1117927801/|website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=August 1, 2005}}</ref> In 2008, Noth portrayed Paul Zara in [[Beau Willimon]]'s Off-Broadway debut play ''[[Farragut North (play)|Farragut North]]'' staged by the [[Atlantic Theatre Company]].<ref name="playbill-20081112">{{cite web |title=Farragut North, Timely Play About a U.S. Political Campaign, Opens Nov. 12 |url=http://www.playbill.com/article/farragut-north-timely-play-about-a-us-political-campaign-opens-nov-12-com-155097 |website=[[Playbill (magazine)|Playbill]] |last1=Jones |first1=Kenneth |date=November 12, 2008}}</ref><ref name="nyt-20081113" /> The play had its world premiere in the week after the [[2008 United States presidential election]] and ''The New York Times'' critic [[Ben Brantley]] wrote that he "enjoyed Mr. Noth's weary, bluff, stiff-jointed Paul."<ref name="nyt-20081113">{{cite news |title=Those Who Traffic in Spin Can Get Caught in the Cycle |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/theater/reviews/13farr.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |last=Brantley |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Brantley |date=November 13, 2008}}</ref><ref name="timeout-20081119">{{cite web |title=Farragut North |url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/farragut-north |work=[[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]] |last1=Feldman |first1=Adam |date=November 19, 2008 |access-date=January 27, 2020 |archive-date=January 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127014201/https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/farragut-north |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2009, Noth reprised the role in the play's West coast debut at the [[Geffen Playhouse]] opposite [[Chris Pine]].<ref name="ocreg-20080618">{{cite web |title=Chris Noth marks N.Y.-L.A. move with stage role |url=https://www.ocregister.com/2009/06/18/chris-noth-marks-ny-la-move-with-stage-role/ |work=[[OC Register]] |last1=Hodgins |first1=Paul |date=June 18, 2009}}</ref><ref name="lat-20080625">{{cite web |title=Review: 'Farragut North' at the Geffen Playhouse |url=https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/06/review-farragut-north-at-the-geffen-playhouse.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |last1=McNulty |first1=Charles |author-link=Charles McNulty |date=June 25, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127014134/https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/06/review-farragut-north-at-the-geffen-playhouse.html|archive-date=January 27, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Sex and the City 2'' director [[Michael Patrick King]] demanded Noth lose the weight he gained for his role in the play before filming began.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Bundy |first1=Brill |title='Sex and the City 2': Chris Noth too big for 'Big'|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-mobile-dishrag-story-052010-story.html |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=May 20, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Lane |first1=Laura |title='SATC 2' Star Chris Noth Dishes on Getting in Shape |url=https://okmagazine.com/news/satc-2-star-chris-noth-dishes-getting-shape/ |magazine=[[OK!]] |date=May 15, 2010}}</ref>

In 2011, Noth starred in a Broadway revival of the 1972 play ''[[That Championship Season]]'', playing Phil Romano.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://broadwayworld.com/article/Cox_Gaffigan_Noth_Patric_Sutherland_to_Star_in_THE_CHAMPIONSHIP_SEASON_20101102|title=Cox, Gaffigan, Noth, Patric & Sutherland to Star in THE CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON}}</ref> In 2019 Noth appeared with [[Isabelle Huppert]] in an [[Off-Broadway]] production of [[Florian Zeller]]'s ''The Mother''.<ref name= "mother">{{cite news |last=Brantley |first=Ben |authorlink=Ben Brantley|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/theater/review-the-mother-isabelle-huppert.html |title=Review: Isabelle Huppert Is a Nightmare to Remember in 'The Mother' |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 11, 2019 |access-date=March 12, 2019}}</ref>