Gwyneth Verdon was 34, and fresh from her roles in
Damn Yankees and New Girl In Town
when she starred in
Redhead,
which would bring her a 3rd Tony Award
for Best Actress in a Musical.
The show was originally written for Beatrice Lillie!
When it landed in Gwen's lap,
she insisted that Bob Fosse both direct and choreograph the production,
and of course whatever Gwen wants, Gwen gets, right?
The show also starred Richard Kiley (below)
and Leonard Stone.
We'll hear "Just Once" on Sunday.
And we have air!
Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson in the
1985 revival (thank you, Stephen Fry)
of that Noel Gay chestnut,
Me And My Girl.
When the show transferred to Broadway from the West End,
Emma decided not to travel with show.
"If I had to do one more chorus of Lambeth Walk..."
A playbill from the show,
starting off with "read English at Cambridge",
and goes on to list Emma's
"Assaulted Nuts" adventures.
Ah, if they only knew THEN what Emma's future
(roasted, shelled, and raw) held!
Tomorrow we'll hear "Once You Lose Your Heart",
Emma-style.
The Pajama Game (1955)
brings us
"Once A Year Day"
with Carol Haney as Gladys
(above center).
Three Tonys for the original production:
one for Carol, another for Bob Fosse who did "featured" choreography,
and a third for Best Musical.
The original cast included John Raitt, Eddie Foy Jr., Stanley Prager,
Janis Paige and Carol...
but as you can see on the poster above
and the pic below,
Pat Marshall and Helen Gallagher were some of the many replacements.
Including a young Shirley MacLaine who filled in
when Carol injured an ankle.
Cinderella Story: A director in the audience who immediately
signed Shirley to a contract with Paramount Pictures!
The show ran for a 18 months.
(Guess they went thru a lot of pjs.)
Where's Charley?(1948)
was the first musical Frank Loesser did on his "own"...
words AND music.
Prior to this, Frank had written lyrics for the music of
Hoagy Carmichael, Jule Styne, Burton Lane, Arthur Schwartz,
and a bunch more.
This show, based on the play Charley's Aunt,
brought its star, Ray Bolger, a Tony for Best Actor.
Ray made "Once In Love With Amy"
a show-stopper at every performance,
complete with an audience sing-along.
He went on to star in the 1952 movie as well.
Bolger named the first season of his TV variety show,
"Where's Raymond?"
Julie Andrews was 25 when she took on the role
of Queen Guenevere in Camelot.
Her Lancelot was
27 year old Robert Goulet.
She "loved him once in silence",
but hey, somebody musta been listening!
Below at the recording session for Camelot's cast album:
Julie with Frederick Loewe,
of Lerner &...:)
Julie was nominated for a Tony,
but it was Richard Burton who took home
one of the four awards the show received.
Another winner was Adrian and Tony Duquette
for Costumer Design.
Critics found the score "pure magic",
but the book (by lyricist Alan Jay Lerner)
"murky, talky, and dense".
On a happier note,
a 2008 revival was broadcast on PBS with a stellar cast:
Marin Mazzie, Gabriel Byrne,
Christoper Lloyd, Christopher Sieber,
Fran Drescher, and Stacey Keach! :)
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