Seventh Heaven became a musical
after a play AND 2 movies:
the original creation was written by Austin Strong,
then a silent movie done in 1927 with Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor,
and finally in 1937, a sound re-do with Jimmy Stewart and
Simone Simon.
I guess the plot had something "special"!
Diane, a girl of the streets,
meets and falls in love with Chico,
"the king (small k) of the Paris sewers".
By 1955, it just HAD to become a musical, right?
The music: Victor Young,
who was primarily a composer of movie scores
(and very successful ones, at that!).
This was his 2nd try on Broadway,
having helped create the musical revue, Pardon Our French, 5 years earlier.
The lyrics: Stella Unger, who also worked on the book,
along with Victor Wolfson.
Choreography: Peter Gennaro, with an assist
by Lee (Becker) Theodore,
who Peter would create dances for in West Side Story
(she played Anybodys).
The dream cast HOPED to include
Edith Piaf and hubby, Jacques Pills,
but when pushez came to pullez,
Gloria DeHaven and Ricardo Montalban landed the lead roles.
Al Hirschfeld managed to draw the cast
before the show closed,
which happened TRES VITE!
Only 44 performances on Ol'Broadway.
Gloria deHaven
supposedly never did another Broadway show after this one burned her.
Above, one of her solos,
"Where Is That Someone For Me?"
can definitely be musically answered
with a resounding "NOT HERE!"
Below, Gloria looking very Salome-esque,
but she wasn't IN Salome,
so why? :)
Here she is in The Thin Man Goes Home
with William Powell, Lucile Watson and Myrna Loy, back in 1945.
Gloria would have a successful career
in film and television, if not trodding the literal boards.
Ricardo was first a star in Mexican films,
before MGM grabbed him to star with Esther Williams
in Fiesta!
His biggest success was in television,
with appearances on Star Trek (below, as Kahn,
which became a whole Wrath of Kahn "thing!"),
and in several TV movies.
From 1977 to 1984, he starred with Herve Villechaize on
Fantasy Island.
Also part of the Seventh Heaven cast
(as the character, Fleegle (The Rat)) was
Robert Clary,
a survivor of Buchenwald,
a concentration camp that 11 members of his family did NOT survive.
Post WWII, Robert began recording,
and his popularity in France brought him to the US in 1949.
Broadway, films and later an ensemble role
in TV's Hogan's Heroes came his way;
he is, in fact, the last surviving member of this show's cast,
at the age of 91.
The cast member who got the best reviews of the show
was a young Chita Rivera,
who played Fifi.
I'm actually not sure if the above photo is from
Seventh Heaven,
but the date is right: 1955.
She coincidentally performed in
New Faces of 1952 with Robert Clary!
Fifi D'Orsay
was initially cast as Madame Suze,
but after previews in New Haven,
the part was given to Bea Arthur!
Below, Fifi in Stephen Sondheim's Follies,
a good 25 years later.
Also part of the cast was
Kurt Kasznar, as Boule the snarky taxi driver.
He would go on to portray
Max Detweiler in the original production of The Sound Of Music,
Nero Wolf IN Nero Wolf (the CBS TV series),
and toured with Ricardo in Don Juan In Hell.
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