| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 12:41 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - PlayWiz 11:59 am EDT 05/07/15 |
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| Lerner wrote that the songs they played, first for Richard Halliday and then for Mary, were "Ascot Gavotte," "Just You Wait," "Please Don't Marry Me," "Lady Liza" and "Say a Prayer." No one seems to have written about Martin seeing the show and her reaction. One thing that I find interesting is that very early on, Dolores Gray was seriously considered as a possibility for Eliza. This was years before the show was actually produced. It was when the Theatre Guild was involved. The Guild even put together a production of Pygmalion with Gray to see how she was in the role. Tom Helmore, who later would be Harrison's standby for a few months and starred in productions of MFL a couple of times later, was Higgins. One of the few times Helmore went on for Harrison on Broadway, he lost his voice and they had to send the audience home after "Ordinary Man." From reading McHugh, you might think that the production with Gray was on Broadway, but it was at Westport, which Lawrence Langner of the Guild ran at the time. | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | JohnDunlop 08:18 pm EDT 05/09/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - AlanScott 12:41 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| I have a tape of a show that Mary Martin performed for IBM employees in the 1980s. Mary talks about all the shows she turned down that became big hits. She emphasizes "My Fair Lady" a bit more than the other musicals. That's not proof that she saw MFL, but it may mean some regrets. | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | larry13 12:36 am EDT 05/10/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - JohnDunlop 08:18 pm EDT 05/09/15 |
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| I have absolutely no doubt that Mary Martin--along with every other actor in the business and probably almost everyone outside show business-saw MFL. It's a real shame if nothing further ever turns up about her reactions to it.(I'm sure her daughter knows more.) | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | JohnDunlop 06:46 am EDT 05/10/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - larry13 12:36 am EDT 05/10/15 |
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| Martin frequently said that she missed many shows because of working so much. In her very last interview -- in connection with the Kennedy Center Honors in 1989, Martin told Larry King that she almost missed seeing Merman in "Annie Get Your Gun," but for a Sunday night benefit performance. | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | larry13 10:57 am EDT 05/10/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - JohnDunlop 06:46 am EDT 05/10/15 |
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| The only way Martin would have ever missed seeing MFL on B'way. between 1956 and 1962--or in London or elsewhere--would have been if she deliberately avoided seeing it. | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | JohnDunlop 11:45 pm EDT 05/10/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - larry13 10:57 am EDT 05/10/15 |
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| I agree that it is likely Mary Martin saw MFL. | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | Michael_Portantiere 03:35 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - AlanScott 12:41 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| Of course, in hindsight -- and maybe even at the time -- the idea of either Mary Martin or Dolores Gray as Eliza in MY FAIR LADY seems ludicrous, for several reasons. | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 06:21 pm EDT 05/08/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - Michael_Portantiere 03:35 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| I can quite see Mary Martin as Eliza. I think that if she could have managed the accent work, she could have acted it well. I can understand why a whole bunch of people saw it as a role for her. Dolores Gray is tougher to imagine. But she may have had more range than she generally got to demonstrate. Or perhaps her Eliza in Pygmalion convinced everyone that she didn't. I believe Carol Channing also played Eliza in Pygmalion in a stock tour. I can imagine her being able to do it. Obviously, she could not have played Eliza in the musical we know as My Fair Lady (although it's interesting to listen to No for an Answer and hear that she did have some head voice at her disposal when she was young). Her tour in another Shaw, The Millionairess, seems to have been successful. | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | Michael_Portantiere 12:03 am EDT 05/09/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - AlanScott 06:21 pm EDT 05/08/15 |
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| "I can quite see Mary Martin as Eliza. I think that if she could have managed the accent work, she could have acted it well. I can understand why a whole bunch of people saw it as a role for her." Well, I think it's a huge "if" as to whether Martin could have managed the accent work. Also, although we all know she had a soprano range, it was never very convincing to me, and I don't think the role of Eliza would work nearly as well if her songs were in the alto range. Most important of all, although I know Eliza had previously been played by several older women in productions of PYGMALION, I think it's very important to the plot of the play and the musical that she be quite young, and I don't think that would have worked at all with Martin -- even though I know she was always praised for her youthful quality on stage, and no one seems to have strongly objected to her age when she did THE SOUND OF MUSIC :-) | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 05:22 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - Michael_Portantiere 03:35 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| I'm not sure how Mary Martin's attempts at an English accent would have been, but she was one of the first in line for female musical leads at the time, kind of like Kelli O'Hara (well at Lincoln Center anyway) but in Martin's case, she actually represented box-office dollars. Also, if Gray had been cast, the keys could have been lowered. Eliza doesn't really go very high--just a "G" in "I Could Have Dance All Night". Gray was a fine actress and had studied at RADA around the time she starred in "Annie Get Your Gun" in London. Maybe Gertrude Lawrence, who I believe performed in "Pygmalion" might have been interested if she had lived, since Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Lynn Fontanne had played the role at considerably older ages than Eliza's stated age. | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | larry13 11:36 am EDT 05/08/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - PlayWiz 05:22 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| I agree with what you say about Mary Martin. But Dolores Gray--whom I love!--as Eliza Doolittle?!! I don't care whether the keys would have been lowered. And Gertrude Lawrence, who never had much of a voice, as Eliza in her late fifties?!! How old were either Mrs.Campbell or Fontanne when they played Eliza, and acted, of course, not sung? Are we really talking about the same score that Julie Andrews sang?? | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 03:44 pm EDT 05/08/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - larry13 11:36 am EDT 05/08/15 |
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| I'm pretty sure if someone like Gray or Lawrence were around, the score would have been tailored more for their voices. Oh, Lawrence did have some range during her prime with a soprano placement using some head voice, though her intonation (pitch) was shaky. There's a recording of her doing "The Saga of Jenny" from "Lady in the Dark" where she goes for a high note at the end and, by hook or by crook, she goes for it, grabs it by the tail and it may not be the most pleasant thing to hear, but by gosh and by golly, she latches on to it and doesn't let it go! Hear for yourself! :) | |
| Link | Gertrude Lawrence - "Saga of Jenny" |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 12:08 pm EDT 05/08/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - larry13 11:36 am EDT 05/08/15 |
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| Mrs. Pat was 49 when she first played Eliza. I would think if it had been written for Dolores Gray or Mary Martin, the score would have been tailored to what Gray or Martin could do. Btw, Rodgers and Hammerstein considered writing a musical version of The Magic Bed-Knob for Martin. | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | Michael_Portantiere 12:06 am EDT 05/09/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - AlanScott 12:08 pm EDT 05/08/15 |
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| "I would think if it had been written for Dolores Gray or Mary Martin, the score would have been tailored to what Gray or Martin could do." And I think, if that had happened, MY FAIR LADY would probably be a forgotten musical, because as great as Martin and Gray were in roles they were suited for, there is almost nothing about either of them that has anything to do with Eliza Doolittle. | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 12:54 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - AlanScott 12:41 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| Apparently Alan Jay Lerner approached Deanna Durbin about making a comeback to show business as Eliza. She was also contacted about the film version as well. | |
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| Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... | |
| Posted by: | jimvar1 01:34 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - PlayWiz 12:54 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| 8 years older by the time the film was made? And how convincing a Cockney girl could she have played? Some other bizarre stage/film fantasy casting (among many): - Darryl Zanuck wanted Maureen O'Hara as Mrs. Anna except for R. Rodgers saying no. O'Hara might've actually been good; except that she was American. - Doris Day as Maria von Trapp? | |
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| re: Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... | |
| Posted by: | PlayWiz 05:28 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... - jimvar1 01:34 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| Actually Doris Day would have been a fine Maria Von Trapp; her star magnetism, still fresh-scrubbed look and proven singing talent might worked. But Julie Andrews was very recent to the film world, though people had been hearing about her in the news losing out to Audrey Hepburn for "My Fair Lady". Those kids in "Sound of Music" have for the most part American accents. Julie Andrews is so good and charismatic that her British accent doesn't really feel out of place in Austria. | |
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| The SOM film accents | |
| Posted by: | jimvar1 03:25 am EDT 05/08/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... - PlayWiz 05:28 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| I don't think the film kids had accents that particularly stood out as "American." As a matter of fact, w/ Andrews and Richard Haydn being the only Brits in the cast (and Andrews already having spent some 10 years in the USA), Plummer being Canadian, and everyone else Yank, Robert Wise and his team went to great effort to achieve a "mid-Atlantic" accent for the film. And I think they succeeded in that regard. Compare Carrie Underwood's accent to the American actors in the film, and you will get a heavier "American" accent than what came out in the film. | |
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| re: Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 01:46 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... - jimvar1 01:34 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| Do you know about google and duckduckgo? If you type in a famous performer's name and hit return or click search, sometimes you can find a date of birth for someone without even having to click again. Durbin was 34 when MFL opened on Broadway. | |
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| And Maureen O'Hara is Irish | |
| Posted by: | Michael_Portantiere 03:38 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... - AlanScott 01:46 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| :-) | |
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| re: Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... | |
| Posted by: | jimvar1 01:55 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... - AlanScott 01:46 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| I know; I know. There's also such a thing as ...havedaoderfellalookitup4u.com LOL!! | |
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| re: Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 02:15 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Durbin? Wouldn't she be like 50+ in 1956 and... - jimvar1 01:55 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| You're funny. But you should have gone to see Fun Home. ;) | |
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| re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 01:07 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Are these some of the songs they played for Mary Martin - PlayWiz 12:54 pm EDT 05/07/15 |
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| Hard for me to imagine that she would have been seriously considered for the film by that point, but, yes, she was among the names mentioned for Eliza onstage. | |
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