| re: Who was offered Mame? | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 10:58 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 10:57 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
| In reply to: Who was offered Mame? - bobby2 09:59 pm EDT 05/14/18 | |
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| I believe I read that Nanette Fabray and Dolores Gray were the other two finalists for the role of Mame when the musical was being cast. At that time, Lansbury had been known mainly for playing mothers or matrons, sometimes of people she was within a very few actual years of, like Laurence Harvey in "Manchurian Candidate" and Elvis Presley in "Blue Hawaii". She has gone on record at the time saying that Mame Dennis was her dream role. I think she very much wanted to play a glamorous leading lady role. She started off in films as kind of sexy in "Gaslight" and "The Harvey Girls" and downright lovely in "The Picture of Dorian Gray, but MGM started to put her on a more character parts track and that's what stuck until Mame. Of course, she was back to leading character parts in "Dear World", "Sweeney Todd", etc. thereafter, but as a big Broadway star. Lee Remick had the more traditional leading lady role in "Anyone Can Whistle", while Lansbury was the charactery lady mayor. Since it was a quick flop, it's possible not that many people had seen her in the show or were really aware of her musical abilities, though Jerry Herman certainly championed her at her Mame audition and thereafter. | |
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