| re: Michele Lee in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 06:12 pm EST 12/26/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Michele Lee in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying - TheOtherOne 06:30 pm EST 12/21/18 | |
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| Sorry it's taken me a few days to get around to replying. Putting this together in a coherent (I hope) way has taken time. In addition to Broadway replacements in film versions, a number of tour cast members (some of whom were also Broadway replacements) appeared in film versions. Some of these included: In The Music Man, Broadway replacement Paul Ford (Mayor Shinn), and from the national tour, Susan Luckey (Zanetta), and Harry Hickox (Charlie Cowell). In Bye Bye Birdie, Jesse Pearson had played Birdie on one of the national tours. In South Pacific, Ray Walston had played Billis on the tour and in London. Russ Brown had played Captain Brackett on the tour. The original actors in both roles, Myron McCormick and Martin Wolfson, played the entire Broadway run (as did William Tabbert). Both were blacklisted, although McCormick was probably no longer blacklisted by the time the film was being made. He appeared in the film version of No Time for Sergeants later the same year that South Pacific was released, and he’d appeared in two films in 1955 and on television in 1953 so the blacklist may not have been the reason he was not in the film. I suspect he was felt to look too old for the role onscreen. Wolfson, on the other hand, was probably not even considered for the film because of the blacklist. I think the blacklist was almost definitely the reason why Stanley Prager was not in the film version of The Pajama Game, along with most of the other original Broadway principals. Prager played Prez for all or almost all of the Broadway run. Instead, Jack Straw from the national tour played Prez in the film. Leonard Frey as Motel, and Rosalind Harris as Tzeitel, in Fiddler. Frey played Mendel originally, and then he replaced Austin Pendleton as Motel. When Rosalind Harris auditioned for the film, she was Bette Midler’s understudy as Tzeitel. She got the role in the film, and then played it on Broadway for three months, succeeding Midler, before making the film. Irene Dunne played Magnolia in Show Boat on tour and later did the film. Jack Soo took over from Larry Blyden as Sammy Fong in Flower Drum Song, after having opened the show as Frankie Wing. In the film version of The King and I, Terry Saunders (Lady Thiang) and Rex Thompson (Louis) had been Broadway replacements. Patrick Adiarte (Prince Chulalongkorn) had been a replacement on the tour and he also played it at City Center (although the film had been made but not yet released when he played it at City Center). Broadway replacements Billie Hayes as Mammy Yokum in Li'l Abner, Lee Allen as Eddie in Funny Girl, Hiram Sherman as Oscar in Mary, Mary, Rick Lenz as Igor in Cactus Flower, and Jonathan Silverman as Eugene in Brighton Beach Memoirs all went on to play those roles in the films. James Stewart played Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey for seven weeks while Frank Fay was on vacation. He may have been hoping he would then play the film, but I think he was not signed for it at that point. (If he was, they were keeping it secret.) This is unlike the case with Burton and Equus, where he was already signed for the movie and he did it onstage as prep. Maggie McNamara played Patty in The Moon Is Blue for a year in the Chicago company and then took over on Broadway and she later did the film. Betty Bruce took over as Tessie Tura in Gypsy a week or two before the Broadway closing and then did the tour, and then she played Tessie in the film. In a minor role (more minor in the movie than the show), there's Lois Roberts, who had toured as Agnes before playing the role in the film. Danny Lockin toured as Barnaby in Hello, Dolly!, then did the film and then joined the Broadway company. Lee Grant had toured in Plaza Suite and then played opposite Walter Matthau in the final of the three parts of the movie. Eliot Feld was a replacement Baby John in West Side Story on Broadway, and he played the role in the movie. Several replacements in West Side Story were in the movie but in different roles. These include Tucker Smith, Harvey Evans and Gus Trikonis. In addition to Cullum, and as with West Side Story, several 1776 replacements were in the film in different roles than they had played onstage (with the film including more members of Congress than had been seen onstage and so some of them played roles that were not in the stage version). I’m sure there have been others. And there are cases like Paula Kelly in Sweet Charity. She'd played Helene in Las Vegas and then in London, and she played the role in the movie. Getting a bit further off, Chita Rivera did the major national tour as Charity (she also played it in stock), and then played Nickie in the movie. |
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