| Perhaps Danny Kaye's name came up and Kahn threatened to back out of the show if Kaye was signed? By many accounts, Kaye became very unprofessional during the run of "Two by Two" intentionally trying to crack up and get other actors to break character, including Kahn, on stage. As written, Oscar is a difficult sing, though apparently Rock Hudson (a decent singer who had done "I Do!, I Do!" and who you can hear if you google his version of the song "Pillow Talk") did a tour of "On the 20th Century". I doubt highly that it was up to the vocal standards of Cullum, who was wonderful acting-wise as well-- another person's name bandied about, who would have been great in the role, was Alfred Drake. Drake had just a few years before had been in "Gigi" on Broadway, but I guess since that had closed prematurely, perhaps they felt he hadn't his former box-office clout. |
