| Tito Gobbi as Tony, Shirley Jones as Amy/Rosabella done circa 1958 - 1962 |
| Posted by: Marlo*Manners 08:25 pm EST 02/15/21 |
| In reply to: re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA - portenopete 01:02 am EST 02/14/21 |
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Tito Gobbi was a wonderful Italian baritone and singing actor who had a lot of film experience in Italy and Great Britain ("The Glass Mountain"). He could have been a wonderful Tony and handled every aspect well. Jane Powell did not have the dramatic abilities Shirley Jones possessed - she was stuck in ingenue mode for her entire Hollywood career. Jones could play women who could be sexual and morally flawed as evidenced in her later film work (Oscar nods for "Elmer Gantry"). As for Joe, there were plenty of baritones around in that era - Gordon MacRae or Keith Andes or Harve Presnell. Howard Keel, Frank Sinatra or MacRae probably might have found the role too secondary. Plug in your favorite second banana belter comedienne as Cleo and you have a cast. (Betty Garrett? Kaye Ballard? Ann Miller???)
When Hollywood filmed Gershwin's folk opera "Porgy and Bess" in the late fifties, they cut down the choral and instrumental interludes to create more of a book musical with dialogue interrupted by musical numbers as was typical of movie musicals in that time. Hollywood would have done the same to "Most Happy Fella".
Having real locations would have benefited the show.
Marlo Manners (Lady Barrington) |
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re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA - portenopete 01:02 am EST 02/14/21 |
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re: Tito Gobbi as Tony, Shirley Jones as Amy/Rosabella done circa 1958 - 1962 - Michael_Portantiere 11:14 pm EST 02/15/21 |
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