| re: Vivian Blaine, Tom Eyen and HIV Fundraising. | |
| Posted by: Musicals54 09:56 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: Vivian Blaine, Tom Eyen and HIV Fundraising. - kieran 07:19 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| Vivian Blaine was far from a B level star. As a band singer, she had a number of hit songs. She was a headliner in the big night clubs. She was a movie star in successful movies including State Fair (1945) which was a Rodgers and Hammerstein big deal movie. She created the role of Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, arguably the greatest musical comedy of them all. She created the role not just in the sense of being the first, but in that her role was transformed for her when Loesser saw what she could do, he wrote Adelaide's Lament, turning the character into a 3 dimensional complicated and smart human being who despite having maybe an 8th grade education at most is able to make sense of a medical text book. She did it in London and in Vegas and in a City Center revival. She is one of the few stars to recreate their role on film co-starring with Brando, Sinatra and Jean Simmons. Yes, Merman beat her for the Tony, but that Tony was more for all Merman's previous work when there was no Tony award. She more than proved her acting chops when she replaced Shelley Winters in A Hatful of Rain. She starred in Say, Darling (working with Abe Burrows again) which, though not a hit, ran for over 9 months. She was above the title in the hit Enter Laughing. (Sidebar: the producer sold the 2nd balcony for .99 but it didn't work. He raised the price to the conventional lowest price and the seats sold. Guess what, the balcony hadn't been moved closer to the stage). She impressed Hal Prince in a tour of Zorba! and she was the last Joanne on Broadway. She also replaced Kedrova in the 1993 revival of Zorba! when Kedrova vacationed. Her cabaret act was successful. That is not a B level career. She died of congestive heart failure which is a slow death at 74. Her career was over 40 years long. She also, as is revealed in this story, a pretty noble human being. | |
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| Previous: | She was a pioneer in another way - dbdbdb 11:02 am EST 02/15/22 |
| Next: | re: Vivian Blaine, Tom Eyen and HIV Fundraising. - DistantDrumming 10:57 pm EST 02/15/22 |
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