| The "Bloomer Girl" with Barbara Cook and Keith Andes is quite wonderful, as is the Ann Sothern-led "Lady in the Park" with excellent support by Carleton Carpenter (in the Danny Kaye role), Luella Gear and James Daly. There seemed to be an audience applauding for the latter musical, especially apparent during the cast curtain call at the end. Ms. Sothern is particularly marvelous in a very difficult to cast leading star role. Also really good, I forget if it was done live, was the Janet Blair "One Touch of Venus", though Russell Nype, while singing nicely enough, is quite lacking in sex appeal as the male romantic/comic lead, even if his character is supposed to start off being rather mild-mannered and milquetoast. Janet Blair's marvelous singing, acting and sexy presence are really worth checking out; she's rather underrated nowadays, mostly known for the non-musical film of "My Sister Eileen" where she plays the title character alongside Rosalind Russell. |
