Sunday Night at the Drama League

Well, I finally got down to writing some of the intros for the Drama League Benefit. It has been harder than I thought because I am so unsure about two of the numbers. This is the most theme driven and chronological of the shows I have done for the Drama League...I really have to order the show to go from 1927 (after our opening which is in the present) and the invention of sound to the film version of Chicago...and to now...80 years of stuff...but two of the number early on are vague to me...I Got Rhythm is a great song but it wasn't what I wanted in the slot and I have no idea of how to cleverly introduce it as it doesn't further my love affair between Broadway and Hollywood...I guess it does...it was born on Broadway and remained in the three film versions of the show. A standard, a staple, something to anchor all the movie versions. So that's what I shall say...maybe. And the other is Manhattan, but really a bit by an impressionist that takes us out of our time period. Oh well, I will try to make it work. It's only a show! By that I mean it's not a book show and it's only one night, but oh how I would love it to be great. It's enough that there aren't too many big stars, so I would really like it to hold together as an evening. Well, we shall see what we shall see. At least I wrote some today. My favorite intro, which I am sure will get cut down is as follows:
(This is to introduce a Julie Andrews medley but also to point up the comic aspects of how Hollywood treats Broadway royalty. It might be split up between our two hosts or not...not sure yet) Neither Alfred Drake nor John Raitt got to recreate their roles in Oklahoma and Carousel. Both roles were played by Gordon MacRae. John Raitt DID get to play his role in The Pajama Game, but opposite him was Doris Day instead of Janis Paige. Janis Paige was busy playing Gretchen Wyler’s stage role in the film version of Silk Stockings, in which dancer Cyd Charisse played the part that was acted by non-dancer Hildegarde Neff on the stage. Opposite Cyd Charrise in the film version of Brigadoon was not singer David Brooks but dancer Gene Kelly, while Gene Kelly’s dancing stage role of Pal Joey was now taken on the screen by a singing Frank Sinatra.,

Amazingly, Ethel Merman DID get to play Reno Sweeney and Sally Adams in the stage and screen versions of Anything Goes and Call Me Madam respectively, but to offset those she was allowed to recreate neither her Annie Oakley or Rose in Gypsy. Those roles went to Betty Hutton and Rosalind Russell respectively. Rosalind Russell’s singing was dubbed by Broadway’s Lisa Kirk whose role in Kiss Me Kate was played by Ann Miller. Chita Rivera’s Spanish Rose in Bye Bye Birdie was played on the screen by a very blonde Janet Leigh in a dark wig, while Chita played the screen role that Helen Gallagher played on Broadway in Sweet Charity, in which Shirley MacLaine replaced Gwen Verdon.

Mary Martin’s Nellie Forbush was supplanted for the film version by Mitzi Gayor, who sang Merman’s songs in remake of Anything Goes. And although Juanita Hall did get to play her stage role of Bloody Mary, her singing was dubbed by the actress who played the role in London.

And now we get to the Julie Andrews factor.

Mary Martin’s Maria Von Trapp was taken by Julie Andrews, while Julie Andrews lost Eliza Doolittle to Audrey Hepburn with a little help from Marni Nixon’s voice. In fact, although Julie Andrews was able to lick her wounds while polishing her Oscar for Mary Poppins, she did not get to play any of her Broadway roles on film. The screen Guenevere was Vanessa Redgrave while her Boyfriend role was sung and danced by none other than Twiggy. Later on, Julie somehow got to reverse her fortune and recreate her screen role of Victor AND Victoria when that film became a Broadway show. Phew!

To remind us of the wonderful songs that Julie Andrews either introduced on stage or popularized on the screen is the irreplaceable Melissa Errico.