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Many of the most popular musicals of the 1950s were tailored
for specific leading ladies. In fact, the the leading ladies of this
period had a greater effect on the musical theatre than
performers have at any time before or since.
Gwen Verdon: "Aces in All The Right Places"
Gwen Verdon struts her stuff in an ad for the original cast
recording of Redhead (1959).
Can Can (1953 - 892) and Damn Yankees (1955 -
1,019) brought Gwen Verdon two Tonys,
as well as a professional and personal partnership with choreographer
Bob Fosse. Verdon proved she was far more
than a dancer in New Girl In Town
(1957 - 431). None of the songs made the pop charts, but composer/lyricist
Bob Merrill's score made O'Neill's bitter
dockside characters sing but some critics complained that the libretto
prettified the darker aspects of the story. Verdon won her third Tony, sharing a
tie award with co-star Thelma Ritter. Bob Fosse's sensuous choreography gave
New Girl in Town a much needed edge, but he felt restricted by George
Abbott's conservative direction. After a major disagreement led to the cutting
of a cathouse ballet, Fosse decided to be both director and choreographer
for all his future projects.
Redhead (1959 -
452), the tale of a 1907 London girl who helps her boyfriend catch a Jack
the Ripper-type killer, was a so-so show that relied on Verdon's charms and Fosse's
sensational choreography. The dances included "The Uncle Sam Rag" and
"The Pickpocket Tango." The Redhead team picked up Tonys for best musical,
actress and choreography, among others. With her first four Broadway roles, Verdon
became the first performer to win four Tonys. Fosse and Verdon took their relationship
a step further, marrying soon after the show opened.
Verdon and Fosse triumphed again with
Sweet Charity (1966 - 608),
the touching story of a taxi-dancer who refuses to stop believing in love. Her limber
renditions of "If They Could See Me Now" and "I'm a Brass Band" became
the stuff of theatrical legend. More than a decade later, Verdon co-starred with
Chita Rivera and
Jerry Orbach in Chicago (1975 - 898),
a cynical vaudeville-format tale of murder and legal huckstering in the 1920s.
Overshadowed by A Chorus Line, this innovative masterpiece did
not get its full due until more than 20 years later. Its difficult pre-Broadway
tour nearly killed director-choreographer Fosse.
With just six shows (five choreographed by Fosse), Gwen Verdon
cemented her reputation as one of the greatest
stars the Broadway musical would ever know. She went on to appear in various
films and television projects, leaving a gap no other stage performer could
fill. Professional revivals of either New Girl In Town or Redhead
are unthinkable without Verdon on hand to provide her unique innocent
sensuality. Maybe someday a star with similar qualities
will come along, but I would not bet on it.
Mary Martin: "Do You Believe?"
Mary Martin as Peter Pan. She and her her co-star Cyril
Ritchard both earned Tonys and starred in three televised versions of this enchanting
Jerome Robbins production.
From the moment Mary Martin
stole Leave It To Me (1938 - 291) by
singing Cole Porter's "My Heart Belongs To Daddy," it was clear this girl from
Weatherford, Texas was a Broadway star. Throughout the 30s and 40s she starred in
a succession of hits, culminating in South Pacific. The 1950s brought
her the two most popular roles of her career.
Producer Edwin Lester secured the American rights to James Barrie's
Peter Pan and reconceived it as a musical for Martin. (Because of the flying
apparatus then in use, it was necessary to cast women as Peter.) Despite having
Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook and staging by
Jerome Robbins, the show was proving
unexciting in its pre-Broadway tour. Carolyn Leigh and Moose Charlap's score included
"I'm Flying" and "I Won't Grow Up," but more was needed. Lyricists
Betty Comden and
Adolph Green joined composer
Jule Styne to add "Neverland,"
"Distant Melody" and several other fine numbers. The revised score and bravura
performances by Martin and Ritchard made Peter Pan
(1954 - 152) a hit.
The Broadway run was cut short so that NBC could broadcast the
show live, drawing such massive ratings that the cast reunited for a second live broadcast
two years later. Thanks to continued public demand, Martin and Ritchard videotaped the
show in 1960. This color version was re-run several times, hidden away for years due to
legal hassles, and released on home video in 1989. Martin often said Peter was her
favorite role. Sandy Duncan (the longest running Peter of all time) and Cathy Rigby
have revived the piece with great success, but to many people Mary Martin has
remained the ultimate Peter Pan.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The
Sound of Music (1959 - 1,443) was based on the story of the
Von Trapp Family Singers, who left Austria to escape the Nazis. Dismissed as
sentimental operetta by the critics, the show thrived thanks to a superb score
and Martin's deft portrayal of Maria. Although twice the character's age, she
captivated audiences even when the unexpected happened.
During flying rehearsals for the video version of Peter Pan,
handlers lost control of the equipment and Martin hit a brick wall. Her arm was
broken, but she was unwilling to miss a single performance of Sound of Music.
So she performed in slings created by designer Mainbocher to match his acclaimed
costumes. When Martin recovered and resumed rehearsals for Peter,
she found that the stagehands had nailed a mattress to the site of her accident
with a sign that read, MARY MARTIN SLAPPED HERE.
After the disappointing Jenny (1963 - 82), Martin
triumphed with Robert Preston in
the two character marital study I Do! I Do (1966 - 560).
She then retired from the musical stage. After her husband
Richard Halliday's death, she appeared in the stage comedies Do You Turn
Somersaults and Legends, and had her own talk show on PBS.
But Mary Martin's fame rested on her years in musical theatre. Her son, TV
star Larry Hagman (JR on Dallas), tells of a visit to Las Vegas in the
1980s. With his series at the height of its popularity, people recognized him but
not his mother. "Oh well," he quipped, "that's show biz, Mamma,"
They attended longtime friend Joel Grey's act, and Grey introduced Hagman from
the stage to warm applause. Grey then said, "And here is Larry's mother,
who you all know as Peter Pan, the incomparable Mary . . ." and was drowned out
as the audience leapt to its feet cheering. When the tumult died down, Martin
whispered in her son's ear, "And that's showbiz too, honey!"
Ethel Merman: "Stand the World
on Its Ear"
A jubilant Ethel Merman in
Gypsy.
Ethel Merman was the Broadway musical
personified, the genre's brightest, boldest star for most of the 20th Century. Her
brash personality and booming voice made her a target for parody, but that is
to be expected when someone is one of a kind. While Call Me Madam
(1950 - 644) had a fine Irving Berlin score, Merman was the key to its success.
A rights dispute kept her off the cast album, where she was replaced by pop
singer Dinah Shore. Merman's separate recording of the score sold far more
copies. To the public, there was no Madam without Ethel.
After filming Madam in 1953, Merman retired to devote time to her
family in Denver. When her marriage failed (imagine Merman as a Denver
housewife?) she was coaxed back to Broadway for Happy Hunting
(1956 - 508). Thanks to "The Merm," the charming "Mutual Admiration
Society" became a hit tune.
Oscar Hammerstein II convinced
protégé Stephen Sondheim to
collaborate with composer Jule Styne on a star
vehicle for Merman. Gypsy (1959 - 702)
was based on the memoirs of burlesque strip star Gypsy Rose Lee, but the exquisite
Arthur Laurents libretto focused on Gypsy's
showbiz-obsessed stage mother. Styne and Sondheim wrote what is now recognized a classic
score, including "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "Let Me Entertain You," "Together
Wherever We Go" and the searing "Rose's Turn." ("Here she is boys! Here she is world!
Here's Rose!!") Merman took a gamble and played Mama Rose as a full-fledged monster,
receiving the best reviews of her career. The ultimate musical comedienne proved she
could be an actress of devastating power.
Acclaimed as a masterpiece today, Gypsy was not so
honored at first. At Tony time, its score and book were not even
nominated! Adding insult to injury, Merman lost the Best Actress award to
Sound of Music's Mary Martin. Now I'm a fan of both of these ladies, but how
could anyone playing Maria Von Trapp beat out Merman's Mama Rose? There have been
dumb-ass Tony mistakes over the years, but I submit that this was the most idiotic.
Merman bore no grudges. Her affectionate assessment of longtime friend Mary
Martin: "She's okay, if you like talent."
After scoring a personal triumph with a 1966 revival
of Annie Get Your Gun, Merman took over the lead in the long-running
Hello Dolly, which had been originally conceived for her. She
extended her stay, helping Dolly become the longest running Broadway
musical to that time. Thereafter, Merman limited herself to concert and
television appearances, insisting that the lifestyle required during a Broadway
run was "like taking the veil." (For more on this singular star, see
our special feature Merman 101.)
Shooting Stars
With only one hit musical, Judy Holliday was one
of Broadway's most beloved stars seen here as she appeared on the original
cast Playbill for Bells Are Ringing (1956).
Several leading ladies had brief but spectacular moments of
Broadway stardom. A short list of those who "almost did but somehow didn't":
Judy Holliday was
primarily known as a comic actress until her musical triumph in
Bells Are Ringing (1956 - 924). The ill-fated Hot Spot (1963) was her only
other stage musical.
Dolores Gray had
fine looks and a socko voice, won a Tony in the flop Carnival in Flanders
(1953 - 6) and co-starred with Andy Griffith in Destry Rides Again
(1959 - 473). But she went off to Hollywood and London, and was nearly forgotten
by the time she toured in 42nd Street in the 1980s.
Vivian Blaine
knocked Broadway for a loop as the original Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls,
but Say Darling (1958 - 332) was her only other original musical vehicle. Her
last assignment was as a vacation replacement for Lila Kedrova in the revival of
Zorba (1983).
Isabel Bigley, Ms.
Blaine's Tony-winning Guys and Dolls co-star, didn't do much better,
disappearing after Me and Juliet (1953 - 358).
Nanette Fabray showed
great promise in High Button Shoes (1947 - 727), but the brief runs of Arms
and The Girl (1950 - 134) and Make a Wish (1951 - 102) drove her
into television and film. Her last original musical role was in the disappointing
Mr. President (1962 - 265).
Shirley Booth's
child-like voice and disarming way with a comic line wowed audiences and critics alike
in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1951 - 270) and By The Beautiful Sea (1954
- 270), but after the failure of Juno (1959 - 16) she settled in as
television's Hazel. She returned to Broadway for the quick disaster
Look to the Lillies (1970 - 25), then disappeared into a prolonged retirement.
Carol Lawrence
made theatrical history as the original Maria in West Side Story, but Saratoga
(1959 - 80) and Subways Are for Sleeping (1961 - 205) did her no favors
and left her playing Las Vegas, television and summer theatres.
Why were these talented women unable to find lasting stardom at
a time when others flourished? Part of the answer lies in the inscrutable area
of public taste, but I can tell you this much with certainty the leading
ladies who lasted had the stamina, got the breaks, and offered personalities that
fit a variety of roles. The special qualities that made Carol Lawrence the
perfect "Maria" made her hard to place in other leading
parts, while Verdon, Merman or Martin could play a wide variety of characters.
The Broadway musical was thriving at the end of the 1950’s,
but rock and roll was changing the tastes of the Western world. From here on,
Broadway's story takes a somewhat rockier path. But as Mama Rose says,
"You gotta take the rough with the smooth, baby . . ."
Next: Stage 1960s