(The images below are thumbnails – click on them to see larger versions.)

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 . . ."