Tony Awards Tribute to Robert Preston

The theatre world lost one of its brightest stars in 1987 when two-time Tony winner Robert Preston died of lung cancer. Preston, a character actor who worked steadily in mostly B-pictures was turned into a major star when he originated the part of Harold Hill in The Music Man, leading the 39 year old actor onto a new career path as musical theatre leading man. Not bad for a person who'd never sung before in his life.

The year of his death, the Tony Awards brought two of his leading ladies, Barbara Cook (The Music Man, 1957) and Bernadette Peters (Mack and Mabel, 1974) onstage in a tribute to their leading man, followed by a rendition of "76 Trombones" led by a chorus and an enormous marching band. Incidentally, Angela Lansbury, the host for the evening, costarred with Preston in the 1960 film adaptation of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

One More Time Round and Round the Garden

So in spite of the recession and being broke as a joke on coke, I decided that for my birthday I would treat myself to the final marathon of The Norman Conquests on July 26. The Tony-winning revival, imported from the Old Vic, ends its limited run on that Sunday, and I will be there to cheer on one of the greatest ensemble casts ever assembled. The trilogy of plays by Alan Ayckbourn tells the story of a dysfunctionally melancholy family over the course of a single weekend some time in the 1970s. Each successive play takes place in a separate part of the house, creating a gigantic theatrical puzzle of characters and situations, all based in devastating truth yet all utterly hilarious.

As you may recall, I attended a marathon of the show back in May along with Steve on Broadway his partner Doug. Turned out to be one of the greatest theatrical experiences I have ever had (and you couldn't ask for better company). Exhilarating, cathartic, alive - it's everything you would want out of the live theatre experience and then some.

They say you can see any one of the three plays in any particular order (or two, or just one). I gotta tell you: it's worth it to see all three, especially in the marathon setting. The way I look at it, it's not so much three plays as one giant play separated into three acts. And for what it's worth, I would have loved to have sat through a whole other play. The only melancholy I personally felt that day was that it had to end. The characters and the actors playing them are vibrant, fascinating and everything, especially Matthew Warchus' staging, is just brilliant (and his Tony should have been for this).

If you haven't had the privilege of seeing The Norman Conquests, I implore you to do so. There are many discounts available, but believe you me, if there weren't this one would be worth full price. And for those of you have already had the privilege and understand why I have to go back one last time, I hope to see you at the final marathon.

Thinking About "Carnival"

Earlier in the week it was announced that Leslie Caron would be joining Kristin Scott Thomas in the upcoming Paris production of A Little Night Music. If this is at all indicative of my thought processes, I was describing Caron's career to a friend who had never heard of her and it had me thinking about the musical Carnival.

Caron's film career got off to an auspicious start as Gene Kelly's love interest in the 1951 Oscar winning Best Picture, An American in Paris (which has had a musical version in the works for years). She also starred in another Best Picture winner Gigi (later adapted for Broadway), the film version of the musical Fanny (which dropped the songs and adapted Harold Rome's music for underscoring) and also a little gem of a film called Lili.

Lili, which premiered in 1953, was a hit for MGM garnering an Oscar nomination for Caron and co-starring Mel Ferrer, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Kurt Kaznar. Based on a short story by Paul Gallico, it's about an incredibly naive French orphan who is pretty much adopted by a traveling circus troupe. She's in love with a slick magician who dismisses her as a child, all the while finding herself in a tempestuous relationship with a puppeteer who is embittered because war injuries permanently halted his career as a dancer. The film won an Oscar for its musical scoring (by Bronislau Kaper) and featured a hit song "Hi Lili, Hi Lo."

In what was then a rare occurence, Lili was adapted from the screen as a Broadway musical, retitled Carnival (according to some sources it was Carnival!) The stage musical featured an entirely original score by Bob Merrill, quite easily his greatest achievement as a composer, with a book by Michael Stewart. (In lieu of using the hit film song, Merrill wrote an original song, the haunting "Love Makes the World Go Round" to take its place). Gower Champion made his Broadway directing debut under the guidance of producer David Merrick. Anna Maria Alberghetti in her only Broadway appearance played Lili, Jerry Orbach made his Main Stem bow as the puppeteer. Kaye Ballard took on the Zsa Zsa Gabor role.

The show opened at the Imperial Theatre on April 13, 1961 to rave reviews, winning a Tony for Alberghetti (in a tie with Diahann Carroll in No Strings) and its scenic design. It lost out on the big prize to the Pulitzer Prize winning satire How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. An original London production opened in 1963 and failed after 34 performances. But aside from regional productions and a popular Encores! mounting starring Anne Hathaway and Brian Stokes Mitchell in 2002, the musical has not seen a major revival on Broadway or in London, though there was talk of an Encores! transfer (as is usually the case when one of their mountings is considered an artistic success).

The original production had its share of backstage lore. The most famous was the all out feud between Merrick and Alberghetti. One time when she called out for illness, Merrick believed her to be faking it and sent her a dozen dead (or depending on the source, plastic) roses and demanded she take a lie detector test. She hung his picture over the toilet in her bathroom. Merrick later claimed one his greatest achievements was "Making sure that Anna Maria Alberghetti never worked on Broadway again."

Also, Alberghetti was apparently the first actress in a Broadway musical to use a body mike during a performance. During one performance, the actress exited on cue and had two minutes until she reappeared, bee-lining for the ladies room. However, this particular time the actress forgot to turn off her microphone, so during the middle of the show the audience heard the sound of streaming water followed by an unceremonious flush (which in itself was followed by Algerghetti's re-entry). The audience was beside itself with laughter, but that's the beauty of live theatre...

In spite of all this, Alberghetti was the toast of Broadway. Susan Watson, Anita Gillette and Carla Alberghetti (you guessed it, her sister) all played Lili during the Broadway run while Ed Ames replaced Jerry Orbach. Another amusing anecdote, this time from Ms. Gillette, was relayed in the dishy Making it on Broadway. When she took over the role of Lili, she was asked if she wanted her name put above the title. She said yes (I mean, who wouldn't?). A few weeks later she received a bill from the company manager for the cost of the sign. It wasn't in her contract. She took it to Equity and lost.

I think it's high time someone revived the show on Broadway, it has such a beautiful score that deserves to be better known than it is. But until we reach that day, here she is, the Tony-winning original assisted by the company performing the spirited "Yes My Heart" followed by Jerry Orbach's devastating ballad "Her Face" from an appearance on Ed Sullivan:

Katharine Hepburn: Stage to Screen

The New York Public Library is currently offering an exhibition of all Katharine Hepburn's papers from her extensive theatrical career. "Katharine Hepburn: In Her Own Files" compiles letters, notebooks, sketches, scrapbooks, telegrams, etc. (All of her film related documents have been donated by her estate to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Hedrick Library in Los Angeles). The exhibit is on display at the Performing Arts Library, situated in Lincoln Center until October 10, 2009 at the Vincent Astor Gallery.

Throughout her career, Hepburn found herself making the film versions of various plays (the Academy responded: out of 12 nominations, 8 were for play adaptations; 3 of her 4 wins were stage-to-screen translations). Two films (The Philadelphia Story & Without Love) found Hepburn recreating roles she originated on Broadway. In honor of the festivities surrounding her display, there will be free screenings of some of these classics every Saturday at 2:30PM the Bruno Walter Auditorium.

For more information on the exhibit and screenings, visit their website. Here's the summer film line-up:

July 11
The Philadelphia Story - b&w, 112 minutes
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn (Oscar nom), James Stewart (Oscar win)
Directed by George Cukor, 1940. Based on a play by Philip Barry.

July 18
Morning Glory - b&w, 75 minutes
Katharine Hepburn (Oscar win), Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Adolphe Menjou
Directed by Lowell Sherman, 1933. Based on a play by Zoë Akins.

July 25
Holiday - b&w, 96 minutes
Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres
Directed by George Cukor, 1938. Based on a play by Philip Barry.

Aug. 1
State of the Union - color, 122 minutes
Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Van Johnson, Angela Lansbury
Directed by Frank Capra, 1948. Based on a play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.

Aug. 8
Summertime - color, 98 minutes
Katharine Hepburn (Oscar nom), Rossano Brazzi, Isa Miranda, Darren McGavin
Directed by David Lean, 1955. Based on a play by Arthur Laurents.

Aug. 15
Suddenly, Last Summer - b&w, 115 minutes
Elizabeth Taylor (Oscar nom), Katharine Hepburn (Oscar nom), Montgomery Clift
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959. Based on a play by Tennessee Williams.

Aug. 22
The Trojan Women - color, 105 minutes
Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Genevieve Bujold, Irene Papas
Directed by Michael Cacoyannis, 1971. Based on a play by Euripides.

Aug. 29
A Delicate Balance - color, 132 minutes
Katharine Hepburn, Paul Scofield, Lee Remick, Kate Reid, Joseph Cotten
Directed by Michael Tony Richardson, 1973. Based on a play by Edward Albee.

The Mystery of Patricia Neway

Calling all sleuths! We've got ourselves a musical theatre mystery here.

I was talking to my friend Chris, who is working at Glimmerglass Opera this summer, about The Consul by Gian-Carlo Menotti (who was born on this day in 1911, I might add). Glimmerglass, located in Cooperstown, NY, is presenting the opera this summer in repertory with more traditional fare such as La Traviata, La Cenerentola and Dido and Aeneas.

The Consul fascinates me because it one of the few operas that was composed specifically for Broadway. The original production opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 15, 1950 running for 269 performances (don't let the tally fool you, the show was actually a financial success) before it became a staple of opera companies worldwide. The opera showcased young soprano Patricia Neway in the leading role of the oppressed everywoman Magda Sorel and established her as a force to be reckoned with in the opera and theatre world. Neway would also recreate her role in the original London and Paris productions and in a European tour.

Neway was born in Brooklyn, NY on September 20, 1919. She studied voice at the Mannes College of Music (now part of the New School) and with private coaches, making her debut on Broadway in 1942 in the chorus of Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne. Neway's voice, strong acting ability and striking figure onstage (she stood six feet tall) combined to create a popular presence in the world of opera and musical theatre.

Here is what I had to say about the The Consul on July 21, 2008:

'The three-act opera follows the tragic story (it's an opera about the horrors of dictatorship, this cannot possibly end well) of Magda Sorel, a young wife and mother in a deliberately unnamed totalitarian nation whose husband is a rebel wanted by the secret police. After he is wounded, her husband makes a run to the border to hide while Magda is left to make arrangements to transport the family out of the country safely. Magda's troubles multiply as her mother-in-law and child become seriously ill and she finds herself constantly followed and interrogated by the secret police. Much to her growing frustration finds that the bureaucracy at the consulate is unstoppable, leaving herself and many others stranded vis-a-vis the monikers of red tape and paperwork. When her child dies, she makes another imploring visit to the consulate and when rejected once again by the callous secretary, her emotions and anger explode in this second show-stopping aria "To This We've Come," a release of a leitmotif heard in the recitative between Magda and her husband early in the first act, with one of the few moments of musical assonance experienced in the score.'

The opera won the Pulitzer Prize for Music and the NY Drama Critics Award as Best Musical. Decca recorded an original cast album of musical highlights that has yet to be released on CD. Menotti and Neway would work again in the short-lived Maria Golovin in 1958 at the Broadway Theatre. The following year, Neway would score great success on Broadway opposite Mary Martin as the original Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music, winning the 1960 Tony for Best Featured Actress. (I've always been amused that the actress playing Maria was six years older than the actress portraying the Reverend Mother).

That same year, she starred in a revival of The Consul at the City Center. Her performance was taped for an early attempt at pay-per-view television. That taping, considered lost, was discovered in a vault somewhere and released on DVD by VAI and it is an extraordinary document featuring a performance of a lifetime.

The Sound of Music marked Neway's last appearance on Broadway, but she continued her association with Rodgers and Hammerstein by appearing in the 1964 Lincoln Center revival of The King and I as Lady Thiang as well as a 1966 City Center revival and unrelated 1967 TV production of Carousel as Nettie. Neway sang in numerous productions at the NYCO, including the debut of Six Characters in Search of an Author, sharing the stage with the late, great Beverly Sills.

While talking about the excitement and going on up at Glimmerglass, Chris sent me a youtube link of Patricia's performance of "To This We've Come" this evening. In the title it says "Patricia Neway (aka Frances Breeze) in The Consul." At first I didn't know what to make of it, until I decided to google the two names together. What came up in the search was a link to the youtube clip I had just seen as well as one for her Biography page on IMDb. There was this blurb:

"After The Sound of Music, Patricia Neway settled down in Hampton, Virginia and taught voice under her married name "Frances Breeze" until The College of William and Mary recruited her as the head of their singing department. Her last performance was as the mother in Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors" in 1974, although she taught voice and directed choir until her death in 2003."

I'm forced to take this information with some reticence. There is no date of death listed on her IMDb, IBDb or Wikipedia pages. In searching through various databases and periodicals I've not been able to locate any sort of obituary for her under either name. I know she was married to opera singer and voice teacher Morris Gesell around the time of The Consul, but the NY Times lists nothing in its archives about her past 1966. If Neway has passed away six years ago, it does seem strange that not one single news source picked up on it.

As for Frances Breeze of William and Mary College, it appears she was a highly respected voice teacher, beloved by her students and dedicated to teaching the art of vocal technique as well as instilling her students confidence and determination. She retired from the school for health reasons in 1983, and moved to St. Croix. Breeze returned to the Virginia peninsula where she died in 2003. In her memory, the Alumni Association established an endowment in her memory providing scholarships to vocal students.

However I have been unable to make a connection between the two names aside from the information I've gathered on Youtube and IMDb. Plus, Patricia Neway's signature is present on the 2009 Broadway Bear of the Mother Abbess (decked out in the striking black and red formal habit Lucinda Ballard designed for the original production). I'm not sure that they would keep a bear for six whole years before they placed it on auction, but I am not familiar with how this branch of BC/EFA functions.

The facts are few and far between and I feel there is more to the story than what I've found. I'm going to do further research to find concrete evidence to determine whether or not Frances Breeze and Patricia Neway are one and the same. Unless perhaps any of my regular readers might be able to help?

So until I get to the bottom of this enigma, here is the aforementioned clip of Patricia Neway singing "To This We've Come"