WHEN MAGGIE SMITH WAS A NEW FACE BY PETER FILICHIA
Maggie Smith’s recent death inspired me to listen to NEW FACES OF ‘56.
Are you asking, “What could she possibly have to do with that show?”
In fact, Smith made her Broadway debut in this revue, one of the series that producer Leonard Sillman occasionally sponsored.
The key word is “occasionally.” Many of us, when new to Broadway, found the cast album to NEW FACES OF 1952 which wasn’t hard, for it was the most popular of Sillman’s efforts. That the year was a prominent part of the title led us to naturally assume that Broadway must have a NEW FACES every year.
No. From Sillman’s first such revue in 1934 until his last in 1968, he could only manage to get seven to town.
Those were enough to give birth to a frighteningly corny joke that Broadway wags loved to pose to their friends:
Q. What Broadway producer had the most plastic surgery?
A. Leonard Sillman. He had seven new faces.
Back to Maggie Smith, whose roles in the 1956 edition included Woman, Nurse, Tourist and Harem Houri.
(The last-named word means “a heavenly maiden with beautiful eyes who is said to be a reward for faithful Muslim men who reach paradise.”)
Smith also portrayed the entire country of France in a sketch that involved six other performers who each took on one of a half-dozen other nations.
Great Britain was represented by Bill McCutcheon. Thirty-two years later, he’d win a Best Featured Musical Actor Tony for his Moonface Martin in the 1987 revisal of ANYTHING GOES.
Brazil was played by Virginia Martin, who would become the original Hedy La Rue in HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING in 1961. Then, a year later, she was cast as the Younger Belle Poitrine in LITTLE ME. In it, she got to sing the terrific Cy Coleman-Carolyn Leigh song “On the Other Side of the Tracks” first in a wistful version and then in a forcefully confident one.
John Reardon was chosen to embody the Soviet Union. Nearly five years later, Reardon would introduce one of Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s most famous songs: “Make Someone Happy” from DO RE MI (which, despite the musical’s title, had nothing to do with THE SOUND OF MUSIC).
Different languages require an Interpreter, and that’s where Jane Connell came in. She’d later play Agnes Gooch in MAME, and in case you missed her on stage singing “Gooch’s Song” – better known as “What Do I Do Now?” – you can catch her doing it in the 1974 film version.
(If you can bear to watch the 1974 film version.)
By the way, this sketch was written by two brothers: Danny and Neil Simon. As the years went on, we heard more from the latter brother than the former.
Maggie Smith also appeared in “Isn’t She Lovely,” a song written by ONCE UPON A MATTRESS collaborators Dean Fuller and Marshall Barer. McCutcheon, Martin and Connell also participated, as did Inga Swenson, in this spoof of beauty pageants.
Broadway aficionados remember Swenson in 110 IN THE SHADE. There she played the Texas thirtysomething who feared she’d be an “Old Maid.” To ward off that then-terrible fate, she considered being “Raunchy.”
If you don’t know Swenson from her Tony-nominated performance on 110’s cast album, you might still recognize her name from her seven-year, 158-episode run on TV’s Benson.
NEW FACES OF ‘56 also gave each of these women a chance to shine in her own song.
Virginia Martin – who once won a Marilyn Monroe look-alike contest – blatantly expressed that her “Talent” could be found in her measurements. The song was written by Paul Nassau, whose musical A Joyful Noise ran 12 performances in 1966. Nevertheless, the run was long enough for Michael Bennett to make a deep impression on his first chance to choreograph on Broadway.
(It was the first of his 18 Tony nominations).
Jane Connell sang of life in “April in Fairbanks.” Just in case we were wondering, she taught us that spring in that Alaskan city bore no resemblance to April in Paris. This must be the only song in which “palace” is rhymed with “Aurora Borealis.”
The song came courtesy of Murray Grand, who’d later write another witty song that has one of the best novelty titles ever: “I’d Rather Cha-Cha Than Eat.”
Inga Swenson praised the “Boy Most Likely to Succeed,” meaning her boyfriend who was also her school’s class president. Succeed the lad indeed did, but Swenson assuredly pointed out that he wouldn’t have done as well had she not been the woman behind the man who stepped forward every now and then.
Such a message wasn’t the type heard in the 1950s. No wonder that it was written by one of the few women lyricists who was writing theater songs at that time. She was June Carroll, and while some will claim that her songs wound up in the show because she was Sillman’s sister, they should be told that there was more to it than that. She and composer Arthur Siegel had a few songs in NEW FACES OF 1952 – and their clever “Love Is a Simple Thing” and tender “Penny Candy.” Adding “Boy Most Likely to Succeed” showed that nepotism didn’t land them the job.
And Maggie Smith? In another song with contributions by Fuller and Barer, she played a Victorian belle who yearned for “One Perfect Moment.” It’s a comic tour-de-force, especially at the end of a phrase when her character doesn’t realize that she’s singing flat.
Yes, Smith was an accomplished dramatic actress, as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Gosford Park, Downton Abbey and scores of other performances proved. But listening to this selection reminds us (as if we needed reminding) that Smith was a terrific comic, too. How else could she have won an Oscar for California Suite?
As for her going flat in “One Perfect Moment,” that must have been the only time that any audience or critics could ever even mention the word “flat” in conjunction with Maggie Smith.
Peter Filichia can be heard most weeks of the year on www.broadwayradio.com. His new day-by-day wall calendar – A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY – 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year – will be released soon, but is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
