RON FASSLER SEES THAT THE SHOW GOES ON By Peter Filichia
Did you know that when Pearl Bailey was on Broadway doing HELLO, DOLLY! she actually urged the public not to see the show?
Well, not always, but certainly at certain performances. See if you’re surprised when you’re told the circumstances in Ron Fassler’s terrific new book THE SHOW GOES ON.
Its subtitle is “Broadway’s Hirings, Firings & Replacements.” So, where else to start but with the recent production of FUNNY GIRL?
When the production’s bean-counters saw that its leading lady wasn’t going to steer the show into the black, producers saw the handwriting on the ledgers and brought in a star who would be a better fit and sell tickets.
The move sent not only the first-choice lead but also a supporting player to find other work. And finally, the production delivered, as Lea Michele and Tovah Feldshuh prove on the “New Cast Recording.”
Fassler also returns us to the original 1964 production of FUNNY GIRL, when the irreplaceable Barbra Streisand turned out to be surprisingly replaceable. Mimi Hines unexpectedly kept it running almost as long as Streisand did, and Fassler tells why.
FUNNY GIRL gets everything from a casual mention to a deep dissection on 22 of the book’s 452 pages, but CHICAGO eclipses it by five. No surprise, really; Barry and Fran Weissler have certainly set the record for hiring replacements during the revival’s 11,000-plus performances and counting. Although the Weisslers have yet to hire anyone with a surname that starts with I, Q or X, every other letter of the alphabet has been represented in a surname at least once.
Fassler also surprises us by revealing that a future two-time Oscar winner worked for the Weisslers early in his career. True, he’s yet to appear in CHICAGO, but there’s still time…
One thing that replacements usually have no chance of getting is a Tony nomination, let alone an award. Talk of giving replacements the chance at such honors was quickly scuttled, so not many Big Stars are willing to come in as a second, third or umpteenth choice.
One major exception: Mary Martin. The three-time Tony-winner was the second person to play Dolly Levi after Carol Channing had originated it. Fassler reports how Martin thought nothing of it, for, as she reminded everyone, she’d previously taken on three roles that had already been inextricably associated with others: 1) Annie in the national tour of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, while Ethel Merman was still performing it in New York; 2) Sabina in THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH, on Broadway a dozen years after the original had closed, in the part that Tallulah Bankhead had originated.
You’re pardoned if you can’t think of the other role that Martin also included: 3) Peter Pan. True, five performers had played it on Broadway before Martin tackled it, and though she was the first to sing the role in a full-fledged musical, she counted it as a do-over.
That Martin was willing play Dolly – which would mean working for famously difficult producer David Merrick – shows how much she wanted the part, which she took to London (leading to my favorite recording of the score). And in fact, a future Dolly would incur Merrick’s wrath, in an admittedly funny, smart-ass remark that Fassler includes.
Yes, it was Bailey, after she and an all-black cast took over for Betty Grable and an all-white one nearly four years into DOLLY’s run. Even then, when non-traditional, colorblind casting had not yet entered the Broadway consciousness, some railed at the move and criticized Merrick for not hiring an integrated cast. Fassler reveals Bailey’s rebuttal.
As for firings, Fassler takes us to the original MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG when, during previews, it parted company with its leading man. The understudy who was ready to assume the role was bypassed for someone else in the company. Read how the understudy felt about it – and how the fired actor was made an offer that he could refuse and did.
Some replacements strike it rich, but few have profited during a single show’s run as much as Brad Oscar did with THE PRODUCERS. He was hired as a swing, then segued to understudy before the performer playing Franz Liebkind injured his knee. Oscar took over and received a Tony nomination, but he had even better luck awaiting him. After he spelled Nathan Lane during the star’s vacation, he was shown to be so effective that two years later, management made him its new Max Bialystock.
Fassler reminds us that others connected with that Tony-winning, record-setting smash didn’t have such good fortune – such as Lane’s first replacement. After Henry Goodman was found not to be everyone’s choice, he certainly had some choice words for everyone. Fassler also reveals the surprising amount that Goodman collected in compensation.
If misery loves company, Goodman must have bonded with Richard Dreyfuss. He, too, was to play Max, albeit in the London production, but what he said in an interview while in rehearsal sealed his doom. It wasn’t funny, boy…
Sutton Foster stepped into the title role of THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, ostensibly for one day, but then stayed around for more than 700. But Fassler will also let you know why, when Foster was in THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES, she required a replacement on two separate occasions that you would otherwise be hard-pressed to guess.
How meticulous is our author? Sure, Fassler tells the well-worn story of the famous performance of THE PAJAMA GAME that Carol Haney missed which changed her understudy’s life forever. But where, oh, where (and how, oh, how) was he able to give us a picture of the actual understudy slip announcing that “At this performance the role of Gladys will be played by Shirley MacLaine”?
Although these paragraphs imply that the book only deals with musicals, it doesn’t exclude straight (or gay) plays. For the original 1962 production of WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? replacements were on the scene even as original stars Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill were still performing. That’s because the roles of Martha and George were considered so grueling that they were asked to do only evening performances; Kate Reid and Sheppard Strudwick were engaged to play the matinees.
But here’s what Fassler reveals that you wouldn’t suspect: Alan Schneider, who had already directed the Tony-winning play, decided that he would not just have Reid and Strudwick photocopy the originals. He’d start from scratch, determine the strengths of his two newcomers, and have them become their own George and Martha.
How different were they? Those who didn’t see both pairs will never know. For while Goddard Lieberson did record a mammoth four-record set of the entire play with Hagen and Hill – and while we wouldn’t expect him to have recorded the matinee cast, too – wouldn’t it be something if we could still hear both, to compare and contrast?
(At least we have the evening cast, to have and to hold from this day forth.)
Fassler peppers the book with his own observations of performances that he eye-witnessed. These include his opinion of Bailey’s HELLO, DOLLY! After he saw it, he went home, grabbed his notebook and wrote, “Rarely have I seen a show so gripping.”
And to think that by then, Fassler had already reached the Big 1-2 – yup, his twelfth birthday – and had been a seasoned theatergoer who’d seen all of four – count ‘em, four – Broadway shows! Yeah, there’s the voice of experience for you.
And after you have the experience of reading THE SHOW GOES ON, you’ll find that Ron Fassler’s book on replacements is irreplaceable.
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 – is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
