Carol Channing on Ethel Merman- Page 3

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/5/06 at 10:00pm

Dollypop's Interview With The Glorious Carol Channing

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/5/06 at 10:11pm

i love that interview & i love that you loved doing that interview!!!!

& im SURE she did too!!!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/5/06 at 10:13pm

We've become friends since.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 8/5/06 at 11:45pm

Great interview. I love her. She is so right about the film not being funny. Channing's performance of Dolly, is hilarious. Many years ago, during one of the Dolly tours, a friend of mine was playing Cornelius, and I had the opportunity to meet her. She was just wonderful.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 10:36am

I spoke to Carol about a month ago. A friend and I saw the Papermill's HELLO, DOLLY! and were aghast at what we saw on that stage. Tovah's interpretation of the part was valid, don't get me wrong, but the staging was so wrong for the material. The choreographer treated everything as if it were a music video of today, rather than a story set in the 1890's.

My friend is very close to Carol and he called her on his cellphone during intermission. He mentioned to her that Gower Champion was spinning in his grave. Of course, he turned the phone over to me at one point and Carol encouraged us to be open-minded about the new approach to the show. We tried, but when Tovah came down the staircase wearing that black opera cloak--and then shook hands with each of the waiters as if she was meeting them for the first time, we decided it was time to leave.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 11:25am

I've seen Carol do Dolly, 3 times. Once during the original run, once during a tour in the late 70's or early 80's (whenever Pat Quinn played Cornelius), and once, at The Kennedy Center, I guess in the late 90s? She never failed to get a laugh on every possible line. She simply owns the role. Nobody can touch her performance.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 11:59am

You've seen HELLO, DOLLY! three times????? How quaint! I've seen it a total of 76 times.

Updated On: 8/6/06 at 11:59 AM

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 12:07pm

No, I've seen Carol 3 times. I've also seen Ginger Rogers, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman, a few unknowns, (including Anne Hathaway's mother), and Barbra Streisand do the role.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 12:11pm

That Streisand Woman has never played Dolly. She tried but failed bitterly.

And in case you'd like to live a long and healthy life, you'll agree with me that HELLO, DOLLY! has never been done as a movie.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 3:11pm

What movie? I'm still waiting for them to film it!

Actually, the saddest part about that Ernest Lehman production, is exactly what Carol says, Streisand isn't funny. She never has been funny; and, I suppose she never will be funny. Although, she's more amusing in Dolly, than the inferior, FUNNY GIRL, where she's the complete antithesis of funny. I've always been perplexed by the love for that film. I find it wretched. At least HELLO, DOLLY! is great to look at, and has wonderful production numbers. But, overall, the entire cast of the motion picutre version of Dolly, is fairly dreadful, with the exception of Danny Lockin, as Barnaby. I also saw him do Barnaby with Ethel Merman.