Glynis Johns
Glynis Johns
#0Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 8:28am
I'm watching 'The Court Jester' and I love Glynis Johns. I remember her well from 'Mary Poppins', 'Papa's Delicate Condition' and a production of 'A Little Night Music' I saw in LA in the late 80s. She played Madame Armfeldt in that one, not Desiree.
I'm wondering why she was not a bigger star. I'm guessing she really preferred living in England and she liked to do a lot of theatre.
Any Glynis Johns thoughts?
"The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle."
LOL!
#1re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 8:34am
A Little Night Music is my favorite musical of all-time, and I've idolized Ms. Johns' performance for as long as I can remember.
Let's also not forget her vitriolic performance in The Ref!
Mamie
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/26/04
#2re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 9:57amShe was in a wonderful movie with James Stewart called "No Highway". It was about an aeronautical engineer who predicted that a popular airliner's design had faults that would cause it to crash. He went a little crazy (as only Jimmy Stewart could do) trying to convince everyone that the plane was doomed. Glynis Johns played a sympathetic airline stewardess who supported him and came to his defense when he needed the help. Marlene Dietrich was also in it and many would say that she carried the dominant female role in the film. I always felt that Glynis did. She was the one who was always there to help JS and his daughter out when the help was needed. I remember thinking how lucky they were to have found her!
A click for life.
mamie4 5/14/03
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#3re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 11:47am
Mamie, I thought I was the only fan left for NO HIGHWAY. It was a marker film of my childhood; she and Stewart were simply wonderful, and what a beautiful, dynamic contrast to La Dietrich. It's a nearly perfect little film, of the sort not made anymore, with the Stewart scientist character a gentle, clueless parent, the motherless daughter bereft of female role model, and Glynis as the stew who must carry all of the "romance" in their eccentric connection. She is magical in it. And hers remains my favorite "Send in the Clowns."
wexy
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/19/05
#5re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 12:04pm
I saw her in a play with Stewart Granger and Rex Harrison
Poor Rex could hardly remember his lines.
#6re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 12:07pmI remember that play. She had pretty much gone off the deep end by that time.
#7re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 12:09pm
aaaah--- the yiddle with a fiddle--
i love THE COURT JESTER -- but i'm afraid of the midgets...
happy turkey day glebb!
#8re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 12:10pm
Glynis, off the deep end?
Do tell.
#9re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 12:12pmShe was crazy with a capital K.
#10re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 12:17pm
"K", Rath you are the funniest.
Thank you!
Goodtoon
Understudy Joined: 11/12/05
#11re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 3:29pm
I always liked her and I saw her on some type of TV documentary a few weeks ago.
I remember that in the 1960s, she had a TV show on here in the USA, "Fair Exchange" about a US and a Brit family that send exchange students to each other's family. Eddie Foy, Jr. was also in the show and that is all I remember.
NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY - she is good in that. The film seems to reach it's climax half way through the picture, though.
#12re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 4:50pmSondheim has repeatedly said that his favorite rendition of "Send In The Clowns" is Glynis Johns' because he says she is the only one that sings it the way it is supposed to be performed. I love her "Send In The Clowns" and I also love her singing "You Must Meet My Wife" and The Glamorous Life." She's just great, wish I could see her live one day.
TheatreDiva90016
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#13re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 5:14pm
Send In The Clowns is her signature song.
I was thrilled to dress her for a benefit were she sang it.
And yes, she's nuttier than a candy bar.
gettinhep
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/9/04
#14re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 5:21pmThe pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle...
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#15re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 6:42pm
And by the way: she never left NIGHT MUSIC, and other than her problem in Boston (when she was ill, they almost brought in Tammy Grimes), she had a great, perhaps near-perfect attendance record. She opened and closed as Desiree. I will never forget her in it. She and Cariou had real chemistry (documented offstage) and it showed.
Sidebar, but not: Why is Desiree mostly cast without the Johns comic flair ever since? I enjoyed several, especially Jean Simmons (with Margaret Hamilton as her mom!) But now she's played as a straight leading lady. Wistful and glamourous, but not ever with that Johns-specific vague sparkle. Only perhaps a Christine Ebersole could capture it today.
I think the oft-mentioned new production star, Glenn Close, is dead wrong. Good as she is, and a diva, she'd just devoid of the character's middle-aged vulnerability and flighty sense of humor. Send in, if not a clown, a comic presence, please. I think in a few years, let Megan Mullalhy have a go at it. S
#16re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/24/05 at 10:40pm
The flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true.
I LOVE The Court Jester. One of the funniest movies of all time. I saw it again recently and had forgotten most of it from years ago -- Glynis Johns was BEAUTIFUL in this film - it's hard to believe how much older she looked not too many years later in Mary Poppins.
musicalsaregreat
Understudy Joined: 4/13/05
#18re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/25/05 at 9:39amI think she's very underrated as well and she's always terrific! I loved her in MP and The Ref...and I agree she is the best Desiree--I remember my director in college telling us that he was at the first preview of A Little Night Music; they were papering the house and he got in--what an experience that must have been--to hear "Send In The Clowns" the first time it was ever performed for an audience!
#19re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/25/05 at 9:45am
I saw her in a play with Stewart Granger and Rex Harrison
Poor Rex could hardly remember his lines.
THE CIRCLE in 1989. My first and only time seeing Glynis on-stage. I actually did the whole stage door thing just to meet her. She was such a sweetheart.
#20re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/25/05 at 9:48am
Cool. I thought she was so pretty and intelligent.
I'm lucky I got to see her live in that LA production of ALNM.
Mamie
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/26/04
#21re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/25/05 at 4:57pm
A click for life.
mamie4 5/14/03
#22re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/25/05 at 5:12pm
There is a video of a concert perf in the mid-1980s of many theatre people, including an awesome rendition of "Clowns" by Johns and Cariou including the dialogue. Amazing and it is not on DVD.
I would like to see Ann-Margret as Desiree with Joan Fontaine as Mme. Armfeldt. Or Lansbury.
#23re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/25/05 at 8:19pmI love when she and Sol argue in "While You Were Sleeping", but my favorite Glynis moment will always be her marching around the house in "Mary Poppins", singing about Votes For Women and completely disregarding the Nanny who is trying to quit. lol
alterego
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/03
#24re: Glynis Johns
Posted: 11/25/05 at 8:26pmMy favourite Glynis Johns movie performance was in a late 50's Brittish comedy where she played a mermaid, the film (I think) was Merinda. I love her husky voice.
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