A Question about George Hearn and the 1984 Tony Awards

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 1:32am

I've never actually seen a production of "La Cage", but I know the story and I know the Cast Recording very well.

Last night I saw a Jerry Herman Documentary and it showed George Hearn singing "I am what I am" dressed as ZaZa. However, in Broadways's Lost Treasure's he was in a Tux. I assume that this was the Tony Awards. This is the way that I had always thought it was until I saw the Documentary.

So why did George Hearn perform the number in the tux and not the dress?

[dancinfan]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 1:46am

Hearn wore the tux for the nationally televised Tony Awards broadcast because he was afraid the public would not understand why he was singing it in full drag and it might wreck his career in the national arena. 1984 was a different time, and Hearn was famously hetero in a very homo show.

ZaZa always sings the song in full drag - it comes at the end of Act One after a long production number.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 1:51am

Did he have a career Nationaly......other than Broadway?

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 1:57am

Was there not a problem with CBS (?) as well, they would not air the number if he was in full drag?

I thought i read that somewhere.

[defyingravity11]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 2:05am

Yea, I once read that the audience response to him singing in drag outside of the context of the show yielded a negative response from the audience. I forget the particulars, but George therefore felt unconfortale singing in drag on national television.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 7:35am

In February 1984, several months before the Tonys, Walter Charles (Hearn's understudy) appeared on the Grammys, singing "I Am What I Am" in drag. There may have been negative reaction to that.

[nmartin]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 9:02am

Before the number,Hearn was introduced as MR. George Hearn. As dancinfan said, it was a different time.

[tomwingfield]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 9:26am

Yes it was different time, and Hearn speaks quite frankly of his own discomfort with drag in the Herman documentary. He had it written into his contract that no promotion of the show via television would include his wearing Zsa Zsa's drag. What a difference the last twenty five years have made!

[Pippin]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 11:22am

why would he bother to do the role, then, for a long period of time if he was not comfortable with it?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 11:30am

Is that a rhetorical question?

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 11:32am

"why would he bother to do the role, then, for a long period of time if he was not comfortable with it?"

Duh! To win a Tony!

Updated On: 1/9/08 at 11:32 AM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 11:47am

It was s very different time- have you seen the segment in the PBS Broadway Musical documentary where they talk about people in the audience being afraid to sit too close to the stage lest they catch The AIDS?

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 12:00pm

"In February 1984, several months before the Tonys, Walter Charles (Hearn's understudy) appeared on the Grammys, singing "I Am What I Am" in drag. There may have been negative reaction to that."

Does anyone have a copy of that somewhere?

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 12:53pm

I think it is somewhere on the web . . . . .

[Ftworthguy]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 12:54pm

Interesting this would be brought up -- I was just cast as Albin/ZaZa in a local production and I'm not sure if I've even seen a picture of Hearn in drag -- I wanted to try to get some style ideas. Anyone know if there are any 'official' promo picturs of him?

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 1:39pm

There was at the bottom of this BWW article:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=19387

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 1:40pm

And it appears this is one with him getting into drag during "Mascara"

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 1:41pm

Here's another one of him in drag, but I don't think the show is La Cage:

[Not Barker, Todd.]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 2:06pm

The Jerry Herman docu had footage of him in full drag, and there are quite a few pics floating around (OBC liner notes?).

I also heard it had something to do with the fact that he was about to present or possibly receive. But after seeing the docu, the drag explanation makes sense.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 3:02pm

Hanna I think the third picture is him in costume as the Wizard in Wicked. But I think you knew that....

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 3:14pm

Tee hee hee . . . .

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/9/08 at 4:23pm

It amazes me how many people either ignore, forget or don't "get" how far we've come in such a short period of time!


Learn it. Know it. Understand it. Appreciate it.

...or we are doomed to repeat it, as the saying goes.