Anyone old enough to remember Elaine Joyce?

[Apollo]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 1:13pm

Anyone remember who this little darlin' was way back when?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 1:15pm

Wasn't she Mary Tyler Moore's acting coach?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 1:16pm

Good one, Sueleen.

And yes, I remember her from her tv days...

[dancersmom2]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 1:26pm

Yes, I remember her from Love Boat guest appearances and the game shows of my mis-spent youth

[CarolynW]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 1:45pm

I am old enough to remember lots of people at 62 years old:) I remember Ethel Merman on early TV.

Yes, I remember her from her many apperances on TV.

Yours,

Carolyn

[uncageg]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 1:47pm

I remember her from my childhood. Didn't know she was married to Neil Simon and didn't know she was such a witch!

[WOSQ]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 1:53pm

You mean the Elaine Joyce who was a year older than me when she was married to Bobby Van and played the title role in Sugar?

Or maybe you mean the Elaine Joyce who is now four years younger than me when she got married to Doc Simon?

Which Elaine Joyce? There seem to be so many.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 1:53pm

Perhaps she wasn't a witch back in the day - perhaps it comes from being married to Mr. Simon? I'm not sayin' anything, I'm just sayin'...

[CurtainUp2]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 1:55pm

Yes. I remember her from the game show Tattletales. She made frequent appearances with her then husband, Bobby Van. Actually, I stumbled across an episode just recently on the Game Show Network. I hear she just joined the cast of Sweet Charity. You don't think that could have had anything to do with who she's currently married to, do you?

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 3:40pm

I worked with Bobby Van, and met Elaine, many times. Both, were wonderful people. I've no idea what she's like now. Neil Simon doesn't strike me as the sweetest person on earth, perhaps he rubs off on people. Bobby Van, on the other hand, was one of the nicest people I've ever known.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 4:55pm

I think I have seen an interview with her somewhere....

[mominator]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 5:00pm

Elaine Joyce? Wow there is a blast from the past! Was she Murry wife on the MTMN show?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 5:00pm

That's correct, Mom.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 5:04pm

No, that was Joyce Bulifant as Murry's wife.

Updated On: 1/28/05 at 05:04 PM

[pab]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 5:10pm

That's Elaine Joyce:

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/28/05 at 6:11pm

Sueleen and pab, thank you. I have been picturing Joyce Bulifant this whole time! Those two were too interchangeable.

Updated On: 1/28/05 at 06:11 PM

Posted: 1/28/05 at 6:24pm

Rath - me, too! But now seeing them together rings all the bells.

[Mahatma Kane Jeeves]

Posted: 1/29/05 at 11:06am

I consider myself a huge Neil Simon fan and yet I had no IDEA that Elaine Joyce of all people had married him!, this just blew me away.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/29/05 at 11:13am

Saw her in Sugar

[wildcat]

Posted: 1/29/05 at 11:43am

Hey why not? Say why not? Who can tell?
I just may wind up being Sugar Shell!

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 1/29/05 at 1:42pm

I wrote about Elaine Joyce the other day in a thread about the currently cooking revival of Sweet Charity.....she is married to Neil Simon.

Elaine Joyce starred in the Broadway musical version of the film SOME LIKE IT HOT, entitled SUGAR. She played the Marilyn Monroe part from the film and she was delightful..........She was married to famed dancer Bobby Van of MGM and NO, NO, NANNETTE fame..........she also often appeared on television game shows giving off a slightly ditzy blonde personna, you might say.

[TGIF]

Posted: 1/29/05 at 1:57pm

I may not be old enough to remember her. But I love watching her on the Match Game late at night when I have my bouts of insomnia

[Marquise]

Posted: 1/29/05 at 2:47pm

as a child of the 70s (i was born in 1970) i do remember elaine joyce, not only from match game pm but also from her many "love boat" guest appearances, it seems she was on almost every week.

here's some interesting stuff on "Sugar", the show she starred in:

Sugar 101
As per the request of a new reader who goes by the nom de blog of Hot Toddy, I will write a little about the history of Sugar, the musical I'm doing out on Long Island this summer. I keep forgetting that not everyone is as steeped in musical theatre trivia as I am. In future, if anyone has a question about any of my sometimes-arcane references (or anything at all, really), just leave a comment or e-mail me.

Lest we forget that basing Broadway musicals on hit movies is NOT a recent phenomenon, this 1972 musical is based on the 1959 comedy classic Some Like It Hot, which starred Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as two Chicago musicians on the run from the mob and Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane, the ukelele-playing lead singer of the all-female jazz/swing band they infiltrate as a means of escape. The band is going on a road trip to Florida and Curtis and Lemmon, as Joe and Jerry, disguise themselves as Josephine and Daphne. But things heat up between Curtis and Monroe as well as Lemmon and Joe E. Brown as a millionaire with an eye for a shaply ankle. And when the mob finally tracks down the wayward musicians, kaos ensues. The film's final line, which isn't as funny out of context so I won't give it away here, is one of the true classic Hollywood fade-outs.

If you haven't seen this movie, go rent it NOW. Jack Lemmon was a genius and I want his career. Gay subtext abounds and, with the aforementioned finale, jumps to prominence; the film can be seen as containing the first romantic story arc for two men in a mainstream movie. In fact, it's pretty hard to dismiss this particular storyline (which receives as much attention as the Curtis/Monroe romance) as anything else.

The musical has music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, and a book by Peter Stone. It was originally directed and choreographed by Gower Champion and produced by David Merrick. To be frank, it's no one's best work. Styne and Merrill, who wrote a dozen classic musicals between them, are past their prime here and Stone was always hit-and-miss as a bookwriter. For all his legendary muscle as a producer, Merrick was unable to secure the rights to the original film's title for the musical, which is how the show got stuck with the generic title Sugar, a misnomer if ever there was one; the musical is no more about the character of Sugar than the film is...the leads are Joe and Jerry.

The original cast starred Tony Roberts and Robert Morse as Joe and Jerry and Elaine Joyce, now best known for being the current Mrs. Neil Simon (and her possibly inadvertant part in last season's Rose's Dilemma blow up), as Sugar Kane. Sheila Smith of the previous season's Follies played bandleader Sweet Sue. And the iconic Cyril Ritchard, Broadway's Captain Hook, played Osgood, the ecumenical millionaire. The ensemble contained two future A Chorus Liners, Pamela Blair and Don Percassi, as well as dancer John Mineo, who can currently be seen on Broadway in the Chicago revival, a show he's been with for its entire run thus far.

Pamela Blair, a few years away from becoming Broadway legend with her tits and ass, eventually succeeded Elaine Joyce as Sugar. And football star Joe Namath succeeded Tony Roberts at some point as Joe. This was the period when Namath was a pioneering metrosexual, doing television commericals for panty hose (yes, he had them on) and becoming known as "Broadway Joe." You may recall that Namath was also a legendary womanizer, so he probably felt pretty safe donning panty hose and dresses and doing a musical.

Sugar had a pretty healthy run of 505 performances, lasting over a year at the Majestic Theatre. There was a production some years later in London, which starred Tommy Steele (as Joe, I think) which contained a revised book and tunestack. And just a couple of years ago, there was a US national tour that existed mainly on the strength of the film's Tony Curtis making his musical debut, this time as Osgood. This version was also somewhat revised, but that didn't prevent it from garnering poor reviews in almost every city it played. Both of the these revised productions used the original title, Some Like It Hot, that had somehow eluded David Merrick.

I did not see the original production, as my mother was only giving birth to me during its run and I wasn't quite gay enough yet to insist on being taken. I also managed to miss the recent US tour. But I did the show many years ago, so I feel like I know it pretty well. It is what it is...disappointing middle drawer musical theatre from talents that usually came up with top drawer stuff. It still needs work, but is not beyond fixing with the proper mix of talent in the room.

To be sure, there are some great numbers here and a lot of the jokes (most left over from the film) land beautifully. But there are an equal amount of groaners that can be seen coming a mile away and songs/lyrics that make little or no sense or don't rhyme properly. ("Delirium" and "Presbyterian" do NOT rhyme, no matter how you contrive to say them.)

Both the original production and the London production produced cast albums, both of which have been issued on CD and both of which seem to now be out of print. I own neither, but I'd love to have them if anyone comes across copies.

And if anyone saw any of these productions, I'd love to hear about them.

How's that, Hot Toddy?

UPDATE: I'm told that Joe Namath did not, in fact, appear in the original production of Sugar on Broadway. He did, however, appear in the show in Atlantic City at Claridge's Hotel and Casino in a production about which I've been able to find nothing.



Updated On: 1/29/05 at 02:47 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/29/05 at 3:41pm

I mostly remember her from Love Boat, Match Game and other game shows. Never saw her on stage though.

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 1/29/05 at 6:12pm

I remember her! She hosted "The New Dating Game" duing the 1986-87 season!

When I found out she used to be a Broadway star, I was shocked!