Barbara Harris

I just read a quote from the late great David Merrick, where, when asked about his favorite leading ladies. he said something like "Streisand you can't get, Haworth and Harris can't sing."

Now, I have a deep respect for Mr. Merrick. While I think Haworth is a VERY poor singer, does anyone else besides me think that Barbara Harris actually CAN sing?

I'm listening to Apple Tree now, and no, not a broadway belter of the first magnitude, but certainly a sweet, beautifully scratchy chest voice. Anyone else agree?

Doug

i love jill haworth in "cabaret" (though i've never seen her in the show..i'm only 35) but i do have the cast album. i have seen her in movies though. she was wonderful in "exodus".

What ever happened to Jill Haworth?

wc, I'm with you. Barbara Harris is a terrific singer.

1967 Tony Award® Best Actress in a Musical
The Apple Tree [winner]

1966 Tony Award® Best Actress in a Musical
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever [nominee]

Must be Julie that Merrick was speaking of.

Milla

Julie Harris played Lois Lane in Kiss Me Kate in the original london production, and then again in 1957 for a television special with Patricia Morison and Alfrd Drake. I've seen this version and her singing is...um...interesting. It's very choppy if you want the truth. So, he probably WAS referring to Julie Harris.

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really? You're probably right. Sorry I'm all messed up today. I went to bed too late and woke up too early. ignore my dumbness today.

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Barbara Harris is a wonderful comedic actress, also - I almost p*ss myself every time I see Alfred Hitchcock's The Family Plot - she is just so wonderfully funny in that film - and a little spooky also - which is exactly what the role called for.

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Mary Taylor Moore was actually a good singer. There are a handful of "archival" recordings of her in performance of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S floating around and I was shocked at how good she sounds.

Updated On: 3/30/05 at 12:59 PM

Barbara, bless her heart has always been outrageously eccentric, and its cost her a lot of jobs (including a stint in the Bette Midler GYPSY).

She is apparently living in Phoenix and was working in real estate.

Barbara Harris sounds lovely on the OCR of THE APPLE TREE. Sadly, what I and most others remember about that Tony winning performance of hers, was her bizaare seemingly drug induced acceptance speech at the Tonys.

She gave a delightful performance in the film version of PLAZA SUITE. (although, ironically, she only played one third of the parts Maureen Stapleton originated on Broadway, Stapleton and Lee Grant played the other two thirds. Of course, Harris also starred on Broadway as 3 different characters in the three musicalettes that comprise THE APPLE TREE.)

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Melissa, I wish I knew...maybe by "googling enough" you can find it...it is indeed infamous, especially among those of us theater folk. Of course, this was at a time before any of us had VCRs and I remember my mother being absolutely stunned at Barbara Harris' Tony acceptance behavior. I remember that year Harris beat out Mary Martin who was in I DO, I DO. Mary Martin cohosted the Tony awards with Robert Preston. Preston was the star of I DO, I DO, along with Mary Martin, and Mr. Preston did indeed win the Tony award that night , but as I mentioned, his cohost did not, Mary Martin, obviously lost to Barbara Harris.

Still, what I remember most of that Tony telecast is Harris' seemingly "stoned" behavior and Robert Preston, towards the end of the telecast, briefly fumbling a line and Mary Martin taking his Tony award(that he had just won) away from him in jest, to punish him for messing up a line from the cue cards. :)

I began taping the Tonys in 1980, the year of DREAMGIRLS and NINE. So I have 25 years worth of Tonys. I wish I had them all from the very first telecast and on , of course.

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WISH, your account of the Barbara Harris speech was right on. I had forgotten all about it. Your post piqued my interest so I searched my Tony tape collection and sure enough there was 1968. An old theater buff friend of mine had given me a copy a few years back that he had taped on his Sony prototype VCR when they used reel to reel magnetic tape. Well, all I can say after viewing it is in all honesty I can't really tell if she's stoned or not since there is no slurring of words, she was able to walk to and from the stage without difficulty (though she looks like she's in a trance, her eyes strangely looking into space) but it truly was the oddest acceptance speech I've seen. Zero Mostel presented the award and her co-nominees were Martin as you stated, Lotte Lenya ("Cabaret"), and Louise Troy ("Walking Happy"). The BEST part though was halfway through her acceptance speech this unannounced man suddenly appears from nowhere, interrupts her and asks, "Give you a kiss please? Congratulations Barbara" as she robotically turns her head towards him as he gives her a peck on the cheek and then disappears. TOO BIZARRE! She continues her speech, scratches her head and says "I'm shy...thank you very much...it's lovely..thank you" and once again in a trance like state exits the stage, then stops, turns around again, says something to Zero and as he steers her down the stairs she finally exits. All in all, my final assessment from the footage is that she comes off as extremely neurotic rather than stoned (could have been both I guess)....which I found sad since a drug high is momentary.

Updated On: 3/31/05 at 05:20 PM

You can catch her Tony performance in "Broadway's Lost Treasures". Even performing "Gorgeous" she seems drunk. I mean, you listen to her on the OCR and then listen to her on the Tony's (BLT is the only source I have of this, alas, I am too young to have witnessed her infamous speech), she is just all over the place, obviously over the top. And you don't know if she's either really into it or just extremely drunk. Ah, backstage drama.

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