Eeeeeeeeeeevenin' Ma'am!

I've been obsessed with Most Happy Fella lately. Everytime I hear Susan Johnson's voice I almost swoon with pleasure. I've only heard here in MHF and a long forgotten recording of Whoop-up. What is her story? Why did a woman with such an amazing voice only star in 5 (?) shows and disappear after a decade. Sure she was in mostly flops, but she must have gotten dazzling notices...at least in Most Happy Fella. Did anyone on the board ever see her live? Did she record albums or play clubs? Who knows "The Susan Johnson Story"?

Totally don't know much about Susan Johnson but just here to express the love for "The Most Happy Fella". :)

love it.

This is pretty exciting...the three episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show that Elvis appeared on are being released in their entirety on DVD in November. The cast of The Most Happy Fella performed the same night Elvis made his second appearance.

Susan Johnson singing “Big D” and Elvis singing “Love Me Tender"...who could ask for more than that!
Episode Breakdown for Elvis/Ed Sullivan DVDs

Here's another treat for you...

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/3407934/a/Previously+Unreleased+Live+Performances.htm

---

"eeeeeeeevenin' Ma'am!"

Thanks for the tips. It's amazing to me that someone so gifted could rise and fall and pretty much be unremembered just a few years later-- especially since Big D was a big hit! No one has any idea what happened to her? She wasn't back on broadway after 1960 but lived another 40 years!

There's a recording from the early '90s called Life's a Funny Present, that features songs from Broadway flops and road closers. Johnson is featured, singing a song called "Indestructible Kate". She sounds like a bass baritone, but it's still clearly her, and her performance is droll and witty. Especially a lyric about doing a dance of the seven veils, "but I take off eight! Count 'em!"

---

"Indestructible Kate" is from Jerome Kern's SWEET ADELINE. It was written by Irene Franklin who played Lulu. Dorothy Loudon played the role and did the song in the Encores! revival.

I've known a few people who worked with Susan Johnson during her Broadway years: she was a real Broadway gypsy who worked her way up through the chorus ranks: her first job was as soprano understudy to Fiona in BRIGADOON. In something of a freak accident, during one performance both understudies for Meg Brockie were unable to go on and Susan was thrown into the part last minute. Nobody, including Johnson, apparently, knew that she was capable of that glorious belt, and certainly that moment changed her career entirely.

I heard Jo Sullivan-Loesser talk about Johnson once and she described her as delightful and bawdy with a deliciously dirty mouth. She cussed like a sailor and smoked like a chimney. The "life of the party." She was very well liked and her absence was definitely missed after she retired to Sacramento.

Tom14850 --- Interesting perspective. I'm glad you weighed in on this!

All we have to go on are the audio recordings... and that VOICE... man, oh man.

But experiencing a stage performance is an entirely different thing.

I saw her do one number, ten years ago at a benefit. She was terrific... but (obviously) way past her prime. She got a lot of laughs though... and you could hear that incredibly rich voice, still shining through.

It's funny, because I felt the exact opposite about Michael Crawford in Phantom of the Opera. I thought he was completely forgettable on the cast recording (which I heard first), but when I saw him live, it was pure magic.

Cast recordings are not always a good reflection of what was experienced in a theatre.

---

Did anyone else notice that those Sullivan discs include a performance of Dorothy Sarnoff from the original cast of The King and I singing "Something Wonderful"?

And a Carol Burnett comedy routine with songs.

---