George Rose in My Fair Lady

When George Rose played Alfred P. Doolittle, he won the Tony. Not unexpected given the role is a great crowd pleaser and Rose was widely regarded as an excellent actor and showman. Whats very interesting about this though is that he won the Tony for Lead Actor rather than Featured Actor.
Theres some roles that border on supporting and lead, but Alfred Doolittle is very clearly a supporting part, one that doesnt even come close to being a lead. This makes Rose winning a lead Tony for the part strange, especially given Ian Richardson was nominated for the same show in the much, much bigger role of Henry Higgins, a performance that won him the Drama Desk when Rose went supporting there (where he also won).
Obviously Richardson was not a poorly received Higgins, so even though George Rose was an incredible showman, its kind of hard to imagine that he could beat Richardson since he was apparently giving an awards worthy performance in an actual leading role that gives the actor a lot more to do in both terms of the size of the role, and the overall depth and humor that an actor bring out of it.
So my question is, was George Rose really just that amazing in this production? Did he just nail every line and lyric and completely steal the show from the leads?
Anyone who saw this production, let me know what you thought of it, and if Rose really did deserve the leading Tony even over his shows actual leading man.

I can't speak to his performance (happened long before I was born) but the Tony lead/featured distinction used to be less about the size of the role and more about the size of the star. I'm not sure the precise details of how this changed over time, but to this day, Tony eligibility is determined at first by whether the actor's name is billed above the title or below the title. Of course, today, producers petition the nominating committee so that actors in smaller roles who are billed above the title compete in featured categories and vice versa, and the Tony committee usually approves these petitions, but the default is still above the title = lead; below the title = featured.

What Ravenclaw said regarding billing is true. The option petition for category changes that would differ from the initial determination based on billing hadn't been introduced at that point in time. William Daniels actually refused his nomination for the original production of 1776 because the entire cast was billed below the title so he was not eligible for Best Actor and felt, rightly so, that John Adams was not a "featured" part in the show.

I've always held the conspiracy theory-- and yes, it is ridiculous, but I wouldn't put it past them-- that Michael Bennett and/or Gerry Schoenfeld and Bernie Jacobs bribed or bullied voters into not voting for Mako or Jerry Orbach just to see that PACIFIC OVERTURES and especially CHICAGO didn't win any major awards. There was a lot of hostility between parties that season. 

(Yes, I know PACIFIC OVERTURES won two design awards, but by major I mean acting, directing, et al.) 

 

There was a cast album of this production on Columbia. It's streamable...

I saw this production of MFF several times and felt George Rse stole every scene he was in.

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I had the honor of interviewing Mako for The Sondheim Review (Spring 1998 ), so I got to ask him all about ''Pacific Overtures'' and what he thought about his Tony chances of winning. Mako said: ''I had run into [newspaper columnist] Earl Wilson and he told me that he had inside information that I was going to win. I said, ''Come on!'' I didn't place that much emphasis on the outcome, except I was renting a floor from Jerry Orbach, who had a brownstone, and he was also nominated for Best Actor in a Musical [for ''Chicago'}.''

Mako added: ''I thought Jerry would win. I didn't care for myself. If I got it, I'd have to give a speech. [George Rose] and Ian Richardson were also nominated for ''My Fair Lady,' but that was a revival, so I didn't think they stood a chance. But [George] won. Anyway, I got home late, about 2:30 in the morning. At 4:30, I heard Jerry Orbach shouting from the floor below, ''Hey, Mako! What the f&%# happened? I can't believe it. We lost to a f&%#-ing revival!''

If Mako had won, what would he have said? ''I wasn't going to accept it. I was going to refuse the Tony. Why? Asian-American actors have never been treated as full-time actors. We're always hired as part-timers. That is, [producers] call us when they need us [for only race-specific roles]. If a part was seen as too ''demanding,'' that part often went to a non-Asian. I refused to piggyback off the success of ''Pacific Overtures.'' If the audience wished to boo me, fine. I would've thanked the people I worked with, but I didn't feel I could accept the award as long as Asian-Americans were not treated [as equals].''

By the way, at the time the ''Pacific Overtures'' cast performed their number of ''The Advantages of Floating ...,'' on the telecast, Mako said: ''We already knew most of the awards had gone to ''A Chorus Line.'' I was really furious at how we were neglected. Before we went onstage, I said to the cast: ''Well, the verdict has been handed out. Does that mean we're losers? Hell, no! We're gonna give it our best, so get your butts in gear!'' And we did.''

Finally, Mako recalled running into some racism on Tony night:

''After the show, we had to walk back to the Winter Garden to get out of our costumes. As we were walking, and some of us were in Kabuki makeup, some of the people on the street were yelling, ''Hey, why don't you all go back to China?'' On the one hand, we felt we were making progress in the theater, but socially we were getting comments like that.''

Updated On: 7/25/20 at 09:07 PM

Mako's comments mention that, at that time, appearing in a revival was disadvantageous for a Tony win.  That does not seem to be true anymore, but, looking back, that year was the 30th Tony Awards, and only one Leading Actor in a Musical had won for a revival at that point:  Phil Silvers in A Funny Thing Happened... .  

Nowadays, it doesn't seem to matter much, and for 7 consecutive years starting in 1994, the winner in this category was from a revival.  Things change.

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I don't think so!  Looking for something that is not there.

''I wonder if Mako would have had a better or more rewarding career if he'd won the Tony.''

Sad to say, I doubt it. The leading roles and opportunities for Asian-American actors have been very rare on the Great White Way. Mako made his Broadway debut in ''Pacific Overtures'' (1976 ) and only got to return once in ''Shimada'' (1992 ), a short-lived flop with Ellen Burstyn and Ben Gazzara. Mako was the first Asian-American actor nominated for Best Actor in a Musical, and in the 44 years since that time, only two other actors of East Asian descent have been Tony-nominated: Lou Diamond Phillips (1996 ) and Ken Watanabe (2015 ), both for playing the king in ''The King and I.'' And none has won.

Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce won the Tony for playing the Engineer in ''Miss Saigon'' (1992 ). In the 2015  revival, however, the role was played by Jon Jon Briones, an Asian-American actor who was nominated for an Olivier Award in London. Re-creating his part in NYC brought Briones a Drama Desk nomination and a Theater World Award, but, ironically, NOT a Tony nomination. 

Updated On: 7/27/20 at 02:44 AM

Adding that this thread touches on a lot of issues and theater seediness which is interesting to see. My parents saw Mako in Pacific Overtures.thought absolutely amazing. So much history and power and racism revealed in one tony season..."

The racism directed at the performers in PACIFIC OVERTURES as recounted by Mako just seems like it came from some bigoted jerks in Midtown. I'm not sure if there was an anti-Asian bias against the show, It think it was more an anti-Hal and Steve bias by "insiders." 

I think showbiz politics more than any sociopolitical discrimination played into that years awards. And yet, who's got the last laugh now? CHICAGO is a landmark and holds up better than CHORUS LINE, and so does PACIFIC OVERTURES. Those two shows, thought of as "inferior" in 1975-76, will last longer than the victor of the moment. 

 

 

jv92 said: "Adding that this thread touches on a lot of issues and theater seediness which is interesting to see. My parents saw Mako in Pacific Overtures.thought absolutely amazing. So much history and power and racism revealed in one tony season..."

The racism directed at the performers in PACIFIC OVERTURES as recounted by Mako just seems like it came from some bigoted jerks in Midtown. I'm not sure if there was an anti-Asian bias against the show, It think it was more an anti-Hal and Steve bias by "insiders."

I think showbiz politics more than any sociopoliticaldiscrimination played into that years awards. And yet, who's got the last laugh now? CHICAGO is a landmark and holds up better than CHORUS LINE, and so does PACIFIC OVERTURES. Those two shows, thought of as "inferior" in 1975-76, will last longer than the victor of the moment.



I actually watched a (professionally) taped version of PO last night on YouTube.  With Mako and the original cast.  I have to admit that I had the same reaction to it that I had 45 years ago.  I was bored out of my mind from the interminably long opening number until the last moment.  

I thought the production values were very creative, and the cast was excellent.  Sad to say, my first issue is that I really did not like the score.  I also simply did not have the patience for the deliberate pacing throughout much of the performance.  I wanted to scream to speed it up.  

I also saw a bootleg of A Little Night Music, whose quality was adequate at best.  Probably taped from the second seat on the outside in a box.  I did not love the production itself, but I still enjoyed much of the performance, especially Liaisons and Send in the Clowns.  My favorite number in the show is Weekend in the country, which was poorly done in this production, but I still enjoyed listening to the cast perform it.  From this performance, there was no question that Mme. Armfeldt died in the end, per an earlier subject on this board.

 

 

I totally agree!