HELLO DOLLY....starring MAE WEST?!?!

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 9/26/03 at 7:36pm

Barry screened "Goin' to Town" this week and afterwards some fellow guests were chatting about the late great Ms. West. One guest said with great authority that "the 'Dolly' that David Merrick most wanted to land for the role to replace CC was Mae West.... but West demurred on two counts: that she didn't want to stay in New York for an extended run and that she was highly offended at her 'replacing' ANYBODY. Plus, she'd want to do extensive re-writes to the book. Merrick dropped the idea."

I must admit, the idea of Mae West as Dolly is a very tantalizing one. I'll bet it would have been amazingly awesome! :)

Updated On: 9/26/03 at 07:36 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 9/27/03 at 11:22am

If my memory is correct, I did read about this in the biography of David Merrick (THE ABOMINABLE SHOWMAN). Unfortunately I left the book on a train and can't verify the situation.

There is another Mae West connection to TWHM. One of her films was based on the original European play called A DAY WELL SPENT. This is the play that Thornton Wilder based THE MERCHANT OF YONKERS on. As you know, MERCHANT was an ignominious failure, but Wilder re-wrote it and introduced the character of Dolly Gallagher Levi to the plot; changing its name to THE MATCHMAKER. It was upon that version of the play that Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart based TWHM. The rest is history.

[Muir]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 4:50pm

Apparently when Mae West made Myra Breckenridge she was interviewed by some press journalist who said "I hear that you have Barbra Streisand's dressing room from when she made Hello Dolly!" well Miss West didn't take kindly to this at all! "Don't tell me I somebody else's dressing room!! my ego is breakin' records!!Of course Mae always thought that she was the great star and having Streisand mentioned after she allegedly used a Mae West impression in the movie of Hello Dolly made Mae's blood pressure rise a little to high!!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 7:00pm

They mad a movie of HELLO, DOLLY! ???????

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 11:33pm

ugg, the movie
the most miscast THING I have EVER had the displeasure of seeing

[sabrelady]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 10:55am

Well it cer tain ly wasn't a film!

[Glebb]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 11:02am

Although I love my Mae West DVDs I'M NO ANGEL and KLONDIKE ANNIE, I'm glad Babs did the film. I enjoy the entire film and her voice is glorious.