Madeline Kahn at the 1978 Tony Awards...

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 8:00pm

I'm putting clips on that site from the 1978 Tony Awards, so I'm simply watching the awards.

Towards the end of the evening the cast of ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY performed, with Judy Kaye. No biggie. Great performed, blah-blah-blah.

THEN comes the Best Actress in a Musical category and we get a nice shot of nominee, Madeline Kahn! Knowing the history of her and the show it sure punched you in the gut. It must have been so awkward watching Judy Kaye performing on that stage in a role YOU'RE nominated for!

She lost to Liza Minnelli (for THE ACT), but I just found it so interesting seeing Madeline Kahn a gussied-up at the Tony Awards and being nominated for a show that she wasn't in anymore, etc.

[D2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 9:17pm

Madeline Kahn had guts, and class. And I'd go so far as to say she would have won the Tony that year had she still been in the show.

Posted: 4/5/07 at 9:29pm

I just posted a clip from High Anxiety. She was sublime.

Brody, could you PM me the http link. I searched with her name nut maybe it's too soon to appear on a regular search.

[ABSteel]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 9:38pm

"Flames... on the side of my face..."

Ivan bought me CLUE the other day. Love it.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 9:43pm

The bits will be up tomorrow morning. Working/editing them right now.

I won't be posting the rundown on the nominees for Best Actress in a Musical, though I will be posting the entire ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Tony Awards performance.

Search the title tomorrow, then bookmark/favorite my account as I keep posting goodies periodically.

[Princeton78]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 10:17pm

Why awkward?
Didn't she leave the show?

[jv92]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 10:39pm

BrodyFosse-
Do you have any clips of Sondheim or Kander and Ebb winning a Tony? I'd love to hear one of their speeches again. I remember Sondheim's in 1970, which ended with something along the lines of "I never thought very highly of awards, but it's nice to get one."
And regarding Best Actress in 1978, Liza won that year because she was the show. At least, she and Kander and Ebb were. She carried the whole thing and made it a hit. She had a great amout of energy up there, though she missed quite a few performances due to her clubing. Kahn was great, nonetheless, but Liza deserved it. Had On the 20th Century not opened, I think we could have seen The Act win Best Score. There are some nice pieces in it. Updated On: 4/5/07 at 10:39 PM

[D2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 10:40pm

She and Hal Prince did not get along. Famously. When she began to have some vocal problems very early in the run, and began missing performances, she was fired. Or left. Or a combination of both. That's why it was awkward.

[jv92]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 10:43pm

That's odd, because Hal Prince usually gets along with everybody. I've rarely if ever heard an actor or anybody say a bad thing about him.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 10:52pm

Yes...

[D2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 10:53pm

I know. But they just didn't click. Evidently she had some say in the casting, and Prince wanted Danny Kaye for Oscar Jaffee but she refused to work with him after having a hard time with him in TWO BY TWO years earlier. Prince wanted her fired then, but since her name was arguably the bigger one by the late 70's, the producers kept her in the show and vetoed Danny Kaye. The relationship between them did not improve throughout the rehearsal process and out of town previews. Prince himself writes about it in his book - she never gave the performance he wanted from her except on Opening Night in New York, and according to him when he went backstage after to congratulate her, her response was "Well I hope you don't think I'm going to do that every night." Prince wasn't happy with that response, obviously. When she began missing performances after the first two weeks, the situation worsened and she was bought out of her contract, with an undisclosed but reportedly substantial settlement.

ETA: I've always thought that if they had let her do 6 shows a week, as she and supposedly John Cullum suggested, and given Judy Kaye the other two the show would have been a bigger hit than it was and would have run long enough to recoup. And she probably would have won the Tony, uneven performances or not.

Updated On: 4/5/07 at 10:53 PM

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:08pm

That remark about 6 shows a week reminds me of when Death of A Salesman with rain man was on Broadway , he received a standing ovation that year at the Tony Awards. I guess in support of his decision not to do a full week of shows. I don't recall exactly.
Updated On: 4/5/07 at 11:08 PM

[jv92]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:10pm

Is Hal's autobiography still in print? I read the one by another writer whose name escapes me now, but not the autobiography.

[ahmelie]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:15pm

I was reading a book called Auditioning by Joanna Merlin, who was Prince's prime casting director. And according to her Prince has only fired one person in all of his career, and that was only because a song was written into the show for her character and she couldn't sing it.

Updated On: 4/5/07 at 11:15 PM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:18pm

It's quite fascinating to read that he wrote about ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY in his autobiography, which was released in 1974 and ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY didn't arrive on Broadway until 1978!

For what it's worth...though his autobiography CONTRADICTIONS: Notes on 26 Years in the Theatre is out-of-print, you can still obtain a used copy:

http://www.amazon.com/Contradictions-Notes-Twenty-Six-Years-Theatre/dp/B000OCQ6H0/ref=sr_1_1/102-1860914-7952160?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175829304&sr=1-1

[D2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:27pm

I never said it was in his autobiography - didn't he write another book in the late 90's, or someone else did? I honestly don't remember which book I got it from, but I do remember reading the chapter about ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY and his relationship with Kahn. It may have been in HAROLD PRINCE, A DIRECTOR'S JOURNEY, but I'm not sure.

There was also a PEOPLE magazine article, which I still have somewhere, that chronicled Kahn's leaving the show.

[morosco]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:29pm

I've always been puzzled by a passage from Foster Hirsch's book called Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre:

"The only time Prince has had problems with actors has been with such well-known performers as Madeline Kahn in On The Twentieth Century and Ben Vereen in Grind. "Actually, when I cast her, I thought Madeline Kahn was Bernadette Peters," Prince says; I had gotten the two of them mixed up. At any rate Kahn gave a terrific performance opening night and the audience gave her a standing ovation. When I went backstage she said, "You don't expect me to do that every night, do you?" and I knew we were dead. She didn't have the stamina, and I've always thought she ruined our chances for a long run."

Did he really confuse Kahn for Bernadette Peters??

[D2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:31pm

Thanks Morosco - that's the book, and the quote!

[fflagg]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:41pm

Dustin got a standing ovation because he was NOT nominated for a Tony. Had he been he would have won over Jeremy Irons for THE REAL THING.

[fflagg]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:43pm

Ms. Kahn supposedly had a substance abuse problem at the time which led to her leaving the show. If this is true, I am sure this coupled with the pressures of the show and Prince resulted in her leaving the show.

Posted: 4/5/07 at 11:47pm

oh ok. Did he not get nominated because he refused to perform a full schedule? I mean I know you can't prove something like that...but was that the talk?

[MadelineKahnFan]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 1:25pm

Madeline Kahn was class act her whole life. It bothers me that people believe Hal Prince would bad mouth her so bad. How good of a director is he if he didn't know Bernadette Peters from Madeline Kahn. I saw her as Lily Garland in On The Twentieth Century and she was sensational and was is also on the original cast recording. Its a shame she didn't star in a movie verson of this broadway musical. Its been mentioned that she had a substance abuse in the 70's. I never heard of her having had a problem back then. If so she kept it private as she did everything else in her personal life. She even kept her cancer from us all until months before her death. She worked up until she died and that shows right there she was a trooper. The shows producers should have given what she asked for back then. She may have won that Tony if she had stayed for the shows run. It bothers me also she didn't get to at least perform on the awards telecast that year. A Broadway legend.
Updated On: 4/8/07 at 01:25 PM

[virgil blessing2]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 2:55pm

what a shame. i, too, saw m. kahn's lily garland (in the brief window she performed it in) and she was simply wonderful.

Posted: 4/8/07 at 6:11pm

Wasn't Judy Kaye already replacing her at all matinees before she left/was fired?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 7:10pm

Interesting how no one ever mentions Judy Kaye's understudy -- that Christine Ebersole person.

Whatever became of her? I know she was a regular on SNL back in the early 80's, but then what?