R.I.P. George S. Irving

[A Director]

Posted: 12/26/16 at 4:17pm

He lived a rich life. https://behindthecurtainbroadwayslivinglegends.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/george-s-irving/comment-page-1/

[mamaleh]

Posted: 12/26/16 at 4:28pm

I'll never forget his droll re-creation of "The Butler's Song" at the York several years ago.  Absolutely delightful.  What a amazing life, and so well lived.  May he rest in peace.

[fredric47]

Posted: 12/27/16 at 1:29am

I greatly feel the loss today of George S. Irving. I was fortunate enough to see many of his memorable performances during the 1970's through 1990's. He was unique because he possessed a fabulous singing voice in addition to being a terrific character actor /comedian, a talented voiceover artist.,and a gentleman to his public.  

Here are some of the highlights I recall:

George's reprise of "Quiet Night" from the 1983 Broadway revival of "On Your Toes." This version of the song is a sung as a solo. It is the most beautiful recording made of George's voice, although I also enjoy listening to him among the NYC City Opera cast on the recording of the Marc Blitzstein opera, "Regina," based on Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes."

 I remember how impressed I was with George's Tony Award winning performance as Madame Lucy in "Irene." While I had the opportunity to see the show in my hometown of Philadelphia in its pre-Broadway tryout, I turned down the offer due to the poor reviews the revival had received in Toronto where it played first. So when I did finally see the show, it was long after I had purchased the original cast album and had fallen under the spell of the hokum performed by George and his comic foil, Patsy Kelly. Debbie Reynolds had already left the show by the time I saw a performance at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway in Spring 1974; and Jane Powell had taken over the title role. What a delightful night in the theatre! I was so impressed by the performance of "Irene" I saw that I wrote a letter to "The Philadelphia Inquirer's amusement section newspaper editor, telling of how much the show had improved from when it had been reviewed a year previously in tryout at our Forrest Theatre and encouraged theatre fans to go to NYC to see it.

I was a great admirer of George's late wife, Maria Karnilova, whose Madame Hortense in Kander and Ebb's musical, "Zorba," should have won her a second Tony Award after previously receiving the Tony for her original performance as Golde in "Fiddler on the Roof." I drove up to the White Barn Theatre in Westport, Conn. to see both Maria and George in a special revue ,"Together At Last, " singing songs and telling stories from their respective show business life after meeting in the 1946  Harold Rome-Arnold Auerbach-Arnold B. Horwitt post World War II revue, "Call Me Mister." It was a magical night; and George and Maria both lived up to my high expectations.

The two Georges (George S, Irving and George Hearn) and a precocious tyke by the name of Tara Kennedy saved the last Richard Rodgers' musical, "I Remember Mama," from being a total disaster. George S. Irving had a show stopper as the disreputable Uncle Chris called "Easy Come, Easy Go." George Hearn, whom I had not seen previously in a show at that point, had a beautiful ballad, "It Could Not Please Me More." Liv Ulmann, one of the great interpreters of Ibsen and Ingmar Bergman, was out of her element appearing in a Broadway musical especially with her inadequate singing voice. Sally Ann Howes did justice to the lesser quality Rodgers' songs on the studio cast recording on which the two Georges recreated their original cast performances.

I also remember a marvelous afternoon I spent at the NY Public Library at Lincoln Center in late 1999 watching the video made of the 1990 Paper Mill Playhouse production of "Fanny" in which George co-starred as Panisse to Jose Ferrer's Cesar. One familiar with the premier version of the Harold Rome-S.N. Behrman 1954 musical would have thought with George's fabulous singing voice that he would have been cast in the role of Cesar, which Ezio Pinza had originated; but instead, he played the seriocomical role that won Walter Slezak his Best Actor Tony Award; and Jose Ferrer did a very credible performance for a actor with a limited singing voice in the Pinza part.

I might add that a few years before Paper Mill did Fanny," George appeared there in the Anthony Newley-Leslie Bricusse musical, "The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd" in the role of Cocky, that Cyril RIchard played on Broadway in the 1960's. What a fun show that was to watch with George and director Robert Johanson in the leads!

I realize that I am in the minority here but the original production of "So Long, 174th Street," that George co-starred with the incredibly miscast Bobby Morse was the most overrated performance I ever saw George give and the most embarrassing performance I ever saw Bobby give, aside from his early Hollywood film, Honeymoon Hotel". The cleverly rhymed but unnecessarily crude "The Butler's Song," with its lyrics for shock effect never sounds anything but pretentious fluff to my ears whenever I have heard it sung by George. I guess he found it amusing.

The last time I saw George in November 1993, he and his wife Maria were sharing the stage at NY City Opera in the Steve Allen scripted version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's TV musical, "Cinderella." They played the King and Queen, parents of the Prince who falls for the title character at the ball. They were royalty personified, just the way I imagined them to be in real life.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 12/27/16 at 8:05am

This feels weird...like mamaleh, I saw his Butler's Song at the 100 Muftis Concert that the York presented while I was interning there. I think this is only the second time that someone I've worked with in the theatre has died.

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/27/16 at 9:15am

Irving is also the voice (or voices) of the "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" audio books, which, due in no small part to his performance and the slightly unnerving synth scores, have retained a cult following.