Susan Watson

[QueenS]

Posted: 9/16/03 at 10:52am

Stumbled upon this bio of Susan Watson's. As she had been mentioned on the "Forgotten" thread, I thought I'd share it with you all.

Nice to know that she is still somewhat active in CA.

http://www.musicaltheatreguild.com/members.asp?MemberID=55 Updated On: 9/16/03 at 10:52 AM

[robbiej]

Posted: 9/16/03 at 11:25am

Thank you, QueenS.

And let us not forget that it was Ms. Susan Watson who was the first actress to play Laurey in OKLAHOMA and dance the dream ballet in a major production and NOT MS. Josefina Gabrielle, as it stated in her bio for the Trevor Nunn revival.

[rlbgbc]

Posted: 9/16/03 at 11:33am

Thank you, Robbie.

And...I think that I read somewhere that Susan Watson was also the first non-blondish Laurie in a major production.

Love her soprano, I do. Bell like.

[TEACHEROFTHEATER]

Posted: 9/16/03 at 11:46am

i fell in love with her on the bye, bye,birdie OCR and then when i saw her in No, No, Nannette:)

[BillyLawlor]

Posted: 9/16/03 at 5:11pm

She has the same name as a cousin of mine-hehe. So when I saw this thread I fraked out for a minute.
Anyway, I beg to differ. I don't like her voice at all. I've only heard it on the Bye Bye Birdie OCR, and it didn't work at ALL for me.

[BrdwyThtr]

Posted: 9/16/03 at 5:18pm

Susan is a very unrecognized talent. Nice to see what she is up to.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/16/03 at 6:30pm

I remember her from " Celebration" a rather odd & quirky little musical better suited for off broadway than Broadway.

[redmustang]

Posted: 9/16/03 at 11:56pm

To Teacheroftheater,
I fell in love with Susan Watson, too. And, as a rule, I don't usually fall for females. (Except Chita, of course)

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 10/12/14 at 10:44pm

I've been listening to the CELEBRATION OBC and thought I would resurrect this decade old appreciation thread!

I love her voice on that album as well as on NO, NO, NANETTE and BYE, BYE, BIRDIE. I also recently found a YouTube of the 1964 FANTASTICKS with her as Luisa, a role she apparently originated before the Sullivan Playhouse run, choosing to continue with BIRDIE on Broadway instead.

If I'm not mistaken she was married to Tom Jones who wrote THE FANTASTICKS & CELEBRATION with Harvey Schmidt, and she has a close connection to material by them.

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 10/13/14 at 1:27am

The first Broadway production I ever saw, "Carnival," starred Susan Watson, who had recently replaced Anna Maria Alberghetti. I was about eight or nine, so this would have been in the mid-1960's. I'm glad to hear she's still active.

Audrey

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/13/14 at 9:58am

She was also supposed to star as Ethel Merman's daughter in a TV series called Maggie Brown, but it never got off the ground. Here she is, with Ethel, in the series pilot singing "Mutual Admiration Society" from Ethel's recent show (and rare flop) Happy Hunting.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 10/13/14 at 1:14pm

I almost feel like I know her, having seen her in Follies about 10 times!

Every night I saw it she got a huge laugh during Who's That Woman when she began to wander offstage.

That's a cool clip of her and the Merm!

[Demitri2]

Posted: 10/15/14 at 3:09pm

I've loved Susan Watson my whole life. The first time I attended a City Center production was OKLAHOMA with a great cast of newcomers that featured Watson, Karen Morrow as Ado Annie and John Davidson as Curly. As someone posted earlier, it was the first time I saw an actress both act and dance the Laurey role.

Over the years I saw her in a West coast production of THE GRASS HARP as well as most recently in FOLLIES. She also had a wonderful night club act back in the late seventies and did the best version of Bobbie Gentry's FANCY that I've ever heard.

But the most impressed I've been with Susan Watson was seeing her star in SHE LOVES ME. Just months earlier I had seen an L.A. production at the Ahmanson of the show starring Pam Dawber who had recently ended her stint on "Mork and Mindy". The show didn't really do much for me though I loved the score. Then I was lucky enough to see it shortly after at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium with Ms. Watson. The show was magic and the audience immediately fell in love with her. What I was seeing was a musical actress almost two decades older than her predecessor who knew what it was like to pull off a great role flawlessly with talent to spare. And it was also to her credit that she came off as youthful as Dawber with an angelic voice that soared, ably filling up that cavernous 3000+ seat house. Like Ms. Cook, she had a voice that was immediately recognizable on first hearing. I'm just sorry I never saw more of her over the years but am grateful for the times I did.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 10/15/14 at 11:39pm

Oh my gosh, I never knew she was in SHE LOVES ME at some point! I would have loved to have seen her Amalia, it must have been glorious. Her voice is very distinctive.

Now THAT's what I need to find a bootleg of...

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 10/15/14 at 11:58pm

Also, look at this clip of her as Dolly in THE GRASS HARP: