The Victor/Victoria/Julie Andrew story? (Tony & losing voice)

[CapnHook]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 12:39am

I just finished watching the DVD of Julie Andrews' Broadway production of VICTOR/VICTORIA (I have not yet seen the movie) and have to say that I was actually quite impressed. Her performance was great, the ensemble was great, and the staging/choreography was fantastic!

Now, I have heard glimpses of the stories involved with Julie Andrews and this production, but can someone enlighten on the details? In regards to her denying a Tony nod and losing her voice.

Thanks!

[logan0215]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 12:42am

I think the extremely abridged version is that she was offended that no one else involved with the production was even given a TONY nomination and she felt it to be such a group effort that she declined her own.

Her voice was lost in a surgery on her throat and a malpractice suit was issued by her.
link

[Kizzlah]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 12:44am

Just to reaffirm Logan's comment on her Tony nomination:


http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1996/05/09/1996-05-09_the_great_slight_way__julie_.html

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 12:52am

There is video of her curtain speech the night she turned down the nomination. She would most certainly have won, too, because she won every other acting award that season.

The surgery was after she left the show, and the result was quite the secret for some time, ie, probably too much litigation to involve the press. That is my recollection, anyway.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 12:53am

Footage of Julie Andrews' entire curtain call speech declining her Tony nomination after a matinee performance of VICTOR/VICTORIA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKqdq2EFPI8&feature=related

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 1:04am

There were, I believe, rumors that some of Ms. Andrews high notes were pre-recorded... there is a reference to this in on of the Forbidden Broadways... that may be what u mean by losing her voice...?


kmc

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 1:06am

I love the Broadway number of Le Jazz Hot, she is a DIVA!

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 1:16am

A couple of high notes were apparently prerecorded, because she had throat trouble during the run, thereby precipitating surgery to remove nodes. The surgery was pretty much a disaster, and she has not really been able to sing since.

You know, as I get older I forget that stuff that seems very recent to me could actually be a long time ago. This was THIRTEEN years ago! Could've fooled me......

[CapnHook]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 1:36am

Le Jazz Hot is L'amazing!!

That is a devastating tragedy. I know that she can't really get paid to sing because then the hospital has grounds on their side of the lawsuit that she can still get work as a singer.

At 64, her VICTOR/VICTORIA stage performance was incredible!

[Plum]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 1:54am

I know that she can't really get paid to sing because then the hospital has grounds on their side of the lawsuit that she can still get work as a singer.

Really? Where did you hear that? Because so far as I know, the lawsuit was settled on confidential terms. I highly doubt that one of those terms was "you'll never sing professionally again or we take back the money", or that the hospital would sue her if she sang again. Anyway, even if she miraculously regained her voice from 40 years ago, she still lost years off her career to that surgery, which means she'd still be legally entitled to some damages, no? The fact that you eventually recover from an injury doesn't invalidate the fact that you lost something to it.

[EvanK]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 1:56am

Did the nominee comitee ever comment on her not accepting the nomination/over looking the other aspects of the show?

[alisadm]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 2:02am

And she actually DID sing on THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2 soundtrack. They definitely destroyed her voice. It was quite sad...made me cry.

What really messed her up was the type of surgery they used. It happened here in Boston and the premiere ENT, Dr. Stephen Zeitel has preached against that type of surgery for years. Another friend of mine here, who also happens to be on the faculty of Berklee, had the same surgery and it RUINED HER VOICE ALSO!! Luckily for her, she had been seeing Zeitel for years and he agreed to see her afterward and has been her witness against the other doctor.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 2:02am

Didn't she sing in the second Princess Diaries movie? Why are we saying she never sang again?

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 2:10am

"And she actually DID sing on THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2 soundtrack. They definitely destroyed her voice. It was quite sad...made me cry"

You're so dramatic, come on, she was able to sing, just not able to hit the high notes she used to be able to hit.

[Kizzlah]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 2:10am

Yes, she did sing in PD2, but her voice was no where near the level it used to be. It sounded - to me, that is - more like she was speaking the song rather than singing it.

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 5:30am

She was losing her high notes long before Victor/Victoria and the surgery. She hints at it in her memoir Home while talking about all the vocal strain she put on herself during My Fair Lady, and the "I Couldn't Hit the Note" segment from the third Forbidden Broadway CD didn't just come out of nowhere (and was pre-Victor/Victoria).

[Eris0303]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 8:41am

I recall reading that her song in Princess Diaries 2 was the first time she had sung since the surgery and everyone who was on the set that day was quite moved to have been there to witness it

Posted: 2/26/09 at 9:33am

I saw this production several times during it's out-of-town tryout and it was great. Standing ovations every time I saw it.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:13am

It certainly was a better show than generally given credit for. Blake Edward's book is a masterful adaptation of his screenplay. What really sank it was the less-than-mediocre score -- "Paris Makes He Horny"? Oh, please.

[Marquise]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:12am

I would hate to be the surgeon that was responsible for destroying Julie Andrews' singing voice. Who would want to live with that hanging over their head for the rest of their life?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:23am

With the plot intact, the mediocre or worse score truly sank the show. Mancini was gone, and they had to use some interchangeably dreary ballads by Wildhorn. Good or bad, the character of Victoria's tune stack was too ballad heavy. It made the show feel sluggish and too 'introspective,' when it should've been livelier. The character wasn't joyful enough in her musical expresion. It frankly needed more of the Kander and Ebb treatment.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:26am

"That is a devastating tragedy." MARY!

[alisadm]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 12:21pm

Ummm, when you compare what you had THERE on the PD2 soundtrack to what it was before—yes, it was destroyed. And she knows it. She herself said "I've got about five good bass notes. So if you wanted a rendition of 'Old Man River,' I can manage it." That's why she's never tried to sing in public again.

This was one of the most captivating voices of stage and screen, reduced to a croak. My sister and I grew up listening to "The Sound of Music" and "Mary Poppins" soundtracks on my record player over and over again. Hell, "The Sound of Music" is my favorite movie EVER. (Imagine the looks when you're black and THAT'S you're favorite movie!) Whenever I have to sing legit with a British accent, I always end up sounding like her.

So yes, I did cry. And promptly deleted it from my Zune, never wanting to hear my childhood hero sound like that again.

And I'm sure when they say they recorded the top notes, they're talking about that G5 she hits over and over.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 12:36pm

Actually she does a bit of croak-singing in "Elosie" which was before PD2.

Julie Andrews has always had vocal problems going all the way back to My Fair Lady. During that time, she had trouble with the high notes. She also took on the bad habit of speaking some of her notes.

And it's not a well kept secret that Marni Nixon dubbed the highest note in The Sound of Music.

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 2/26/09 at 12:37pm

Julie is TRUE CLASS. Her curtain speech is complete proof of that. She could have been nasty, but she was just in complete support of the creative team she was working with on Victor/Victoria.

That being said, the only things that MAYBE should have been nominated that year (but weren't) were choreography, sets, MAYBE Nouri PERHAPS York. That being said, York was really just rehashing what was already on screen. Nouri wasn't really a revelation in the role. So I'm fine with them not being nominated.

I thought Julie did a fabulous job with some pretty unremarkable material. I was blown away by her dancing, and wished that she would have been used a bit more in production numbers. I think the creative team was trying to modify the material to cover up the vocal problems Julie was having. For example, I HATED with Le Jazz Hot that she was basically wheeled out on a piano, sang a few notes, was wheeled off stage while the chorus danced, and came back on for a bit more. I think they were concerned about her being on stage and NOT singing, so they just cut her out of the numbers. She could have handled the dance (IMHO) but the vocal problems limited her singing ability.

The new numbers all were mediocre. The existing numbers were modulated down so low to deal with Julie's vocal problems, that I think they felt flat (IMHO).

I was THRILLED to finally see this legend perform live, but just disappointed for the most part in what she was given to perform.