Why didn't Mary Martin get the role of Maria over Julie Andrews for the film version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC? — Page 2

Did Redgrave do her own singing in Camelot? If not it's very well matched.

Agreed on Redgrave.

Josh Logan was apparently a brilliant stage director (I've seen the B&W film of the London production of South Pacific with Mary Martin, and I have to admit the staging feels relatively modern even now--the way he cinematically transitions scenes, etc). But the films of his I known are always ridiculously overblown and heavy seeming--Camelot being perhaps the most extreme. Picnic is a good example--he did it on stage, and it's best with a simple staging, but in the film they seem to spend 30 mins showing us a "real" (and huge) actual Country Fair, etc.

(And yes, Redgrave is great in the movie--I don't think Andrews would have fit at all in Logan's vision of the film).

Julie Andrews' sugary sweetness wears thin after a while. I even got sick of her in Sound of Music. So glad that Audrey Hepburn was cast in My Fair Lady. She was a real movie star.

CarlosAlberto, "Camelot" was the first show I ever saw, as a very young child. It was also the World Premiere of both the show and The Okeeffe Center in Toronto, a vast barn of a theatre that rivalled The Uris (Gershwin) in size and utter lack of character.

The show did, indeed, run over 4 hours (I remember pee breaks, which a kid could do unescorted back then and not end up on the side of a milk carton).

The show had "Then You May Take Me To The Fair" and "Fie on Goodness" (a great number) and according to the program (I don't remember this) the first of three ballads tried out at the beginning of Act Two between Lance and Jenny.

I read somewhere that Lerner, Loewe AND director Moss Heart all had heart attacks during the Toronto run and ended up working on the show from adjoining hospital beds. Sounds like a great press agent's story, but who knows....

While I can't remember much about the show itself (I was just a kid) I do remember the plushness of the orchestra and Robert Goulet's amazing voice.

Decades later, I arranged for my parents to see Goulet at the Imperial Room, the classiest supper club in Toronto and mentioned to the maitre'd Louis Jannetta, my parents connection to Goulet. (Camelot made him a star) and when Robert performed, he wandered over and sat with my mother and sang "If Ever I Would Leave You" to her. It made her day, week, moth and a few years.

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Fyi, there's an unofficial Julie Andrews marathon on ABC Family, Friday, November 23, 2012, with "Eloise at Christmastime," "The Princess Diaries," and "Mary Poppins." All back-to-back in that order beginning at 11 AM. Then, coincidentally, "My Fair Lady" airs the same day at 8 PM on TCM, followed by "Camelot" at 11 PM!

Enjoy

Thanks allofmylife for answering my question! You were exposed to the magic of live theater at a very young age and your love for it shows...thanks for sharing your memories!

I have no problem calling CAMELOT a "great" recording. I dig it out at least once a year and listen to it several dozen times. (Among other things, I think "Guinevere" is a beautifully executed example of a type of song that most other writers shouldn't even attempt.)

And I apologize, Allofmylife; I did know that the show was a respectable success during its original run, thanks largely to its appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

I was thinking more in terms of what Hart/Lerner/Loewe left to musical history. I know amateur groups like to put on tights and run around waving swords, but I have never seen a production (least of all the revival starring Richard Burton) where I wasn't largely bored.

Updated On: 11/23/12 at 06:07 PM

allofmylife, it occurred to me just now that I might be stomping on a favorite childhood memory of yours. I'm sorry if it seems that way and I readily admit my excitement when my junior/senior high school announced they would be doing the show in the late 60s. (The production was later cancelled for reasons having nothing to do with the choice of show.)

It's just that when viewing CAMELOT as an adult, I've noticed that each time the singing stops, my mind tends to wander. And as a rule, I'm quite fond of sword-and-cape plays.

Actually, the highlight of my childhood was seeing "Gypsy" when we were in New York, the first of many, many trips in my youth to see Broadway. It helps to have parents who are in the business (even if not in New York) and are willing to sit through any musical, as my folks were.

As I have said before here, my parents used to joke that I called The Merm, "The Loud Lady."

Back to Camelot, the sets will always linger in my mind. They were so lavish (look at the two foot thick lip they build to look like a solid piece of marble on the floor of the proscenium) while still looking very early 60s simplistic. It's interesting, also, to look at the photos of the Drury Lane production. They took the original plans and slathered on lots of period detail and made sets that seem utterly lifeless. I guess there is something to be said for simplicity (even lavish simplicity.)

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