Woman of the Year- Page 3

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 5:58am

GavestonPS, how great you worked with Marylin Cooper.

I have the nerve to call myself a musical theatre fan and yet I am ashamed to say I didn't know who Marylin Cooper was!!

Thanks to this board, I do now and "that's wonderful"

Paljoey, thanks for the link, it's great to see Marylin Cooper's face as she sings to Raquel Welch, I love her deadpan look as she looks Raquel up and down.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 6:44am

This is one of those K&E shows that I always wish I had been able to see. not their best score, but far from their worst imo.

Grass is of course the standout, but Sometimes a Day Goes By, One of the Boys, I Wrote the Book, It Isn't Working, and Happy in the Morning are all great songs.

I would love to see a production of this someday.

[Buscee]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 8:32am

I had seen the show 4 times. Once with Bacall, Twice with Welch (1st time when she filled in during Bacall's vacation, and then on her opening when she replaced her) and then with Debbie. I have to agree and say Debbie was the better of the 3. Debbie is a true triple threat. Welch was very good, and broke box office records. I also believe Bacall's treatment of Welch's hiring was anything but professional. I saw Debbie's opening night and the orchestra was less than half filled. The show was tired by the time she got to it. I also remember that Debbie had an attack on stage in her 2nd week of amnesia, and had to be removed from the stage, and her stand by went on for like 2 shows. Bacall and Welch never missed any shows. This incident and the newspaper strike did not help the show and it closed fast in the red. It makes you wonder why a show with almost a 2 1/2 year at that time didn't return a profit. Especially when it was sold out much of Welch's run.

But I will also agree that the 10 minutes of Marilyn Cooper were perhaps the best 10 minutes ever spent in the theatre.

Also the song that was added "Who Would Have Dreamed" was added to the show when Raquel took over, not Debbie. It remained in the show with Debbie. I don't think it was a new song though. I believe it was in the show when "Woman of the Year" did its Pre-Broadway tryout in Boston because I heard a bootleg recording of the Entre Act and that song was in it.

Debbie got new choreography when she took over. So did Raquel. Both of these ladies where far superior Vocally than Bacall.

Updated On: 8/28/12 at 08:32 AM

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 10:39am

I remember when Marilyn Cooper won the Tony that year. After watching clips of The Grass is Always Greener, I wonder why she never appeared on Broadway as Miss Hannigan in Annie. Interesting to find out that she was in the original company of West Side Story.

[bryan2]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 11:03am

This was the first professional Broadway show I ever saw -saw it during previews in Boston-I was in awe when Bacall came on the stage she owed it ...couldnt sing-didnt matter she was amazing..but I still remember Mariyn Cooper stealing the show..My first show and I was more impressed with this 5 minute scene than anything else..she was amazing...also saw her in BYE BYE BIRDY with Tommy Tune and Ann Reinking (who had lost her voice and was basically wispering-again didnt matter it was ANN Reinking )...I do remember watching Women of the Year and was amazed how the sets just moved in and out....Didnt Debbie Reynolds go missing durin her run and she sort of had a breakdown ...??

[Jon]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 11:25am

I saw a HORRIBLE production in the mid-80's at the Drury Lane Martinique Theatre in Evergreen Park (near Chicago). It starred the legendaery Elke Sommers.

Well, she looked good.

After a 30+ year run, the theatre was demolished and replaced by a Wal-Mart about 8 years ago.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 11:54am

Raquel - One of the Boys

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 12:35pm

Saw it with Raquel and I still say that I've never seen anyone have such a good time onstage. She may not be the greatest actress, singer or dancer, but she was obviously having the time of her life.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 1:01pm

GavestonPS, how great you worked with Marylin Cooper.

Indeed. Another show she did in Florida for us was Tessie Tura in Angela Lansbury's GYPSY. (Coopie replaced Mary Louise Wilson, who by all accounts was sensational in New York.)

I"d never thought Tessie's "gimmick" held its own with the horn and the electric lights, but it brought down the house when Coopie danced it. As usual, she got belly laughs with just a look or a movement of a finger. She was the epitome of the seen-it-all and done-it-twice burlesque dame even though she was not at all hard-shelled in real life.

***

BTW, guys, thanks for letting me run on about Cooper in this thread. Obviously, she was and is a personal favorite.
Updated On: 8/28/12 at 01:01 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 1:09pm

I'm only guessing, Dottie, but you know how once a show is a hit, they tend to keep things the same out of superstition, if nothing else.

Cooper and Loudon were sort of opposites, comedically. The former underplayed everything and the latter overplayed everything. Both were brilliant, but Cooper may not have seemed an obvious choice for Hannigan. (She also wouldn't have been much taller than the children and might not have seemed sufficiently threatening.)

(When I say Loudon overplayed, I mean when it was appropriate to the role. I loved her in BALLROOM; I didn't think she overplayed that at all, but it wasn't primarily a comic part.)

[beaemma]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 1:40pm

Saw it twice, once in New York and once in Chicago--both with Bacall. I loved Marilyn Cooper's curtain call. She did the part in that housecoat and with rollers in her hair. For the curtain call, she came out very elegantly with her hair perfectly coiffed, but still the housecoat--and got more applause than the star, who got plenty.

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 1:45pm

I thought it was entertaining enough, but the seams showed. Bacall wasn't really given A-1 material, but she succeeded anyway, if only by sheer force of personality. Unflattering costumes were of no help to her either. I found her better in and better served by Applause, a superior show.

"not their best score, but far from their worst imo."

It was all right, but nothng great. Not great either was having it sung by two leads with voices like Bacall's and Guardino's.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 2:21pm

bryan2, I remember hearing/reading the same thing about Debbie Reynolds, yet I haven't been able to find anything online about it.

GavestonPS, I saw both Dorothy Loudon and Alice Ghostley as Miss Hanningan and from what I remember Alice played the comedy very understated.

I did see Marilyn Cooper in the female version of The Odd Couple.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 3:38pm

I agree that APPLAUSE is the better show overall, despite the ham sandwich of a score, because its source, ALL ABOUT EVE, has such a clear cut plot and trajectory. And villain. You can root for Margo to turn on Eve. But WOMAN has a kind of psychological plot, i.e. she and Sam marry, then it doesn't work, then they miss each other, then engineer a rapprochement (imagine the show's end without Cooper. Horrifying.) It's all so small and without clear-cut forces of antagonism, which all stories need to pop, especially musicals. (Even NEXT TO NORMAL has the mental illness as antagonist, baldly speaking).

WOMAN'S story, sort of semi-feminist, never generated emotional suspense like APPLAUSE. We cannot wait until Margo triumphs over Eve, and one of its best scenes, ironically, is the scene where Bill rebuffs Eve in Margo's dressing. Taken straight from the source, in dynamics if not dialogue, and curiously without Margo herself. There's no comparable storytelling in WOMAN. Pleasant tale of a middle-age couple who kinda have these, like, you know, work and romance issues. It just feels small beer blown up into a lot of marital angst. Nothing beats a villain like Eve. That said, I'll still take the Kander and Ebb songs over the Strouse song set.

Updated On: 8/28/12 at 03:38 PM

[mallardo]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 4:27pm

"I'll still take the Kander and Ebb songs over the Strouse song set."

That's truly a tough call. Both scores are so sub-par for these guys. Is the Bacall connection just a coincidence?

[Buscee]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 4:50pm

As I have mentioned in my post. Debbie towards the end of Act 1 seemed to have problems remembering things. Some say she might have been drinking, but I doubt that, She seemed to be wandering around, and eventually was led offstage. People said it looked like amnesia. She was taken to the hospital, and out the remainder of the week I recall. Her standby Louise Troy who was the stand-by for all the former Tess Hardings finally got to perform. This was also the sametime Carrie Fisher was performing in Agnes of God on Broadway.

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 5:03pm

I like the score to Applause, likewise the arrangements, and believe it's getting a bum rap here.

I find it far superior to Woman of the Year, as well to many of Strouse's later works.

[Owen22]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 6:39pm

"Really, Owen? I find the repetition of "wonderful" in the duet a sign that the authors had nothing to say. Luckily for them, they had Marilyn Cooper instead."

No, the authors knew EXACTLY what they were writing, what they were saying, how they were saying it and who they were writing for. That's why they were (are) geniuses.

[Owen22]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 6:48pm

What was really remarkable about "Applause" at the time is that it was such a "grown-up" musical. It took its cue from the very modern plays of the late sixties, as well as the adult natured downtown musicals that were gaining uptown hold. Now, "Company" came along right after and did it much better, but "Applause" really was a small breakthrough in modern musical storytelling content.

[DAME]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 7:49pm

Had to ad the overture of this today to my playlist.

[morosco]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 8:35pm

Does anyone remember what exactly Marilyn Cooper said when she accepted her Tony Award? She talked about how she spent her time backstage with the crew playing cards and then said something like "you sit at the table long enough you're bound to eventually come up with a winning hand." She was charming.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 9:14pm

The Grass Is Always Greener - I know Elaine Stritch has performed this, both with Barbara Cook and Megan Mullally...

I don't suppose anybody has a link of some sort?

Updated On: 8/28/12 at 09:14 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 9:32pm

No, the authors knew EXACTLY what they were writing, what they were saying, how they were saying it and who they were writing for. That's why they were (are) geniuses.

So I guess the genius is in lines like "First, you brown an onion" and "First, you find her diaphragm". Yup, thar's lyric gold in them thar lines!

Sorry. Despite fine Kander & Ebb work on other shows, Marilyn Cooper actually made a silk purse out of a sow's ass.

(ETA I will concede this much: it is possible they tried something with more content in that spot and discovered that Cooper only got funnier the less they gave her to say. If so, then my hat is off to K&E's generosity of ego.

But if "Grass" was their first draft, that's a classic example of writers with nothing to say.)



Updated On: 8/28/12 at 09:32 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 9:38pm

GavestonPS, I saw both Dorothy Loudon and Alice Ghostley as Miss Hanningan and from what I remember Alice played the comedy very understated.

Alice Ghostley was usually a lot broader than Cooper even if more subdued than Loudon. But I wasn't involved and maybe my impression of all three ladies had nothing to do with it.

I did see Marilyn Cooper in the female version of The Odd Couple.

I am SO jealous!

[loliveve]

Posted: 8/28/12 at 9:43pm

@DAME- I love the overture!!

@GavestonPS- I have thoroughly enjoyed your comments about Cooper. Thanks for sharing them with us all :)