"I Do! I Do!" Revival?

[+ WilliamM]

A star vehicle for Robert Preston and Mary Martin, but the musical has never been revived. This is being discussed elsewhere on the internet. Gower Champion directed the two person cast so that each performer had short breaks while the other performer took over.

 

According to Martin, the small cast eventually had to admit the roles were too exhausting and cut back to six performances a week. Preston and Martin performed with bad colds and other illnesses rather than cancel.

 

After Robert Preston died, Mary paid tribute to Preston and her late husband, Richard Halliday, at the Tony Awards with part of a song from "I Do! I Do!"

 

I hope some producer attempts a revival, but knowing the potential problems.

Edited July 9, 2019 by WilliamM

[samhexum]

"I Do! I Do!"

 

 

I remember busting out laughing when that song started playing in MURIEL's WEDDING.

 

Edited July 9, 2019 by samhexum

[+ WilliamM]

I remember busting out laughing when that song started playing in MURIEL's WEDDING.

 

 

Great. But, it has nothing to do with the Robert Preston Mary Martin musical.

[+ Cock Eyed Optimist]

A star vehicle for Robert Preston and Mary Martin, but the musical has never been revived. This is being discussed elsewhere on the internet. Gower Champion directed the two person cast so that each performer had short breaks while the other performer took over.

 

According to Martin, the small cast eventually had to admit the roles were too exhausting and cut back to six performances a week. Preston and Martin performed with bad colds and other illnesses rather than cancel.

 

After Robert Preston died, Mary paid tribute to Preston and her late husband, Richard Halliday, at the Tony Awards with part of a song from "I Do! I Do!"

 

I hope some producer attempts a revival, but knowing the potential problems.

 

Wow! I hadn't thought about that musical in years! After it closed on Broadway, it was popular in the dinner-theatre circuit here in Chicago, then disappeared.

[bostonman]

but the musical has never been revived.

 

There was a high-profile off-Broadway revival in 1996, with the wonderful Karen Ziemba and David Garrison. (Garrison, btw, was in the original cast of A Day In Hollywood, A Night In The Ukraine, a show we've been discussing on another thread in this section of the forum.) The production was recorded commercially on CD.

 

It would be, of course, fun to see a large-scale revival happen...but who would star? What 2 musical theatre actors have the star cache, the acting chops to play the 25-year span of the plot, and even more importantly, the chemistry?

 

Might be something for a subscription-based theatre like the Roundabout to consider, though - or at very least, Encores.

[+ WilliamM]

Yes, the production you mention was in 1996. I remember it now.

 

I agree that a Broadway revival would be difficult now. One reviewer wrote that Martin was "too cute." He was right.

[bostonman]

One reviewer wrote that Martin was "too cute." He was right.

 

She had that tendency, I guess. Much as I love her Peter Pan, for instance, the same thing happens there.

 

There was also a televised production of I Do! I Do! with Hal Linden and Lee Remick. I remember enjoying that one.

[+ WilliamM]

I met Mary in Philadelphia around 1980. It was a conversation of about five or six minutes, She was a relatively normal person. No cute, I am.

 

And certainly, far less aloof than Merman.

 

"She had that tendency, I guess. Much as I love her Peter Pan, for instance, the same thing happens there. "

@bostonman wrote

Edited July 10, 2019 by WilliamM

[+ WilliamM]

 

Cole Porter and Mary Martin

 

Mary sang Cole Porter's "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" eight times a week without understanding the words. Years later, she knew what "finnan haddie" meant. "Isn't it a fish?"

Edited July 10, 2019 by WilliamM

[+ beethoven]

"Dine on my fine finnan haddie." It's always been a fish to me. Is there a Cole Porter double entendre here???

[bostonman]

"Dine on my fine finnan haddie." It's always been a fish to me. Is there a Cole Porter double entendre here???

 

Do you even need to ask, lol?

[+ WilliamM]

Do you even need to ask, lol?

 

Even quite late in her life, when Mary Martin lived in Rancho Mirag, she did not know to take a public bus (in New York City). Worse, she did know where to find ice cubes in her own house.

 

Mary was used to other people dealing with her every day life,including her son (Larry Hagman) and daughter (Heller Halliday).

 

She did know "daddy" was not her father from the beginning

Edited July 23, 2019 by WilliamM