Show Boat - Live from Lincoln Center broadcast

[MrMiniver]

I haven't read her contract -- have you? -- but it has been reported that the "no duets" clause was part of it.

 

The burden is on those to prove the gossip that the contract said that, not the other way around.

 

Pinza was magnificent but, as Mary Rodgers said, he looked like "an old goat." Completely non-sexy at that stage in his career. I think that's what partly made Paulo Szot such a revelation even if he was a baritone and not a bass.

[MrMiniver]

I've also read that Pinza insisted that he not sing more than 12 minutes all together in the show. It's probably apocryphal but it's a legend that has persisted. I once looked at the original cast album and his songs add up to just under 12 minutes in duration but I still find it kind of hard to believe that an actor would stipulate such a condition. But then he was an opera star and a lot of them, especially in those days, were known for outrageous demands, so who knows?

 

BTW, have you seen the interview with Rita Moreno regarding her early t.v. career? She did quite a few live broadcasts and she worked with Pinza on some special. She is scathing in her remarks about him; apparently, his behavior towards the young women in the cast bordered on harrassment. Florence Henderson didn't have much good to say about him when they were in "Fanny" together either.

 

Re: Mary Martin. My favorite story, which I'm pretty sure is true, is that after she was signed for "I Do! I Do!" and they then offered the male role to Robert Preston, he was asked what he would want to do the show with her and his only demand was "I just want what Mary gets". He later won the Tony for the show and she didn't.

 

The Martins and the Prestons were very very good friends.

[MrMiniver]

Pinza doesn't get much good coverage. He missed many performances of "South Pacific." I think in his autobio., Richard Rodgers said Pinza took off to play golf. Rodgers also related, with a certain relish, that after Pinza left the show, he went to Hollywood and made a film or two and flopped big time. (Anyone seen "Mr. Imperium" lately?) The story that Pinza limited his singing to twelve minutes in SP has been published in several accounts. (Did you also know that the longest the orchestra goes without playing -- not counting intermission -- in this heavily scored musical is eight minutes? This from a friend who played pit in the recent Lincoln Center revival.)

 

You do realize that by the time Pinza finished his run in South Pacific he was almost 60 years old and only had a few more years to live. He had a very long and legendary career before South Pacific so he certainly can't be judged by a few outings just a few years before his death.

[actor61]

The Martins and the Prestons were very very good friends.

I didn't mean to imply that Preston was disparaging Mary Martin when he said, "I want what Mary gets". It was a joke. They adored each other and you can tell when you see the clip of them performing "Nobody's Perfect" at the Tonys the year the show was nominated.

[+ WilliamM]

I didn't mean to imply that Preston was disparaging Mary Martin when he said, "I want what Mary gets". It was a joke. They adored each other and you can tell when you see the clip of them performing "Nobody's Perfect" at the Tonys the year the show was nominated.

 

Yes, Mary Martin almost always got along with other people in her shows. The only exceptions I can think of was Noel Coward in "Pacific 1860" in London. Even then, Martin and Coward were fine a few years later when they did a 90-minute TV special together.

[+ WilliamM]

Mary Martin, Barbara Cook and Bernadette Peters in a tribute to Robert Preston on the Tony Awards soon after his death.

 

[+ WilliamM]

You do realize that by the time Pinza finished his run in South Pacific he was almost 60 years old and only had a few more years to live.

 

That is one of the most unusual and strangest defenses for missing perfornances I have ever read. What about audiences who bought tickets to "South Pacific" many months ahead only to find that Pinza was not performing at the performances they attended. I believed Mary Martin never missed a performance. If she was sick, the pressure was on her to not call out if Pinza has alread said he could not perform.

 

I understand that "almost sixty" is older than now. Otherwise, do you have some "inside" evidence that his death had anything to do with missing so many performances. Was he ill during "South Pachific"?

[bostonman]

I think we can safely assume that no one knew that Pinza only had a few more years to live. So I'm not sure why it needs to be brought up.

 

Pinza left the show after he had just turned 58, in June 1950. He would die close to 7 years later. But in that time, he also opened the largely-forgotten (but beautiful) Broadway musical Fanny. Lawrence Tibbett replaced him during the run, but I don't know when Pinza left the show. Seems to me that if Pinza couldn't handle the 8-times-a-week Broadway schedule of South Pacific, he probably would have thought twice about doing Fanny. Maybe indeed he just didn't want to miss his golf game. (That said, Rodgers was, by many accounts, not a particularly nice man, and often held grudges. So he might have just been slandering Pinza about the golf.)

[MrMiniver]

That is one of the most unusual and strangest defenses for missing perfornances I have ever read. What about audiences who bought tickets to "South Pacific" many months ahead only to find that Pinza was not performing at the performances they attended. I believed Mary Martin never missed a performance. If she was sick, the pressure was on her to not call out if Pinza has alread said he could not perform.

 

I understand that "almost sixty" is older than now. Otherwise, do you have some "inside" evidence that his death had anything to do with missing so many performances. Was he ill during "South Pachific"?

 

I'm not sure where in my message you read a "defense of missing performances" as no such defense existed. I'm often amazed at how people read into things what they want them to say, rather than what is actually written.

 

Your whole response is completely bizarre.

[MrMiniver]

I think we can safely assume that no one knew that Pinza only had a few more years to live. So I'm not sure why it needs to be brought up.

 

Pinza left the show after he had just turned 58, in June 1950. He would die close to 7 years later. But in that time, he also opened the largely-forgotten (but beautiful) Broadway musical Fanny. Lawrence Tibbett replaced him during the run, but I don't know when Pinza left the show. Seems to me that if Pinza couldn't handle the 8-times-a-week Broadway schedule of South Pacific, he probably would have thought twice about doing Fanny. Maybe indeed he just didn't want to miss his golf game. (That said, Rodgers was, by many accounts, not a particularly nice man, and often held grudges. So he might have just been slandering Pinza about the golf.)

 

It needs to be brought up because some are making judgments now, in 2015, when we have the benefit of so much information. The post made it sound like he so failed after South Pacific that he had no career when my point was that he was at the END of a very long and legendary career so who much cares that he had a couple film flops just a few years before his death?

 

I'm not sure Fanny is forgotten but it was a hit at the time. Just a work that hasn't stood the test of time, as they say. Not much doubt that Rodgers was difficult, but I don't much care if geniuses are nice guys or not. When you can write a tune the way he did, in minutes, over the course of 50 years without fail I wouldn't have much cared if he was a serial killer.

[actor61]

It needs to be brought up because some are making judgments now, in 2015, when we have the benefit of so much information. The post made it sound like he so failed after South Pacific that he had no career when my point was that he was at the END of a very long and legendary career so who much cares that he had a couple film flops just a few years before his death?

 

I'm not sure Fanny is forgotten but it was a hit at the time. Just a work that hasn't stood the test of time, as they say. Not much doubt that Rodgers was difficult, but I don't much care if geniuses are nice guys or not. When you can write a tune the way he did, in minutes, over the course of 50 years without fail I wouldn't have much cared if he was a serial killer.

Some people are troupers and some people are not. I once worked with a very well known actor who was contracted for 8 shows a week but somehow always found a way to be sick on 2 show days for at least one of the performances. We all detested him, especially as he still got his enormous salary whether he showed up for all 8 shows or not. Even his understudy, who got to go on a lot, thought the guy was a piece of crap.

 

There is an interesting parallel between Pinza's story in "South Pacific" and Gertrude Lawrence's in "The King and I". She was ill with cancer, although hardly anyone outside of family and physicians knew. She was famous for being very difficult, so when she started missing performances, it was chalked up to her "temperament". Both Rodgers and Hammerstein were fed up with her as they had constructed the show for her and wanted to replace her with her standby, Constance Carpenter, as soon as they could. Rodgers even wrote Lawrence a letter enumerating the reasons for her dismissal, including that she didn't sing on key but the story goes that he was informed of her cancer before he could put the letter in the mailbox. Rodgers was a difficult man himself so perhaps he liked working with these difficult stars in some way - power? Weird emotional S&M? Passive-aggressive? Who knows? I've been in the professional theatre all of my adult life and it's a very strange business.

 

Being a "pro" has become the highest compliment an actor can be paid because so many producers and directors are disappointed by the so-called stars they hire who can't/won't/don't want to deliver the goods 8 times a week. I use myself an an example: I'm a competent, sometimes very good actor but not a star by any means. When a producer hired me recently for a Shakespeare production, he told me, "Your audition was good but your reputation is even better." He had actually checked my references and was assured by other directors that I'd show up prepared, with lines learned, on time and wouldn't demand 12 bottles of Evian with which to wash my hair or my name in specified type and size in the program. The only "demands" I ever make - and they're made in the form of a silent prayer when I sign the contract - is that the director knows what he's doing, the dressing room is clean and the check is good!

[+ WilliamM]

Rodgers was a difficult man himself so perhaps he liked working with these difficult stars in some way - power? Weird emotional S&M? Passive-aggressive? Who knows? I've been in the professional theatre all of my adult life and it's a very strange business.

 

Excellent observation.

[MrMiniver]

I've always thought back then that communication was one of the biggest problems. No one, including her family, knew how seriously ill that Gertrude Lawrence was. But she was ill. And this was mostly kept from the producers of the show who, rather justly, reacted badly at how many performances she missed and how many sub-par performances she was giving. If only the sides had communicated and had not lived in a time when so much about illness was left unsaid that whole unpleasant situation could have been avoided.

 

I doubt Rodgers liked working with difficult people. I think that highly talented artists are often very difficult people. It just goes with the territory. You could probably count on one hand the people in the theater who are easy to work with.

 

I remember a friend saying to me that he was stunned that Elaine Stritch didn't get a standing ovation when she finally won a Tony. I had to explain to him that most theater professionals absolutely HATED her. She was a bitch to work with and that was reflected the night she won her award. It's the nature of the beast.

[+ WilliamM]

If only the sides had communicated and had not lived in a time when so much about illness was left unsaid that whole unpleasant situation could have been avoided.

 

It was especially true about cancer for someone who was born at the end of the nineteenth century and had cancer in the 1950s. I wonder if GL's family and doctors even told her about the cancer. Keeping the bad news from the patient was fairly common back then.

[MrMiniver]

It was especially true about cancer for someone who was born at the end of the nineteenth century and had cancer in the 1950s. I wonder if GL's family and doctors even told her about the cancer. Keeping the bad news from the patient was fairly common back then.

 

No, Lawrence was never told she had fatal cancer. The times have changed.

[+ WilliamM]

No, Lawrence was never told she had fatal cancer. The times have changed.

 

One of my aunt was slight older than Lawrence. She lived into her 80s and when she had cancer in 1979, her family and the doctors did not tell her. But my aunt lived much longer that Lawrence -- well into 1980 -- by then she know on her own that it was cancer.