The Sound of Music Live!

[+ WilliamM]

Equal time for Merman at the Kennedy Inaugural Gala, January 1961.

 

 

[+ Gar1eth]

Age becomes less important when the stars of a musical appear on TV years later to sing the best song in the show. Martin and Pinza in a scene from "South Pacific."

 

 

 

Yes and no-they may sound good. But if they were actually doing the show, I think people would have trouble suspending their disbelief especially on TV or in a movie because of the close up nature of the medium as opposed to the stage. Remember all the comments about Glenn Close being too old when she did the South Pacific TV movie back in 2001.

 

Gman

[+ WilliamM]

Yes and no-they may sound good. But if they were actually doing the show, I think people would have trouble suspending their disbelief especially on TV or in a movie because of the close up nature of the medium as opposed to the stage. Remember all the comments about Glenn Close being too old when she did the South Pacific TV movie back in 2001.

 

This tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein was broadcast in 1954, so only five years after "South Pacific" opened on Broadway. Lighting and make-up were primitive on TV back in the early 1950s. I agree that if Martin and Pinza tried to recreate the entire musical on TV, it would not work. Also, TV was relatively new in 1954, so people may have been more forgiving about stars of Broadway show like "South Pacific." Unlike today, many people knew about Broadway shows, but this may have been their only chance to see Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza sing "Some Enchanted Evening" together broadcast live on TV.

[actor61]

actor 61: Mary Martin was 45, nearly 46 when "The Sound of Music" opened on Broadway.

 

Martin: born December 1, 1913

 

"The Sound of Music" opening in NY on November 16, 1959

Thank you so much for the info. But even if she was 45 instead of 49 when she played Maria, she was still too fuckin' old!!!

 

You, of course, know the infamous line delivered by the Mother Abbess, "Maria, what is it you cunt face?" I laugh every time I see a new version of the show as invariably the Mother now carefully says: "Maria, what is it you cannot face?" Was it Patricia Neway on B'way who unwittingly originated that now legendary line reading, or Peggy Wood in the film? I'd love it if somebody knows how the whole thing got started.

 

True story: I played Max in a dinner theatre production of the show in the 1980s when we still had dinner theatres. Our Mother Abbess enjoyed a cocktail every now and then, especially between the matinee and evening performances on 2 show days. One Wednesday, she came reeling in pretty late for the evening performance and barely had time to put her costume on properly before the nuns' entrance singing the prologue. Instead of putting on the wimple, which required quite a lot of time for adjusting, pinning, lacing up, etc., she grabbed a short-sleeved white t-shirt, threw it on her head so her face showed through the neck hole, then banged the black veil over it and got out onstage. She forgot to pin the black headdress in place and halfway through the Alleluias, it slipped off, revealing her face poking out of the hole in the white t-shirt and the 2 short sleeves flopping over each ear. The audience laughed so hard the stage manager had to call a black-out. By this time, the other nuns were practically wetting themselves and those of us in the wings who saw the whole thing were pretty hysterical too. The kids NEVER recovered and were very difficult to control during that evenings show; they kept bending over with giggles. They got the understudy ready in record time and threw her on for "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria", and she ended up completing the run. The poor actress playing Mother Abbess was subsequently fired and she stupidly tried to fight it with Equity but the fact that she was visibly tipsy that night combined with her bad costuming decision did her in.

[actor61]

Age becomes less important when the stars of a musical appear on TV years later to sing the best song in the show. Martin and Pinza in a scene from "South Pacific."

 

 

I don't care how old the 2 of them were when they did this. They are magnificent.

[+ Gar1eth]

 

You, of course, know the infamous line delivered by the Mother Abbess, "Maria, what is it you cunt face?" I laugh every time I see a new version of the show as invariably the Mother now carefully says: "Maria, what is it you cannot face?" Was it Patricia Neway on B'way who unwittingly originated that now legendary line reading, or Peggy Wood in the film? I'd love it if somebody knows how the whole thing got started.

 

I'd never heard this before.

 

Gman

[+ WilliamM]

I don't care how old the 2 of them were when they did this. They are magnificent.

 

Yes, that one clip would be an excellent intro to a college course on Broadway's Golden Age. A superior professor could put the age issue to rest in the very first class.