Who's Who in Musicals: Lehar to Lupone
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1997-2003)
Lehár, Franz
Composer
b. April 30, 1870 (Komárom, Hungary) - d. Oct. 24, 1948 (Bad Ischl,
Austria)
Lehár studied in Prague (under the composer Dvorak, among others) and became a
successful conductor in Imperial Vienna. Producers were so sure his operetta
Die Lustige Witwe (1905) -- with libretto by
Leo Stein
and Victor Leon -- would fail that they kept down
costs, using leftover sets and costumes. However,
The Merry Widow was an immediate
sensation, and the producers eventually installed a lavish new production. The
score was translated into more than a dozen languages, making Lehár an
international celebrity. No other musical would know such worldwide popularity
until My Fair Lady a half century later.
Lehar's other operettas included
The Count of Luxembourg (1909) and The Land of Smiles (1929). He
remained in Austria after the Germans marched in, accepting honors from Adolph
Hitler. After World War II, Lehar's attempts to disavow any connection to the Nazis
rang hollow. Although he used his influence to save several
Jews from persecution (including his wife), he also supposedly encouraged the Nazis
to go after several personal enemies. Lehar died in 1948 at age 78,
his reputation forever clouded by his wartime ambivalence.
Lerner, Alan Jay
Lyricist, librettist
b. August 31, 1918 (New York City) - d. June 14, 1986 (New York City)
A painstaking craftsman, Lerner wrote lyrics that were intricate, literate,
amusing and moving. Son of a wealthy merchant, Lerner got his start at Harvard
providing material for several Hasty Pudding Club Shows. He contributed material
to various supper club revues before meeting composer
Frederick Loewe in 1942. After the ill fated Life of the
Party (1942) and What's Up? (1943), the short-lived The Day Before
Spring (1945) brought them increased recognition. Brigadoon (1947),
the story of a Scottish town that only appears for one day every century,
was their first major success, and included "Almost Like
Being in Love" and "There But For You Go I." Paint Your Wagon
(1951) told of a miner's daughter finding romance during the California Gold Rush,
and featured "I Talk to the Trees" and "They Call the Wind
Mariah." During the same years, Lerner collaborated with composer
Kurt Weill on the unsuccessful Broadway musical
Love Life (1948), wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for MGM's
An American in Paris (1951) and collaborated with composer
Burton Lane on the script and score of MGM's
Royal Wedding (1951).
Lerner and Loewe reached their creative peak with
My Fair Lady (1956),
a brilliant adaptation of Shaw's Pygmalion. The story of a
British professor teaching a cockney flower girl how to become a lady
took Broadway and the world by storm, winning awards and setting records
on stage and screen. Many, including this author, consider it the
finest musical ever written. Lerner and Loewe's film musical
Gigi (1958), based on a
story by Colette, won nine Academy awards and put them at the top
of their profession. It was a glorious but brief stay.
Camelot (1960)
had such a stormy pre-Broadway gestation that it shattered the health of
Lerner, Loewe and director Moss Hart.
Loewe opted for retirement, but Lerner spent the rest of his life
trying for more hits. That frustrating choice led to a long
series of professional and personal heartbreaks.
A complicated man, Lerner went through seven marriages (six ended in divorce)
and suffered a longstanding addiction to amphetamines prescribed by a quack
physician. Lerner worked with Lane on On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
(1965), Andre Previn on Coco (1969) and Lane again on Carmelina
(1979) -- all of which were either meager successes or outright
failures. He supervised ghastly film versions of Camelot (1967)
and Paint Your Wagon (1969), then reunited with Loewe for an
unsuccessful stage adaptation of Gigi (1973) and the poorly
received film musical The Little Prince (1974). Unbowed, Lerner
collaborated with Charles Strouse on the
short-lived Dance A Little Closer (1983) before turning down a chance to
work on Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the
Opera. Lerner once lightheartedly claimed that lyric writing was
"not an art but a craft, somewhere between photography and basket
weaving." I must disagree it is an art, and Lerner was one of its
greatest masters.
Lillie, Beatrice
(b. Gladys Lillie)
Comedienne, actress, singer
b. May 29, 1898 (Ontario, Canada) - d. Jan. 20, 1989 (Henley-On-Thames, England)
Born in Canada, Lillie had a wicked way with dialogue, a mastery of physical
buffoonery, and a knack for spoofing pompous people and/or situations. She
got her start trouping in Canadian variety and British music halls
before making her legit debut in the intimate London revues of
Andre Charlot. In 1920, she married
Robert Peel, who inherited his peerage soon afterward -- making her a
bona fide British "Lady." Charlot brought Lillie to
New York in several 1920s revues, where she kept audiences howling.
Lillie continued to dazzle on both sides of the Atlantic for the next
four decades. Her Broadway hits included The Third Little Show
(1931), At Home Abroad (1935) Seven Lively Arts (1944) and
Inside USA (1948). Her most
memorable songs include Noel Coward's "Mad
Dogs and Englishmen" and "Marvelous Party," the Schwartz &
Dietz showstopper "Paris," and the wry "There Are Fairies At The
Bottom of Our Garden."
Lillie's status as British nobility gave her frequent cause for pride
and amusement. On one occasion, while being fitted for a new clothes in Chicago,
she heard an outraged voice complain to her tailor that "Someone had
better tell that actress that Mrs. Swift is waiting!" Lillie cried
out, "Someone had better tell that butcher's wife that Lady Peel is
not done yet!" When Bea's husband Robert died in 1934, his title passed on to
their son -- who was killed in action during World War II.
After playing Madame Arcarti in the Broadway musical High Spirits
(1964), Lillie appeared as the comically evil Mrs. Meers in Thoroughly Modern
Millie (1967) the best filmed reminder of her zany talents. By this
time, early signs of what was probably Alzheimer's disease were making it
difficult for Lillie to work. A series of strokes left her incapacitated
for the last two decades of her life.
Lloyd, Marie
(b. Matilda Wood)
Singer
b. Feb. 12, 1870 (London, UK) - d. Oct. 7, 1922 (London, UK)
One of the greatest English music hall stars,
Lloyd was touring the halls by age 15. She alternated such touching ballads
as "The Boy I Love Sits Up in the Balcony" with raunchy gigglers
like "She Never Had the Ticket Punched Before" and her signature
tune, "My Old Man Said Follow the Van." Generous and exploding
with seemingly boundless energy, she developed legions of devoted fans.
Lloyd tried American vaudeville on several occasions, but her charms
did not register as they did back home. When she arrived in New York for
an engagement at the Palace, officials detained her for traveling
unmarried with a male companion -- a habit which no one had objected to
in Europe. Her offstage use of frank four letter words led some to dub
her "the female Rabelais." Lloyd remained the queen of the music
halls for decades, performing until just days before her death at age 52.
French actress Sarah Bernhardt described Lloyd as "the most artistic
comedienne of the English stage."
Lloyd Webber, Andrew
Composer, producer, theatre owner
b. March 22, 1948 (London, UK)
The child of classical musicians, Lloyd Webber began writing musicals at Oxford
with fellow student Tim Rice. His enthusiasm for
various musical styles was reflected in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat (1967), a cantata for schoolchildren that was successfully adapted
for the stage and British television. After Lloyd Webber composed the scores for
several British films, he and Rice created the rock opera
Jesus Christ Superstar (1971), a best selling LP which inspired successful
stage productions in New York and London. They repeated the same album-to-stage
pattern with Evita (1978).
Lloyd Webber and director Trevor Nunn turned T.S.
Eliot's Book of Practical Cats poems into
Cats (1981), the longest
running musical in Broadway and West End history. Because Lloyd Webber's Really
Useful Company acted as co-producer, Cats made him a multi-millionaire.
After collaborating with lyricist Don Black on Song and Dance (1982) and
lyricist Richard
Stilgoe on Starlight Express (1984), Lloyd Webber achieved another mega-hit
with Phantom of the Opera (1986). With
lyrics by the otherwise unknown Charles Hart, Phantom went on to gross
over $2 billion worldwide by the century's end. (Claims of plagiarism by the
Puccini estate were settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.)
Since then, Lloyd Webber's fortunes have been somewhat mixed.
Aspects of Love (1989) and Sunset Boulevard (1993)
ran for several seasons each, but lost millions due to high production
costs. Ongoing attempts to stage Webber's Whistle Down the Wind have met
with indifference. His relatively small scale musical comedy By Jeeves
flopped on Broadway after numerous delays, and his football musical
The Beautiful Game failed on the West End. He lost millions
producing the New York staging of Bombay Dreams. Granted the title of Baron
in 1997, Lord Lloyd Webber must wait to learn if his syrupy style will remain
popular with theatergoers in the 21st Century.
Loesser, Frank
Composer, lyricist
b. June 29, 1910 (NYC) - d. July 28, 1969 (NYC)
As a lyricist, Loesser collaborated with composers
Jule Styne, Hoagy Carmichael,
Burton Lane and others on a numerous film
scores. After writing such
popular hit songs as "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,"
Loesser made his Broadway debut with the score to Where's Charley?
(1948) -- "Once in Love With Amy" became an audience favorite.
Loesser astounded everyone with his sumptuous score to
Guys and Dolls (1950), one of the
finest musical comedies ever written. It brought Damon Runyon's mythical
world of Times Square hoodlums to endearing life, and captured every
major award, bringing Loesser Tonys for Best Musical and Best Score.
Loesser's versatility was such that no two of his scores sound alike.
Each show displays his mastery of various musical forms and a rare gift for
using songs as dramatic tools. Most Happy Fella (1956), a daring
combination of opera and musical comedy, never received its full due,
and his adventurous Greenwillow (1960) failed. But Loesser's corporate
spoof How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961) ran for
years, winning Tonys for Best Score and Musical, as well as a Pulitzer
Prize for Drama.
Pleasures and Palaces (1965), a musical based on an incidents involving
Russia's Catherine the Great, closed on the road. A lifetime of heavy smoking
led to Loesser's death from lung cancer at the age of 59.
Loewe, Frederick
Composer
b. June 10, 1904 (Vienna, Austria) - d. Feb. 14, 1988 (Palm Springs)
The son of a leading operetta tenor, Loewe studied composition in Vienna
and had an early concert piano career before coming to America with his family
in 1924. After his father's sudden death, Lowe supported himself as (among
other things) a cowboy and a barroom pianist. He began composing for the
theatre in the 1930s, but created nothing noteworthy until his he took a
wrong turn at the Lambs Club one day and accidentally met lyricist/librettist
Alan Jay Lerner. Their earliest efforts
The Life of the Party (1942) and What's Up? (1943) failed,
but The Day Before Spring (1945) showed promise and brought the new team
some much needed income when MGM bought the film rights. (The film was never
made.)
Lerner and Loewe's first hit was Brigadoon (1947), a romantic
fantasy with "Almost Like Being in Love." Their Paint Your Wagon
(1951) also did well, as did its hit ballads "They Call the Wind
Mariah" and "I Talk to the Trees." Loewe's scores were pure
Broadway with an elegant continental accent, a fulfillment of the
post-Oklahoma musical at its finest. His rich
melodic style adapted readily to invoke most any time or setting, making a
perfect match for Lerner's carefully crafted lyrics. Together, they could reach
musically into the soul of most any character they chose.
My Fair Lady (1956) was Lerner and
Loewe's Tony-winning masterpiece. Arguably the finest musical ever written, it
included "I Could Have Danced All Night," "I've Grown
Accustomed
to Her Face" and "On the Street Where You Live." The team followed
this with the Academy Award-winning film
Gigi (1958), which featured
a rapturous title tune and the infectious "Thank Heaven for Little Girls."
In the wake of these successes, Lerner and Loewe's Broadway musical
Camelot (1960) proved to be a
tremendous strain. Despite a rich score that included "If Ever I Would Leave
You" and a cast that included Richard Burton,
Julie Andrews and
Robert Goulet, this musical about King Arthur and
his Round Table had such a nightmarish road tour that Loewe suffered a massive heart
attack and retired from the business. He reunited with Lerner to work on a stage
adaptation of Gigi (1973) and the unsuccessful film musical The Little
Prince (1974).
Logan, Josh
Producer, director, librettist, playwright
b. October 5, 1908 (Texarkana, TX) - d. July 12, 1988 (NYC)
After studying acting and stage direction with Stanislavsky, Logan took part in some
of the most successful theatrical projects of the 20th Century. He directed
I Married an Angel (1938), Knickerbocker Holiday (1938),
By Jupiter (1940) and the wartime fundraiser This Is the Army
(1942). Then Logan directed four definitive musical hits. Annie Get Your Gun
(1946) proved the integrated musical play could be wondrously funny.
Logan both directed and co-wrote South Pacific (1949). Wish You
Were Here (1952) and Fanny (1954) were both great audience
favorites, thanks in large part to Logan's savvy stage direction.
Logan's predilection for displaying buff chorus boys in abbreviated costumes
was one of the more eccentric aspects of his otherwise straightforward directorial
style. After surviving severe manic depressive episodes at the height of his
career, Logan became an early spokesman for the enlightened treatment of mental
illness. His non-musical hits included co-producing and directing the stage and
screen versions of Mister Roberts (1948/1955 - also co-author) and William
Inge's Picnic (1953/1955). All of Logan's later
directorial projects were failures, including the stage musicals Mr. President
(1962), Look to the Lillies (1970) and Miss Moffat. Logan also
directed poor film versions of South Pacific (1958), Camelot (1967)
and Paint Your Wagon (1969). His last Broadway project was
directing the short lived comedy Horowitz and Mrs. Washington
(1980). He was developing a musical version
of Huckleberry Finn at the time of his death at age 79.
Loudon, Dorothy
Singer, actress
b. Sept. 17, 1933 (Boston, MA) - d. Nov. 15, 2003 (New York, NY)
Loudon won rave reviews in a series of Broadway flops before her zany performance
as Miss Hannigan in Annie (1976) brought her rave reviews and a Tony
Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She introduced "Little Girls" and
the show-stopping "Easy Street." One critic noted, "She mugs with her
face, her body I swear, she mugs with her mind." She starred briefly in
her own TV sitcom before returning to Broadway for Ballroom (1978). Although
her powerful performance was not enough to save the show, she did get to
introduce the searing ballad "Fifty Percent."
Loudon enjoyed her greatest non-musical triumph as the maid in the original
production of Noises Off (1984) and co-starred with
Chita Rivera and Leslie Uggams in Jerry's Girls
(1986), a gala showcase of Jerry Herman's songs. She
provided the comic highlights for several Tony telecasts, and was featured in the
unsuccessful stage revue Comedy Tonight (1995). Loudon's many concert
appearances have included Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall (1992) and
My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies (1999), both broadcast on PBS. She
played Serena Dawes in the screen version of
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), and was forced by illness to
leave the revival cast of Dinner at Eight (2002). Loudon died of cancer less
than a year later, hailed as one of Broadway's most gifted comediennes.
LuPone, Patti
Singer, actress
b. April 21, 1949 (Northport, NY)
After training at Julliard and in The Actor's Company, LuPone had featured roles in
the admired flop musicals Robber Bridegroom (1975), Baker's Wife (1976)
where she introduced Stephen Schwartz's "Meadowlark"
and Working (1978). LuPone's luck changed when she landed the title
role in the Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber
and Tim Rice's Evita (1979), winning the Tony
for Best Actress in a Musical. After appearing in off-Broadway and London
revivals of The Cradle Will Rock (1985), she played Nancy in an
unsuccessful Broadway revival of Oliver (1984). LuPone was the first
American actress to play a principal role with the Royal Shakespeare Company
originating the role of Fantine in the London production of Les Miserables
(1985), and introducing "I Dreamed a Dream."
LuPone returned to Broadway as Reno Sweeney in the acclaimed Lincoln Center
revival of Anything Goes (1987), followed by several seasons on the TV
drama series Life Goes On. She created the role of Norma Desmond in the
London premiere of Webber's Sunset Boulevard (1993). When Webber
abruptly canceled LuPone's contract for the Broadway version, she won headlines with
an undisclosed settlement. After starring in an acclaimed 1995 NY concert version
of Pal Joey, she triumphed with a personal concert run on Broadway.
She headlined the New York (1996) and London (1997) casts of Master Class,
and played Mrs. Lovett in the NY and LA Philharmonic concert versions of
Sweeney Todd (2001). She won fresh raves as Dottie in the
hit Broadway revival of Noises Off (2002). Lupone gave impressive
performances in two more PBS concerts -- as a hilarious Old Woman in
Bernsteins's Candide (2005), and a powerful Fosca in Sondheim's
Passion (2005).
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