Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies (Applause Books) by Ted Chapin Read Free Book Online

also soon discovered that the whole production was way overbudget already. That at least partly explained why I was asked to be the gofer: the budget didn’t allow for a paid position, and I was free labor.
    The dancing ensemble was already hard at work. It’s customary with a large musical for the dancers to begin ahead of the full company, so they had been called in on Saturday. When a break was called, the six men and eight women dancers emerged, and I was introduced. This was a friendly group—friendlier than other companies I had been around. When introduced to Michael, I reminded him that we had met a few months earlier at George White’s apartment, with the students from the National Theater Institute. “Oh,” he said, “I don’t remember much about that evening—I was too drunk.”
    The four leading actors had been called in a week early as well. To the Broadway community, they were a surprising group, names with some recognition factor but without strong theater associations. Of the four, two had never appeared on Broadway, one had appeared only once (and that had been many years before), and one was familiar with the territory. They were all eager to get a head start on learning their songs, and Michael was anxious to see how much choreography they were going to be able to master, especially the women, since he already had a notion for “Who’s That Woman?” that would require some fairly extensive dancing from all the leading ladies. They were supposed to have been good dancers at one point in their lives, but they were now “of a certain age.” Some of the cameo parts had been cast with actors in their sixties and seventies, but the leads were only supposed to be thirty years past their dancing days. And they had to carry the show. Calling them in a week early would also help them feel comfortable with each other. They all arrived after lunch.
    Alexis Smith and Gene Nelson had flown in from California. Although they were well known in Hollywood circles, starring on Broadway was a new experience for them both. Alexis, who would play Phyllis, had only appeared in summer-stock productions of musicals. Her career had been mostly in Hollywood, where she had been plucked by Warner Brothers directly from college in 1940 to play leading ladies in what ended up being a series of B-grade movies. They changed her first name from Gladys to Alexis, and cast her opposite many of Hollywood’s most romantic leading men—Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Clark Gable. She often made a good impression in clearly secondary productions. Among her best films were 1945’s Conflict, which she nearly stole away from Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet, 1954’s The Sleeping Tiger, directed by Joseph Losey, and Night and Day, in which she played Mrs. Cole Porter. She was clearly intelligent and was often called upon to play “disarming schemers and beguiling opportunists.” She had remained comparatively inactive during the 1960s, preferring the role of wife to Craig Stevens, who was enjoying success as the lead in the television series Peter Gunn. They had toured together in various theater productions, most recently with Cactus Flower: Looking quite smashing at forty-nine, she stood tall in red knickers, white shirt, and a blue sweater wrapped around her shoulders. She had an infectious, good-natured cackle of a laugh that could be heard echoing down the hall. Her straightforward manner was very helpful, if at times a bit harsh. When I asked if she wanted some coffee, for example, she replied: “I’m not a coffee drinker, so you never have to ask me again.” She was, however, always grateful and gracious when I did bring her what she wanted—buttermilk. I was told that at her first audition, she looked less than glamorous, but before her second she was put in the hands of Ruthie Mitchell and the show’s hair designer, Joe Tubens, who turned her into the movie star she had been in the 1950s. She also worked with David