Lorna Dallas (Irene Molloy) in Danny LaRue's Hello, Dolly!

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"Lorna Dallas is one of the very finest American vocalists of her style and generation." -
Dame Cleo Laine and Sir John Dankworth
Lorna Dallas was with the International Company of theMetropolitan Opera from New York. At the time, she was also doing backers’auditions for Hal Hackaday and Don Gohman based on Henry James’ novel, The Ambassador. She was singing all thefemale roles and having great fun. She loves Hal and Don. The producers desiredto produce the show in London, and rightly so. “Foolishly”, Lorna showed them her“diary” detailing her schedule and said she would go to London to do thebackers auditions if they could work around her schedule. Three days later,they rang and told her to get her passport ready. She was leaving the followingMonday; that fit into her time frame! She flew off to London and did thebackers auditions in a small studio/dance center. The room was packed for everypresentation they did with potential producers and what have you. 
The room wasso crowded that Ray Cooke was seated at Lorna’s feet never taking his eyes offof her. When the presentation finished, he asked to speak with her. Thirtyminutes later, she would be doing another presentation. She was singingeighteen songs plus dialogue! She told Ray she needed fresh air and to join heroutside. They were walking in Covent Garden and he told her that they weredoing Showboat. She told him that waswonderful, it was a beautiful show, and wished him much success. She apologizedbut had to get back inside and told him how great it was to meet him.At the next presentation, a similar thing happened. A guysat at her feet never taking his eyes off of her. After the presentation, hepresented himself as Ian Bevin and that he was associated with Mr. Fielding,the producer, with the upcoming production of Showboat. She told him that she had spoken with Ray Cooke and, onceagain, wished them much success.The week went by with numerous presentations of thesebackers auditions. Lorna was practically brain dead by the end of it all. Thelast morning she was in London, after these presentations were over, she wasrunning around London being a tourist. She was in Harrod’s and thought sheshould reach her London agent to tell him goodbye. She got through to hissecretary who said, “Miss Dallas, we’ve been trying to reach you all morning!Mr. Fielding wants to see you at one o’clock.” At this point, it was abouttwelve thirtyish. Lorna had already packed in preparation of catching a threePM flight back to New York. The following day, she was flying to Montreal towork with Bob Hope to do some shows. She told the secretary that she would haveto tell Mr. Fielding she would be late. Lorna could hear the secretarypractically drop the phone. Lorna dashed back to the hotel. She had not checkedout by this point. She took a quick shower, grabbed music out of her case,changed clothes, ran down stairs and ran into Don Gohman in the lobby, told himhe was going with her, and they were off and running. In the cab, she told himthat Mr. Fielding was interested in seeing her for Showboat, which she thoughtwas bizarre. 

Lorna meeting the Queen Mum

She is not a London native, she is from southern Illinois. Theyshowed up at the Drury Lane Theater stage door where there was a crowd ofpeople waiting to audition. Lorna’s first thought was, “Oh no.” Someone cameout and said, “Miss Dallas? Right this way…” She walked in and Ray Cooke andFielding were both there and she sang. They then asked if she knew You Are Love. They told her they had thescore. She looked at her watch and said, I do really have to go! I have a planeto catch and I’m truly sorry.” They asked her if she would read from the scriptand she told them it would be a very cold reading. She ran a page of dialogueand Mr. Fielding runs out after her as she tries to get to her taxi chatteringaway. She tells him, “Mr. Fielding, it really has been nice meeting you and Iwish you much success.” Don Gohman is wondering what the hell has been goingon. They laugh all the way back to the states at the absurdity of it all.

Dame Cleo Lane, John Dankworth, Lorna

Six weeks later, Lorna gets the call at six AM in New York.It was her agent telling her that they wanted her for Magnolia. They wanted herthe moment she walked in. They couldn't hire her right away because of Britishlaws. They HAD to exhaust their search for a British Magnolia before they couldeven consider Lorna. They had auditioned eight hundred women. They had to wait until everyname had been ticked off before they could ring her. She got the call and twoand a half weeks later, she returned to London. The rest they say is history.She opened in a record breaking production of Showboat. This was at the Adelphi Theater and she was there for twoyears and three months. Mr. Fielding kept renewing her contract and workpermit. 

Lorna with Al Hirschfeld and her own original Hirschfeld from Carnegie Hall debut

It was tough. She had to really stick with the labor laws, but she fellin love with London. She felt at home there. Kenny Nelson was also in thisproduction. She had Dame Anna Neagle’s old dressing room. She was a popularBritish stage and film actress and singer. When Lorna first went into thedressing room, she couldn’t see anything because Dame Neagle only had 25 wattbulbs! It made Dame Neagle look wonderful but Lorna couldn’t see a thing, soher first order of business was changing all the light bulbs! Lorna thinks sheend up blowing the system in the theater. This was all in 1971.  

Lee Roy Reams, Lorna, Peter Howard (who did all the original dance arrangements on Dolly)

Lorna would go on to do several BBC programs and variousother gigs in London. She did a number of shows, Side By Side by Sondheim, Kismetwith John Reardon(who came over to do it along with Joan Diener). On the opening night of Showboat, Lorna received the mostincredible bouquet of flowers. It was enormous, large enough to cover a coffeetable ! The note read, “My darling, Welcome to London. I hope you have a longand healthy and happy run.-Danny LaRue” She had never met Danny, but, when shewas in London doing the backers auditions six weeks prior to Showboat, she tried to see as many showsas she could in the evenings. She had gone to the Palace where he was doing hisshow. She had never seen anything like it before.

Danny LaRue

 It was an incredible evening.It was wonderful and she thought it would be impossible to describe to anyone. After her Showboat opening, she and Danny met a couple oftimes. He was divine, even inviting her to his mansion a few times. Once, therewas a whole weekend of partying. Liberace showed up in a white Rolls Royce.Danny went out to meet him all in black. Liberace got out of the Rolls all inwhite. That was just one in a wonderful sequence of events. One of Danny’sgreatest desires was to star in Hello,Dolly! He fought to be able to do it. Eventually, he did do it at theBirmingham Repertory Company. As their company was being put together, herequested Lorna to play Irene Molloy and Lionel Jeffries to play HoraceVandergelder. As a matter of fact, he handpicked the entire company. Prior to appearing in Hello,Dolly, Lorna saw Carol Channing play Dolly. “Who else is Dolly?” One can’thelp but think of her when they think of Dolly. Danny, Lorna has to say, hadsuch heart in this piece. When they were opening in Birmingham, he was so verytruthful. People’s hearts would break to see him in this production. He was notdoing, “Watcha mate!” He was not his Danny LaRue at all, he WAS Dolly. It was acompletely SRO run. People were sitting on the steps to see this show. That wasa two month run. The idea was that they would finish the show there and a tourwas to be arranged. Suddenly, The Prince of Wales Theater in London becameavailable, unexpectedly. A decision was then made to go straight in with notour. The Prince of Wales Theater is right off of Leicester Square, apedestrianised square in the West End of London. Danny had played this theaterbefore and loved it. There was a great connection there. They virtually leftBirmingham and went straight into the Prince of Wales. From being so verytruthful and heartbreaking in Birmingham, suddenly in London, he felt he neededto be DANNY LA RUE! He changed drastically. He was worried about losing hisaudience. Interesting side note is that when Phyllis Diller playedDolly on Broadway, her fans were disappointed that she didn’t resort to her “shtick”.It was important to her to play it as truthful as she could. Unfortunately,that is not what her fans desired. Audiences stayed away. She was the weakestDolly as far as the box office was concerned. David Merrick used to stand inthe back of the theater and count the empty seats. With Danny, it was the opposite. He panicked. Peter Coe wasthe director. Peter Coe was a British director who reached a career peak in1961 when he had three hits running simultaneously in London's West End - ''TheMiracle Worker,'' ''The World of Suzie Wong'' and ''Oliver!'' The reviews werewonderful in Birmingham. 

Jerry Lane and Danny LaRue

They were a happy company. Danny was holding courtnight after night. It was everything he dreamed it would be. Everyone thoughtthis was a great time. Suddenly, they were in London and Danny thought he hadto play “Danny” there. It became very awkward with Coe at the helm. He trulydidn’t care for the show. As a matter of fact, he missed many rehearsals. Whetherhe was fired or walked, Lorna has no idea. Shortly after that, he was killed ina car accident. Lorna had a run of the play contract. Everyone thought theshow would run longer than it did. Danny had never had a show that was not asuccess until this. It was not a success at the Prince of Wales Theater. Therewere many factors in addition to Danny’s panic. There should have been more ofa build-up publicity wise. It was not done the right way. Peter Coe also didnot help matters. Peter Coe, like David Merrick, stirred up anxieties. Dannywas pretty much lost at sea. Danny and Lionel Jeffries are sitting out in thetheater trying to figure out how they’re going to play scenes. They startedchanging everything. There was almost a British pantomime feeling about theentire production. Lorna was now in an awkward spot as to how to play Irene.Lionel and Danny virtually directed this “new” show. They were yelling outlines in the British pantomime tradition. Lorna continued to try to play Ireneas truthful as possible. 

Lorna as Irene

She felt that if she started going in their direction,she was going to be a caricature. She couldn’t do that with that role with thesongs she had to sing. To her, she HAD to be truthful in order to sing It Only Takes a Moment. She had toanchor herself and go backwards to hang on to that truthfulness. She had tobelieve that what she was saying and singing was the truth and that this manwas truly Dolly Levi! She was working with vocal coach Ian Adam at the time.She worked with him a lot before even heading into rehearsals. Ian’s advice wasfor her to go out on stage and be Lorna Dallas. He was advising her to begenuine Lorna. She didn’t waver from that. IF she had a second chance at thisperiod of her career, she would hope that she would have the guts to go toDanny and ask him to go back to the Birmingham Dolly, psychologically. The reviews in Birmingham were wonderful. Audiences werecoming to see Hello, Dolly AND Danny La Rue. He had a huge fan base. Danny started out from opening night with his new approach. DannyHAD to be Danny for whatever reasons. Whether something was said to him inBirmingham or not that worried him, Lorna does not know. So many people werecoming to see the show and there were great expectations. People were probablyasking him why he wasn’t doing such and such and he began to second guess hisapproach. It was the old crowd that was so used to seeing him a certain way.They were expecting those old routines. It surprised people that he played itso straight. The first preview in London was before an audience of the Variety Club. Those are the bigwigs, a lot of money and donations. The evening cost many of the patrons around five hundred pounds for charity. They are also the most boring audiences. Carol Channing once said benefits are the hardest audience because they are there to see each other as opposed to who is on stage! Danny was not getting the responses back from the audiences that he was used to.  He was used to an audience that would give him back a response…a lot. That is the way of British pantomimes. The audience yells out to the actors on the stage. The audience was not unfolding that way and panic set in. It didn’t help matters that this was such a “sit on your hands” audience. It was not an appreciative audience.   It rattled Danny a bit. It was an uncomfortable evening. Lorna also knew many of those people sitting out there in the theater.
One fun thing did happen that night. At the end of the party, Danny showed up all in white. 

Lorna with Elaine Paige

Lorna had gotten a custom made dark suit. Danny turned to Lorna and introduced her as his leading lady. She rebutted, "No, he is my leading lady!" He was not a drag artist. He was not a female impersonator. He was a great entertainer dressed in beautiful frocks. Lorna once said to Danny she was never going to try and out dress him, that she would never succeed.

The reviews in London were pans. Danny tried to put a braveface on it. He had never received reviews like this before. With Danny beingnervous, that trickled throughout the entire company. At this point, no onefelt as if they were in a show that would have a long run. This was not goingto be a happy experience. They ran about four months.  In Danny’s autobiography, From Drags to Riches, he recountsthat David Merrick came to ask him to appear in the Broadway Company. He wasunsure that his brand of humor would not translate to the states. He declinedwith a heavy heart and said it was one of the true disappointments of hiscareer. He did perform in Canada, with his act, but never in the states.Lorna states that Danny had one of the largest kindesthearts of any man she ever met. He was also adorable and very generous. Lornawould defend him to her dying day for that fact alone. If he had stayed as hewas in Birmingham, this would have been a tremendous hit. He was also sogenuine and gracious. They remained friends until his passing in 2009. She didconcerts at the Barbican, London’s largest multi-arts and conference venuepresenting a diverse range of art, music, theatre, dance, film and creativelearning events, with Danny. He was always beautifully dressed. He would comeout at the end of the concerts, a Cole Porter, Noel Coward, Ivor Novelloevening, with the London Symphony Orchestra, immaculately dressed in white tieand tails. It took her breath away. No one wore white tie and tails better thanhim. He was preening. He was a beautiful man. Danny asked Lorna to go to Australia with him to do aconcert. It was virtually the same concert and it was televised at the beautifulopera house in Brisbane. They had a fabulous concert there that went very well.They did several together.        From the very beginning, he came in totally prepared. Heknew the script inside out and backwards. He was always on time. He was veryprecise. He was enthusiastic about it all. Danny WAS the only man to play Dolly in London. He was alsothe third. The two previous Dollys were Mary Martin who was succeeded by DoraBryan. Lorna and Dora had worked together. As of this writing, Dora is notdoing well health wise.
When they worked together, Dora and Lorna always foundthemselves talking about Tibetan Terriers. Dora was a ferry scatty type ofcharacter, so the way she played her was somewhere between Carol Channing andMargaret Rutherford. She had a nervous energy about her. She is one of JerryHerman’s favorite Dollys.
She was a wonderful performer. Lorna did not see MaryMartin’s Dolly. Lorna also saw Pearl Bailey play Dolly. “It was wonderfulentertainment. She took Dolly by the scruff of her neck and introduced her to anew generation of theater goers.” The ethnicity element brought in a whole newdemographic as well that grew to love Jerry Herman’s music who might not haveheard it otherwise. It was fascinating to have an all black cast take over apreviously white company, the first time anything like that had ever been done.It worked.  She was absolutely wonderful.It is an incredible show and Jerry wrote some magnificent materialfor it. The show still succeeds because of the truthfulness of Jerry’s music.It has something that women of various ages can identify with. There is alsosomething for men. It is the quality of Jerry’s music, as well. The Waiter’sGallop is one of the most brilliant moments in the show. He can go from that towriting I’ll be wearing ribbons down myback this summer or It Only Takes aMoment and then there is all of Dolly’s material. Some of it isheartbreaking. It turns on a dime, yet it is truthful, a word that Lorna keepsreturning to. It is a warm show. Lorna feels it would be fun to play Dolly now. Lorna alsofeels it is time for a Broadway revival. She feels that Bette Midler would makea great Dolly. She also feels Chita Rivera would make a great Dolly.

with Jerry Herman

Lorna never met David Merrick but there was a time whenGower Champion was being considered to direct Don Gohman’s musical. DavidMerrick might have come in to that as well. Champion pulled out. One thing that Lorna learned because of her involvement withHello, Dolly that she carried forth throughout the rest of her career is not topanic. “Keep within yourself and your strength and don’t let it dissipate withtensions and everything else going on around you.” There were a lot of tensionsand Lorna learned to keep her little space around her nice and solid. Closing night was the only time Lorna saw Danny crumble. Yetit was very gracious, “I did it! And I’m glad I did it!” She saw his shouldersgo down. It was very sad; she felt the wrong people were influencing him.
Ithad been a dream of his to do this for so many years. It was an exciting time for Lorna. It was 1982. She and herhusband Gary had just gotten married, perfect for Irene Molloy. She felt at thetime that they were going to London that she would be returning to the West Endin a show that would be a hit. It was a nice warm feeling doing this show inBirmingham. Judy Garland once said it gets harder and harder as time goes on becausethe expectations are so much higher. Lorna does not feel that the reviews inLondon were totally justified. Lorna feels that Danny should be remembered as an outrageous character but with a huge heart. When one walked into a room where he was, that person would KNOW Danny was there. After his shows, the champagne would be flowing and he would hold court with the greats of the world. Life with Danny was never dull!

Thank you Lorna Dallas for the gifts you have given to the world and continue to give!


With grateful XOXOXs ,

Check out my site celebrating my forthcoming book on Hello, Dolly!
I want this to be a definitive account of Hello, Dolly!  
 If any of you reading this have appeared in any production of Dolly, I'm interested in speaking with you!

Do you have any pics to share?

If you have anything to add or share, please contact me at Richard@RichardSkipper.com.

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TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED DAYRichard Skipper                       
This Blog is dedicated to ALL THE DOLLYS and ANYONE who has EVER had a connection with ANY of them on ANY Level!