"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 |
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| Dame Cleo Lane, John Dankworth, Lorna |
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| Lorna with Al Hirschfeld and her own original Hirschfeld from Carnegie Hall debut |
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| Lee Roy Reams, Lorna, Peter Howard (who did all the original dance arrangements on Dolly) |
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| Danny LaRue |
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 |
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| Lorna as Irene |
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.
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| Lorna with Elaine Paige |
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.
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| with Jerry Herman |
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.
NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!
Please do what YOU can to be more aware that words and actions DO HURT...but they can also heal and help!
My next blog will be...Happy Birthday, Linn Maxwell!
Thank you, to all the mentioned in this blog!
Here's to an INCREDIBLE tomorrow for ALL...with NO challenges!
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!
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At the age of 19, Dennis Edenfield stepped aboard aGreyhound bus in his hometown of New Orleans and headed for New York City. Hischildhood dream of being on Broadway had begun. Just like in the movies! Thiswas April of 1966. As a performer he has been fortunate to have performed onBroadway and in National Tours, appeared in several films and on manytelevision shows. As a director/choreographer he has over 100 productions tohis credit. As of this writing, he now wears a third hat as a producingartistic director for Premier Performing Arts, a professional theatre company.He has been lucky to work with every level of professionalism, from New Yorkand Hollywood celebrities to early career talent who went on to great careersand accolades. It continues to be a great ride. Welcome to his story.In 1966, he went to his first Broadway audition after asummer of stock. He was told that was the best way to get his Equity card. Thatshow was Hello, Dolly! Gower Championwas actually at the auditions. Ah, those were the days! 
It is a real crowd pleaser. Even kids enjoy it. They lovethe characters. Dennis now as the artistic director of his own theater companyalways has Dolly on his list of shows to do. He knows it will sell. Once again,there is the name recognition. 
