Why Everyone Can Only Wish They Were Julie Andrews

10.1.35

Julie Andrews has never won a Tony.

She’s won three Emmys — the first for The Julie Andrews Show in 1973 and most recently for her voiceover work in Bridgerton. She won a Grammy in 1965 for Mary Poppins and another in 2011 for Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies. Her one Oscar is for her performance as the practically perfect Mary Poppins. That film was released in 1964, the same year as My Fair Lady. Andrews had originated the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway, but Jack L. Warner replaced her with Audrey Hepburn (and Marni Nixon’s voice). Even without the dubbing, Hepburn is terribly miscast as Eliza, just as she was miscast as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. (Leave your angry comments below.)

When Warner broke the news to Andrews, he said, “I so wanted you to do it, Julie, but they wanted a name.” Yes, there apparently was a time when Julie Andrews wasn’t Julie Andrews. Although the studio thought it made business sense to go with a name, they could have had this voice. (Here she is on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.)

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There was no question that Julie Andrews was a “name” after Mary Poppins became a massive hit. “I’d like to thank Jack Warner for making this possible,” she said at the end of her Golden Globe acceptance speech. She’d win the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1965, six months before her 30th birthday. “I know you Americans are famous for your hospitality but this is really ridiculous,” she said after accepting her Oscar from Sidney Poitier.

Yet still no Tony.

Andrews made her American stage debut in 1954’s The Boyfriend. She was 18 on opening night, and she was 20 when My Fair Lady began its record-setting run. Although My Fair Lady won the Tony for Best Musical, Andrews herself lost to Judy Holliday in Bells Are Ringing, a production that has faded from public memory. (My friend Erin could probably explain why this might’ve made sense at the time.)

The musical Camelot premiered on October 1960, just before John F. Kennedy was elected. Andrews was just 25 when she originated the role of Guenevere opposite Richard Burton as King Arthur and Robert Goulet as Sir Lancelot. Told that she’d have to learn an entirely new song, “Before I Gaze At You Again,” for the show’s first New York preview, the ever professional Andrews replied, “Of course, darling, but do try to get it to me the night before.”

After JFK’s 1963 assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy mentioned in a Life magazine interview that Camelot was his favorite musical and he enjoyed listening to the cast recording before going to bed. (JFK’s Harvard classmate Alan Jay Lerner wrote the book and lyrics for Camelot.)

Andrews lost the 1961 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical to Elizabeth Anne Seal in Irma La Douce. If that musical’s cast recording was bedtime listening for JFK, Jackie never mentioned it.

Andrews was considered “The Queen of Broadway” in the early 1960s, but after she left for Hollywood to make her film debut in Mary Poppins, she wouldn’t return to the stage for more than 30 years. It’s obviously hard to fit an eight-shows-a-week Broadway schedule into a blockbuster film career, but it wasn’t necessarily impossible. As Brett Farmer notes at The Parallel Julieverse site:

“… Julie was still in negotiations to return to Broadway in 1963 to star in She Loves Me--the topic of another post here in the Parallel Julie-verse–and would have done so had director Hal Prince waited a few months till late 1963 so she could finish filming The Americanization of Emily but Prince was impatient to work and went ahead without her, a fact he later openly regretted as the show closed after only 302 performances. “Had I waited six months [for Julie Andrews],” Prince speculates, “the show might have run three years” (Carol Ilson, Harold Prince: A Director’s Journey, New York: Limelight, 1989: p. 85).”

By the 1970s, Broadway musicals had changed dramatically with, as Farmer writes, “a new mix of youth-oriented rock musicals and slightly edgy, cerebral concept musicals that didn’t seem to offer great scope for a traditional musical comedy performer, let alone a classically-trained soprano one, like Julie.”

Remembering Stephen Sondheim

I personally think Andrews would have been great in Stephen Sondheim’s Company, A Little Night Music, and Sweeney Todd. She was already trying to update her image with roles in her husband Blake Edwards’ movies.

In 1979’s 10, she plays Dudley Moore’s wife, and we’re supposed to believe he finds anyone else more attractive and compelling. Star Wars required less suspension of disbelief. Andrews is also excellent in 1981’s S.O.B. However, my favorite Andrews/Edwards collaboration is 1982’s Victor/Victoria. She’s absolutely smoking in the “Le Jazz Hot” number. (Watch below.)

Andrews would return to the stage in 1993’s Off-Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together. However, her official return to Broadway was 1995’s musical adaptation of Victoria/Victoria. (No, I do not consider the 1982 movie a proper musical. It’s a movie with songs that are performed realistically within the world of the film, like Cabaret.)

In the genderbending Victor/Victoria, Andrews technically performs in drag (though bigots tend to have less of an issue when a woman wears a suit). Andrews plays out-of-work soprano Victoria Grant, who makes it big as “female impersonator” Count Victor Grazinski. “A woman impersonating a man impersonating a woman!” Victoria’s best friend Carroll “Toddy” Todd is gay (Robert Preston in the movie, Tony Roberts on Broadway), and the film is affirmatively pro-queer with a touching “coming out” subplot. This is pretty “woke” even for today and was especially so in 1982.

The gangster King Marchand (James Garner) is sexually attracted to Victor so he’s driven to prove that “he is a she.” Spying on Victoria while she bathes, he learns the truth so feels “safe” to make his move. The 1995 musical wisely drops that scene so when King (Michael Nouri) kisses Victor and says, “I don’t care if you are a man,” he means it.

Andrews could have just starred in a production of Mary Poppins and won all the awards and made all the money. She didn’t. Thanks to a lovely woman named Marjorie, I worked front of house at Victor/Victoria my first year in New York City and watched the show often. Believe me, there were a lot of confused tourists who went in expecting Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music and were aghast at the actual subject matter.

She likely would’ve won that elusive Tony for Victor/Victoria but she declined the nomination because the show was otherwise ignored. Of course, this was the same season as Rent, so it’s not like Victor/Victoria was going to win Best Musical even if it had been nominated. I do think Rachel York deserved a nod for her hilarious performance as Norma Cassidy, who Lesley Ann Warren played in the film. Still, I respect her standing by her husband and fellow cast members.

Victor/Victoria was physically demanding for the then-60-year-old Andrews, and the performance put a strain on her voice. After leaving the show, she had surgery at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital to remove non-cancerous nodules in her throat. Tragically, the operation resulted in the permanent loss of her singing voice. She filed a malpractice suit that was settled in 2000. Of course, there is literally no price you could place on Julie Andrews’s voice.

Andrews is a wonderful actor and could easily have won a Tony for any number of dramatic roles. I don’t know why she hasn’t been in a straight play (pardon the pun). I wonder if there’s legitimate concern that audiences paying to see Julie Andrews on Broadway would expect her to sing. If that’s the obstacle, it’s a shame.

When I worked at Victor/Victoria, I rode the same subway home as the actor Tara O’Brien, who originally played the Paris street singer. She recognized me from front of house and would sit next to me. I didn’t care that she called me “Steve.” That voice more than earned an exception. (Watch below.)

Tara later replaced Rachel York as Norma, and one day, as I entered the theater, Tara was rehearsing a dance number (the Tango scene) with Julie Andrews. Tara spotted me and called out, “Hey, Steve!” and Dame Julie waved and said, “Oh, hello! How are you?”

I was quite well at that moment.

Happy Birthday, Dame Julie. You don’t need that Tony, but we’ll always need you.