Do I Hear A Waltz? – Elizabeth Allen, James Dybas, Christopher Votos (seated), Sergio Franchi, Julianne Marie.

I moved from my home town of Chicago to NYC, had been here for a short time and was lucky enough to get the theatrical agent Gus Shirmer interested in getting work for me. I remember the telephone ringing, getting a call from Gus, telling me that I had an interview appointment with casting director Eddie Blum at the Rodgers and Hammerstein office . This preliminary appointment was to determine if Mr. Blum thought I was right for the role of the leading man’s (Sergio Franchi) son in the new Rodgers and Sondheim musical “Do I Hear A Waltz?”.  The musical takes place in Venice, Italy and I tried to look as “Italian” as possible. 

After about 10 minutes into our conversation, Mr.Blum told me that Mr. Rodgers wanted to cast actors of Italian descent. Since I’m a Polish/Ukrainian boy from the South Side of Chicago, I told a fib and said that my name had been shortened from Dybaselli and that my father was from Sicily and my mother was from Palermo. Mr. Blum said that the show takes place in Venice not the “thatsa nicea” South of Italy and how would I prounounce the word  S-I-S-T-E-R ?  seester or seestah ? 

Since I had no idea what a Venitian accent sounded like, I had to think fast and using my hand said “mezzo mezzo, right between the two”.  Of course I was lying thru my teeth ! The name of he game is still  “Get The Job !”

I left his office feeling as if I had made a good impression. A couple of days later, I got another call from my agent who said that they wanted to see me to meet with and sing for Mr. Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim and the British director John Dexter for the role of  Vito Di Rossi.

I was given sides (a couple of pages from the script) to look at and to be familiar with. I decided to sing “Torna A Sorriento” in Italian, which I felt would cement my Italian ancestry. 

Before my call back, I went to the Lincoln Center Library for The Performing Arts and looked for and found Arthur Laurents’ script of the play “Time of the Cukoo” which “Do I Hear A Waltz?” was being based on, 

and saw that the role of Vito DiRossi was played by an actor named Ruggero Romor. I took the script home with me, and had the bright idea to look in the NYC telephone book to see if Ruggero might have a listed telephone number. BINGO ! There it was, in black and white. 

I had two telephones in my apartment and placed a tape recorder beside one of them. I made the call and when Ruggero picked up, I pressed the record button and the rest is history. I explained who I was and that I was calling to hear his pronunciation of several words. Sister was one of the words.  He told me that I was lucky to have called that day because he was no longer acting, he was now a seaman, and was leaving New York on a ship that was sailing for Italy the next day. Now I had his accent on tape saying “My most little sister, she is ill, and my papa had to take her to the doctor.” ……..and several other lines from the script. Talk about “Serendipity”, I hit the jackpot ! 

I aced the audition and opened on Broadway at the 46th Street (now the Richard Rodgers) Theater on March 18, 1965. It was indeed Buona Fortuna.                        Grazie, Ruggero Romor.