{"id":134,"date":"1980-03-19T20:21:46","date_gmt":"1980-03-19T20:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/?p=134"},"modified":"2018-10-25T10:12:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T14:12:11","slug":"lee-roy-reams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/lee-roy-reams\/","title":{"rendered":"42nd Street"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u00a0AUDITION<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While I was appearing as Cornelius Hackl in Carol Channing\u2019s First Broadway Revival of HELLO, DOLLY! at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, Michael Stewart (who wrote the book) told me he was writing a new musical based on the Warner Bros. musical film, 42ND STREET.\u00a0 Of course, I knew the film because I had seen it on late night TV and that it starred Ruby Keeler & Dick Powell.\u00a0 Since Michael had told me I was his favorite Cornelius, I jumped right in and told him I\u2019d love to play the Dick Powell role in the musical.\u00a0 We never discussed it again.<\/p>\n\n

About a year later, I got a call from my agent informing me that I had an audition for 42ND STREET.\u00a0 The producer was the infamous David Merrick and the director\/choreographer was the legendary Gower Champion.\u00a0 I was told it was the role of Andy Lee.\u00a0 I asked if that was the Dick Powell role and it wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 Andy Lee was a choreographer in the story about 40 years old, on the tough side and didn\u2019t have a solo number.\u00a0 The casting director thought I was too old for the Dick Powell role of Billy Lawlor.\u00a0 Needless to say, I was so disappointed and didn\u2019t want to take the audition.<\/p>\n\n

As I was talking with my agent, my partner, Bob, who is now my husband kept writing on a piece of paper \u2018take the audition\u2019 and underlining it.\u00a0 I hung up the phone and asked Bob, \u201cWhy should I audition for a role I don\u2019t want to do?\u201d\u00a0 He answered, \u201cJust go in and show them what you can do!\u201d\u00a0 It was good advice.\u00a0 I booked the audition.<\/p>\n\n

The audition was on the stage of the Winter Garden Theatre on 50th & Broadway where the show would open in August.\u00a0 I told my accompanist that I would start with an up tempo song, It\u2019s Today, go right into a ballad, I Only Have Eyes For You and then a dear friend of mine, Toni Kaye, would walk out and we would go into a big tap dance that I had previously choreographed for us in a Rodgers & Hart Revue, This Can\u2019t Be Love.\u00a0 I emphasized to her, \u201cWhatever you do, don\u2019t stop.\u00a0 They\u2019ll have to throw me out!\u201d<\/p>\n\n

When I finished, there was a deafening silence.\u00a0 Down the aisle walked a silvered haired, tall & handsome man, it was Gower Champion.\u00a0 He motioned me to the front of the stage & said, \u201cYou\u2019re not right for the role of Andy Lee.\u201d\u00a0 I bent over and replied, \u201cYes, I know that.\u201d\u00a0 He then smiled and said, \u201cYou\u2019re very right for the role of Billy Lawlor.\u201d\u00a0 And I got the part!!!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPENING NIGHT<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Prior to the official rehearsal date of the Broadway musical 42ND STREET, Gower Champion requested a week\u2019s rehearsal with me, Wanda Richert (who played the ingenue role of Peggy Sawyer) and his two dance assistants, Karin Baker & Randy Skinner.\u00a0 He casually mentioned during that period that he had an anemic blood condition and once in awhile he would have to take a morning off to have his blood cleansed which was part of the treatment.\u00a0 Later, we learned it was Waldenstrom\u2019s Disease which is a cancer of the white cells.\u00a0 However, at the time, we didn\u2019t know and he seemed to be in good physical condition and was still a handsome man.\u00a0 He also mentioned that he was in the process of finalizing his divorce from his wife, Karla.\u00a0 Once we were in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center during the out of town tryout, Gower had begun an open affair with Wanda.<\/p>\n\n

42ND STREET was supposed to have opened at the Palace Theatre on Broadway around the second week of August 1980.\u00a0 However, Producer David Merrick didn\u2019t feel the show was ready because the show had received mixed reviews at the Kennedy Center.\u00a0 He had also bought out the only other investor telling him that they may not be making back the original investment.<\/p>\n\n

Merrick employed security guards around the Winter Garden Theatre and we had to wear name tags to be admitted to rehearsals.\u00a0 Gower had grown weary with the delays and stopped attending the complete dress run thrus with full orchestra that David had demanded.\u00a0 During one of those run thrus the ensemble brought dolls & teddy bears to put in the front two rows so we would have an audience.<\/p>\n\n

Merrick arranged a partial audience one night and Cliff Jahr of the NY Times had managed to sneak in.\u00a0 When David found out, he stepped in front of the curtain and told the audience the performance had to be cancelled because there was a rat in the generator of the theatre.\u00a0 When the audience had cleared the theatre, we did another run thru with only David in the audience.<\/p>\n\n

Finally, we were given one ticket for a small arranged preview performance.\u00a0 The audience loved the show!\u00a0 As I was leaving, I passed Wanda\u2019s dressing room and Gower was there.\u00a0 We had not seen him for awhile.\u00a0 We hugged and I said, \u201cWell, Gower, you heard from your first New York audience.\u00a0 You have a hit!\u201d \u00a0 Wanda added, \u201cAnd, it\u2019s all because of you.\u201d\u00a0 He put his arms around the two of us and pulled us into a tight embrace and whispered, \u201cNo, it\u2019s because of us.\u201d\u00a0 I was moved to tears and left without saying a word. \u00a0 It was the last time I ever saw him.<\/p>\n\n

On the day of our opening, August 25th, we received a call from stage management telling us that we had to come to the theatre that afternoon for a 3:00 rehearsal.\u00a0 Everyone was upset because we had limousines ordered and plans with our family & guests.\u00a0 However, it was par for the course with David Merrick!\u00a0 We were, literally, locked into the theatre and didn\u2019t rehearse.\u00a0 We knew that Gower was in the hospital and would not be attending.\u00a0 Our mantra was \u201cWe\u2019re doing it for Gower!\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The opening was spectacular!\u00a0 We had about fifteen curtain calls.\u00a0 The press ran down the aisles of the Winter Garden and flash bulbs were blinding us.\u00a0 It was like a Hollywood movie!\u00a0 David Merrick came out on stage.\u00a0 I thought he was going to thank Gower Champion in absentia.\u00a0 Instead, he held up his hands and muttered, \u201cThis is tragic.\u201d\u00a0 It got a big laugh from the audience.\u00a0 I thought, what\u2019s tragic about fifteen curtain calls?\u00a0 He continued, \u201cNo, you don\u2019t understand.\u00a0 Gower Champion died this afternoon.\u201d\u00a0 The audience gasped and the cast was frozen in shock.\u00a0 David turned upstage and embraced Wanda.\u00a0 Thank God, our leading man, Jerry Orbach, had the presence of mind to shout to the stage manager, \u201cBring in the curtain!\u201d<\/p>\n\n

As the curtain hit the stage, I had a flash back to a conversation I once had with Gower.\u00a0 I\u00a0 told him I was an old fashioned song & dance man and I always felt I was born too late because I always wanted to be an MGM star!\u00a0 He said he understood completely because he was there at the end of the Golden Era and that 42ND STREET would be his MGM present to me.<\/p>\n\n

He continued to tell me that during the 70\u2019s, he tried to get with it.\u00a0 He went to the discos, tried to do the dances, did the drugs and woke up one morning realizing that he, too, was just an old fashioned song & dance man.<\/p>\n\n

Therefore, when David Merrick asked him to do 42ND STREET\u2026.although his doctors advised against it because of the difficult & stressful past he had experienced with Merrick doing HELLO, DOLLY!, CARNIVAL & MACK & MABEL\u2026..he sighed, \u201cI had to do it because I don\u2019t want to be remembered as a \u2018has been\u2019.<\/p>\n\n

Our emotions did a re-run and we went to the opening night party.\u00a0 It was a sit down dinner with an orchestra at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.\u00a0 After all, we only had one producer.\u00a0 It was so elegant & first class all the way, even though it was kind of a funeral wake.\u00a0 It was probably the only opening night party in Broadway history where the cast was served sitting down!<\/p>\n\n

When I arrived at the party, the first person who greeted me was the great Broadway Director\/Choreographer, Bob Fosse.\u00a0 I had worked with Fosse & his genius ex-wife, Gwen Verdon, in SWEET CHARITY & a Bob Hope TV Special.\u00a0 With an amazed look on his face, he said, \u201cThat son of a bitch!\u00a0 I filmed my own death in ALL THAT JAZZ and he still had to do me one better by doing it on opening night!\u201d\u00a0 We howled and I added, \u201cIf there\u2019s a heaven, Gower is looking down and laughing with us!\u201d<\/p>\n\n

42ND STREET was a smash hit.\u00a0 Our picture was on the front page of newspapers around the world the next day with that captured look of horror on our faces after Merrick\u2019s announcement from the stage.\u00a0 David was criticized for what he did but I don\u2019t agree.\u00a0 He lived up to his legendary reputation and took advantage of the situation. \u00a0 He had called the press media that afternoon and told them if they didn\u2019t publicize Gower\u2019s death, he would allow them into the theatre that night and let them record his announcement from the stage.\u00a0 It was a brilliant strategy.<\/p>\n\n

The reviews were raves and an obituary to Gower\u2019s career.\u00a0 We all benefitted from the eight year run which broke HELLO, DOLLY\u2019S longest running Broadway record, especially, the Gower Champion estate. \u00a0 At one point, David Merrick made headlines in Variety as the only producer in Broadway history to be receiving one million dollars a week in personal royalties from his three running productions of 42ND STREET!\u00a0 That\u2019s what makes Broadway history!<\/p>\n

Check out the digital collection of the NYPL below with photographs of 42nd street by Martha Swope:<\/p>\n

42nd Street Photos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0AUDITION While I was appearing as Cornelius Hackl in Carol Channing\u2019s First Broadway Revival of HELLO, DOLLY! at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, Michael Stewart (who wrote the book) told me he was writing a new musical based on the Warner Bros. musical film, 42ND STREET.\u00a0 Of course, I knew the film because I had seen it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlight"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1540476733:64"],"_wp_old_date":["2018-03-05"],"_edit_last":["64"],"_wpac_members_redirect_to":[""],"_wpac_show_in_search":["0"],"_wpac_show_excerpt_in_search":["0"],"_wpac_nonmembers_redirect_to":[""],"_oembed_5c77ec1535c2579f39c5491d37531ba2":["{{unknown}}"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.760000000000001563194018672220408916473388671875;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.3799999999999954525264911353588104248046875;}"]},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/reams\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}