Speaking of Dolores Gray and Sherry! remember when Ed Sullivan introduced Dolores in the audience while the show was running and made a memorable faux pas "In our audience tonight is Dolores Gray starving in Sherry! right now at the Alvin Theater." Ed corrected himself and chortled at his mistake, but there was known truth in the comment as the box-office never took off for the show, and it burned off its advance sale in a couple of months in 1967.
As good as those all are, the real eye-opener is how he worked Lizzie Borden in.
No, Jimmy Durante wasn't cast in the Nathan Lane production. However, Lewis J. Stadlen was, and he did his Durante imitation.
Guess this will happen XMAS 2022 - hope for 4K White Christmas too in 22'
Have I misunderstood “Miss Otis Regrets” for my whole life? Certainly as sung by Ella, I find it to be a tragic song.
It's kind of subtle, but Ella doesn't sing it tragically; she sings it comically--well, for Ella, anyway--with a somewhat light, ironic, almost wry tone, mock-tragic, with a kind of little girl voice, and lets the absurdity of the lyrics come though, though when she comes to the last line, "Miss Otis Regrets etc." almost insouciant. In your mind's eye, you can see her wink. But, being Ella, she's focused on the melodic and harmonic qualities of the song, especially with finding complementary chords to decorate the melody, not the emotional or lyrical content, and in that beauty, and let's face it, the melody is drop-dead gorgeous, you might have misconstrued her seriousness about the harmonic construction of the song, with her being serious about the lyrical content, which she isn't.
