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Lifted from All That Chat today...
Stephen Sondheim had a similar experience with Ethel Merman on GYPSY. He wanted to add a verse to "Some People" - he felt that because the song started low and the dialogue that preceded it was on a high pitch, a verse was need to bring it down. He felt the existing cue-in was clumsy & that a new lead-in verse would help the song. But Merman felt it was too angry and refused to learn it.
Sondheim had his agent contact the Dramatists Guild, but she did so in a discreet manner, asking: "If there's an unnamed star who doesn't want to sing a verse, what are the writer's rights?" And the Guild replied, "Let's put it this way - there was a star named Ethel Merman and she was in a show called CALL ME MADAM..."
Well, you know the rest of the story. The Dramatists Guild usually guarantees that a writer will be able to control what goes into the show, but when a mega-star like Merman is involved, things get sticky. So for three years she sang the "Hostess" dummy lyric, and - needless to say - she never did the new verse Sondheim wrote for "Some People."
I--don't care for this. I don't believe in stars--just artists. Check your ego at the stage door.
Sondheim had his agent contact the Dramatists Guild, but she did so in a discreet manner, asking: "If there's an unnamed star who doesn't want to sing a verse, what are the writer's rights?" And the Guild replied, "Let's put it this way - there was a star named Ethel Merman and she was in a show called CALL ME MADAM..."
Well, you know the rest of the story. The Dramatists Guild usually guarantees that a writer will be able to control what goes into the show, but when a mega-star like Merman is involved, things get sticky. So for three years she sang the "Hostess" dummy lyric, and - needless to say - she never did the new verse Sondheim wrote for "Some People."
I--don't care for this. I don't believe in stars--just artists. Check your ego at the stage door.
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