|
Carol
Channing was first noticed when she appeared in three
performances of Marc Blitzstein's No for an Answer (1941) at age
19, going on to appear in Cole Porter's Let's Face It! (1941)
with Danny Kaye, and acting as a replacement in Wonderful Town (1953).
However, she first made a name for herself as Lorelei Lee, singing
"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Jule Styne's Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes (1949), and she continued to sing it for another
decade. She made a brief stop as Flora Weems in a bizarre flop
called The Vamp (1955), but it was in 1964 that she really hit
her stride as Dolly Levi in Gower Champion's production of Hello,
Dolly! , Jerry Herman's musical version of The Matchmaker.
She returned appeared in Lorelei (1974), a flop sequel also
known as Gentlemen Still Prefer Blondes, but then returned to
Dolly Levi again in a 1994
revival. Channing is very strongly
associated with the role of Dolly, and is the only actress this author
knows of who could have an audience rolling in the aisles by merely
sitting and eating a chicken dinner for ten minutes. |
