Posted on 04/29/2002 10:14:59 PM PDT by codebreaker
The Big Surprise of the Army Archerd tribute of his 50 years covering entertainment for Variety was the appearance of Julie Andrews.
Although she had planned to do a talking version of 'I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face,' once into it, she actually sang.
And beautifully. It brought down the house.
Los Amgeles VIP's came out in full force Tony Danza danced, Reba McEntire sang, Red Buttons made jokes.
This song, originally written for Rex Harrison, only has a range of a few notes. The fact that any part of Miss Andrews lovely voice has been restored is good news. Let us hope that she gets the use of the entire 2 and 1/2 octaves she formerly had.
Martin Scorcese did a special for one of the film cable channels about 'My Fair Lady' and he said that Julie Andrews had actually recorded a backup track for the film in case the stand in for Audrey Hepburn couldn't do the tracks.
She lost her voice as a result of botched surgery to remove a simple nodule that singers sometimes get. Elton John had similar surgery about ten years ago, but it was 100% successful.
My wife could watch The Sound of Music every Friday night for the rest of her life. And SOB has to be one of the funniest Hollywood sendups ever made.
"This song, originally written for Rex Harrison, only has a range of a few notes. The fact that any part of Miss Andrews lovely voice has been restored is good news. Let us hope that she gets the use of the entire 2 and 1/2 octaves she formerly had."
"I've Grown Accustomed" has a melody that spans more than an octave and half - at different times, attainable in easy steps. This range is easily attainable by most anyone, as long as it contains no "octave leaps," which this song does not.
Rex Harrison's sing-speak is actually quite apropos to his character in MFL. Had he actually sung every last note, the songs would have lost impact.
Interesting note in the running commentary on the "My Fair Lady" collector's DVD - Rex Harrison almost without fail did his best performances on the FIRST TAKE. Subsequent takes the same day would always fall short of the keen edge he would exhibit on the first pass. This is common among stage actors, who know that they only have one crack at it in a live performance. They don't have the luxury of endless editing to point-up each minute detail, as film actors do.
This has led to some odd moments in film making when casts are composed of both stage and screen actors. The stage actors nail it right out of the box, while the screen actors improve on every take. This leaves the editor with having to piece in the stage actors' early takes with the later ones from the screen actors.
The producers shouldn't have worried about Marne Nixon's ability to sing Audrey's parts. She did extremely well, and in her interviews on this DVD, she tells of how she worked to capture Audrey's essence in her singing. The DVD also does have a little of Audrey's original singing. It is, politely, "original."
Michael
Oops, I was repeating the mistaken 'common knowledge' about this song, and I only remember the Harrison versions. Agree about Marnie Nixon being totally dependable at dubbing musicals. If the story about Julie Andrews preparing to sing the songs is true, perhaps it was before the decision to use Ms. Nixon was made.
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