Each month, Jason Fortner spotlights one or more musical theatre composers and/or lyricists, offering his own unique perspective on the songwriting legends of musical theatre. Send your comments/questions on this column to happgood@aol.com.

Karen Morrow

On Sunday October 19th at 3pm in New York's Town Hall, the BROADWAY ORIGINALS concert will feature stars of classic & forgotten shows performing their signature songs. One of the featured performers is Karen Morrow, who starred in a bunch of unfortunate shows that live on in musical theater history. Among these were I HAD A BALL, I'M SOLOMON, A JOYFUL NOISE, THE GRASS HARP, THE SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT plus other shows like off-Broadway's SING, MUSE and the studio LP of TOM JONES. In addition she performed in New York revivals of OKLAHOMA!, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE and was a replacement "Princess Puffer" in THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD on Broadway.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ms Morrow for brunch in LA earler this year and am thrilled to share the highlights of our chat now. Enjoy!

JF: It's so great to meet you and for you to take time to discuss your Broadway career with us.

KM: What career? I didn't have any hit shows, so I never had a chance to HAVE a career on Broadway. But I meet aficionados who just love my work in those short-lived shows. What do you think it was? Must be because I was loud, I suppose. I wasn't much of an actress in those days.

Which reminds me of a story. I was in an episode of THE LOVE BOAT in 1979 with Amanda Blake, playing her daughter, and I was supposed to come down the steps into the dining room and speak. I was really have a hard time with the scene and I went to the director, asking if he could give me some guidance. What's a key thing I could do to improve the scene? What can I do?

He replied dryly: "You could act better."

JF: Was this because he was a television director and not a stage director?

KM: No. My agents were always telling me I couldn't act. I don't think I was all that good. If I were a good actress I'd be in a big mansion now.

With Ron Moody and Colin Duffy in OLIVER

JF: You had to be good to get the roles you got.

KM: I don't know what I was. I was in musicals. I was never considered a real actress. I think of the song "I'm Still Here" from FOLLIES where Carlotta sings "I should have gone to an acting school that seems clear" but you know, in spite of that, I'm still here. By the way, I got to do FOLLIES in Long Beach with Dorothy Lamour, Yma Sumac, Shani Wallis, Susan Johnson and Juliet Prowse. That was amazing. I worried about following the knockout "Mirror, Mirror" number with my rendition of "I'm Still Here", especially having to retain lyrics like "had heebie jeebies for Beebe's Bathysphere", but it was a terrific production.

JF: But I also think a reason for your multiple flops was that you came to New York just as the second Golden Age of Broadway was ending, from OKLAHOMA! to FIDDLER, basically.

KM: And I was shocked! Shocked it was changing so. I really thought, when I was a young singer in Milwaukee, that I would go to New York, and immediately sign with the Morris office, because I'd see their ad every week in Variety with the Jimmy Durante caricature. I thought I'd have my own Richard Rodgers or Oscar Hammerstein to guide me, and I'd live in Barbados or some exotic place where they'd come play their latest score for me, but then I decided I shouldn't make it too far for them to go, maybe I'll just move to Staten Island instead, make it easier. Of course my first Broadway composers were Stan Freeman and Jack Lawrence for I HAD A BALL, far from Rodgers & Hammerstein! But this dream never happened cause everything really changed.

I remember being appalled when I saw GODSPELL. Appalled when I saw HAIR. They seemed so undisciplined, so all over the place. My ears couldn't grasp what they were hearing. I was shocked at the nudity in HAIR and after the show I said to a friend "I bet they don't sign in at half hour". And I found out they didn't. It was a whole new Broadway.

As Dolly Levi in HELLO DOLLY

JF: What was your audition song for I HAD A BALL?

KM: Same song it was for 35 years, "Perfect Relationship" from BELLS ARE RINGING. I'd do it in my act. All those great lyrics leading up to the payoff "WHAAAAAT does he look like!". Just like the big note in "Shy" from MATTRESS, but then the end has a sweet sadness to it. (She sings the last two lines of the song.) I tell my students that a great audition song needs the 3 P's : Power, Personality and Pathos.

JF: Getting back to I HAD A BALL, what was it like working with Onna White, the choreographer? Did she have everything pre-planned or did she work more spontaneously?

KM: I have no idea. She would sit in the back of the dark theater. See, in those days, the dancers worked in one room, the singers separately and the principals in their own space, too. So I never saw anything and rarely saw her at work, until right before we opened. The dancers in that show were very high energy, they never stopped! (You can see the Ed Sullivan show clip of the title song on YouTube or BlueGobo.) The thing is, I sang the song and then I walked off stage while the dancers did all their stuff, then I strolled back on to finish the number. But that's how it was back then. Onna would sit in the back and her assistant would come down the aisle, give the notes and then move on.

JF: What's your best memory of I HAD A BALL? Was Buddy Hackett as out of control as the books say?

KM: That's what kept us running as long as we did. If he hadn't done his nightclub act every night after the show we would not have kept people coming in. One review was just a blank column, the critic claimed he had nothing to say. It was that bad.

But my best memory was Richard Kiley, I would go and sit in his dressing room and just ask him questions. I was a kid, only 25 or so, and he would tell me his history, how he would do subway theatre, where they would perform a show in a subway car. Fascinating. During this time, he was in rehearsal for LA MANCHA and we all thought it was just a little show at Goodspeed. Poor guy, we thought, his career is over.

Sometime after our show closed I went to see MAN OF LA MANCHA down at the ANTA Theatre and I was just sobbing at the show, the theatricality of it, the heart. I went to his dressing room afterward and sobbed "how did you get so good?". He answered "Twenty six years of practice." He was ready for the right part at the right time.

Scene from JERRY HERMAN AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL. Carol Channing, Leslie Uggams, Jerry Herman, Rita Moreno & Karen.

JF: Wow. That's an amazing story.

KM: It was a big revelation for me. Here I'd been fantasizing about what a Broadway career could be, (people kept telling me I was just like Merman, I was nothing like Merman), so I thought it was going to glorious. I thought composers like Stan & Jack would come to my home in Staten Island and offer me my next show. So, it just was a disappointment from beginning to end, my Broadway career, and I learned how much of a business it was, how'd they fudge things with money, all the bad aspects of the business. Buddy hired me for a lot of benefits after that, but his circle of cronies were not really nice guys. Their treatment of women was really seedy, they were polite to me, but they were really not classy.

By the time my Broadway career was ending I went into therapy, largely cause they'd all been flops. Each time they started off hopefully and we had fun, everybody thought I was the next big thing, I'd work my ass off and then we'd close. I'd fall apart.

JF: So what was the next step for you?

KM: I came out here to LA, and I said "Thank you Jesus, I'm home!". All I ever wanted to be was a movie star or do variety shows, caused I was raised on all the great TV variety shows, and Hollywood was the place to do all that. I loved the lights and costumes and makeup, the glamour of doing television. Jim Nabors was the one who brought me out here, he was looking for a Vicki Lawrence type girl. It was between me and Fannie Flagg, but I got the part. THE JIM NABORS SHOW got cancelled when CBS got rid of their homespun lineup to make way for the ALL IN THE FAMILY and MAUDE style shows.

In LA, I did a ton of TV shows, several LOVE BOATS, LOVE AMERICAN STYLE, TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT and others. I loved the star treatment. Looking glamorous, standing and singing and I didn't have to remember it for the next night! Much easier than trying to save a Broadway flop.

Funny thing about my flops, most opened on or around my Birthday on December 15th. This got around and in one show the producers announced "We're gonna move to opening to December 15th" and the cast yelled "No!". And of course, it flopped.

JF: Getting back to musical theater, I heard a live tape of THE GRASS HARP and upon your entrance as "Babylove" the crowd goes wild and cheers and cheers. What was that experience like for you? It was a show stopping entrance, to say the least.

KM: They do? I have no recollection of that at all. But it was 37 years ago. Claibe was such a gifted composer. I went with him to Germany to record the cast album, we stayed in Cologne. He would leave me messages as to where he was going to be and sign them "Herr Cla-bah". From then on he was always "Herr Cla-bah" to me. I was so sad when he died.

JF: Did you have a survival job in New York between shows?

KM: No. I was fortunate to keep working. There was always another show for me in those years, either on Broadway or in stock. Plus there were TV commercials and guest shots on TV, Carol Burnett had seen me do MOLLY BROWN in stock and she got me on THE GARRY MOORE SHOW, THE JIMMY DEAN SHOW and one other.

JF: What are some other New York shows that you did?

KM: I did OKLAHOMA! at City Center before I did a Broadway show, also SING, MUSE and THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE revival off-Broadway in those years. I never got really great reviews, but Walter Kerr liked me.

I got my big lead in THE SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT, a musical in which I had no songs. They kept trying to fix my part, changing the costumes, tweaking the speeches, whatever they thought could fix the show. On opening night I came out for my star bow and some guy near the front yelled out "You should have sung, honey!".

When the reviews came out for THE SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT they all said things about why wasn't Ms Morrow's wonderful singing voice utilized and I thought, oh, they like my voice? I never knew.

It was not pleasant, being in a flop, wondering if the audience would hate it. Merv Griffin and I tried an experiment, he'd have me on all the time, he really liked me. He loved his belters! So for one flop, he lied to the audience and said "did you see the reviews? This show is a big hit" and I played along with it. We lied, lied like rugs and just made up quotes and such. When I got outside the people said "I read those reviews! Fabulous!", they totally bought into it.

Karen surrounded by cabaret luminaries Shelly Markham, Karen Mason, Babbie Green & Amanda McBroom and PRODUCERS star Gary Beach.

JF: Did any of the shows surprise you when they flopped?

KM: No. But the one that surprised me as a hit was THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE revival, cause we were all running around and mugging, being silly, everything the nuns had taught me not to do! They used to yell at me for misbehaving. We were all doing wacky things and I was leaping around, falling down, making faces, all that stuff. I cried and cried on opening night.

JF: Why?

KM: I thought Mr. Rodgers bought the critics. I couldn't believe I could be well-reviewed for hamming it up. Such a phony business, I thought. Then I was reassured by Mr. Rodgers he had not.

JF: Was Rodgers around much for the show?

KM: Oh yes, he was there. Largely because he liked the ladies. He liked the tall blondes. When I auditioned I was thin, it was right after I did MOLLY BROWN in Boston and Denver, and the role was for "Luce" the fat cook. He had wooed me before, earlier on I when was the new "hot number" in town. He wanted to cast me but needed me fatter, so they padded me. It was great fun. Christopher Hewett directed it. Eventually I quit the show to go do summer stock in Texas.

By the way I loved playing MOLLY BROWN, especially when I got to wear pretty gowns. (I did a lot of the show, for I was Tammy Grimes standby as well.) I also loved ANNIE GET YOUR GUN cause I could be funny/goofy in the beginning and then transform and wear glamorous clothes later on. Story of my life, goofy and glamour.

JF: You did GYPSY a couple of times on the road, where was that?

KM: I did "Rose" in both San Diego and Phoenix and loved playing the part. It's a great role and a great score from the Golden era or Broadway. But it's written for my big style of voice, something I first discovered I had at three years old. My parents put me up on top of a piano stool, I sang "God Bless America" and they applauded and I loved it. So I sang, sang, sang every chance I got. I wasn't sure I had a place on Broadway but then I heard Susan Johnson and said "that's my voice" cause I knew I couldn't be a soprano, and that was it. I knew there was a guiding hand leading me toward my career, and when Frank Loesser asked me to do her role in the revival of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA at City Center, I was sure of it. Playing "Cleo" was sort of a validation of my voice range.

JF: Today you teach young actors at AMDA in LA and at other locations in California. How is it working with young aspiring talent today?

KM: My energy inspires the kids, that why they keep asking me back. I'm able to look at a kid and see where they are shooting themselves in the foot, and I can see their ambition, good or bad, because I've been there. But just because you've done shows it doesn't mean you'll be a good teacher, but I think I have good insight and inspiration for them.

These kids today are triple threats, doing things we never did in my day. But many suffer from a lack of onstage sincerity. I try to bring that out of them. You have to believe in what you are doing, full force.

And in teaching the future performers, I try to keep current too. I loved PASSING STRANGE this past season on Broadway. Such an interesting, entertaining journey. I had fun at CRY BABY too, even though it didn't last long.

JF: Well, that brings us full circle from your shock at HAIR and GODSPELL. Thank you for taking time out of your teaching schedule to meet. I hope our readers flock to the BROADWAY ORIGINALS concert to get to see you in person, even if you never got the mansion in exotic Staten Island.

(Special thanks to Kris Kyer for arranging this interview.) Photos in this article provided by www.karenmorrow.com.