Sono Osato as Ivy in ON THE TOWN

[henrikegerman]

The Jerome Robbins's Broadway thread got me thinking about the casting of Sono Osato as Ivy in ON THE TOWN. Was it a bold (as well as a laudatory) move to cast an American actress and dancer of partly Japanese ancestry (with a recognizably Japanese name!) as one of the three love interests in a musical about three American sailors on World War II shore leave, especially since the war was still on when the show opened? Was there any controversy surrounding this? And also is Osato the only star of the original production still living?

[madbrian]

I can't speak to controversies at the time, but to me, this was a big, ballsy casting decision.

[givesmevoice]

I swear I read something once about her casting being controversial, but now I can't remember what it was. I definitely think it was a ballsy casting decision though.

[best12bars]

It was definitely controversial. Not only was she "not white," we were at war with Japan.

You have to remember, this was a time in our history when Japanese-Americans were being sent to internment camps in the U.S.

My dad remembers that she was replaced about six months into the run with Allyn McLerie, who went on to a healthy film and TV career ... and was white.


EDIT: Did I mention Sono Osato was beautiful?

[dry2olives]

I remember seeing a publicity still of the three lead couples, except she was left out of it and replaced with the actress playing Lucy.

[newintown]

That may have been a shot of the scene where Lucy becomes Gabey's date after Ivy runs off.

[dry2olives]

No, it wasn't a scene. It was a posed publicity shot, not on stage.

[newintown]

Well, she was front and center on the Playbill...

[newintown]

And the Hirschfeld...

[PalJoey]

Sono Osato said this, quite eloquently, of her experience in On the Town:

"It was amazing to me that, at the height of a world war fought over the most vital political, moral and racial issues, a Broadway musical should feature, and have audiences unquestionably accept, a half-Japanese as an All-American Girl. This is probably the most indelible impression I have had of the magic of the theater. I could never have been accepted as Ivy Smith in films, or later on television. Only the power of illusion created between performers and audiences across the footlights can transcend political preference, moral attitudes and racial prejudice."

It is also significant that the original cast of On the Town included six African-American performers, who danced side-by-side with the other performers and not in specialty numbers. They did, however, have to cut one number because it featured an interracial couple.

One of the black performers who had danced with Martha Graham previously, Dorothy McNichols, remembered it feeling like "the first integrated show." She told a story of when the show went on tour and she was barred in Baltimore from entering the stage door. The doorman said she couldn't be in the show because she was black.

Jerry Robbins was told, and he came out of the stage door in all his resplendent fury and rage, used a barrage of four-letter words and told the doorman that if he dared to keep "any of my people" out of the theater, he would lose his job instantly.

[newintown]

A lot of great shots here, too...
On The Town original Broadway photos

[Gypsy9]

Good for Jerome Robbins for telling off that doorman in Baltimore.

Incidentally, with all the recent posts on Jerome Robbins, it got me to thinking about wanting a legitimate DVD of his work. On Amazon, I found it: JEROME ROBBINS: SOMETHING TO DANCE ABOUT--THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY OF AN AMERICAN DANCE MASTER. One of the reviews commented: "There is a veritable treasure chest of film clips of Robbins' work on Broadway, in film, and ballet." I hope ON THE TOWN is included. I'll post about this DVD when I get it.

[henrikegerman]

Wow, great responses. I'm so glad I asked. It really is a great, powerful American story (moving in its own way as ON THE TOWN itself) and a real tribute to Robbins, Bernstein, Comden, Green and company. Joey, thank you so much for that quote from Osato, and, yes indeed, best12, what a gorgeous woman!

"Only the power of illusion created between performers and audiences across the footlights can transcend political preference, moral attitudes and racial prejudice."

Osato's eloquent words should be remembered in bww's frequent threads on race and casting.

[HorseTears]

Loved reading this thread. Thanks for starting it, Henrik!

[EricMontreal22]

PJ, that was the first time that they did have a fully integrated chorus on Broadway, wasn't it? Of course there was one black dancer in the original staging of Fancy Free for Ballet Theatre as well (it may have been called Ballet Caravan back then).

It's been a while since I read Deborah Jowitt's bio, but I'm pretty sure they said that it was Robbins who insisted on Osato, and there was (some) hesitation from some involved.

My grandma was in the Canadian airforce, and when they were on leave in New York they were given tickets to Oklahoma! and On the Town. While she loved both, the production of On the Town made the bigger impression on her.

Gypsy, my problem with Something to Dance About when it aired on PBS was they didn't show enough clips. I didn't realize it had been released to DVD, and I wonder if longer clips are included as bonuses, or anything. There is some footage of the original OTT--it's black and white and I'm not sure if it's from rehearsal, or what, and how much there is--the clip I remember is in that funny cab with Nancy Walker singing Come Up to My Place. I believe there must be some of the dance as well, as I remember hearing that Robbins used it to help when he re-staged the dances for Jerome Robbins' Broadway, as none of them had been notated or survived in other revivals, etc.

(I've always been curious about the 70s OTT revival--what a great cast, with Donna McKechnie as Ivy. But I know it seemed to start the theory that OTT doesn't really seem to work without Robbins' choreography--though I understand people felt the 90s revival worked a lot better as originally staged in Central Park).

[henrikegerman]

My parents went to see ON THE TOWN on their first date. Decades later my mom talked of how much she had loved Nancy Walker's performance.

[EricMontreal22]

Awesome first date--explains a lot

I was just randomly looking up the show--I didn't realize Cris Alexander passed away just this past March, at the age of '92.

I never understood why, for the great 1960 recording of the score Lieberson produced for Columbia (despite some cuts, by far my favorite recording of the show), they reunited most of the stars (Osato didn't really have a singing role, so wasn't brought back John Battles as Gabey, instead using John Reardon. Does anyone know if there's a story behind that? Battles had the lead soon after in Allegro, and sounds fine on that truncated original cast album--his only other ibdb credit is in a 1961 musical called 13 Daughters, so he was still working at the time...

[EricMontreal22]

*edit* Unless it was just that Comden and Green and Nancy Walker loved working the same year of the recording with John Reardon on Do Re Mi and so asked him to do it...

[After Eight]

"I've always been curious about the 70s OTT revival--what a great cast, with Donna McKechnie as Ivy"

It was far better than the notices would have you believe. In fact, I loved it, and found it superior to the subsequent revivals. Barnadette Peters was very funny, Ron Husmann sang beautifully, and it evoked the bittersweet nature of the piece movingly.

There was also a fine revival of the show a few year's back at the Papermill Playhouse.

[Gypsy9]

Conductor Lehman Engel who conducted many studio cast recordings for Goddard Lieberson was scheduled to conduct the recording of ON THE TOWN for Lieberson. According to Engel's wonderful autobiography, THIS BRIGHT DAY, he got a call from Leonard Bernstein who pleaded with him to let Bernstein conduct "his baby". Of course Engel relented and handed the baton over to Bernstein.

Incidentally, Lehman Engel was also the pit conductor for the Comden, Green and Styne DO RE MI which featured John Reardon who sang the show's hit
" Make Someone Happy". Engel conducted the OBCR of that show in 1960, the same year that ON THE TOWN was recorded. So, Reardon was busy that year.

[henrikegerman]

"Awesome first date--explains a lot :)"

True, although, for the record, I wasn't conceived that night, or that decade, or even the next decade. I'm a very late child. Still, I often ask myself, "Where has the time all gone to?"

[jayinchelsea]

John Reardon was a sweet guy, with a beautiful baritone voice, and i had already heard him sing the lead of Edvard Grieg in the Jones Beach SONG OF NORWAY (he replaced the equally wonderful Stephen Douglass of DAMN YANKEES fame in NORWAY'S second season) when I met him after a matinee of DO RE MI. He soon left the Broadway stage and returned to the world of opera (years later I heard his Sharpless in BUTTERFLY at the Met). You can hear Reardon on the SONG OF NORWAY recording (Masterworks has reissued it), as well as the OBC of DO RE MI and the 1960 studio ON THE TOWN (still one of the great achievements; you get to hear all the amazing Bernstein dance music.)

We lost the golden voice of John Reardon to AIDS-related pneumonia in 1988. How lucky we are to have these recordings!

[henrikegerman]

My ex worked with Reardon and adored him.

[Jon]

Reardon was a frequent guest on Mr. Rodgers's Neighborhood, introducing kids to the world of opera.

[elmore3003]

I wish Sony wlould release their recording of THE MERRY WIDOW with JohnReardon and Lisa Della Casa. It's an abridged performance, but the new English version is good and Reardon is the best Danilo ever.