BROADWAY RECALL: Livin' la Vida Monkee

Welcome to BROADWAY RECALL, a bi-monthly column where BroadwayWorld.com's Chief Theatre Critic, Michael Dale, delves into the archives and explores the stories behind the well-known and the not so well-known videos and photographs of Broadway's past. Look for BROADWAY RECALL every other Saturday.

Young David Jones’ life changed on the February night in 1964 when he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.  Not because all America saw the Manchester-born musical comedy performer cavorting with Georgia Brown as The Artful Dodger in the hit Broadway musical Oliver!...

…but because it was on that same telecast that The Beatles made their first live appearance on American television.  Watching teenage girls screaming for his fellow Brits was the deciding factor in the young Tony-nominated actor’s decision to gear his career toward pop music.

"I watched the Beatles from the side of the stage,” he recalled.  “I saw the girls going crazy and I said to myself, ‘This is it.  I want a piece of that.’”

As in many show business success stories, there was a little bit of luck involved.  Producer David Merrick decided not to bring the West End smash to Broadway until it had completed a five month American tour and had released a new cast album.  Michael Goodman began the tour as Dodger and recorded the album, but a growth spurt required the role to be recast, so Jones, who was a replacement Dodger in London, was called in to take over shortly before the show arrived in New York.

Here’s Georgia Brown introducing 17-year-old David Jones to American television audiences on Merv Griffin’s Talent Scouts:

The Monkees, of course, made a huge star out of the newly named Davy Jones and revolutionized the relationship between popular music and television.  One of the many unique features of The Monkees is that each of its four members had a different musical style, adding variety to their albums.  Mickey Dolenz was a former child actor who spent his teen years playing for several rock bands and sang with an earthy, hard-rock edge.  Mike Nesmith came from country music and his work with The Monkees has been credited for creating the genre of country rock.  Peter Tork was a flower-power hippie whose folk roots were not utilized much for the band, but Davy Jones’ clear, direct approach to songs like “I Wanna Be Free” and “Cuddly Toy” helped popularize a style of Broadway rock.

(A bit of Monkees/Broadway trivia:  Two cuts from The Monkees’ Headquarters album, “Zilch” and “No Time,” quote an Oscar Hammerstein line from Oklahoma!: “Never mind the furthermore, the plea is self-defense.”)

Though The Monkees continued to perform together after their television series was canceled, Peter Tork eventually left the band, followed shortly by Mike Nesmith.  In 1977, Jones made his return to musical theatre – this time as an above-the-title star – appearing with Dolenz in the West End premiere of Harry Nilsson’s The Point.

As we mourn the passing of Davy Jones, we also look forward to seeing another Broadway supporting player turned pop idol make his return to musical theatre as an above-the-title star.

Though Ricky Martin had achieved a great deal of early success in both television and music, particularly as a member of the boy band Menudo, he was not yet a major star to the general American public when he joined the Broadway company of Les Miserables as Marius:

Word around Shubert Alley was that Martin was being considered for the role of Black in the Broadway production of The Wild Party, but after years of being a star of the Latin charts, he recorded his first English-language album and its hit single, “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” secured his status as an American pop idol.

Ricky Martin returns to Broadway with star billing this season in Evita.  He’s looking forward to the challenge and we’re looking forward to having him back.

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