Barbara Harris
Barbara Harris
Doogie
Broadway Star Joined: 8/4/03
#0Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/29/05 at 11:14pm
I just read a quote from the late great David Merrick, where, when asked about his favorite leading ladies. he said something like "Streisand you can't get, Haworth and Harris can't sing."
Now, I have a deep respect for Mr. Merrick. While I think Haworth is a VERY poor singer, does anyone else besides me think that Barbara Harris actually CAN sing?
I'm listening to Apple Tree now, and no, not a broadway belter of the first magnitude, but certainly a sweet, beautifully scratchy chest voice. Anyone else agree?
Doug
maybethistime
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/3/04
#1re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/29/05 at 11:40pm
I'm really on the fence about Harris, but I think Jill Haworth is a great singer. I don't think the singing is the only thing that makes the singer, though. I'm listening to her sing "Cabaret" as I type, and her voice is so packed full of emotion and viggor that in my opinion it makes up for any imperfections in her voice. Now that I hear this, I'm beginning to thing that Harris is the worse of the two.
Sorry to go off in a tangent like that- I just had to defend my Sally!
Marquise
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/1/04
#2re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/29/05 at 11:45pmi love jill haworth in "cabaret" (though i've never seen her in the show..i'm only 35) but i do have the cast album. i have seen her in movies though. she was wonderful in "exodus".
maybethistime
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/3/04
#3re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/29/05 at 11:46pmI've only heard the recording of Cabaret, too - I'm only 14. But I saw her Tony performance of "Cabaret" (the song) on Broadway's Lost Treasures, Part II.
alterego
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/03
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#5re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:07amAre we sure he wasn't talking about Julie Harris, who croaked her way through SKYSCRAPER? Because Barbara Harris is generally acknowledged to be a terrific singer.
#6re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/30/05 at 10:39am
wc, I'm with you. Barbara Harris is a terrific singer.
1967 Tony Award® Best Actress in a Musical
The Apple Tree [winner]
1966 Tony Award® Best Actress in a Musical
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever [nominee]
Must be Julie that Merrick was speaking of.
Milla
#7re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/30/05 at 11:45am
Does it say what show Merrick is talking about?
Julie Harris, who along with Jill Hayworth, played Sally Bowles (though in Harris's case it was in I AM A CAMERA) was not a singer, despite her love of musicals and her appearence in SKYSCRAPER.
Barbara Harris apparently suffered some severe vocal problems during the run of THE APPLE TREE that she struggled with for years later.
Merrick could have been referring to that, but chances are, he's referring to Julie Harris.
#8re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/30/05 at 11:54amJulie Harris played Lois Lane in Kiss Me Kate in the original london production, and then again in 1957 for a television special with Patricia Morison and Alfrd Drake. I've seen this version and her singing is...um...interesting. It's very choppy if you want the truth. So, he probably WAS referring to Julie Harris.
~And let us try, before we die, to make some sense of life~
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#9re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/30/05 at 12:07pmhannah, I think that might have been Julie Wilson in KISS ME, KATE.
#10re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/30/05 at 12:11pmreally? You're probably right. Sorry I'm all messed up today. I went to bed too late and woke up too early. ignore my dumbness today.
~And let us try, before we die, to make some sense of life~
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#12re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/30/05 at 12:28pmBarbara Harris is a wonderful comedic actress, also - I almost p*ss myself every time I see Alfred Hitchcock's The Family Plot - she is just so wonderfully funny in that film - and a little spooky also - which is exactly what the role called for.
"I don't really get the ending,all i can go with is when after several months,Judith saw Pat sang,and later she kissed him on the toilet,after that the story back to where Pat went down from the stage after he'd sung,and he went to the italian lady.I just don't get it,what Judith exatcly meant when he kissed Pat that she had seen,and did Pat end up together with The Italian Lady?Please help me,thank u very much!"
Quote from someone on IMDB in reference to a movie he/she didn't understand. Such grammar!
#13re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/30/05 at 12:28pmNo one (including Streisand and I think even Eydie Gorme who had a single at the time) IMHO ever sang "What Did I Have I Don't Have Now?" quite as well as Barbara Harris and I doubt ever will. Her rendition is the definitive version of this song. I remember reading that David Merrick quote somewhere and never quite understood his comment about Barbara not being able to sing. Here is a producer who a few years earlier cast non-singer Mary Tyler Moore in "Breakfast At Tiffany's"? I rest my case.
#14re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/30/05 at 12:59pm
Mary Taylor Moore was actually a good singer. There are a handful of "archival" recordings of her in performance of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S floating around and I was shocked at how good she sounds.
Updated On: 3/30/05 at 12:59 PM
honeyhoney
Understudy Joined: 11/12/04
#16re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/30/05 at 1:12pm
Barbara, bless her heart has always been outrageously eccentric, and its cost her a lot of jobs (including a stint in the Bette Midler GYPSY).
She is apparently living in Phoenix and was working in real estate.
#18re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/31/05 at 2:52pm
Barbara Harris sounds lovely on the OCR of THE APPLE TREE. Sadly, what I and most others remember about that Tony winning performance of hers, was her bizaare seemingly drug induced acceptance speech at the Tonys.
She gave a delightful performance in the film version of PLAZA SUITE. (although, ironically, she only played one third of the parts Maureen Stapleton originated on Broadway, Stapleton and Lee Grant played the other two thirds. Of course, Harris also starred on Broadway as 3 different characters in the three musicalettes that comprise THE APPLE TREE.)
"Blow out the candles Robert and make a wish. Want something, want SOMETHING."
#19re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/31/05 at 2:54pmWISH, do you happen to know where I can get that speech? I've only ever heard about it.
#20re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/31/05 at 3:10pm
Melissa, I wish I knew...maybe by "googling enough" you can find it...it is indeed infamous, especially among those of us theater folk. Of course, this was at a time before any of us had VCRs and I remember my mother being absolutely stunned at Barbara Harris' Tony acceptance behavior. I remember that year Harris beat out Mary Martin who was in I DO, I DO. Mary Martin cohosted the Tony awards with Robert Preston. Preston was the star of I DO, I DO, along with Mary Martin, and Mr. Preston did indeed win the Tony award that night , but as I mentioned, his cohost did not, Mary Martin, obviously lost to Barbara Harris.
Still, what I remember most of that Tony telecast is Harris' seemingly "stoned" behavior and Robert Preston, towards the end of the telecast, briefly fumbling a line and Mary Martin taking his Tony award(that he had just won) away from him in jest, to punish him for messing up a line from the cue cards. :)
I began taping the Tonys in 1980, the year of DREAMGIRLS and NINE. So I have 25 years worth of Tonys. I wish I had them all from the very first telecast and on , of course. 
"Blow out the candles Robert and make a wish. Want something, want SOMETHING."
#22re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 3/31/05 at 5:20pm
WISH, your account of the Barbara Harris speech was right on. I had forgotten all about it. Your post piqued my interest so I searched my Tony tape collection and sure enough there was 1968. An old theater buff friend of mine had given me a copy a few years back that he had taped on his Sony prototype VCR when they used reel to reel magnetic tape. Well, all I can say after viewing it is in all honesty I can't really tell if she's stoned or not since there is no slurring of words, she was able to walk to and from the stage without difficulty (though she looks like she's in a trance, her eyes strangely looking into space) but it truly was the oddest acceptance speech I've seen. Zero Mostel presented the award and her co-nominees were Martin as you stated, Lotte Lenya ("Cabaret"), and Louise Troy ("Walking Happy"). The BEST part though was halfway through her acceptance speech this unannounced man suddenly appears from nowhere, interrupts her and asks, "Give you a kiss please? Congratulations Barbara" as she robotically turns her head towards him as he gives her a peck on the cheek and then disappears. TOO BIZARRE! She continues her speech, scratches her head and says "I'm shy...thank you very much...it's lovely..thank you" and once again in a trance like state exits the stage, then stops, turns around again, says something to Zero and as he steers her down the stairs she finally exits. All in all, my final assessment from the footage is that she comes off as extremely neurotic rather than stoned (could have been both I guess)....which I found sad since a drug high is momentary.
Updated On: 3/31/05 at 05:20 PM
#23re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 4/1/05 at 3:57pmDemitri2, What a Doll you are!!!! Thank you so very much for refreshing my memory further..........It is terribly cool that you have that video. And Demitri2, I looooove being told I am "right on." Makes me feel appreciated and all sorts of stuff. Anyway, your words meant alot to me and I deeply thank you. :)
"Blow out the candles Robert and make a wish. Want something, want SOMETHING."
#24re: Barbara Harris
Posted: 4/1/05 at 4:30pmYou can catch her Tony performance in "Broadway's Lost Treasures". Even performing "Gorgeous" she seems drunk. I mean, you listen to her on the OCR and then listen to her on the Tony's (BLT is the only source I have of this, alas, I am too young to have witnessed her infamous speech), she is just all over the place, obviously over the top. And you don't know if she's either really into it or just extremely drunk. Ah, backstage drama.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
