On "Will and Grace", Debbie Reynolds' Bobbi Adler starred in a community theater production of "The Music Person" as "Professor Carol Hill". Flashback some 30 years to the mid 1960's when Reynolds got the chance to play another leading role in a Meredith Willson show, and a real-life woman of legend. It has been 100 years since the Titanic sank and the real life Molly Brown assisted panicky passengers on the lifeboats. While the stories vary to her involvement, the legend has not died. The 1960 Broadway show was a critically mixed musical that had a respectful run. After "The Music Man" was a smash movie, MGM set their sights on "Molly Brown", and cast their peppiest star of the 1950's in the role for which she is now most famous for. The result: An Oscar Nominated performance that many viewers claim the prize should have been hers.
Baby Molly is first seen floating down the Colorado River, having survived a flood, and when next seen, she is a rambunctious teenager boasting "I Ain't Down Yet!" to her bullying cousins who tease her about her desire to leave their mountain home for the beautiful people of Denver. Leaving her loving grandfather (Ed Begley Sr.), Reynolds briefly works in a saloon, but her efforts to get to Denver are delayed when she falls in love with and marries Johnny Brown (Harve Presnell), a miner searching for gold. When they strike it rich, Molly and Johnny end up in Denver, but find that society, lead by the snooty Mrs. McGraw (stage veteran Audrey Christie) isn't going to cater to riffraff like her, no matter how many millions they are worth. So to show the stuffy society up, they go off to Europe and bag themselves a royal flush, come back, throw an outrageous party, then fight, separate, and long for each other in spite of their problems. It is when Molly returns home that she finds herself aboard the Titanic, grabbing herself a piece of history and proving herself truly unsinkable.
This is a movie musical that works better on screen than on stage with its colorful Colorado mountain setting. I saw Reynolds and Presnell in a touring production of the show in 1988 and noticed a difference between the two, mostly based upon a book that while entertaining needed much tweaking. Reynolds and Presnell are supported by a wonderful supporting cast which also includes Hermoine Baddley as Mrs. McGraw's brassy mother who puts her daughter down a peg or two, and the delightfully imperious Martita Hunt ("Great Expectation's" Miss Haversham) as the Duchess who also adds her two cents to Mrs. McGraw for previously snubbing Molly. "Do you play, Mrs. McGraw?", she asks her after Molly promises to entertain them on the piano, obviously having set this up. "No, sorry." "Pity", she replies dryly as if dismissing a naughty servant.
But this is Reynolds' show, and I personally feel that she deserved the Oscar this year. No other performer (maybe Judy Garland) could make you laugh and cry, yet sing, dance, be funny and serious, like Debbie Reynolds. She is outrageous in the dancing sequences, whether bellying up to the bar, or doing the high kicks of "He's My Friend", a wonderful new production added for the movie. Fortunately, she got to do this as well in the touring production, as well as sing the songs cut from the movie. ("My Own Brass Bed" is particularly memorable, but didn't make it into the film.) Presnell is a handsome leading man with a wonderful singing voice, but when I saw this on the big screen, I found his tendency to cross his eyes a bit distracting. This probably cut his leading man career down, but as a character actor (most memorably the father-in-law in "Fargo") he would find roles more suitable. Reynolds and Presnell have a wonderful duet, "I'll Never Say No", and Presnell has several fine solos as well, showing off his manly physique while building a home for Molly.
Rumors have had "Molly Brown" as a possible contender for a Broadway revival with a tweaked book. I hope this is true, because Willson's songs, the magnificent choreography and the tale of a feisty heroine are the stuff that legends are made of.
Baby Molly is first seen floating down the Colorado River, having survived a flood, and when next seen, she is a rambunctious teenager boasting "I Ain't Down Yet!" to her bullying cousins who tease her about her desire to leave their mountain home for the beautiful people of Denver. Leaving her loving grandfather (Ed Begley Sr.), Reynolds briefly works in a saloon, but her efforts to get to Denver are delayed when she falls in love with and marries Johnny Brown (Harve Presnell), a miner searching for gold. When they strike it rich, Molly and Johnny end up in Denver, but find that society, lead by the snooty Mrs. McGraw (stage veteran Audrey Christie) isn't going to cater to riffraff like her, no matter how many millions they are worth. So to show the stuffy society up, they go off to Europe and bag themselves a royal flush, come back, throw an outrageous party, then fight, separate, and long for each other in spite of their problems. It is when Molly returns home that she finds herself aboard the Titanic, grabbing herself a piece of history and proving herself truly unsinkable.
This is a movie musical that works better on screen than on stage with its colorful Colorado mountain setting. I saw Reynolds and Presnell in a touring production of the show in 1988 and noticed a difference between the two, mostly based upon a book that while entertaining needed much tweaking. Reynolds and Presnell are supported by a wonderful supporting cast which also includes Hermoine Baddley as Mrs. McGraw's brassy mother who puts her daughter down a peg or two, and the delightfully imperious Martita Hunt ("Great Expectation's" Miss Haversham) as the Duchess who also adds her two cents to Mrs. McGraw for previously snubbing Molly. "Do you play, Mrs. McGraw?", she asks her after Molly promises to entertain them on the piano, obviously having set this up. "No, sorry." "Pity", she replies dryly as if dismissing a naughty servant.
But this is Reynolds' show, and I personally feel that she deserved the Oscar this year. No other performer (maybe Judy Garland) could make you laugh and cry, yet sing, dance, be funny and serious, like Debbie Reynolds. She is outrageous in the dancing sequences, whether bellying up to the bar, or doing the high kicks of "He's My Friend", a wonderful new production added for the movie. Fortunately, she got to do this as well in the touring production, as well as sing the songs cut from the movie. ("My Own Brass Bed" is particularly memorable, but didn't make it into the film.) Presnell is a handsome leading man with a wonderful singing voice, but when I saw this on the big screen, I found his tendency to cross his eyes a bit distracting. This probably cut his leading man career down, but as a character actor (most memorably the father-in-law in "Fargo") he would find roles more suitable. Reynolds and Presnell have a wonderful duet, "I'll Never Say No", and Presnell has several fine solos as well, showing off his manly physique while building a home for Molly.
Rumors have had "Molly Brown" as a possible contender for a Broadway revival with a tweaked book. I hope this is true, because Willson's songs, the magnificent choreography and the tale of a feisty heroine are the stuff that legends are made of.