Camelot
OPENING: December 3rd, 1960
CLOSING: January 5, 1963
Seen: Summer 1961
LOCATION: Majestic
When I was somewhere between the ages of eight and eleven, my dad introduced me to the magic that was his Playbill collection for the first time.
For most 90s kids, this might have been weird or at least somewhat unorthodox. But ever since the age of six, I had accepted that there was something somewhat different about me. Not bad, just a little different. So while most of my "friends" were ooohing over Lisa Frank and aaaahing about the Rugrats movie and had to have the newest Furby, I would spend hours pouring through the pages of Playbills from shows that closed long before I was born.
In most cases, I didn't know what I was looking at. Hell, in organizing them for this blog, I had no idea what some of these were. But for a select few, I knew that the magazine I was holding was something to be treasured.
And that goes for this entry - Camelot.
Camelot was one of the first soundtracks that Dad introduced me to as soon as I started showing interest in Musical Theater. And I must confess- The Simple Joys of Maidenhood has recently been added to my audition rep. So to find the Playbill in his box was nothing short of magical. It also had Julie Andrews on the cover, which made my theater kid heart sing for joy.
My grandparents took the family to see Camelot shortly after Carnival!. When I was starting to research this project, I began to wonder what took my grandparents so long to get tickets. Camelot opened in December of 1960; why did it take them nine months to trot the family to the Majestic? With the same creative team, leading lady, and supporting actor of mega-hit My Fair Lady, I would have thought that they would be first in line for tickets. But after some digging, I figured it out.
To put it nicely, Camelot was the Spiderman: Turn off the Dark of it’s day. By the time it made it to the out of town tryouts, the runtime was over four hours long. When it reached Toronto in October 1960, Alan Jay Lerner was pulling so many hours trying to get the runtime to under three hours that he landed himself in the hospital with a bleeding ulcer. Whether it was just stress and overwork that landed him there and not something synthetic is questionable. To make matters worse, ten days later, director Moss Hart collapsed from a heart attack. Again, synthetics may have contributed but the official explanation was stress. This turn of events meant that Lerner, for the first time in his career, was forced to step into the additional role of director. The pressure to produce a follow up to My Fair Lady must have been extraordinary. (New York Times, October 17 1960)
Inevitably, the production was delayed.
Several months after Camelot finally opened, Lerner was finally able to make the cuts needed to make Camelot the delightful piece of theater it was expected to be and several months after that my grandparents finally made the trip to the box office themselves. They weren’t the only ones; ticket sales at this moment soared. (New York Times, April 11 1961)
Despite the reprieve Camelot received, the run was still fraught with difficulties. It seemed to have been the cursed show. I found a New York Times Article detailing how a fire broke out mid-show in the basement of the Majestic. Smoke was wafting onto the stage, but the audience was told to stay put and the show went on as firefighters fought the flames beneath them.
Now, sixty two years later, Camelot is considered to have one of the best scores in musical theater history. As with the rest of the show, the score was panned upon its debut. Audiences of the time could not get over the fact that Richard Burton, an English dramatic actor who was not known for his vocal chops, ended the show sitting on a bench instead of leading a giant finale number. Today, the quiet nuance of this moment is considered haunting.
For what it’s worth, my dad has always loved Camelot, and I can’t help but believe that it stems from him having seen it in all it’s original glory. My aunt was not as enchanted; all she remembers of this show is how handsome Robert Goulet was (She was fifteen at the time). But since then however, regardless of its tumultuous past, the years following have been kinder to Camelot; it has been revived and well received on Broadway twice with another rumored for 2023. Perhaps then I will finally get to see the show that was one of the pillars of my early theater education.
CAST: REPLACEMENT
SIR DINADAN: John Cullum
SIR LIONEL: Jack Dabdoub
MERLYN: Basil Langton
ARTHUR: Richard Burton
GUENEVERE: Julie Andrews
NIMUE: Marjorie Smith
LADY ANNE: Christina Gillespie
LANCELOT: Robert Goulet
MORDRED: Roddy McDowell
A PAGE: LELAND MAYFORTH
DAP: Tom Head
PELLINORE: Michael Clarke-Lawrence
CLARIUS: Gene Ge Bauer
LADY SYBIL: Leesa Troy
SIR SAGAMORE: Peter Deign
A PAGE: Tommy Long
HERALD: John Starkweather
SIR COLGREVANCE: Donald Maloof
SIR CASTOR: Frank Bouley
SIR GWILLIAM: Robert Peterson
LADY CATHERINE: Virginia Allen
MORGAN LE FAY: M’el Dowd
TOM: Steve Curry
Atkinson, Brooks. “Broadway.” New York: Macmillian Publishing Co, Inc, 1970.
Bordman, Gerald. “American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle.” New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1978.
New York Times. “’Camelot’ Film Hinted: Warners Negotiating for the Lerner-Lowe Musical.” New York Times, April 11, 1961. https://www.nytimes.com/1961/04/11/archives/camelot-film-hinted-warners-negotiating-for-the-lernerloewe-musical.html?searchResultPosition=1
New York Times. “’Camelot Goes on, Despite Fire.” New York Times, April 14, 1993. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1993/04/14/485093.html?pageNumber=60
New York Times. “’Lerner Ill; No Delay for Camelot Seen.” New York Times, October 6, 1960. https://www.nytimes.com/1960/10/06/archives/lernerill-no-delay-for-camelot-seen.html?searchResultPosition=1
New York Times. “’Lerner Takes on Job of Directing ‘Camelot.’” New York Times, October 17, 1960. https://www.nytimes.com/1960/10/17/archives/lerner-takes-on-job-of-directing-camelot.html?searchResultPosition=1
New York Times. “’Moss Hart Felled By Heart Attack: Author Director is Stricken While Working On Camelot, Condition Satisfactory.” New York Times, October 15, 1960. https://www.nytimes.com/1960/10/15/archives/moss-hart-felled-by-heart-attack-authordirector-is-stricken-while.html?searchResultPosition=1
Taubman, Howard. “Solace for Pain: Security for ‘Camelot’ Makes Light of Flaws.” New York Times, December 11, 1960. https://www.nytimes.com/1960/10/06/archives/lernerill-no-delay-for-camelot-seen.html?searchResultPosition=1
Taubman, Howard. “Theatre: ‘Camelot’ Partly Enchanted. Lerner-Lowe Musical Opens at Majestic.” New York Times, December 5, 1960. https://www.nytimes.com/1960/12/05/archives/theatre-camelot-partly-enchanted-lernerloewe-musical-opens-at.html?searchResultPosition=1
