- Laurence Naismith
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- Not a name to be found among the great, but a sturdy,
always reliable British actor who got involved with some interesting
musicals - at home and abroad
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- He should be better remembered than he is, this fine looking
actor, who gave off such an air of confidence that one doubts
he ever gave a bad performance. He had the assurance and bearing
of a sophisticated sailor - perhaps not surprising, as he spent
some years in the Merchant Navy. His bearing, straight-backed
but welcoming, was reassuring, even when he played the captain
of the doomed Titanic in the memorable British epic A Night To
Remember. Perhaps to his surprise, musicals came to be a rather
important part of his career, after he had avoided them for thirty
years.
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- Naismith in
the British production of Candide
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- Laurence Naismith was born Laurence Johnson at Thames Ditton
in Surrey on 14 December 1908, and was educated at All Saints
Choir School in London. He was only nineteen when he made his
first stage appearance, in the British production of the American
hit Oh Kay! at His Majesty's Theatre in September 1927. This
was to be his last musical for almost three decades, and when
he left it he went into repertory, even running his own company.
He hadn't got to London by the time the war started, and then
he joined the Royal Artillery from 1939 to 1946, rising to the
rank of Acting Battery Commander.
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- Perhaps the air of quiet authority he wielded in subsequent
performances owed something to these experiences; anyway, it
was only with the war behind him that his career really began
to take off. He made his first feature film, High Treason, in
1947, and went on to make numerous others, for all of which he
handed in excellent performances. Much of his life was spent
in the film studios: in 1949 there were 5 films; in 1951 there
were 4, and in 1953 he notched up 8, including The Beggar's Opera
and the rather less ambitious Gilbert Harding Speaking of Murder.
Each year brought more films up to the mid 1970s when the work
thinned out.
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- Laurence Naismith
with Valerie Lee in the Broadway Here's Love
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- Naismith really had no need of stage musicals - he hardly
needed the work, or the uncertainty of unemployment they brought.
He was already established as a stage actor when the second musical
of his career came along. Summer Song was a solidly built entertainment
based on the life of Dvorak, with the great composer's music
plundered to make up a score. Sometimes clumping and seemingly
old-fashioned, there was nevertheless a real charm about Summer
Song, seen at the Princes Theatre in February 1956, and Naismith
- although he got nothing to sing - brought gravitas to the piece
with his portrayal of Dvorak. We still have the original cast
recording with one or two snatches of Naismith's dialogue, enough
to convince us that for that space of time he did become Dvorak.
Few leading men in musicals could convince as Naismith could,
although Summer Song didn't become a hit with the public.
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- He did no more stage work until 1959, when he played the
leading roles of Dr Pangloss and Martin in the British production
of Candide at the Saville Theatre, but the public wasn't ready
for a Leonard Bernstein musical out of Voltaire, and the run
was very brief. He was never to chance another musical in Britain.
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- Work in Hollywood's film studios meant that he was opened
up to New York theatre, where a transatlantic career in musicals
beckoned. He played in The School For Scandal on Broadway at
the start of 1963, but by October he was one of the two leading
men in a new musical by Meredith Willson, the author of the barnstorming
success The Music Man. Based on Miracle on 34th Avenue, Here's
Love got a dim welcome from the critics (no wonder, for it was
a massive disappointment of a score, with not a hint of the genius
of The Music Man) but the public held on to it for 338 performances.
As Kris Kringle, Naismith had little of the score beyond the
title song and a duet with little Valerie Lee, 'Expect Things
To Happen', but once again there was something completely convincing
about his involvement. He always managed to warm up his material,
no matter the quality of it. Hopefully, Naismith enjoyed it,
because when the show closed on Broadway in July 1965, he went
off on tour with it.
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- In May 1966 he returned to Broadway again for another musical,
A Time For Singing, based on Richard Llewellyn's much-loved novel
How Green Was My Valley. Once more, he seemed perfectly cast
as Gwillym Morgan, the father of the brawny young miners at the
heart of the touching story. The show had many good things about
it, not least its pleasing cast: the manly and unarguably Welsh
Ivor Emmanuel, the winning Shani Wallis and, magnificently ringing
out her numbers, the glorious Tessie O'Shea playing opposite
Naismith. The score had no end of Welsh choral singing, and some
of the songs seemed wide of the mark, but the whole thing had
a feel for the epic that made it endearing; it is one of those
scores that demands a new, full recording. It had a hopelessly
short run and has never been revived.
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- Naismith's final musical was another American production,
Billy. American writers tried to do for the musical what Benjamin
Britten had done for the opera with that depressing tale of misunderstandings
at sea, Billy Budd. Laden with a rock-flavoured score, Billy
ran for one night in New York in 1969, with Naismith leaning
on his naval experience in the role of Captain Vere. He died
in Australia on 5 June 1992.
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- Discography
- Original cast recordings of
Summer Song
Here's Love
A Time For Singing
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