- Jean Carson
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- The star that Britain lost, and a lady who gained a
reputation for saying 'No' to the producers of musicals. Why
then did she spend so much of her life in inferior fare? Was
she a tour de force, or was she forced to tour?
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Jean Carson was held in such affection by the British public
that they called her Jeannie. Americans seemed to like her, too.
When she moved to the States they gave her a television comedy
series called, affectionately, Hey Jeannie! It may be that she
turned down Lerner and Loewe's invitation to create the role
of Eliza in My Fair Lady, but after early success in Britain
our Jeannie was a little … well … cautious. She was
nevertheless one of the outstanding leading ladies of the century,
possibly the finest.
- She was born Jean Shuff in Yorkshire in May 1929, and seems
to have made her first professional appearances in 1942 in touring
productions (of what I cannot discover). In October 1947 she
was in the company of the revue Starlight Roof at the Hippodrome,
and then played in another revue, Here, There and Everywhere
at the London Palladium. In 1949 she made her first appearance
in another revue staple, Latin Quarter, at the Casino (and returned
there for the 1951 edition). In 1950 she was cast in the small
supporting role of Baby Belgrave in Noel Coward's daring attempt
at a Soho gangster musical, Ace of Clubs. It didn't fool audiences
for a minute, although Carson attracted some notice in the night-club
scenes.
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- She consolidated her popularity at the Casino by playing
Aladdin there in December 1951, but her career went into top
gear when she got the lead in a British adaptation of Jean Webster's
much-loved novel daddy Long-Legs, Love From Judy.
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Kicking over the traces in
Strike A Light |
- It opened at the Saville Theatre in September 1952 and made
her a star. It was a considerable achievement in a piece that
had a pretty shabby score and a lumbering book and a production
that lacked finesse. Carson was never especially happy in the
show, and the management kept her in it when she wished herself
elsewhere. When it closed, it had made her reputation in Britain,
but she fled to America. Her TV series, Hey Jeannie!, confirmed
her special qualities, which included a real charm and a very
pleasing physical presence, and no little sense of comedy. She
was a captivating heroine in a revival of Finian's Rainbow on
Broadway in April 1960, and returned to Britain in the production
the following year, opening at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool,
but the show didn't make London.
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- What lay ahead was a long list of take-overs and tours. She
was a godsend to such set-ups, and they were probably undeserving
of her talent. She was the second take-over for Maria in the
Broadway The Sound of Music in the summer of 1962, but only stayed
with the show for two months in New York, taking out the road
tour that took her into the next year. She lived out of suitcases
for the next two years, for there were tours as the leading ladies
of Camelot (1963-64) and 110 In The Shade (1964-65). If she needed
to return to London, she might have had a luckier vehicle than
Strike A Light!, a show that toured in the provinces and then
seemed about to collapse, but opened to apathy at the Piccadilly
Theatre in July 1966. As the striking matchgirl Sarah Chapman,
Carson was vibrant and appealing, but the material was poor.
In an effort to salvage it, Carson sang a number from it on Sunday
Night at the London Palladium, but the show had shut up shop
the night before. Although there was no full cast recording,
Carson put down two of her numbers in the studio, the over-wrought
'Another Love' and 'I Don't Know The Words'. But she was done
with Britain.
- No time was wasted, for she was greeted again in America
as the leading lady of Maggie at the Goodspeed Opera House in
August 1966, and the following year she toured as the leading
lady of She Loves Me. She then went on to prove, through a long
list of performances, that she was as good an actress in straight
theatre as she had been in musicals. For her many admirers, there
was perhaps the feeling that musical theatre hadn't treated her
especially well. But she did pretty well for a nice girl from
Yorkshire.
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- Selected Discography
Original cast recordings of :
- Love From Judy
Finian's Rainbow [1960 revival]
Strike A Light! [two songs only]
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