{"id":1759,"date":"2016-12-01T16:47:18","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T16:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/?p=1759"},"modified":"2018-08-23T18:40:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T18:40:38","slug":"diva-alert-5-nanette-fabray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/diva-alert-5-nanette-fabray\/","title":{"rendered":"Diva Alert #5: Nanette Fabray"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diva Alert #5:\u00a0Nanette Fabray<\/h3>\n \"\"<\/a><\/span>

Written by Jackson Upperco<\/p>\n

November\u00a030, 2016<\/p>\n<\/font>

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Welcome back to Diva Alert, Performer Stuff\u2019s series on Great Dames from the Golden Age of Broadway. In these posts, we\u2019re taking a look at some of the American Musical Theatre\u2019s most legendary ladies, along with their seminal stage triumphs.<\/p>\n

One of the most in demand divas of the late \u201840s, she counted Ethel Merman and Mary Martin as her contemporaries \u2013 and even beat them to a Tony, winning in 1948 (as the second recipient in the category of Lead Actress in a Musical). She then parlayed Broadway success into television triumph as a lauded comedienne and frequent guest star on many of the country\u2019s favorite programs. Her influence on other performers \u2013 like Mary Tyler Moore and Bea Arthur \u2013 was immeasurable. She is the big-time. She is Nanette Fabray.<\/p>\n

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Nanette Fabray did the opposite of what most Broadway divas did: she started in L.A. and then<\/em> moved to New York. A vaudevillian at a young age, Fabray was a native Californian with a few screen credits (including a small role alongside Bette Davis in 1939\u2019s The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex<\/em>) when, as an ensemble member, she followed a West Coast musical revue to Broadway in 1940. While studying opera at Julliard, she landed her first featured role in Cole Porter\u2019s hit musical comedy Let\u2019s Face It! <\/em>(1941).<\/p>\n

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Over the next ten years, Fabray opened in six original musicals \u2013 including High Button Shoes <\/em>(1947) and the show that would win her a Tony, Love Life <\/em>(1948) \u2013 and replaced the leading ladies in two others, even earning better reviews than her predecessors! In 1953, she starred alongside Fred Astaire in MGM\u2019s indelible hit, The Band Wagon<\/em>, and from there, moved to television, where she won two Emmy Awards as the leading lady in Sid Caesar\u2019s classic comedy-variety series, Caesar\u2019s Hour<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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In the decades since, Fabray continued to perform theatre around the country \u2013 and even returned twice more to Broadway \u2013 while finding most of her success in television, where she guest starred on a long list of esteemed programs that included The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, Coach<\/em>, and One Day At A Time<\/em>, the last of which counted her as a regular. Although now in retirement, Fabray currently resides in California and loves to reminisce about her brilliant one-of-a-kind career.<\/p>\n

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Fabray\u00a0Roles You Should Know<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Sara Longstreet in High Button Shoes <\/em>(1947) [Broadway]<\/h4>\n