{"id":2618,"date":"2017-02-24T17:39:10","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T17:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/?p=2618"},"modified":"2018-08-23T18:38:54","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T18:38:54","slug":"diva-alert-8-julie-andrews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/diva-alert-8-julie-andrews\/","title":{"rendered":"Diva Alert #8: Julie Andrews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diva Alert #8:\u00a0Julie Andrews<\/h3>\n \"\"<\/a><\/span>

Written by Jackson Upperco<\/p>\n

February 23, 2017<\/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.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

This dame is literally a dame\u2026 Yes, this time we\u2019re featuring everyone\u2019s favorite Cockney flower girl, Medieval queen, and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious nanny: Julie Andrews.<\/p>\n

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Amid an unstable childhood in war torn England, Julie Andrews\u2019s miraculous four octave range was cultivated at an early age. By the time she was ten, Andrews was performing on stage with her mother and stepfather, and made her professional solo debut in 1947 at the famed Hippodrome. She became the youngest performer to ever appear solo in a Royal Command Variety Performance for the King and Queen.<\/p>\n

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Andrews\u2019 success became transatlantic when she made her Broadway debut in a production of the British hit musical The Boy Friend <\/i>(1954). But it was her next role as Eliza Doolittle in the Original Broadway Production of My Fair Lady <\/i>(1956) that turned the plucky Brit into Broadway royalty \u2013 a theme that was reinforced in her next show, Camelot <\/i>(1960), which came to define the country\u2019s early \u201860s idealism.<\/p>\n

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After being passed over for the screen adaptation of My Fair Lady<\/i>, Andrews earned both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for playing the title role in Disney\u2019s beloved Mary Poppins <\/i>(1964). <\/i>Her film triumphs continued in classics such as The Sound Of Music <\/i>(1965), in which Andrews played a role originated on the stage by one of our former divas, Mary Martin, and Thoroughly Modern Millie <\/i>(1967), alongside last month\u2019s diva, Carol Channing<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Andrews spent the next several decades delighting audiences on stages and screens \u2013 both small and large \u2013 everywhere. Her last Broadway role came in Victor\/Victoria <\/i>(1995), based on the 1982 film. Unfortunately, a botched surgery to correct vocal strain in 1997 left permanent damage to the diva\u2019s powerful chords. Down but not out, Andrews pressed on –\u2013 she continues to appear all over the world, and in 2000 was officially named a Dame by the Queen of England. We, however, already knew she was royalty.<\/p>\n

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DID YOU KNOW?\u00a0<\/strong>Julie Andrews played past diva Gertrude Lawrence in a 1968 musical biopic called Star!<\/i><\/p>\n

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

Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady <\/i>(1956, Broadway & West End)<\/h4>\n
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Andrews scored her first Tony nom in the classic musical adaptation of Pygmalion, <\/i>playing a Cockney flower girl who is transformed into the toast of London society. Here\u2019s a clip of her performing \u201cI Could Have Danced All Night\u201d and \u201cShow Me\u201d on Ed Sullivan\u2019s show.<\/p>\n