Diva Alert #15: Dolores Gray

Written by Jackson Upperco

September 18, 2017

Welcome back to Diva Alert, Performer Stuff’s series on Great Dames from the Golden Age of Broadway. In these posts, we’re taking a look at some of the American Musical Theatre’s most legendary ladies, along with their seminal stage triumphs.

With success on both sides of the Atlantic, a record-setting Tony win, and several classic numbers she can count as “hers,” this is a diva that you should know. She’s a belter, a babe, and a broad. She is…. Dolores Gray.

Born to a pair of vaudevillians, Dolores Gray was already singing in supper clubs by the time she was a teen, and got her first big “break” on Rudy Vallee’s radio program. Following a few uncredited film appearances, Gray made her Broadway debut in the 1944 revue Seven Lively Arts.

After a starring role in a musical that closed out of town, Gray hopped the pond and played Annie Oakley in the 1947 Original London company of Annie Get Your Gun. During this time, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She returned to New York a star and played opposite Bert Lahr in the musical revue Two On The Aisle (1951).

She followed this Broadway triumph with a Tony win for her work in Carnival In Flanders (1953), which lasted a whopping six performances – thus setting an unbeaten record for the briefest-played Tony-winning turn. Hoping to bank on this acclaim, Gray went back to Hollywood and made four pictures from 1955-’57. She was back on the New York stage in 1959, opposite Andy Griffith for a Tony-nominated performance in Destry Rides Again.

She wouldn’t make it back to the Great White Way until 1967, in a short-lived musical adaptation of The Man Who Came To Dinner. But Gray once again found victory across the pond when she replaced Angela Lansbury in the coveted diva role of Madame Rose in the 1973 London Production of Gypsy.

In the years thereafter, Gray never stopped entertaining – touring in a one-woman show, stepping into the role of Dorothy Brock in the Broadway production of 42nd Street, and introducing “I’m Still Here” to British audiences in the 1987 production of Sondheim’s Follies.

Although she isn’t as well-known as Merman or Martin today, Dolores Gray was a Broadway workhorse who always commanded a stage – a true diva. She once recalled: “My mother once said to me, ‘It’s not a very happy life unless you make it very big.” So she did.



DID YOU KNOW? As a toddler, Gray was caught in a Chicago gangland shooting. She performed the rest of her life with a bullet lodged in her lung.

Gray Roles You Should Know

Star in Two On The Aisle (1951)



Co-starring alongside comedian Bert Lahr, Dolores Gray had to fight not to be upstaged – this was a true battle of diva and divo – and, by many accounts, she walked away with the whole show, which included great ditties by Styne, Comden, and Green, like “If You Hadn’t (But You Did).”

Cornelia in Carnival In Flanders (1953)



Who else but a diva could star in a six-performance flop (only going on five times) and still win a Tony as the season’s Distinguished Musical Actress? Of course, Gray was aided by a terrific score (by Van Heusen and Burke), which gave her a standard gem in “Here’s That Rainy Day.”

Frenchy in Destry Rides Again (1959)



Gray earned her second Tony nom for her work opposite Andy Griffith in this musical western with a score by Harold Rome. As the leading lady, she had many great numbers, including “I Know Your Kind,” “Fair Warning,” and “I Say Hello.” Here she is on Ed Sullivan with the latter.


Hungry for more theatre history? Check out our other stories below!

Jackson Upperco is a lover of retro television, forgotten Broadway musicals, and Pre-Code Hollywood. He boasts a Bachelors Degree in Film and Television from Boston University. You can keep up with all of his entertainment interests at jacksonupperco.com.
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