Man of Music

As I mentioned a while back, the 1987 Tony Awards for Broadway was particularly wonderful.  Not just for the musicals that were nominated (including the winner, Les Miserables) and the great, extended scenes from Best Play nominees with wonderful actors (including James Earl Jones, who won the Tony that year as Best Actor, and Courtney B. Vance in Fences, Alan Rickman in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a very young Annette Bening in Coastal Disturbances, and that year’s Tony-winner for Best Actress Linda Lavin and Jonathan Silverman in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound), but the broadcast included some wonderful special features.

And at the top of that list, I think was one in particular.  Every year, awards shows always have an “In Memoriam” segment of those who passed away during the previous year, showing one-second snippets of each person.  But for the 1987 Tonys, they singled out one person for a long, individual tribute.  Robert Preston.  And when I say “long,” I mean it was a full 11 minutes!  It was terrific, though somewhat surprising because – as much as I loved Robert Preston’s work – he only appeared in four musicals on Broadway.  And only one, The Music Man, was a major hit.  He won a second Best Actor Tony for I Do! I Do!, though it was a modest success.  And Mack and Mable and Ben Franklin in Paris were unsuccessful.  In fairness, and it’s no small thing, he also appeared in a dozen plays, most notably starring in the original production of A Lion in Winter as ‘Henry II.”  So, he did have a long Broadway career.  But then, many performers have had long careers on Broadway – probably longer, and I’m not aware of many, or any, getting an 11-minute standalone tribute.  Still, though, not every performer has a “The Music Man” in their portfolio, and his ‘Prof. Harold Hill’ was such a visceral performance and success that that seems (deservedly) to have transcend it all. 

I’m not complaining at all, mind you.  I loved Robert Preston’s work.  I loved that they did such a wonderful tribute.  Just very surprised the Tonys did this.  Ultimately, the point was for the Tonys to present a posthumous lifetime achievement award.  But that could be done without such a long, elaborate production number.  Or, in fact, any production number, which is generally the case when the Tonys have given such an award, and almost always when the person was alive.  But, to be very clear, I’m very glad they did it.  And did it so well.  Just surprised.

Which brings us to the tribute.  In her introduction, Angela Lansbury mentions two of Preston’s co-stars who perform songs from the shows they starred in with him – Bernadette Peters in Mack and Mabel (the Jerry Herman show about famed silent movie producer/director Mack Sennett and star Mabel Normand) and most notably, Barbara Cook, the original ‘Marian the Librarian’ in The Music Man.  (So notable that when she gets only three notes into “’Til There Was You,” the audience breaks into applause.)

But there are a few more surprises in the tribute, which Lansbury doesn’t mention, and I’ll leave that out, as well.  It’s a nice surprise, which then turns even nicer.  And there’s a sweet button at the end of it all.

Here then is that 11-minute tribute to Robert Preston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAktHIJ4g0g