HATS ON! HERE THEY COME… By Peter Filichia
Congratulations to Rocco Landesman, Kenny Leon, Kathleen Marshall, Paul Tazewell, Richard Thomas, Tom Viola and – posthumously – Rebecca Luker.
Earlier this month, they were voted into The American Theater Hall of Fame. Soon their names will be emblazoned on a wall in the Gershwin Theatre lobby.
And while we’re congratulating, let’s give shoutouts to those athletes who last week were officially inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: CC Sabathia (New York Yankees), Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle Mariners), Billy Wagner (Houston Astros) and – posthumously – Dick Allen (Philadelphia Phillies) and Dave Parker (Pittsburgh Pirates).
However, those teams parenthetically linked with those five athletes were not the only organizations for which these men played. Why, then, should we mention those teams and not their others?
Because on the walls of the Hall are displayed bronze plaques that show the honorees wearing baseball caps. The team for which the players accomplished the most are the ones immortalized.
What if the American Theater Hall of Fame were to offer bronze plaques, too? Which hats would our superstars choose from their most famous roles?
Bernadette Peters should opt for the bonnet that Dot wore in the first act of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. Jim Dale’s head would be topped by a top hat befitting the circus impresario that he played in BARNUM. He sported it flashily in one of musical theater’s best second-act openers: “Come Follow the Band.”
The 19-year-old Liza Minnelli could look forever young in her slouchy topper – don’t blame me, that’s what it’s officially called – that she wore when singing both the beautiful “A Quiet Thing” and the dynamic “Sing Happy” in FLORA THE RED MENACE.
No question that a fedora would be the choice of Nathan Lane, and not just because he wore one in GUYS AND DOLLS. Remember the big deal he made about it as Max in THE PRODUCERS, claiming that Leo couldn’t wear a producer’s hat until he really produced a show? Leo did, so Matthew Broderick could also be represented by a fedora.
At the start of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF in “Tradition,” Tevye told us that he and his fellow Anatevkans “always keep our heads covered” because “this shows our constant devotion to God.” And Mostel was good to his word, always seen in a fisherman’s cap.
But wait! Why is a milkman wearing a fisherman’s cap? Check that – it was known as a fisherman’s cap. However, in the decades since FIDDLER, that cap has become known as – no kidding – a fiddler’s cap.
Don’t you love when a word from Broadway enters the vernacular – such as CAMELOT for John F. Kennedy’s administration – or when an entire phrase does, such as “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”? Yes, Stephen Sondheim coined that. (As if he didn’t do enough for the world, he even created a genuine idiom.)
“Everything’s Coming Up Roses” brings us to GYPSY. Should Ethel Merman be seen in the floppy hat with the enormous bow that Rose wore when she confronted Uncle Jocko? But Merman had a longer run in ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. On the cover of the excellent 1966 revival cast album, she has a red hat that somehow looks as confident as she.
Back then, Merman was often linked with Mary Martin. Martin would be immortalized with the sailor cap she wore during “Honey Bun” in SOUTH PACIFIC. Patti LuPone would too, in honor of her Reno Sweeney in ANYTHING GOES.
Or, as a tribute to Mary Martin’s brave journey to Vietnam, bringing HELLO, DOLLY! to the troops during the war, should she be represented by famous red headdress that Dolly wore during the title number?
Dolly is of course most associated with Carol Channing, who would indeed have that red headress on her plaque. But Martin’s London cast album of HELLO, DOLLY! is my favorite recording, so that’s why I’m, to borrow a word that Dolly loved to use, “partial.”
Come to think of it, Channing didn’t really have a stranglehold on Dolly. Pearl Bailey could also sport the red Dolly headdress, for she truly helped make it a record-breaker.
Dorothy Fields provided the lyrics to SWEET CHARITY, but did she write the dialogue that’s interspersed in the wonderfully frenetic “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This”? That’s where taxi dancer Helene dreams of being “a hat check girl,” looking forward to “all those hats comin’ in: Derbies, Homburgs, and that cute little checked one with the skinny brim and the feathaaahh.”
Any of the three would do for Ms. Fields.
Feathers were prominent in the headpiece that George Hearn wore as Zaza in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES. Chances are, though, that he wouldn’t want it to represent him, for when he appeared on the 1983-84 Tonys to sing “I Am What I Am,” he didn’t do it in drag, as he did in the musical, but in a sedate man’s suit.
Ossie Davis could be in his kufi hat from THE ZULU AND THE ZAYDA where he did a delightful song called “Crocodile Wife.” We think of Davis as a dramatic actor, but he did do two Broadway musicals. (JAMAICA was the other.)
Two Hall of Famers might have chosen turbans rather than hats. Alfred Drake wore one from the moment he stepped on stage in KISMET and sang the witty “Rhymes Have I.” Angela Lansbury donned one when duetting with Beatrice Arthur in “Bosom Buddies,” to which we all took off our hats.
Who’d dare put a mere hat on Richard Burton, who won his Tony for CAMELOT? No, he’d be crowned with a crown, as could Julie Andrews for her Queen Guenevere in the show. Or, should Andrews opt for the battered straw hat she wore in the first scene of MY FAIR LADY? It’s more famous, but Andrews is so natively regal that she deserves to be crowned. Besides, MY FAIR LADY will be represented by Rex Harrison and his hat, which is called a Trilby, in case you didn’t know.
And what’s the official name of what topped the head of Brian Stokes Mitchell in RAGTIME and the one that always seemed to be Bob Fosse’s choice? It’s called a bowler hat. Don’t be surprised if Rob McClure eventually makes it into the Hall, and when he does, he might well decide to choose a bowler hat, too; that’s what he wore in his breakout performance in CHAPLIN.
Donna McKechnie would display the gold top hat that she wore in triumph after her grueling audition in A CHORUS LINE (an album I’ve been revisiting as well as CHICAGO’s during this 50th anniversary year). Because that gold hat would be frozen in bronze, Zach would never have to tell her, “Don’t pop the hat, Cassie.”
McKechnie’s muse, one Michael Bennett, could be shown in actual baseball cap, for he often wore one while in rehearsal or around town. It had no logo of any kind on it, neither from baseball nor Broadway, but that was hardly true of Gwen Verdon. Her plaque would show a Washington Senators baseball cap that she wore as a Joe Hardy fan in DAMN YANKEES.
And, of course, for reasons that are obvious to any fervent musical theater aficionado, Hall-of-Famer Elaine Stritch’s plaque should show her bareheaded.
Peter Filichia can be heard most weeks of the year on www.broadwayradio.com. His calendar – A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY: 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year – is now available on Amazon.
