Artist:William Johnson
Song:The Man I Used to Be
Album:Pipe Dream: An Original Cast Recording
The most notable thing about the Broadway musical Pipe Dream is it was one of Rodgers & Hammerstein's biggest flops. It looks like the musical was shown on TV but I couldn't find out when and where it aired though this clip was used in an episode of the Netflix series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. William Johnson started out as a child actor. Pipe Dream was his final appearance as he died in 1957. He was born Mar. 22, 1915 in Baltimore. He made his Broadway debut at age 8 in the 1924 play Shipwrecked. Then he appeared in the 1926 operetta The Vagabond King. After performing in vaudeville and appearing in a couple of films, Johnson returned to Broadway in the 40s. He starred with Ethel Merman in the 1944 show Something for the Boys and with Patricia Morison in a 1951 London production of Kiss Me, Kate. Then he was nominated for a Tony for the 1956 show Pipe Dream. Then he died from a heart attack on Mar. 6, 1957 at age 40. Pipe Dream was based on the John Steinbeck novel Sweet Thursday. Former Republic Pictures music department head Cy Feuer and partner Ernie Martin backed the hit musical comedy Where's Charley?. Rodgers and Hammerstein helped them finance the show. After the success of Guys and Dolls, Feuer and Martin wanted to turn Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row into a musical. Steinbeck didn't think that would work. But he agreed to write a sequel that could be a musical. And that was called Sweet Thursday. Feuer, Martin and Steinbeck wanted Frank Loesser to write the show. But he was busy with The Most Happy Fella. So they approached Rodgers and Hammerstein. After some reluctance due to the racy subject matter, they agreed to do it. They cast opera singer Helen Traubel as the female lead. Feuer and Martin wanted Henry Fonda for the male lead. He tried to learn to sing. But his father-in-law Richard Rodgers said no. For the prostitute Suzy, they auditioned Julie Andrews. But she was also up for My Fair Lady and Rodgers told her to take that role. Rodgers had seen Judy Tyler on The Howdy Doody Show playing Princess Summerfall Winterspring. After she left the show, she auditioned for Pipe Dream and got it. The problem with the show was Rodgers was having health issues so Hammerstein was in charge. And he tried to clean up the content of the show. Remember one of the lead characters is a prostitute. How do you clean that up? Pipe Dream was a critical and financial failure. It ran from March to June 1956. The original cast album is available on CD. After Johnson died, Judy Tyler died in a car accident. Helen Traubel thought the show was cursed. So she started carrying good luck charms. Pipe Dream is generally considered to be Rodgers and Hammerstein's worst musical. It's only been revived a couple of times as a standalone concert. It was probably a mistake for them to agree to do it in the first place. Here's William Johnson performing The Man I Used to Be from the musical Pipe Dream 1956.
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