Me and Juliet - Rehearsals and Tryouts

Rehearsals and Tryouts

The cast consisted mostly of unknowns, though Isabel Bigley, who had just originated Sister Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, was given the leading role of chorus girl Jeanie. For Larry, the assistant stage manager who falls in love with Jeanie, they cast Bill Hayes, a well-known stage and television actor. William Tabbert, the original Lt. Joe Cable in South Pacific was considered for the part of Larry, but lost out because he was thought to be too tall to be afraid of Mark Dawson, hired as the towering bully Bob.

Chorus auditions began March 10, 1953, at Broadway's Majestic Theatre; Rodgers, Hammerstein, and Abbott listened to more than 1,000 people. Rehearsals opened at the Majestic for principals and the Alvin Theatre for dancers. According to Saul Pett, a freelance reporter who was allowed to observe the rehearsals, "everyone seems relaxed except Hammerstein." The lyricist's son James served as second assistant stage manager. James Hammerstein remembered having a difficult relationship with Rodgers; the composer suggested James do his work from front of house, rather than from backstage. "I think he thought it was his show and his bailiwick. Why should a Hammerstein be back there?" James Hammerstein found the lead female dancer attractive, and asked her out. Just before the date, Rodgers fired her, telling James Hammerstein to break the news.

Pett recorded the technical problems which had to be solved to accomplish the complex staging:

A number of key scenes required the audience to both see the play-within-the-play and at the same time observe the realism of the stage manager's operations in the wings. To achieve this result and to make both elements simultaneous, the major part of the production had to hang on specially-constructed overhead steel tracks. Synchronized electric motors slowly moved the stage pictures off into the wings far enough to expose the stage manager's desk and actors and stagehands offstage awaiting their cues.

During the rehearsals, the duo took out two production numbers, "Wake Up, Little Theatre" and "Dance", concerned that the show was running long. The actress playing Juliet in the internal play proved to be a fine singer but a poor actress; she was replaced by Helena Scott. Abbott had few negative comments after the final New York run-through, and the company entrained for Cleveland, where the first tryouts were to be, in high spirits, sleeping little on the train ride. RCA Records put up the $350,000 cost of the production in exchange for a fifty-percent interest and rights to the original cast recording.

The tryouts in Cleveland were at the Hanna Theatre. The dress rehearsal the night before the initial performance revealed a number of problems with the show; during the first act alone, Hammerstein dictated eight pages of notes. The sandbag which falls from the light bridge near the end of Act 1 dropped off-cue, nearly striking Isabel Bigley, who played Jeanie. Pett remembered that the rehearsal was stopped often, as Rodgers sought to work out each problem as it arose, and the rehearsal, which began at 8 p.m. did not end until 2 a.m.

The Cleveland premiere on the evening of April 20, 1953, saw a distinguished crowd turn out. When the stage backdrop failed to come down on time, Hammerstein was heard to mutter, "Damn and damn and damn! This is a new way: they saved it for the performance!" Nevertheless, the crowd gave the show a rousing welcome. The Cleveland critics thought well of the show, but were concerned about the weak story. After the Cleveland reactions and problems, according to Rodgers biographer Meryle Secrest, "what had seemed to be a show needing minor adjustments became a musical in serious trouble". Bigley remembered that she had just come from a hit and "there just wasn't the same energy". Expecting an overture to begin the show, the audience talked throughout the initial scenes before being quieted by the internal show's overture; in response, the duo abandoned Hammerstein's concept and opened with an overture.

In contrast to the levity on their first train ride, the company was downcast and exhausted en route from Cleveland to Boston for the final tryouts. The show opened in Boston on May 6. A majority of the Boston critics liked the show, and expressed confidence that Rodgers and Hammerstein could fix the problems with the plot. The pair took out one song, "Meat and Potatoes", which was felt to be too raunchy. After watching it performed by Joan McCracken, who played Betty (Carmen in the play-within-the-play), the pair decided it had too many double entendres and cut it. It was replaced by "We Deserve Each Other", which the pair had written in a Cleveland hotel room. Another cut song, "You Never Had It So Good", included lyrics which satirized the duo's own earlier efforts. Its lyrics, "I'll sew, I'll bake / I'll try to make your evenings all enchanted. / My honeycake, / I'm yours to take, but don't take me for granted", alluded to two songs from South Pacific, "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Honey Bun". Audiences continued to greet the show warmly.

During the Boston previews, the duo heard the audience praise the sets, a reaction which usually augered ill for the show itself. Hammerstein wrote to The King and I director John van Druten:

Me and Juliet looks like a great big hit. It is a change of pace for us and in some quarters we may be criticized because it is not as high-falutin' as our most recent efforts. It is in fact an out and out musical comedy. If this be treason, make the most of it.