Best Audition Story Ever.

Shirley Jones to revisit theatrical classics with Pops

By Mark Kanny, TRIBUNE-REVIEWWednesday, October 7, 2009
Photos


When Shirley Mae Jones was growing up in Smithton, she had no idea what life had in store for her -- a theatrical career that would bring international renown.
"Nobody has any inkling when you're living in a town of 800 people," she says.
But after a fabled audition in New York City at age 17, Jones was starring on Broadway when she was barely 18. Stage success led to leads in classic film musicals, including "Carousel," "Oklahoma!" and "The Music Man." She even made a successful transition to television, starring for five years on "The Partridge Family." It's been a grand career.
Shirley Jones returns to Western Pennsylvania this week to join son Patrick Cassidy, Ashley Brown, Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops in extended selections from "The Music Man" from Thursday through Sunday at Heinz Hall, Downtown. Jones will sing several of her notable hits from "Carousel" and "Oklahoma!" on the first half of the concerts.
Four years ago, Cassidy persuaded her to return to the stage for a production of "42nd Street." At first, she thought the idea was crazy, given that she was past 70. But, she says, "when your children beg you and tell you it will be wonderful, and promise to take care of you, you get talked into it."
She surprised herself. "It did turn out to be wonderful. After a month or so, I was fine. I lost 12 pounds. It really did surprise me to be able to do it every night, to really connect with a standard of what you want."

That joyful collaboration led to another, an adaptation of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man" for performance with symphony orchestra that was created for the Hartford Symphony in Connecticut. This version, which cuts dance numbers and a few other sections, is the basis of the upcoming Pops performances. Jones will sing Mrs. Paroo, mother of Marian, the role she served so well in the film.

She says her singing is "a God-given gift. When I was 6, I was the youngest member of our church choir. It was so easy for me, I thought it was for everyone." Although her voice teacher told her she had the voice of an opera singer, Jones didn't want to spend a lot of time in Europe and singing in foreign languages.

As a teen, Jones did musicals in Pittsburgh, won singing contests and a Miss Pittsburgh beauty pageant but was planning to study veterinary medicine in college.
On one of her family's summer trips to New York City to see musicals, she ran into a friend from Pittsburgh Playhouse, pianist Ken Welch. He heard that composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, the hottest team on Broadway thanks to "Oklahoma!," were holding open auditions for chorus in their shows. She'd never taken a professional audition before, and this would be starting at the top. But why not?
With three songs prepared, they stood in line with music in hand, 51 other singers ahead of her. After she sang, the music director asked if she could wait.
Twenty minutes later, a man she didn't recognize walked down the theater's center aisle.

"Miss Jones?" he said.

"Yes. What did you say your name was again?"

"Richard Rodgers."

After she sang, he, too, asked her to wait, because he wanted his associate to hear her. By now, her pianist had to leave to catch a flight. Rodgers said not to worry.
When Hammerstein arrived, he asked her if she knew the score of "Oklahoma!"

"I know the music, but I don't know the words," she replied, emphasizing that she was speaking to the lyricist.

They gave her a score, and to fill in for the pianist, Rodgers called on the City Center Orchestra, which just happened to have been rehearsing nearby for a national tour of "Oklahoma!" Jones, Rodgers and Hammerstein walked to the other theater.

"In my 17 years, I'd never seen, let alone sung with, an orchestra," she recalls. With score in hand, Jones completed her audition, singing "People Will Say We're in Love."
She was immediately hired as one of the nurses for a new Rodgers and Hammerstein show called "South Pacific." The rest is history -- unprecedented history at that. Rodgers and Hammerstein signed her to a five-year contract, the only performer they ever signed directly.
It's history that will continue being written this weekend at the Pops.