This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Kevin David Thomas: Hey, listeners, Kevin and I need your help. Yes, we need your help, please, please, please. We need your stars. We need your reviews, you guys, on iTunes so we can start to climb those iTunes rating charts. It's simple. Open iTunes, click on the iTunes store, search for BEHIND THE CURTAIN BROADWAY'S LIVING LEGENDS. Then click on Ratings and Reviews. Under the Customer Reviews, click Write a Review. Then let us know what you think, from one to five stars. If you need some help, think of one star being Carol Channing and Paul Lynn in The Road Company of the last five years, and five stars being free front row tickets to Hamilton. Although, when you think about it, I actually would give five stars to The Road Company of Carol Channing and Paul Lynn in the last five years, because I think that would be awesome.

I would love to hear... Can I hear Moving Too Fast with Paul? That's the one I really want. She's a sheik's the goddess. Been through Erica Schwartz and Danica Weiss, and the Hanselman twins. So there you go. You can also leave a comment if you like. That's it. That's it. Your reviews. Send us your reviews, friends. Thank you. Please. Thank you.

[1:06] Robert W. Schneider: Hi, I'm Rob Schneider.

[1:07] Kevin David Thomas: And I'm Kevin David Thomas.

[1:09] Robert W. Schneider: And this is BEHIND THE CURTAIN BROADWAY'S LIVING LEGENDS. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, at BroadwayCurtain, and on Instagram, at BroadwayCurtainPodcast. And make sure to join our Facebook page at BEHIND THE CURTAIN BROADWAY'S LIVING LEGENDS. And we are also excited to announce that you can listen to us on Broadway Radio now.

[1:26] Kevin David Thomas: Ooh, how fancy for us. Our guest today is one of Broadway's best-known gypsies, having appeared in the Broadway musicals of... Ready for this list? Here we go. No Strings, Nowhere to Go But Up, Golden Rainbow, Dear World, Applause, On the Town, Pippin, and Evita. Did I forget any, Lawrence, or is that it?

[1:48] Lawrence Merritt: I don't think so.

[1:49] Kevin David Thomas: I feel good about that. Plus, countless TV specials for Kraft Music Hall, with Margaret, Aunt Bancroft, and many, many Ed Sullivan shows, nightclub acts with Juliet Prowse, Raquel Welch, and Ginger Rogers. Our guest was one of the most in-demand dancers in the industry, until a car accident came along. To tell us about his 50-year career in musical theater, and how he triumphed over adversity, is the brilliant Lawrence Merritt. Lawrence, thanks for coming on today.

[2:17] Lawrence Merritt: Yay! Welcome.

[2:19] Kevin David Thomas: Now, I have to tell you, Kevin and I just worked with Lawrence on a concert at Feinstein's 54 Below, where Lawrence sang Broadway Baby, and received a rousing standing ovation.

[2:34] Robert W. Schneider: Instant standing ovation.

[2:35] Kevin David Thomas: Instantaneous standing ovation, before the last note was cut off.

[2:38] Lawrence Merritt: Yeah.

[2:39] Kevin David Thomas: Lawrence, if you don't mind my asking, how old are you?

[2:42] Lawrence Merritt: I was about 39 when I woke up this morning, but when I go to bed tonight, I'll be 139. I'm 78. I will be 79 in Thanksgiving. I'm a turkey baby.

[2:54] Robert W. Schneider: We are going to post this video of Lawrence singing. There is not one sign of 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s. Lawrence is a man still in his 20s, and we love everything about it. I must also say that Lawrence was kind enough. Lawrence complimented my tie, which was a knit tie.

[3:10] Lawrence Merritt: Absolutely, yeah.

[3:11] Robert W. Schneider: No one ever compliments my fashion choices, except Lawrence, and I appreciate that.

[3:16] Kevin David Thomas: You really took that to heart.

[3:17] Robert W. Schneider: I really did. Lawrence gave me the next performance a knit tie, a beautiful peach knit tie, which I still wear. For that, Lawrence is my favorite thing. Lawrence, where are you from originally?

[3:29] Lawrence Merritt: I'm from, basically, I'm a country boy. I was born up near Schenectady, Saratoga, Albany, but out in the country. There was the Four Corners, a little yellow school bus picked me up, and a couple of other people on the way took us to the small village where I went to school for 12 years. I lived at one end of an apple orchard, and at the other end, my cousin and his brothers and sisters and my mothers, they lived, and they lived right next to a lumber yard with a pond that we all skated on. I'm from the country.

[4:06] Kevin David Thomas: How did musical theater come into your life then?

[4:09] Lawrence Merritt: When I was four or five, before my twin sisters were born, there was no TiVo, no videos, no computers, no nothing. So what you did, you went to the movie. My parents liked to dance, they liked music, and so we went to the movies. So I saw Carmen Miranda, Sonia Henny, and Fred and Ginger, and I would sit next to my mother in my own. Later on, I was thinking, when I did Raquel Welch's act, we did When My Baby, When My Baby Goes Smiles at Me, I go to Rio. I ended up wearing ruffle sleeves again. This time, they were made by Bob Mackie. I have pictures. I have pictures. Anyway, in Rio. Full circle. So it was like, okay, if I had had brains enough at that point, when I was five or six or seven, I would have realized that I was going to grow up to be this crazed gypsy person. But my naivete, I think, is what saved me.

[5:01] Kevin David Thomas: When you got to New York, do you remember the first Broadway show you saw?

[5:08] Lawrence Merritt: Actually, I saw a Broadway show when I came down on a bus trip with the library club. We saw Pajama Game with Janice Page and John Raitt.

[5:19] Kevin David Thomas: Wow.

[5:20] Lawrence Merritt: And Carol Haney.

[5:21] Kevin David Thomas: What a good one.

[5:22] Lawrence Merritt: Doing steam heat. You know, and then again, the first week, I moved to New York on my 18th birthday. So, you know, you had to sign up for the select service, you know, which is a really fun, fun day. You know, you're in this huge place and everybody's walking around naked except for their BVDs. It's like, oh, this is cute. And so, yeah, no, I studied. In fact, I went, there was a place on 46th Street called Variety Arts. Famous, famous studio. Bob Fosse had one studio, which is his good luck studio, where he did all his shows there. And I took Afro-Cuban. It's like, oh my God, I've got hips. You know, contract can release, you know. And so I took lessons there with a wonderful black man who used to run Catherine Dunham's school when she was on tour in Europe with her troupe making movies with Silvana Mangano and all, you know, these Italian starlets, whatever.

And he was just lovely, you know. And so I took class with him, bits and pieces. I took a couple of classes at the Old Met with Anthony Tudor. I took some East Indian classes with Beatrice Craft. And, you know, I got a job as a waiter. Got a job in a gay bar and, you know, as a waiter and then as a bartender. Made lots of money. And then finally, I thought, well, you know, you're being really stupid. You came to New York City to be a dancer. You need to get your act together. So I decided that I would lose a little weight. I was never fat or overweight. That I would start taking classes seriously and then I would start auditioning. So I started taking classes, a few with Luigi, who's very famous, who I love dearly. But I also studied with Matt Maddox, who was a Jack Cole dancer.

[7:10] Lawrence Merritt: Jack Cole, yeah. And I guess we should talk about Matt right now. I'm tall, 6'1", as you can see. And I have long arms. And, you know, I'm a knuckle dragger. You know, I got gorilla arms. And he taught me to be able to control my body. They went, well, you know, the short boys can get down on their knees on the floor in one count. It's like, really? Watch. You don't know who you're dealing with. So I could do that. And he's the one who taught me how to do that and how to isolate and do all that. Because Jack Cole was a direct descendant of Ted Shawn. Ted Shawn was married or whatever with Rue St. Dennis, a very famous woman dancer. And they had the Dennis Shawn schools of dance. And he used to have a troupe of men up in the woods in Maine, I believe, that danced naked every day and took classes.

Jack Cole was one of them, I believe. Jack Cole then became and had studied East Indian and Spanish and all that. And Matt Maddox was in Jack Cole's troupe. And Ron Field, who I did Broadway shows with, was in Jack Cole's troupe. And Ron Lewis, who I did my first Latin Quarter show with, was in Jack Cole's troupe. And so I studied with Matt every day. And his technique was a direct derivative of Jack Cole. So I consider myself very honored to have been a leaf that dropped off that sort of family tree.

[8:39] Robert W. Schneider: We've talked about, just for our listeners, the important legacy of Jack Cole, that even though a lot of people may not know the name, it's not as familiar to some people as Jerome Robbins or Michael Bennett. But Jack Cole really, you know, we do my favorite things on it. But he really was the reason why we have a lot of the famous choreographers today. So, yeah. So I started auditioning and studying. And the first thing that I got was St. Louis Muni Opera.

[9:07] Lawrence Merritt: Oh, yeah, which is still around. They handed me a contract and went, go join Actors' Equity. That was 1959. I'm still a member.

[9:15] Kevin David Thomas: Now, very, very quickly, though, when you were auditioning, do you remember what your audition song was? Your standard go-to?

[9:19] Lawrence Merritt: No, because usually you danced. You danced mostly, unless they wanted you. Because they usually had, in St. Louis, they had a dancing chorus, excuse me, and a singing chorus.

[9:31] Kevin David Thomas: Gotcha.

[9:31] Lawrence Merritt: So you went for the dancing chorus, usually. You know, and there were nine boys. One was a swing. And I think 16 girls. And most of them, half of them, were from St. Louis, the Midwest. And the ones who left and came to New York City, within a week and a half, all of them got Broadway shows. They were brilliant. You know, they've been doing it since the Kitty Chorus. So it was great. You know, it was 103 degrees in the shade, but it was a million. I mean, the first show was with a guy who had been in movies, Anthony Dexter, who had done several remakes of Valentino movies.

[10:10] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, nice.

[10:10] Lawrence Merritt: Oh. But he played the king. And why can't I think of her? Patricia Morrison, who had taken over the part on Broadway, did Anna in Anna and the King in Siam. Patricia Morrison was the first Lily in Kiss Me, Kate.

[10:26] Kevin David Thomas: Yes.

[10:27] Lawrence Merritt: And still with us.

[10:28] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[10:30] Lawrence Merritt: And still very much with us.

[10:30] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[10:30] Lawrence Merritt: And, you know, shaved chest, much body makeup, you know, playing East Indian dancers. But whatever. You know, Little Abner. You know, Grover Dale came in and did the original Michael Kidd choreography.

[10:43] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, wow.

[10:44] Lawrence Merritt: You know, Carmen. Hello. What a season. Bells are ringing, you know. Oh, Call Me Madam with Penny Singleton, who was the original Blondie on Dagwood and Blondie.

[11:00] Kevin David Thomas: And then your first Broadway show was No Strings, right?

[11:03] Lawrence Merritt: Right. So I had done, I did St. Louis. I came back. The guy said, I want you to be the lead Indian dancer in Annie Gets Your Gun at Paper Mill Playhouse. OK, fine. And then I did the Latin Quarter. Then I auditioned and I got No Strings.

[11:20] Kevin David Thomas: And just a step back for our listeners. What was the Latin Quarter? I don't think I know what that is.

[11:24] Lawrence Merritt: Two major nightclubs in New York City, the Copa Cabana.

[11:28] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, the Copa.

[11:29] Lawrence Merritt: Yeah. And the Latin Quarter. The Latin Quarter, if you know where Tickets is, between 47th and 48th, between 7th Avenue and Broadway, you look up to the second floor, you will see the Olive Garden.

[11:44] Kevin David Thomas: Yes.

[11:45] Lawrence Merritt: Yeah. That's exactly where the Latin Quarter was. It was run by Lou Walters, who was the father of Barbara Walters. Every year we have a reunion and we have it at the Olive Garden.

[11:58] Kevin David Thomas: No way.

[11:59] Lawrence Merritt: So these, the wide stairs were on 48th Street. You walked upstairs, the maitre d' sat at a table. The stage was back in the back. And then the dressing rooms were on the side where the Tickets booth is, that end. You know, it's part of a big hotel now. You know, and I remember we all went in our, you know, opening number costumes, New Year's Eve, and went up to the roof, which was three stories and flat, and watched the, you know, millions of people, the ball drop. Wow. And then went down and did a show for the drunks, you know.

[12:31] Lawrence Merritt: So, you know, that's great. So it was a very famous, you know, they hired dancers to perform. There were four boys. Ron Field, the choreographer and director, was the lead dancer. And Ron Lewis was the choreographer who has done Liza's act and her Broadway show. And I don't know, I did shows with him in Vegas, et cetera, et cetera, at the Radio City Music Hall. Yeah, whatever. I've had a varied career. And then after LATAM Quarter, though, was No Strings. Yes. And that was amazing, you know. And they say, you know, the first day we rehearsed at a place down on Second Avenue across from where Stomp is. It's now, I think, NYU. And it used to be upstairs, I think, over Ratner's, which was the famous Jewish deli.

And there were studios up there. I did two shows rehearsed there. And they said, you know, the first day, dress up, look cute in case somebody catches you in a photograph. So, you know, you're all dressed up and you're there. And there's Diane Carroll and Richard Kiley. Talk about starstruck. And Alvin Epstein and the girl dancers and the boy dancers. And Joe Layton, who directed and choreographed. And Peter Matz, who was the musical director. And then who did Carol Burnett and Barbra Streisand specials. Everything. And here's Richard Rogers sitting at a piano going. And then in this scene, you'll hear this song. And it was like, oh, my God. Oh, that's, you know, wow. And it was like, OK, you know.

And this show for our listeners is Richard Rogers first show after Hammerstein passed away. And he wrote the music and the lyrics for this show. The only show he wrote. Yeah. I left after six months. That was 62. I think I went to Vegas or something. I'm not really sure. Sometimes chronologically. I think I went to Vegas and did a show with mathematics. And I was the only boy from New York. And there were like four or five men from L.A. and they flew us to Paris to rehearse because they made the costumes there. And all the girl dancers who were English or Welsh or Scottish were in this guy's line of girls and all the showgirls. Wow. So they made, you know, so I was like, oh, Paris, this is cute.

I'm French, you know. And we went to Vegas and the music was done by at the Dunes by Michel Legrand. Oh, oh, my. And mathematics choreographed it, you know. And I hated Vegas. So again, I'm a gypsy. I went back to New York and I did my second Broadway show, which was Ron Field. His first called Nowhere to Go But Up, written by James Lipton, wrote the lyrics and the book. It was directed by Sidney Lumet, who never should have ever gotten his hands on a Broadway musical. Well, film director Sidney Lumet. Yes. He should stick with gritty cop dramas like Serpico, etc. Yeah. Yeah. He did Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network. All of you is doing Nowhere to Go But Up. Yeah. Which is about hooch and gangsters and dancehall girls.

It was a prohibition era. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no singers, eight male dancers and 60 girls. I love the show. You know, it starred Dorothy Loudon, Tom Bosley and Martin Balsam. Ron Field choreographed it and was assisted by guess who? Michael Bennett. Wow. And, you know, we played Philadelphia and I can't remember. Oh, Boston. No, we didn't play Boston. Anyway, you know, we played Nine Days at the Winter Garden. And that was it. The Times, if I remember correctly, The Times said Nowhere to Go But Up. Wow. So I called Ron Field and I am so pissed off. I'm so upset because he did such a brilliant job. He was wonderful at stylized movement. Yeah. 30s, 40s, 50s. You know, each one of those eras had a certain sensibility and a type of movement.

And so a couple of months later, he said, guess what? I'm going to go to Paris. I'm going to choreograph the Casino de Paris show. And I need an assistant. You want to go? It'll pay the equivalent to three hundred dollars in French francs every week. And it's like, yep, I'm there. Huh. You know, so I went to Paris and I met someone that Ron introduced me to, an American person who was a expatriate dancer living there. And it's like, OK, and I'm French and it's Paris and I'm in love and I'm going to stay. And so they put me in the show as a lead dancer. And my partner and myself were able to do TV shows during the day and still do the show at night. And so I did shows with Petula Clark. Oh, I got pictures.

Josephine Baker, choreographed by Jeffrey Holder. Wow. And all these French, you know, Francois Doliac, who was the sister who died very young of Catherine Deneuve. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, on the steps of Sacre Coeur, in your underwear, on a train out, you know, whatever. Wow. These funny TV shows, you know, and then came back to New York with the Minsky Follies. The Minsky Follies? Yes. As the lead, the only male dancer, again, in my G-string and a male production singer and, you know, six showgirls, six dancers, one of which is the original Tits and Ass Girl. Oh, you know. And we played a few places. And then I ended up, Ron said, you know, I'm doing a new Broadway show. You want to do it?

And it was like, OK. And it was Golden Rainbow with Steven Eady. The Steven Eady. The Steven Eady, which is a very long running flop at the Shubert. And it was hit only because when the curtain came down, they all let us go to our dressing rooms and Steven Eady stayed on stage and did their Vegas act. So that's what kept the show going. You know, they did their little banter and their zings. And so you would sit through the show to get to the club act? Well, I guess, you know, all the groups of B'nai B'rith that came in from Long Island and all that stuff, you know. So, you know, and it got a good run and we were at the Shubert.

[18:49] Kevin David Thomas: Now, before we go to Golden Rainbow, I have a question for you. Do you have any memories of working with Dorothy Loudon on Nowhere to Go But Up? We were just talking about her yesterday.

[18:57] Lawrence Merritt: She was cool. She was cool. I, you know, Dorothy Loudon was Dorothy Loudon. By the way, the original leading lady, Bert Convey, was the young leading man who had been in Cabaret and went on to game show fame. And his leading lady originally was Louise Lasser. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Right. And Woody Allen. And she was sort of frayed around the edges. So when we got to Philadelphia, there was no more Louise Lasser. She was replaced by little old Marianne Mobley, who would not say shit if she had a mouthful. So too sweet and too cute. You just die from diabetes. Anyway, yeah, I like Dorothy. And then later when I was living in L.A., I came through New York and saw a production of Ballroom, which I thought was Michael did.

And there's all these old dancers without their toupees and out of the woodwork and which gives me this extraordinary sense of pride, having been part of that world for so long. And Dorothy Loudon was so good because she wasn't doing Dorothy Loudon shtick. She was really acting, you know, in that one song. Do you notice 50 percent? Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, just fabulous, fabulous song. A lot of recordings of that. We'll post that as well for our listeners to take a look at.

[20:28] Kevin David Thomas: Now, talking about recordings, Golden Rainbow performed at the Tony Awards that year. And it's the opening number of the Tony Awards, I think, 1968 or something there in the Internet. And it's no 1968. I have seen it. And so my question is, where are you?

[20:44] Lawrence Merritt: I'm featured with Kelly Bishop. Kelly Bishop, I have a Chorus Line fan. Well, yeah, she did. Well, I know she was Carol Bishop. She was in Vegas at the Dunes when I was in the casino show. She was in a loud show. Are you are you the dancer with the Midriff? Yeah, that's you. That's more. I mean, who else would wear red vinyl bell bottoms? I mean, come on. I love that. I love that. Yeah. Well, it was working with Steven Needy and a nice experience. Yeah. I mean, she was cool. I mean, I mean, first of all, do you know Marilyn Cooper? Yes. Wonderful. Wonderful. Best known from a woman of the year. Right. And she had just done two by two with Danny Kaye. Infamous. Yes, wasn't it? And she had very little to say about him.

But anyway, so Edie could not go on if she had a hangnail. She could sing. She was always she had a hawk eye on Steve because she didn't want him messing around with any of the girls. So Marilyn Cooper is only like four feet tall and she had curly black hair. She's the original one in West Side Story, by the way, who sang Puerto Rico, you lovely island, island of tropical breezes. That's Marilyn Cooper in the original. Do not remember that. So they'd get her. It was the 60s. So it was Courreges. So she had these white vinyl boots with the tight tops with the heel and a Courreges mini dress and a big fall and lots of bang bang eyelashes and all the makeup and stuff and a white mink coat down to here.

And she went on for Edie opposite Steve. That's amazing. Yeah. And I mean, we did the opening number at the Tonys, you know, and we were rehearsing and Angela Lansbury was the hostess. OK, I almost knocked Paul Newman over running backstage. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, you know, all these people, you know, and one of the dancers and I went behind the back wall, you know, the lights were up and they were rehearsing and went behind the back wall where you stand for standing room only. And we were sitting and we looked down and right against the back wall was this person with their foot up on the seats and a huge bag and this enormous mirror and this pot of brown stuff, putting their finger in it and going, tapping the end of their nose.

You know, it was Carol Channing putting brown at the end of her nose to make it look short. Oh, my God. Shading her nose. Yeah. I was like, OK, whatever. So after Golden Rainbow, I can't remember what the next is.

[23:30] Lawrence Merritt: Dear World. Dear World. Yes. Great score. OK, this is one of my first Broadway show. First of all, when they announce your name, you're standing on stage, you know, and they know you that you know that they wanted only six male dancers in those strings, you know, and you've got like ten boys lined up. So really, we know that a window down to whatever. And it really is like a chorus line. I mean, they really did line you up like that. Yeah. And then they go, you and you and you and you and you. Step forward, please. The rest of you. Thank you. And then and then you realize you got it. You know, your first Broadway show. And it's just it's an amazing highlight. So this was another one. So Zorba the Greek was going to happen with I can't remember.

Was it Anthony Quinn who's going to start anyway? Herschel Bernardi, I think. Sure. I'm not exactly sure. Ron Field. So I went to the audition again at a theater, not in the studio. And, you know, I's dancing and so forth. And they were going to call people back for singing. And all the boys are on stage and Ron is demonstrating a step and, you know, we're doing it. And he said, by the way, he said, I hope you understand. I mean, because we're friends. You know, I did four shows with him and I assisted him twice in Paris and then way back in Somerset. And so he said, I can't really fight for you because Hal Prince has just gotten back from Crete and he wants short sort of swarthy looking.

[25:01] Lawrence Merritt: You know, and I was 6'1" with hair your color and I had ringlets, so I looked Hellenic, you know, I looked Grecian, you know. Yeah, it's okay, it's okay, honey. He said, but I tell you something, he said, there's only one other dancer better than you that's here today, and that's me, and I'm the choreographer. And I thought that was probably one of the best compliments I ever got. So in the next week and a half to two weeks, you head backstage. I knew that there were other auditions coming up, so I auditioned within the next two weeks for A Mother's Kisses, starring Bea Arthur, Bernadette Peters, choreographed by Anna White, Golden Rainbow. She was sitting in the audience while that happened and directed by Gene Sacks.

I danced, I sang, I was cast. Then I went and I auditioned for Promises, Promises, Michael Bennett, of course. Hi, Mike, how you doing? Everybody I knew, Kelly Bishop, you know, Donna McKechnie, all these people, you know, that I knew. I danced, I sang, I was cast. Then I went and I auditioned for Todd Sadler, and I danced and I sang, and I was cast within about a week and a half to two weeks. And it's like, oh shit, now what do I do? Now I have to make up my mind. So that was just an extraordinary event. And you know, I mean, it's very reassuring, you know, to know that you must have something that they are willing to hire you for or pay you money for, right? You know, because in this business, you're all, you know, it's like, where's your next job?

And you always have doubts. So anyway, so I chose Dear World, which was lovely, lovely, you know, that's how I played the Colonial, you know, with Donald Pippin, you know. Oh yeah, and Pamela Hall, who's over at St. Luke's, who's still around. And yes, please eat that because, and Lauren's put out a lovely spread for us, by the way, so you might hear munching throughout eating it, and I'm telling them to go ahead and eat it so I don't spread. Anyway, um, so you know, we rehearsed, and uh, you know, we played. I think we did play the Colonial. I don't remember where else we played. Anyway, Jerry Herman did fabulous music, you know, fantastic, wonderful, wonderful, beautiful music, except sort of for the title song, which is Dear World.

Anyway, yep, uh, and we sort of, we previewed. Previewed, folks, for all of you who don't know, means that you rehearse all day long while you're in New York City for a certain amount of hours, and then you have to be set free so you can wash your face and take your shoes off and have something to eat, and then go back to the theater and do another version of the number that you've been rehearsing all day that night in a show. You know, like you'd be doing the new version during the day, but yeah, you're rehearsing a new version that's going to go in like three or four days later. And so that's, you know, so you're previewing, not opening. So we previewed for I think probably about a month, and then we opened, and then we played for about, I guess, a month and a half or something.

And people go, man, it was a flop. I don't think so. It was artistically, everybody loved it, and Angela won another Tony. Yeah, and uh, whoever knows why, you know, shows don't make it. But Angela Lansbury, Jane Connell, Carmen Matthews, um, Milo O'Shea, Jerry Herman, uh, Joe Layton came in and took over directing and choreographing. You know, why were there so many changes? What wasn't working? I don't know. Well, my, this is just the theory of my observation. Lucia Victor was the original directoress of Dear World, and the choreographer was Donald Sadler, who already had a track record. So Lucia Victor was Gower Champion's right-hand man slash lady. She could recreate Hello, Dolly!, 42nd Street, whatever, for Beijing or Catman 2 or whatever, down to the last hand movement perfectly.

But I don't think she actually had the imagination to come up with the inspiration to direct. And, you know, we're playing the Mark Hellinger, which is now a church, damn it, and uh, which is one of the most spectacular theaters like the Colonial. Yeah, uh, and uh, I just don't think she had to know how to do that. So they fired her and Donald Sadler, and one of the Peters, I think it was Peter Glenville, came in, English, and he worked with Angela, Carmen, Jane, Milo, and in the chorus, it's like, get over there. It's like, okay, we had, you know, we just kept doing the same old thing and singing rehearsals and whatever. And so, um, then Joe Layton came in, and he was going to direct and choreograph.

And um, Dear World is based on The Madwoman of Chaillot by Hanoi, I'm not sure, or Girardou. Anyway, and it's a charming little play. It's intimate, it's charming about these three crazy ladies and their garbage man. And all of a sudden we went to Vegas, and we had dream ballets and costumes, and you know, and I just think it got to, one of the things was it got too big. Anyway, so Dear World, thank you very much, goodbye. Uh, Ron Field, hey Lawrence, why don't you come on over and be in the chorus of Applause and understudy Dwayne, the hairdresser confidant? It's like, okay, so off I went, you know, and I understudied. And the guy who was doing it, uh, Tom Rola, who lives out in California, who runs a fabulous restaurant called Gardenia, which is also a supper club, lovely guy, lovely.

Anyway, he did Dwayne, he was leaving, so I took over. I was doing understudy rehearsals. All of a sudden, I took over the role. So I'm playing Dwayne, the gay confidant hairdresser in Applause. I played it for a week with Anne Baxter, who was larger than anything, can tell you stories later after I shut up. And I played it with Arlene Dahl, and that was at the Palace. And so anyway, uh, I played it, and I played that role until, oh gosh, it sort of petered out. I mean, it was time. It had played for a long time and it ran its course, and you know, had a good show, good ending. What a lucky, lucky career, my gosh. Oh, it ain't over yet, you know. Oh no, it ain't over. You know, On the Town, you went On the Town at some point, the revival?

Yes, the first revival. Yeah, you know, with who was it? Bernadette Peters, uh, uh, Donna McKechnie, Miss Turnstiles, and Phyllis Newman. Um, uh, let's see, Ramach Ramsey, I think Bill Gerber, uh, you know, Compton and Green were sort of wandering around out in the lobby and, you know, whatever. And Ron Field choreographed it, and thank you, Bob Mackie, you know, extraordinary costumes, you know. And I was featured again. I was featured in the big subway ballet, and then at the end, I was the guy who sang, you know, the song about Miss Turnstiles. Yeah, doing, you know, Cooch and Coney Island, you know. So I, I was never a star, but I had, oh yeah, good bits and parts and all that, you know.

It's like one of the girls who came to the Colonial thing said, well, I didn't know you sang like that. It's like, yeah, Eileen, I've always sung like that, you know. I always had a big voice. Anyway, so yeah, On the Town again didn't run. And uh, what the hell happened? Oh, then, uh, you know, lots of TV, Ed Sullivan, really nice stuff, really embarrassing things with Tiny Tim and Miss Vicky. What did you, what did you do? Oh my god, they had just gotten married, and we were in suits with those fake plastic straw hats with red with American flags running back and forth behind Miss Vicky and Tiny Tim. And don't ask. Anyway, you know, sitting on a bale of hay swaying back and forth with a cardboard cutout, you know, fence behind you, behind Dale Evans and Roy Rogers humming to Happy Trails to you.

[33:23] Lawrence Merritt: And then, uh, this is amazing to me, and I'm assuming you did a lot of film and TV in the 70s, right? A lot of film work? Uh, not really, no, because I was living in New York. You know, were you in Maine? Did I make that up? Yes, no, no, I was in Maine. I, oh, this is another weird story. I, when I did Ann Margaret's act, we did, Ron Field, uh, one of the parts we did was the lady in red, and I played Melvin Purvis, the head guy in the FBI who shot John Dillinger. Yeah, okay, that was part of the nightclub act that we did with Bob Mackie costumes and whatever. So Ann Margaret was going to do a TV special, and she had fallen by then and had that terrible accident, and she was back, you know, and so Roger called me and he said, can you come out?

He said, nobody can do that walk that Ron did for you with the two guys behind me. Nobody can do the Melvin Purvis walk like you can. Will you fly out and do it? We'll fly you out, we'll pay you, you know, X number of TV contract dollars for three or four days. Sure, I'm free, why not? So they flew me out, and uh, you know, and we started to rehearse, and uh, one of the dancers in the chorus was Terry Carr, and so she was the dancer, you know, you gotta hand it to us. And so we did that, and um, I knew that Anna White was out there, and she was working on Bane, so I called Anna. I went, hi, hun, I'm in LA, you know, just doing this. And she went, oh my god, I need somebody your age to dance with Lucy who won't make her look like she's dancing with her, you know, her grandson.

It's like, okay. And they were all, there was a contract group that were dancing on a sound stage, and somebody was dancing for Lucy, and then Lucy would come and she'd teach her, you know, she was lovely, Lucy. And, uh, so in the opening number, it's today, you got it, when you see a hand lift, taking your armpit and sitting around that plexiglass tape the piano, and she puts her arm around two heads. The one on, if you look at the screen, the one on your right, that's me. And so she was sitting there one day, you know, on a break, and they were changing lights and stuff, and I was sitting by her, and she said, oh, she said, by the way, I went to the rushes this morning, you know, the dailies, and she said, you look great in your close-up. And I thought, oh my god, Lucille Ball is telling me, I love Lucy, she's telling me I look great in my close-up. And then you went into Evita.

[36:05] Lawrence Merritt: Then I went into Evita, Larry Fuller. No, actually, I did Ginger Rogers' act. Oh, she had done, I did Raquel's act, okay? And when I was doing Raquel's act, which we did around the world, which is fabulous, thank you again, Bob Mackie, and the ruffle sleeves. And so when I was doing her act, Anna White called me and said, we're doing an act for Ginger Rogers. Are you free? You know, no, I'm so sorry, I can't do that, you know, I'm busy. And so, uh, then later she called and somebody called and said, listen, um, we're getting rid of the four boys, we're getting rid of the big Latin number, and we're going to do one big pastiche, and we're going to use one boy. Are you interested? Now, yeah, I'm free.

So I went over and I did a few moves with Ginger, who you watched in the movie theater as a child. There you go, there's all these connections, you know, Sonia Henney, Carmen Miranda, and whatever. So, and they liked me, and the musical director was a nice guy, and it was, uh, Anna White, you know. And so I went with Ginger to one of her fittings at Jean Louis, who was famous. And so, you know, it was just, I got to sing a song that Fred Astaire sang to her in a movie. Wow, Change Partners, you know, must you dance every dance? So I sang that song, and now she came in all her pink loveliness with the feathers, and you wonder how come Fred Astaire was always going, because there were feathers in his mouth. But anyway, and again, you know, I played the Palace with Applause.

[37:32] Lawrence Merritt: Here I am as part of the Star Act, white tie and tails, singing a song on stage as the Star Act at the Palladium in London. You know, and somebody said, Mr. Merritt, you want to go to the stage door? I go to the stage door. There's Larry Fuller, who I talked to yesterday. And I said, what the hell are you doing here? He said, well, I knew you were with Ginger. And he said, I knew you're closing, you know, a couple of days. And he said, I knew that you'd be here. You know, I said, what are you doing in London? He said, well, I've exchanged my flat in New York with this chap in London, and I have his car. I said, well, what? And he said, well, I'm here doing research on a new musical that I'm going to be doing with Hal Prince based on the life of Eva Peron.

Evita. So I ended up going to L.A. for Ice Capades. I did Raquel's act. I did Ginger's act. Came back, Larry Fuller. Evita had played in L.A. as an out-of-town tryout. Big success on Broadway with Patti LuPone and all that. Larry Fuller called me and said, I want you to be the lead dancer in Evita. You won't have to audition. Just come in the afternoon at one o'clock. The boys will audition in the morning at 10. They'll go have lunch. You don't have to wear dance clothes. Just look cute. You'll meet the musical director. Who's that? Rene Weigert. I think he had been the musical director for Pippin. So he knew who I was. You'll meet Hal. So the boys line up next to Lawrence. This feels really good.

So we went into rehearsal with Lonnie Ackerman and Scott Holmes, who went back and did soap operas I think, and John Cipher, who was a trained opera singer who did TV. He was the prince in the Cinderella movie. He was in the Rodgers and Hammerstein. He did a Broadway show. He did Big on Broadway too. I had hurt my knees in Vegas doing that show at the casino, doing a big Russian number when all people wanted to do is see the showgirls' tits. Then finally in Evita, it really tore. They went, I'll just be leaving stage now. So then a few days later, they operated on me and I tore the cartilage. They fixed it a few months later, I went back into the show. And then the understudy, I did the tango. If you know the show, I was one of the two gauchos, slouchos, we call ourselves. And I understudied McGaldy.

[40:09] Kevin David Thomas: You were just known primarily though as a dancer.

[40:11] Lawrence Merritt: Yeah, but a dancer who sang. Because a lot of dancers, it's like, oh, you can carry a tune. Okay, fine. But I did do understudies and solos and whatever. I'm sorry, go ahead.

[40:23] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, I was going to say then once the 80s came and a lot of those big musicals didn't require so much dance anymore, like you had the Les Mis and the Phantoms and stuff. What were you up to at that time?

[40:35] Lawrence Merritt: The 80s. Actually, I got hurt on stage in 1981. That was Evita.

[40:44] Kevin David Thomas: How did you get hurt on stage?

[40:46] Lawrence Merritt: The understudy girl went on one night and Larry had choreographed in the benefit performance, Mario and Margarita. There was a lift where I was supposed to lift her all the way up, her feet up towards the ceiling and her head here. And the understudy girl, we had done that a couple of times, but she made a wrong move and it tore the hell out of my upper back. And so, okay, thank you very much. I'll just take a workman's comp settlement. I have a partner that I'm catering with and I'll just go cater.

[41:15] Kevin David Thomas: Got it. And then when did your car accident happen?

[41:20] Lawrence Merritt: Two years later. We were catering and doing well. We did several parties for Kayla Champion, who was the second wife of Gower Champion. And we catered Lee Remick's birthday party and catered some stuff for Lucia Victor, who was putting together yet another production of 42nd Street for someplace. As she does. And so I choreographed a local production of Guys and Dolls and then I did Student Prince. So Sunday matinee, party afterwards, up in the hills, lots of dope, lots of scotch. Don't do that anymore. I'm an artiste now. Anyway, and so I said to my partner, I can't drive. Can you drive? Yeah. Famous last words. So my wife got in the car. I either fell asleep or passed out. Doesn't matter. I remember the next thing I was laying in the middle of Fountain Avenue in LA, which is a sort of go-to street to get from one end to the other, which is like 13th Street or 12th Street out here.

And I sort of came to with like people all around me and lights and it was paramedics. And I ended up being taken to two hospitals. The first one, the emergency room was full. And I went to LA County General, which is worse than any ER room hospital you can imagine on TV. And there was a lovely young lady who was a liaison. And she said, I think I can get you into this facility down in Anaheim called Rancho Los Amigos. And I had suffered a spinal cord injury due to an old dance injury in my neck. So, so, you know, I, they schlepped me down by ambulance and I laid in bed for two weeks doing everything you need to do, everything, you know, and they came in and said, you know, we think we need to fuse your neck so that you, if you have another accident, you won't be paralyzed from the neck down.

Okay. You sure? Yeah. So two weeks later, they took a piece out of my hip and they fused four vertebrae in my neck and they said, you'll either be in a halo with the screws, you know, or you'll be in a hard, you know, so I wore a hard body brace for four months and polio braces on my legs and crutches. And they said three months and I went really watch. And two months later, I left the wheelchair at the hospital. A week later, my partner and I were catering a party out in Cucamonga at some ranch or something. So whatever, you know, geez. And, you know, many people say, you know, when something like that happens, it's like, oh, you have another chance at life. It's wonderful. You can make it count.

And it sounds like a lot of psychobabble, happy horseshit. It's really true, you know, and I've never been one to mope and whine. I still don't. I don't think it gets you any place. I can't do what I did at 23 and I walk with a cane now, but I'm still doing stuff and I stay busy, you know, and, uh, if I'm in a room full of horseshit, then there's gotta be a pony someplace.

[44:29] Kevin David Thomas: What a great way of looking at it.

[44:30] Lawrence Merritt: Well, I mean, there's just, you know, it doesn't get you any place, you know, and I have what I have and I'm, I'm lucky. I mean, the career that I had when I left that day to come to New York city, I've had a career that I could never even have dreamed of. You know, I've been places. I was one of the stars of the, you know, the apple orchard kid. I'm in a blue satin G-string swimming in a plexiglass pool that came up on an elevator as one of the stars of the Moonlight Rouge. Hello? I'm at the Casino de Paris in Paris, which is old and famous and still going, by the way, as the Foley Berger was doing the can can, you know, so I played the palace. I played the palladium. I played toilets in Barcelona, you know, whatever. I think the title of the autobiography should be the apple orchard kid. That'll be the subtitle. I already have it or I have a title, but I'm not going to tell you.

[45:18] Kevin David Thomas: Oh my God. Okay. Well, at least we have the subtitle, right? Uh, I was just going to ask of all the choreographers you worked with, who would you say is your favorite?

[45:27] Lawrence Merritt: Probably Ron Field. Yeah. He did so much for you too.

[45:32] Lawrence Merritt: Yeah. And his, I mean, as a member of the board of dancers over 40, I could say, you know, we've done Joe Layton. We've done Bob Fosse. We've done Michael Kidd. We've done, you know, whatever we need to do. Ron Field, you know, it's like, who's right? You ask young dancers. They go, Ron, who? They don't know who that is. They know who Michael Bennett is. Of course. Yeah. I mean, Ron Field won a Tony for cabaret and he won two Tonys, one for directing and choreographing applause. He did Zorba. So we ended up doing a whole night that I spearheaded with a video intro by Hal Prince and then the opening number of cabaret on the 1967 Tonys. And the girl who helped me, who assisted him, five girls from the original on chairs and two boys in front of the screen doing the number.

[46:20] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, that's cool.

[46:21] Lawrence Merritt: Oh, that's really. And then we had the tape, Joel Gray, accepting his Tony award and outcomes, Joel Gray. That's special. And Harvey Evans and I interviewed him. That's great. Then we had second half. We had Mars champion talking about the Academy Awards, which I never knew he had done. He did a number for Mars champion, Jane Powell, Ann Miller, Debbie Reynolds, Catherine Grayson, Esther Williams, Annie Miller, Howard Keel, and all these fabulous dresses on the number. Howard Keel singing to these ladies, you know, and TV shows. And so here's Mars champion. We talk video, talk to her. Outcomes, Sandy Duncan and Don Correa. They did TV shows with him that he did numbers for them that were spectacular.

You know, and then one more. Then we ended up Ben Vereen. He did an Emmy award winning TV special for Ben Vereen. Wow. And the last one was Donna McKechnie, who I had done On the Town with. Yeah. And he had done a TV show for her, you know, and she sang a couple of songs from On the Town that she does in her act. And there's a picture of Ron Field and we all went, how sweet. Can you tell our listeners, some dancers might know, but some people don't know what Dancers Over 40 is. And can you just give us a little.

[48:01] Lawrence Merritt: Well, a lot of people take exception to the name and everybody goes, we need to change the name because it's like, but honey, you're 68. You take exception to Dancers Over 40. Dancers Over 40 was started, I think, about 20 years ago by five dancers who went, you know, we really need to sort of get together and probably pass on some of our knowledge, lore, whatever, you know, because it's taught in schools and colleges and whatever. And it's taught by people who teach well, you know, but have not done it, you know. And if you've done it, you know what it's about. You know, you don't just put a costume on and go out and look cute. You know, you sweat, you sprain your ankle, you tear your knee.

So Dancers Over 40 is to support dancers. Most of the members are Broadway people, but we have modern people, tap people, Radio City Music Hall, been there, done that. Four shows a day. Whoa. Yes. 12 o'clock, three o'clock, six o'clock, nine o'clock. Thank you very much. It's a factory, you know.

[48:47] Kevin David Thomas: Love it. I did a hard number with yellow lame, gold lame bell bottoms with big circular cutouts on the buns. Yeah, you did. And arm bands. Do you still keep these outfits?

[49:00] Lawrence Merritt: No, you don't get to keep the outfits, but I got pictures. Pictures are worth a thousand words. They're right there beside you. I got both of my scrapbooks out. Oh, my gosh. Look at them or throw them off the balcony. No, I think we will stop now because I'm so curious. I need to take a look at some of these photographs. Done. And maybe we'll get to steal. We'll take a picture of a couple of them. Oh, I hope. I hope you can. There were two black books right there. Oh, my God. I was 17 and, you know, in summer stock on the beach in Kennebunkport. Amazing. Lawrence, it's cute. You know, it's cute. Still cute. Still cute. Semi cute. Still cute. Trust me, as long as I keep getting those ties.

[49:36] Kevin David Thomas: Still cute. Lawrence, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time out.

[49:41] Lawrence Merritt: Yeah, thanks.

[49:48] Kevin David Thomas: Join us next week when we interview the amazing Bruce Yeko, who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for having produced more original cast recordings than any other individual.