In a recent Back Stage West interview, Lea DeLaria commented on the scarcity of actress/singers with the old-fashioned type of belting musical comedy voice that is associated with legendary stars like Ethel Merman. DeLaria is one of that rare breed, and so is the dynamic Karen Morrow, who will be tackling a classic Merman role in the Reprise! Broadway's Best in Concert revival of Irving Berlin's Call Me Madam, which opens Sept. 13 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse, co-starring Michael Nouri and Hugh Panaro, directed by John Bowab.
The charming Morrow, who recently chatted with Back Stage West by phone, is making her musicals-in-concert debut. But ironically, in the mid-1990s, she was offered the Call Me Madam lead in the first season of New York's Encores series (forerunner to Reprise). "I was unavailable, as I was in another show. So they got Tyne Daly. Reprise has been trying to find a spot for me, but I always said, 'Look, I understand you need celebrities.'" (Morrow is too modest. Though perhaps not a superstar, her 40 years of acclaimed work in musical theatre certainly qualify her as a celebrity.)
Getting back to discussing the Broadway era when stars had real voices, Morrow chuckled, "People used to tell me I had a real classic Broadway voice, and I'd say, 'Ooh no, no, no.' Now I say 'Yes, thank you.' Some of it has to do with the way you're born—what the body is like—but it's also the training. The only Broadway show I did where mikes were used was The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The Grass Harp, with Barbara Cook and myself, was the last show on Broadway to not use mikes. We just sang, and everyone developed lungs. And if you didn't have that, you didn't have a career."
Since last year, Morrow has taught singing in UCLA's drama department, and she previously held master classes in the music department there for several years. She continued, "When I have students with real wussy voices, I work them and work them and work them, and often they drop out because they don't have the stamina. They keep thinking they don't need it. I keep saying, 'Yes, you do, regardless of the fact that you wear a microphone. You need that kind of energy.'"
The Emmy-winning Morrow has displayed this type of vocal energy in scores of musicals (Broadway, off-Broadway, Los Angeles, regional productions and tours, cabaret and concert performances), and recordings. Other Merman-associated roles she has played include the leads in Gypsy, Anything Goes, and Annie Get Your Gun. Even Hello Dolly! fits this category, because the show was originally written by Jerry Herman for Merman, who turned it down but eventually played it, following Carol Channing and other actresses.
Morrow added, "I'm sorry I didn't get to see Ethel in it. Jerry was crazy about her. When she went into the show on Broadway, he reinstated a song, 'Love, Look in My Window,' which he had written for her, but it was not sung by Carol or the other Dollys. When Jerry found out I was doing the show in Redondo Beach [Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities], he told me 'I've got this song, and the only other person who's done it is Ethel. Would you like to do it?' I said 'Of course!' I do it all the time now. I'll do it again in my October concert at UCLA." (Morrow sings the song on a CD recording of a Rainbow and Stars cabaret show, and it is indeed a knockout.) Why has Morrow's good friend Herman never written a musical vehicle for her? "He has optioned a couple of things that might have been good for me," she said. "Then he lost the rights and things like that. But Jerry has been so generous with me over the years that I feel that he has written roles for me."
Getting back to Madam, Morrow expressed excitement about this show, which is brimming with great Berlin songs. "My character is a very wealthy Oklahoman who finds herself the 'hostess with the mostest' in Washington. She's based on Perle Mesta, who had a lot of money and made sure that in political circles, the right people met the right people. My character loves to mingle with the president and vice-president, and is appointed ambassador to a small country of about 100 residents, where she falls in love with the gorgeous foreign minister. It's a simple story, which was devised primarily as a vehicle for Merman to sing some swell songs. But it's terrific in an election year. The songs almost sound like special material for a political environment. Very clever stuff."
What has Morrow not yet accomplished in her career that she would like to try? "A feature film," she replied. "Not a big part necessarily. I would just love to work with a good director, sit around with the other actors on the set, then go to my trailer. Then I could hang up my dancing shoes—though I will probably never do that." One also hopes she does not retire that sensational voice.