Barbara Cook
Someone who was definitely flesh and blood was the great Barbara Cook. Her creamy effortless lyric soprano led the original casts of many musicals of the 1950s and, when she was no longer an ingenue (and when she wasn’t chosen to play the parts she had originated on Broadway in the movie versions) she started a second career as possibly the greatest cabaret performer of them all.
Here’s a look back at Barbara Cook as Marian the Librarian in her 11 o’clock number from The Music Man. Easy to see why she won a Tony for this performance and impossible to understand why Shirley Jones and not Barbara Cook was chosen to play Marian in the movie.
The post Ruth Leon recommends…. Barbara Cook – Till There Was You – The Music Man appeared first on Slippedisc.
%20and%20Schyler%20Vargas%20(Norman)%20on%20the%20Yellowstone%20River,%20August%202025%20Photo%20by%20Charlotte%20Mae%20Ellison.jpg?w=160&resize=160,160&ssl=1 "A River Runs Through It: Opera Montana is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Norman Maclean’s beloved elegy to family and fly fishing in Montana with a new opera by Zach Redler")
