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Katharine Hepburn

Coco Before Tautou: Katharine Hepburn Sings!

By Michael Musto, Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 11:30AM
Comments (12)
Categories: Featured, theater

Get out your Tums, kids, because this one's gonna hurt.

You see, in 1969, screen legend Katharine Hepburn played designer Coco Chanel in the splashy Broadway musical Coco.

I always regretted having missed that one, but thanks to the above YouTube clip from that season's Tony awards, I no longer lose sleep over the loss.

The number has a mind-numbing array of svelte women (and one semi-chubette) parading around in red outfits to drearily overarranged elevator music. Stick that out, though, because then comes the prize: La Hepburn croaking out a few showstopping lyrics with a lack of musicality that makes Rex Harrison look like Caruso by comparison.

No wonder the Tony voters decided that Lauren Bacall's slightly less atonal belch-singing in Applause was more palatable that year.

They should have called this show Loco!

Comments (12) Write Comment
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More About:

  • Katharine Hepburn
  • Coco Chanel
  • Lauren Bacall
  • Rex Harrison
  • Tony Awards

Comments (12)

barb wire says:

God. Painful can't begin to describe it. And thats the scene they chose to show on the Tony Awards? Boggles the mind.

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 11:50AM
Musto says:

Let me respectfully add that Ms. Hepburn no doubt brought her amazing star quality to the role, regardless of the musicality.

But having seen her in two straight plays she later did, I have to say the woman should have picked far better stage vehicles for herself!

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 11:52AM
Anonymous says:

What is with the facial expressions girlfriend is serving???

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 12:11PM
musto fucked spencer tracy says:

the reason Katie looks so unhappy is that she realizes Musto was backstage fucking Spencer Tracy in her dressing room -- and Spence had died two years before which did not even slow Musto down --

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 12:20PM
Jonster says:

Ouch. She sounds like the late Ethel Merman. After she'd been dead a few days.

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 12:31PM
UhOkay says:

They literally waited until the last minute before letting Kate open her Yankee mouth. 1969? Janis Joplin would have been a better Coco!

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 12:41PM
uhokay is right, but... says:

actually Robert McNamara would have been a better Coco.

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 12:42PM
Southern Dave says:

Suzanne Rogers, one of the showgirls in that scene, was later a soap opera star ("Days of Our Lives") and told me that Hepburn would keep the stage doors open backstage and the heat off and when the rest of the cast complained, she bought them all floor-length sweaters!

I must admit, though, to getting a little frisson of pleasure seeing La Hep striding around all the girls and then croaking out her bit of "song." Sheer showmanship! Cause it sure as hell wasn't singing!

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 12:55PM
jon says:

Too bad Kate never recorded a Christmas lp!

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 3:28PM
horndog says:

I will always love her for Philadelphia Story, Alice Adams, Lion in Winter,, African Queen, and so on.

I will quick forget this clip.

I HOPE!!

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 4:26PM
nostradavid says:

Realism! Coco couldn't sing.

Posted On: Monday, Dec. 7 2009 @ 10:26PM
CMG says:

The one movie star who I thought could sing, and by sing I mean sing live to an audience rather than auto-tune it to lipsynch on screen, or at least inhibit a musical character was Richard Burton. But even his King Arthur was an acquired taste.

Posted On: Tuesday, Dec. 8 2009 @ 9:56PM

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