HOME: A MEMOIR OF MY EARLY YEARS
By Julie Andrews
Hyperion, 352 pages, $26.95

My favorite moment in Julie Andrews’ memoir comes after the first New Haven preview of My Fair Lady. Rex Harrison had a pre-performance panic attack, the show ran to an endless three and a half hours, but Julie Andrews was feeling pretty good. Her vaudeville training had helped her rise to the occasion, and the show had gone on.

She was sitting in her dressing room bathing in self-approbation when the door flew open and designer Cecil Beaton stalked in. Beaton picked up a little yellow hat Ms. Andrews wore in the show, and slammed it onto her head.

“Not that way, you silly bitch,” he hissed, like some road company Roger DeBris, “This way!”  read more »

Julie Andrews is returning to Broadway—as a director, according to Variety (blogger?) Army Archerd.

Her most charming book, The Great American Mousical, which she wrote with daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, is being musicked by Anthony Drewe and George Stiles, the team who tuned the musical Mary Poppins. The ultra charming, humorous and yes, exciting Mousical also takes on some of the recognizable Broadway stars who appear on stage above the cellar-dwellng mice. The book was illustrated by Tony Walton who will likely design the sets and costumes, making this Broadway production a family affair.