FYI - This was taped on stage at the Mark Hellinger Theatre, rather than performed live at the Tony Awards (at Hepburn's insistence). Coco was the most expensive Broadway show up to that time. That spectacular set was by Cecil Beaton - and note that this was before computerization, so all those separate stairs, turntables and mirrors had to be coordinated manually. The staging of the "mannequins" was by Michael Bennett.
LOS AÑOS QUE YO ESTUDIABA FRANCÉS EN LA ALIANZA FRANCESA, SOÑABA ALGÚN DÍA CONOCER LA CASA EN PARÍS DE SUS DISEÑOS TAN FAMOSOS EN EL MUNDO Y PODER HABLAR CON ELLA, EN FRANCÉS!. ASÍ NO FUE, PERO DEJO AQUÍ MI RECUERDO Y MI ADMIRACIÓN ENORMES POR ESTA GRAN ACTRIZ QUE ES SIEMPRE LA SRA. HEPBURN Y POR ESA INCREÍBLE SEÑORA CHANEL!. JUNTAS LAS DOS AQUÍ POR UN REGALO DIVINO...!!!. AU REVOIR MES AMIS...!!!, MERCI A TOUS....!!!, ET BONNE VIE POUR TOUT LE MONDE...!. A VOTRE SANTÉ....!!!.
"SCREAMING Noelle's lines?"!?! I don't hear screaming. But, neither do I hear film or television drama acting. Gale Dixon originated the role of Noelle in Coco, which played the 1,505-seat Mark Hellinger Theatre (Dec 18, 1969 thru Oct. 30, 1970). The ubiquitous use of body mics that we see now in Broadway shows was very, VERY sparse in 1969. Performers prior to, and into the 1960's and 1970's were trained to project and be heard and understood acoustically without the use of amplification. It is my speculation that Ms. Hepburn, Mr. Rose, and Mr. Halliday were familiar with scaling a performance to the camera lens (as you know, this was pre-recorded). I agree, Ms. Dixon seems to at least be acting for the last row in the balcony, if not in a melodrama, in a much earlier decade. But, based on her enunciation alone, I'm guessing she's "playing the house she's in", rather than the intimate lens and boom mic of the camera. In the mid-1970's, floor mics were being introduced and some body mics. By late 1979 - 1980, body mics were intermittently distributed on some ensemble members (think mic stands with omni-directional mics to pick-up groups of singers). And then, the mics, still positioned on the costumes, would be redistributed to different performers throughout the performance. That changed in 1982 with CATS, which, reportedly was the first show in which every cast member had their own body mic. By then, the microphone heads had become small enough to be fed into, and partially hidden by the wigs. Battery packs has also become smaller and more efficient.
@@timothysmith7888 Thank you for the history lesson. I think you are right about Gale Dixon not adjusting her performance for the camera as the other actors did. That’s why her “projecting” seems so out of place in this performance compared to everyone else. Also, I could have sworn that all the main characters in Evita were mic’d in 1979, but now that I look I can’t find even one picture of a cast member with a body mic. Looks like Cats for the win. 😆
