I was privileged to have seen KH in Coco when it appeared in Cleveland in 1971, as a young person, and had a marvelous seat in about the 14th row center. KH was absolutely riveting in her performance and this number "always Mademoiselle" was the finale. I remember her piercing blue eyes. I sent her a fan letter asking for her autograph and received it on the cover of the program, with my name, in her handwriting. It is framed in my den. Awesome actress and legend.
Actually they're very 1960's. One of the girls in red is a good friend of mine, and she became very close with Hepburn, and said Kate was wonderful to the cast. She also has a whole bunch of original slides of the show and of Hepburn which were taken by Beaton and given to her. She modeled a lot of clothes for Beaton. I always wonder how much those slides are worth!
Even though she was no Patti LuPone, she did manage to achieve character and to clarify what someone said, Katharine Hepburn adored the theatre. She found it very freeing.
Wow, great to see a bit of Coco since I was just reading about it in Garson Kanin's book "Tracy and Hepburn"! Awesome to get a little taste of what Coco was like. Imagine this live. You'd have chills. Thank you so much for sharing this significant part of Kate's body of work.
Enough sqabbling over the comments of Beaton. This show was yet another display of Kate's great talent to let you forget the actress herself and believe the charater she was portraying. Totally immersed in the role. Breathtaking!!
So beautiful ,woman who changed the way women were captured on film and style potraying a female icon who changed the female fashion world.Two feminst role models for me R.i.p Miss chanel and Miss Hepburn we will never forget you.
"If my dreams are too big for you to carry, pick some up at the flea market." What a great line. I'm assuming this was Lerner's creation, and not a direct quote from Chanel. If this is true, Lerner should have been nominated for Best Book based on the sheer brilliance of this line. (OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but I really like this line.)
Glad you can appreciate this snippet, aasjb4ever, because it WAS amazing in person. Saw this as a young teenager with my mom, drug to the theatre by her, prejudices were quickly overcome when Kate came onstage. Maybe it was her legendary screen history, or her stage presence, but when she came on, you looked at nothing else. She was captivating. And, this finale was awesome. You had to listen to the first act to get why it went red. Wasn't prepared to be overcome by the power of live theatre.
This looks like it must have been a spectacular production, but it must have been awful hard to maneuver on that rotating set! This is also gloriously long! Today at the Tony's, shows only get 3 minutes or something. The "Ragtime" performance was practically over before it had begun.
It's a shame this is the only visual recording of the show Coco. I wished that all the classic Broadway shows were videotaped or filmed so they would be preserved for future viewers.
I saw this twice..and it was a brilliantly flawed show. Hepburn's inability to sing is besides the point, as it was with Rex Harrison. She WAS Chanel (and as always, she WAS Hepburn!). When the curtain came down, and the set started rotating for the curtain call, finally stopping for Hepburn after all the others had taken their bows, it was the thunder of a rock show. I felt the floors shaking in that theater. Brilliant stuff...
I would have done anything to have watched it on Broadway!!! It's a real shame that Paramount Pictures (who financed the show on Broadway) gave up its film version after "Paint Your Wagon" flopped!!!
No, she did not, especially where it concerned evening dresses. She famously made a gown for Helene de Rothschild in a chiffon-like red, from drapery. That gown was so well received by society that it inspired Chanel to create countless variations of gossamer-like, weightless chiffon evening dresses in red. Though Chanel preferred to wear her famous suit colored in grounds of white or beige, red and navy were often the colors that formed the trims.
