Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist's Letters (33 page)

    
Dear Cecil:

    
I am sending you under separate cover the script of guess what? As you will see, some of the lyrics are in. We have about three songs to go plus many incidental bits.

        
Please, please write me any and all comments and don’t be afraid of flattering me (I never get enough) or criticizing. We have been at the barricades too often together to mince words. And I cannot
stand
Freddie [Brisson] telling me what other people think and don’t tell me themselves. If you could see the joy that fills those Danish blue cheese eyes, you would understand.

        
I read the play to La Mere Brisson
²⁷
last Friday and the reaction was nothing short of overwhelming. She called later to say she wanted to do it. I also read it to Gower Champion, who was equally as enthusiastic
but we would have to wait a year and a half, which I think must be definitely avoided. I haven’t wanted to force any decisions until everything is finished. That should be in the next two or three weeks. The only thing I know is (well not the
only
thing) that La Mere B does not want Schlessinger. I have a feeling she thinks I mean Arthur Schlessinger.

        
California has reached a new high in ghastliness and I could not hate it more. It rains all the time. I know how sad you will be to hear that George Cukor has not worked since
My Fair Lady
. As far as I’m concerned, since before
My Fair Lady
. I think
Camelot
is quite marvelous and Josh has done a wonderful job. Time has still not dented Jack Warner’s elegance and Vanessa Redgrave gives me a pain in the ass. However, I’m told she is beautiful but we’ve had very low clouds this winter and I haven’t seen her face. Rachel Harrison
²⁸
bit a hole in Robert Mitchum’s
²⁹
pants the other night at a party (the truth) and won the Oscar over George Cukor for language. Billy Wilder says that
Georgy Girl
is supposed to be the life of George Cukor.

        
I expect we’ll be going back to New York in about three weeks just in time for the spring round for Truman Capote. I know lots of other fascinating things but you have to write to me first.

Love,

Alan

    
The summer was spent on yet more work on the
Coco
script, and in early September Lerner flew to London to work on the score again with Previn. By the middle of the month, Lerner was able to tell Brisson that the music was almost complete—but on a more unexpected note, he also disclosed a surprise change of plan regarding the casting of Rosalind Russell as Chanel:

    
To Frederick Brisson

    
September 13, 1967

    
Dear Freddy,

    
Contrary to previous information as you can see I am still in London. I had a marvelous ten days work with André and all the melodies are
now completed, including the verses. We may have to add one small interlude but that remains to be seen. In any case, it would only be a short afternoon’s work for André.

        
Not only that, but at long last the book is finished to my satisfaction and you should have a copy in your hands by the time you receive this letter. It is still long in the beginning and I don’t mean to imply that I have finished work on it, but for the first time there is a beginning, a middle and an end, and the play at least has an architecture. I hope you will agree.

        
If you do agree then I think you will also feel as André and I do that—as I have been fearing for many months—this is definitely not for Roz and Roz is definitely not for it. I am totally, irrefutably convinced that each would do the other a great injustice. Her special warmth and ingenuousness that shine through her talent and make it unique would, if called upon as it is now written, give the play a softness which would destroy the whole fabric of it. To ask her to bury it completely would be like hiring Merman and asking her not to sing. What the part requires is a certain emotional brittleness; it is a quality someone either has or has not. It cannot be assumed. That particular kind of cracking along on top of the feelings if it isn’t natural emotionally and stylistically comes out at best, hard and at worst, heartless. It is the kind of role that is very much in the vernacular of two or three of the leading British actresses and Katharine Hepburn. As for the musical portion, the gay, uninhibited, irresistible zest that Roz uses instead of a voice would be so out of character that she and the songs would be fighting each other all the way with each winding up the loser, not to mention the play. I know we have discussed this before. I know you have been aware of my doubts. Those doubts no longer exist. I now find myself unalterably opposed.

        
I wish with all my heart I could explain this to Roz myself because aside from my own personal feelings for her, I have very deep respect for her as an artist, and I would be bereft if she in any way misunderstood. I frankly believe she is too intelligent an actress, as well as person, not to see this herself upon reading the play. I am more than certain she would turn it down anyhow. If, by any chance, she sees the role differently than it is, I will do anything to make my position clear to her. (I have been saying “I” when I should have been saying “we” because André is equally as definite as I about her not playing the role. Actually, after reading this draft he called me up and the first thing he said was: “I love it, but this is certainly nothing for Roz.”)

        
It is such a relief to get the thing off my back that I am going to stay over until next week and relax a bit. I will stay here until Friday and then
go to Paris until about Wednesday, then home. I will be at the Plaza. I have not been in touch with anybody here because I think we must first cast the part. Obviously, the star will have a say and I don’t want to go off half-cocked again. I will call you the instant I am in New York and if you would like me to go to see Roz, wherever she is, I will of course do so.

        
I hope you are happy with the script. I look forward to seeing you as soon as possible. Be sure not to give any love to Jack Warner and Arthur Jacobs but keep it all for the Brisson family.

Always,

Alan

Since
Coco
had always been intended as a return to the musical stage for Russell, this must have come as something of a shock to Brisson. Lerner was firm in his refusal to allow her to play a part that was meant to be designed for her, and the completion of the script and near-completion of the score meant she had literally been written out of the production.

    
The reason for Lerner’s change of heart becomes clearer in the following letter from four days later:

    
To Katharine Hepburn

    
September 17, 1967

    
Dear Miss Hepburn:

    
I have been trying to leave you alone until I get back this week but today is Sunday and I have no “hommes d’affaires” to see and I
never
visit the French in the country because the men wear neckties and everybody stays indoors and so I’ve been working on the lyric for “Always Mademoiselle.” (André did the music while I was in London. I think you’ll like it. It’s in the “My Man”
³⁰
genre but the melody is stronger and no self-pity. There will be none of the latter in the lyric either.) And so because I have been working on something that I fervently hope will be for you, writing you has become irresistible.

        
First of all, I must tell you that our paths have been crossing all week. Monday, I saw Anatole Litvak
³¹
in Claridge’s and we had a bite together. He told me that he had been working on a script for Peter O’Toole
³²
called “The Ski-Bum”
³³
and that it was not developing well and that it would probably be abandoned. The next day I heard that “Lion in Winter”
³⁴
may be moved forward because Peter O’Toole had suddenly become free. Friday evening I arrived in Paris and as I walked into the hotel, the very first person I saw was Terrence Young [
sic
].
³⁵
Short chat and, unsolicited, he informed me he suddenly had two pictures at the same time: “Mayerling” and “Lion in Winter” because “Lion” was going sooner than expected. Period. The night before I left London, I ran into Sam Spiegel
³⁶
who fixed his misty blue eyes on me and said: “Did you get her?” “Get whom?” said I. He answered with an all-knowing wink, murmured something in classic Estonian in which your name was prominently placed, and disappeared into the night.

        
Needless to say, any sort of unexpected prompting was hardly necessary to bring you to mind. For the past few weeks my thoughts have not been elsewhere. And since last Monday night I have been elated into orbit. I couldn’t possible have made you know on the phone the length, breadth and height of my enthusiasm. Probably, not even face to face either. Unfortunately, enthusiasm in our profession has been so squandered by pitchmen and barkers that by now it rings with the hollow sound of insincerity. However, to me it’s still precious stuff and I have never used it either to hoodwink others or myself. So I feel I am entitled to ask you to take mine seriously; and to believe me when I tell you that never in my entire professional life have I ever wanted anyone to play any role in anything I have ever written as much as I want you to play Coco. If you allow me, I will prove it to you by doing anything and everything within the bounds of artistic, legal, economic and social
reason to make it possible for you to do it conveniently, happily and comfortably.

        
Because I cannot see anyone but you in the part, I feel I ought to acquaint you with a few of the facts concerning the origin and history of the play to date. The idea was brought to me seven years ago by Freddie Brisson, who is, as you know, producing it. (Actually, we are co-producers but I don’t wish to be so-billed.) André and I began working on it roughly a year ago May. It began as a possible venture for Roz. Sometime around late March or early April it became patently clear to André and me that it was not developing into a Roz Russell vehicle. I had a meeting with Freddie and told him. He was most understanding, but suggested withholding the final decision till the play was finished. By June André’s and my feeling had hardened into a firm conviction that it never would be or could be a part for Roz and at a meeting with Freddie suggested we begin looking elsewhere. I returned to Long Island to continue work and André and I made a date to meet in London in September, where he would be conducting, to complete the score.

        
I did not tell Freddie or anyone outside of your intimate circle that I was sending you the script nor shall I until after I have seen you on the coast. I’m sorry that has been delayed a few days. (I have a house here I’m trying to sell that is all entangled in French black tape—red is out this season.) I will be back in New York on Friday and I will call you the instant I set foot in the New World. If you can see me, I’ll come right to the coast or anywhere you are.

        
Please give my love to Gar[son Kanin],
³⁷
Ruth [Gordon]
³⁸
and George [Cukor] and I hope and pray I will soon know you well enough to send you the same and not have to remain

Only sincerely yours,

Alan

One of the defining characteristics of Lerner’s career is his love of writing for major theater and movie stars, and it is clear from this letter that Hepburn had become the latest in a long line that also included Harrison, Burton, Andrews, Kelly, Chevalier, and Astaire. Even when compared to his letter to Gabriel Pascal in Chapter 2, in which he writes of his burning desire to have Mary Martin play
Eliza Doolittle, Lerner’s letter to Hepburn seems unusually extreme and pressing in his warmth of feeling about working with her on
Coco
.

    
The sentiments continue in the following telegram from a few days later, during which time Hepburn presumably agreed to consider the project:

    
Telegram to Katharine Hepburn

    
September 20, 1967

    
RETURNING FRIDAY, WILL CALL AS AGREED. OFFICE SENDING YOU A CLEAN SCRIPT WITH A FEW CORRECTIONS AND CUTS. AM SO EXCITED AM A PUBLIC NUISANCE. CAN I COME SEE YOU THIS WEEKEND?

REGARDS.

LERNER

    
But his excitement was soon to be spoiled when the
New York Times
announced on September 27 that “Rosalind Russell will depict Coco Chanel, the French couturier, in “Coco,” a musical by Alan Jay Lerner (librettist and lyricist) and André Previn (composer).”
³⁹
Evidently Russell had become aware of Lerner and Previn’s plans to transfer her long-planned vehicle to someone else and tried to cling to it while she could. In shock, Lerner wrote to Brisson the following day:

    
Telegram to Frederick Brisson

    
September 28, 1967

    
DEAR FREDDIE
:

    
I LEFT CALIFORNIA WITHOUT CALLING YOU BECAUSE FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON ON I WAS ALMOST IN A STATE OF SHOCK AND I NEEDED A LITTLE DISTANCE TO REGAIN PERSPECTIVE. I EXPRESSED MY FEELINGS TO YOU VERY CLEARLY BOTH IN MY LETTER FROM LONDON AND IN PERSON ON MONDAY. AND, AS YOU KNOW, I THOUGHT I WAS TO DISCUSS THEM WITH ROZ TUESDAY EVENING. THE HURRIED ANNOUNCEMENT ON TUESDAY MORNING WHICH WAS OBVIOUSLY INTENDED TO PREVENT ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION, NOT ONLY WITH ME BUT ANDRé, WAS SIMPLY UNFORGIVABLE. MY OUTRAGE IS MINISCULE COMPARED TO THE SADNESS I FEEL FOR ROZ WHO IS A GREAT ARTIST AND A GREAT WOMAN AND DOESN’T DESERVE THIS. IT WAS INEVITABLE THAT THE ANNOUNCEMENT
WOULD PRODUCE A COMMENT FROM CHANEL IN PARIS AND, AS USUAL, WHAT SHE HAD TO SAY DIDN’T HELP ANYTHING. SO THAT THE AIR MAY BE CLEARED LET ME TELL YOU THAT I DID NOT SAY THAT KATHARINE HEPBURN WOULD PLAY THIS ROLE. I DID SAY THAT I DID NOT THINK ROZ WAS RIGHT FOR IT AND MENTIONED THE SAME THREE PEOPLE I MENTIONED TO YOU IN MY LETTER. HEPBURN HAPPENED TO BE THE ONLY ONE CHANEL HAD EVER HEARD OF. THE QUESTION NOW IS THE PROCEDURE FOR THE FUTURE. THE PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT HAS NOT CHANGED ANDRé’S AND MY CONVICTIONS. I SUGGEST THAT WE SAY AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE TO THE PRESS AND THAT WE DO NOT DENY YOUR ANNOUNCEMENT. THAT WOULD BE TOO UNFAIR TO ROZ. I FURTHER SUGGEST THAT WHATEVER IS SAID MUST HAVE OUR MUTUAL APPROVAL. AND FINALLY, IN A FEW WEEKS FOR A REASON TO BE MUTUALLY AGREED UPON, I SUGGEST THAT ROZ ANNOUNCE HER WITHDRAWAL. I WILL SAY NOTHING TO ANYONE UNTIL I HEAR FROM YOU
.