Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2009 - 64

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A Memoir of My Early Years

By Julie Andrews; New York: Hyperion, 2008. 339 pp., 32 p. of
plates. Cloth, $26.95.
Reviewed by Richard Pilbrow
Like the classic show-biz joke, "Excuse me, officer,
how do I get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice, practice,
practice!" Julie Andrews's wonderfully frank and
heart-warming account of her tumultuous early
years is all about practice, practice, practice, with
a very large spoonful of sheer old-fashioned dedication, grit, and determination thrown in. It got
her to Carnegie Hall and a long way beyond.
For the theatrically minded reader, the book
is a particular delight. It tells the story of a thin,
gawky, bow-legged, flat-chested, shy, teenage girl
who grew up to become one of the world's most
loved and accomplished stars of stage and screen. But amidst
a sad and sometimes shocking tale of an often unhappy, extended family, it very modestly tells the story of how that miracle
was accomplished. A series of wonderful and inspiring teachers
recognized this child as a prodigy with a voice like a nightingale. The young girl soaked up like a voracious sponge every
lesson that came her way, eagerly learning from every encounter, until she emerged from her chrysalis a fully formed and
consummate professional: singer, actress, and director. And a
really nice person.

Lucky to know her
I must admit to great prejudice. I'm lucky enough to know Julie.
In fact, writing this review is straying into a very personal zone
for me. Tony Walton, Julie's first husband, is one of my oldest
and dearest friends. He is a brilliant stage designer and director
too. We have worked together for nearly fifty years. When I first
met Tony, he and Julie were in the early days of their marriage.
They'd met as very young teenagers and were married on 10
May 1959. My first London production with Tony was Pieces of
Eight in September of that same year. Julie was starring in My
Fair Lady at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. My first employer
and mentor, Robert Stanton, was the stage manager. Two years
before, he'd invited me to be his deputy, but I'd politely refused.
I had a new company to start: Theatre Projects.
Pieces of Eight's success led to a sequel, One Over the
Eight, for which Tony and I pioneered a new approach to scenic projection. Tony invited me to do the projection for A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for Hal Prince on
Broadway. For the first time in my life I crossed the Atlantic and
stayed with Julie and Tony in their apartment on York Avenue.

theatre

design

technology

W I N T E R

2009

Julie was then starring in Camelot on Broadway. Every
night we picked her up at the Majestic Theatre. I was overwhelmed by Abe Feder's astonishing lighting that created magic
from the front but for a young lighting designer was mind-blowing seen from backstage. After the show, at every restaurant we
walked into, the other diners rose and applauded. I had my
first glimpse of life with a Broadway star.

Path to stardom
Julie's path to stardom had been a long one. She began singing at
the age of eight in 1943. Her Auntie Joan enrolled her in dancing
class and "Madame" Lilian Stiles-Allen began her formal vocal
training with never-to-be-forgotten techniques of breathing and
voice placement. Julie's mother and stepfather were music hall
performers. Julie would often watch enthralled with the glamour as seen from the front row of the balcony, while "backstage:
cavernous, shabbiness, the smells, hot gels, paint, grease-paint
and sweat, warm dust..." kindled a life-long love of theatre.
Before her tenth birthday, she joined her parents' act,
singing on stage standing on a beer crate. Her astonishingly
pure voice soon brought her attention, a first Royal Command
Performance. One review described a "Prodigy with Pigtails."
Growing success in pantomime, variety, and on radio established her reputation. Her "Madame" taught her: "Remember,
the amateur works until he can get it right. The Professional
works until he cannot go wrong." She worked constantly and
became increasingly responsible, personally and financially,
for her sadly dysfunctional family.
In September 1954, aged nineteen, she opened in the
Broadway production of The Boy Friend. Producer Cy Feuer
became a powerful mentor, bringing her out of her shy and
hesitant shell and teaching her the rigors of performing in a
long run. Then My Fair Lady. As Julie says, "I was hopelessly
out of my depth." But the legendary director, Moss Hart, forcibly coached her into her performance as Eliza Doolittle. He
reported to his wife after a weekend of intense solo rehearsal,
"Oh she'll be fine...she has that terrible British strength-you
wonder how they ever lost India." The run of My Fair Lady was
"the greatest learning experience of my life. The sheer hard
slog of seeking perfection night after night...of performing
whatever the circumstances and whatever the personal state of
mind."
Julie reports how much she learnt from Tony, with his
unique eye and perspective of the theatre, a debt that so many
of us share. It was her dear friend Svetlana Beriosova, the great
ballerina, who opened her eyes to a new sense of mission and
duty in the theatre. Having worked on the stage since her earliest teenage years, she now realized that conveying joy and pleasure, of communicating theatre to thousands, brought her "an

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