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11/09/2016 11:01 PMIt must have been fate.
After all, actor Kim Rachelle Harris had a not-so-secret passion for the song “White Christmas,” collecting every version that’s ever been recorded.
So it’s only fitting now that she’s playing singer Rosemary Clooney, who performed that holiday classic many times on screen, TV, in concerts and cabaret shows—and starred in the 1954 film White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen.
But beyond that song, Harris confesses she didn’t know much about Clooney when she said yes to the lead role in Tenderly, The Rosemary Clooney Musical, which is presented at the Ivoryton Playhouse in Essex through Sunday, Nov. 13. (Also featured in the two-person cast is Michael Marotta, who was in the show, which also features a three-piece combo, when it premiered at the Cincinnati Playhouse.)
So Harris threw herself into the research of the singer, who died in 2002 at the age of 74, studying her biography as well as her singing style.
She learned that:
• Clooney began her singing career with her sister Betty on the radio before her first recordings in 1946 for Columbia Records. She sang with Tony Pastor’s big band until 1949. But really came into her own in the ’50s with hot singles such as “Mambo Italiano,” “Tenderly,” “Half as Much,” “Hey There,” and “This Ole House.”
• She loathed her 1951 break-out hit record, “Come On-a My House,” produced by Mitch Miller. She at first refused to sing it until she was threatened with breach of contract.
• Clooney’s career stalled in the ’60s, in part to depression, drug addiction, and nervous breakdowns. During much of her life she had bipolar disorder.
• Clooney was part of the presidential campaign for her close friend Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and was at the hotel when he was assassinated there in 1968.
• Clooney was married twice to actor José Ferrer, with whom she had five children. Late in life, she married her longtime friend, a former dancer, Dante DiPaolo.
• And yes, George Clooney is her nephew.
“My impression after reading her book,” says Harris, “is that she was a brave and strong woman who faced and recovered from some dark times. I find it so inspiring that even when she was personally crumbling she continued to raise and care for her children so well.”
Harris says Clooney’s singing style was rooted in her impeccable diction, “but also communicating the emotion of a song. She felt everything.”
But she did not wallow in emotions on stage. Harris notes even when Clooney was singing a sad ballad she remained cool. “She still smiled, just a bit,” giving a melancholy song a slightly haunting feel.
Harris was born and raised from Tennessee and feels a Southern kinship with Clooney, who was born and raised in Maysville, Kentucky, just over the border from Cincinnati. The daughter of a preacher, Harris she says she relates to that small town environment and understands Clooney’s early temperament.
“She was not someone who could say no,” says Harris. “She was a pleaser and that was part of her Southern upbringing. It’s that ‘okey-dokey’ syndrome, wanting to do whatever we could to keep the peace and keep everyone happy. But you can’t be everything to everyone. You need to embrace who you are and say what you think. In that way, this show has taught me a lot.”
Harris, who also sings in a Manhattan-based bluesgrass group, says she is not out to simply mimic Clooney.
“I try to get her feel, her phrasing, and that little bit of a drawl when she sings,” she says. “But for the most part I’m simply trying to convey her heart.”
And does she perform “Come On-a My House?”
“Yes, it’s in the show, but it’s not my favorite either. I prefer ‘Hey, There,’ ‘Someone to Watch Over Me,’ and especially ‘This Ole House.’ That’s Southern. That’s more like my roots.”
Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical plays at the Ivoryton Playhouse in Essex through Sunday, Nov. 13. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Wednesdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $50 for adults: $45 for seniors, $22 for students, and $17 for children 12 and under. For more information, visit www.ivorytonplayhouse.org or call 860-767-7318.
Frank Rizzo is a freelance journalist who lives in New Haven and New York City. He has been writing about theater and the arts in Connecticut for nearly 40 years.