Musical Theatre Talk: R.I.P. Kathryn Grayson

by Trish Causey

Kathryn Grayson, operatically trained singer and star of many movie musicals, passed away on February 17, 2010. When I heard the news over Everyday Opera's email list, I immediately posted an RIP on Facebook. No other sources had posted it, and so it was called into question if it were true or a hoax. I wish it had been. Three days later, a friend of the family released the official statement that Kathryn had indeed passed away.

For me, as a singer and performer, I can honestly say that it was Kathryn Grayson who introduced me to my love of musical theatre and coloratura music. My first love was dance, having begun dance and gymnastics at age 2. When I was 14, I discovered movie musicals on the new station, American Movie Classics, and I was in heaven. Previously, only PBS showed artistic fare, and AMC offered two musicals, alternating each, for 12 hours per day.

I was able to watch Gene Kelley musicals endlessly, and one day, one of the musicals featured was ANCHORS AWEIGH. This one film seemed to be the best of all worlds, the amazing talents and ingenuity of Gene Kelley, the young, undamaged voice of Frank Sinatra, and a lead female who was a legit singer. While I loved the inventive musicals numbers, the predictable storyline, even the history-making animated dream sequence between Gene and Tom the Mouse, I sat though the entire movie, every time, for the last three minutes.

In the last few minutes of the film, Kathryn sings the "Waltz Serenade," a Tchaikovsky piece with words added, that she sings in absolute perfection. That was the song that showed me my voice was normal. My extended high range had previously been a cause for worry that I was just weird and had a lot of extra notes I would never use. I would hold my jambox close to the speaker on the television and tape the songs of the musicals on AMC so I could sing along to them later. Singing along with Kathryn, I was able to develop technique and speed, and hold the High F/F# (with vibrato) with ease. A few years later, at age 17, I learned that style of singing was called "coloratura," and so began my fascination with that repertoire.

You'll hear me talk about my idol, Barbra Streisand, and occasionally Ella Fitzgerald and Kay Starr, as these women were huge influences on me, along with Rosemary Clooney and Doris Day. But Kathryn was there first. My tapes of those early days recording musical numbers off AMC are long gone. I've bought CD's of Barbra, Ella, and Kay. But never got to have anything of Kathryn's singing, only the happy happenstance of catching one of her musicals on television and reliving those early years all over again. Now, it seems, she can be found on YouTube, and I think that is wonderful.

The Golden Age of Hollywood is passing, and the stars who built the movie industry are slipping away. It's sad we can't have good, ol'-fashioned movie musicals anymore -- they are deemed so...old-fashioned. The musicals that do make it to the screen require a "name" to carry the project, even if the star is not up to the task. Modern recording artists have trouble lip synching to their pre-recorded, over-produced, homogenized so-called "music," yet they are the "singers" in demand nowadays.

Kathryn Grayson was a star of the highest order, an exemplary vocal technician, and a good-hearted person who never took her fame too seriously and helped young singers along the way. She was a Hollywood star worthy of the moniker and adoration.

Thank you, Kathryn, for everything.

Anchors Aweigh - 1945
Kathryn Grayson with Gene Kelley & Frank Sinatra