Larry Kert
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Larry Kert (December 5, 1930 - June 5, 1991) was an American actor, singer, and dancer.
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[edit] Life and career
He was born Frederick Lawrence Kert in Los Angeles, California. His first professional credit was in a Broadway revue called Tickets, Please! (1950), as a member of a theatrical troupe called the Upstarts. After the seven-month run, he worked sporadically until 1957, when he was cast as Tony in the Broadway production of the Arthur Laurents-Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim musical West Side Story, a modernized adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in upper Manhattan. According to Laurents in his memoir Original Story By, director-choreographer Jerome Robbins frequently clashed with Kert, publicly chastising him for being a "faggot," despite the fact that Robbins himself and most of the creative team was gay. Kert did not repeat his role in the 1961 film version of the show.
For several years, Kert experienced a streak of bad luck. A Family Affair limped along for three months in early 1962. He was a member of the cast of the infamous ill-fated musical version of Truman Capote's novella, Breakfast at Tiffany's, which closed during previews in December 1966. His next project, La Strada (1969), closed on opening night.
His big break came, surprisingly, as a replacement. Dean Jones, better known for his roles in Disney films than he was as a musical performer, had been cast as the lead in Sondheim's Company (1971), but was overstressed, being in the middle of a divorce. Soon after opening night, he was replaced by Kert; the critics returned a second time and raved about his dynamic performance. So acclaimed was he that the Tony Awards nominating committee that year allowed him to compete as Best Actor in a Musical, an honor usually allowed only for the performer who originates the role.
Kert can not be heard on the original cast album, as it had already been recorded, and it was Jones who was heard on the release. However, when the cast travelled to London to reprise their roles, Columbia records took Larry Kert into the studio to record new tracks to lay down over Jones' removed ones. This "new" recording was released as the Original London Cast recording. When Sony Music who had acquired the Columbia catalogues, released a newly-digitalized CD version in 1998, Kert's rendition of "Being Alive," the show's final number, was included as a bonus track.
Kert never achieved the growing and ongoing success his stint in Company suggested he was destined to enjoy. In 1975, he appeared in A Musical Jubilee, a revue that lasted barely three months. Rags (1986) closed two days after it opened, and in his final show, Legs Diamond (1988), he was merely a standby for star Peter Allen, not even having the opportunity to play a secondary role, as is usually the case with standbys and understudies.
One of Kert's last recordings was the 1987 2-CD studio cast album of the complete scores of two George and Ira Gershwin musicals - Of Thee I Sing and its sequel Let' Em Eat Cake. This was the first time that both scores had been recorded complete, and the recording was the first of many made possible because of the now famous discovery in the Secaucus, New Jersey warehouse of many original show manuscripts by the great songwriters of the American musical theatre. The same cast performed both Of Thee I Sing and Let 'Em Eat Cake, and Kert appeared as President John P. Wintergreen.
[edit] Film and Television
- The Ed Sullivan Show (television guest appearance, as Tony in "West Side Story")
- New York, New York (1977)
- Love, American Style (1974)
- Kojak (1973) TV Episode
- Hawaii Five-O TV Episode
- The Bell Telephone Hour (1967) TV Episode
- Combat! (1965)
- Kraft Suspense Theatre (1964) TV Episode
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1962) TV Episode
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
- Time Out for Lessons (1939)
[edit] Stageplays
- Legs Diamond (1989)
- Rags (1986)
- Side by Side by Sondheim (1978)
- A Musical Jubilee (1976)
- Sondheim: A Musical Tribute (1973)
- Company (1972)
- La Strada (1969)
- Breakfast at Tiffany's (1966)
- Cabaret (1969)
- A Family Affair (1962)
- West Side Story (1959)
- Mr. Wonderful (1957)
- John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1954)
- Tickets, Please! (1950)
[edit] Death
Kert died in New York City from AIDS-related complications. His older sister, who survives him, is singer Anita Ellis, noted for dubbing Rita Hayworth and other non-singing stars for their films.
