Acclaimed Broadway and Hollywood star, Betty Ann Grove, will be our honored guest in the Barksdale Bifocals Lunchtime Speaker Series, this Friday, March 23, at 1 pm. The Bifocals program is specially designed for senior theatre enthusiasts, age 55 and up, but everyone is invited to come and enjoy hearing Betty Ann’s golden memories.I'm privileged to say that Betty Ann Grove is now a good friend to me and countless others in the Richmond theatre community. She's also one of the few Broadway luminaries to have enjoyed a career that spanned four decades.
Hollywood discovered Betty Ann first, and she became a national sweetheart in the 1949 hit TV series “Stop the Music.” Shortly thereafter, Broadway came calling. In 1950, Betty Ann replaced Lisa Kirk in the major role of Lois Lane / Bianca in the original Broadway production of Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate, singing “Why Can’t You Behave” and “Always True to You, Darling, in My Fashion.”
For the rest of the 50s, Betty Ann returned to television to star in “The Bert Parks Show,” “The Big Payoff,” “The Red Buttons Show” and “Summer Holiday.” The 60s marked Betty Ann’s return to the Great White Way, where she starred in the original Broadway production of George M! opposite Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters. (Side Note: Betty Ann wore a beautiful couture gown to the George M! opening night party--a dazzling, sparkling, celery green dress with lots of pearls, a dress designed especially for her. I guess you can tell I'm not a fashion writer, can't you. Anyway, after George M! became a smash hit, Betty Ann neatly folded her beautiful dress in tissue paper and packed it away for good luck. Being the generous heart that she is, last year Betty Ann passed on her George M! gown to my 16-year-old daughter Hannah, who was on cloud nine. Hannah wore the red carpet fashion to the Fairy Tale Ball, and Betty Ann's gorgeous dress once again knocked 'em dead.)
In the 70s, Betty Ann appeared with Liv Ullman and a little boy named Ian Ziering (he would later achieve hot young stud fame on “Beverly Hills 90210") in the Broadway musical version of I Remember Mama. And in 1989, Betty Ann danced her way into the hearts of America in the Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hart’s On Your Toes, playing opposite the legendary ballerina Natalia Makarova and fellow Hollywood superstar Dina Merrill.
To Richmond’s great good fortune, Betty Ann and her late, beloved husband Roger came to live here in the 1990s. With Theatre IV, Betty Ann starred in the Irish comedy Da and the American classic The Music Man (pictured above). At Swift Creek Mill Playhouse, Betty Ann played the title role in Driving Miss Daisy and the singing matriarch in Smoke on the Mountain. We’ve asked her on several occasions to join a cast here at Barksdale, and we think we’re getting closer to the point where she’ll say “yes!”
Betty Ann’s entertaining stroll down memory lane will take place in the lobby of Barksdale Theatre Willow Lawn beginning at 1:15 p.m. The presentation is free-of-charge. We will have turkey, ham, cheese, rolls and all the lunch fixin’s one could desire for those who would like to join us for a make-your-own-sandwich buffet. Lunch and beverage service will begin at 12:45, for a breakeven cost of only $3.
So please join us at quarter of one, and then enjoy food and fellowship as we all listen to Betty Ann’s many wonderful stories about her star-studded adventures on the Great White Way.
--Bruce Miller
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