Farley Granger (1978)

Farley Granger is best known for his two films with Alfred Hitchcock: Rope and Strangers on a Train, but we know him as the star who appeared at Elitch Theatre twice: Count Dracula (1978) and The Streets of New York (1980).

While a senior at North Hollywood High School, Granger auditioned for producer Samuel Goldwyn, screenwriter Lillian Hellman and director Lewis Milestone for the role of Damian, a teenaged Russian boy, in the film The North Star. Hellman was trying to convince Montgomery Clift to leave the Broadway play in which he was appearing, and when her efforts proved to be futile, the role was given to Granger. Goldwyn signed him to a seven-year contract for $100 per week.

Granger made his Broadway debut in The Carefree Tree, a play with music based on an old Chinese legend. The cast included Janice Rule as Granger’s love interest and Alvin Ailey, Frances Sternhagen, Jerry Stiller and Sada Thompson in supporting roles. The play closed after only 24 performances, but shortly after its demise Rule moved in with Granger, and before long they were making wedding plans. They gradually realized the love their characters had felt on stage actually had not carried over into real life, and the two went their separate ways, although they remained friends until her death in 2003.

In 1959, Granger returned to Broadway as Fitzwilliam Darcy opposite Polly Bergen as Elizabeth Bennet in First Impressions, a musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with a book and direction by Abe Burrows. The tryout in New Haven was a disaster, and reviews were mixed. Things improved slightly during the Philadelphia run, but by the time the production reached New York, Bergen – who was fighting bitterly with Elitch Alumni Hermione Gingold who was experiencing serious vocal problems, and some of her songs would be cut during each performance — creating confusion for the rest of the cast.