There is nothing I find more odious than a singalong. I go to the theater to enjoy the glorious voices of the people on stage—not the off-key crooning of my fellow audience members. So how in the world did I find myself at 59E59 Theaters joining some 80 others on a medley of “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”?
That, my friends, is the magic of Julie Madly Deeply—and, more specifically, the magic of writer, performer, and “full-time Julie Andrews fan” Sarah-Louise Young, who is so endearing that if she’d asked me to put on a dirndl I just might have done it. (Well, maybe not a dirndl. But definitely a dress made of drapery.)
If you know Andrews only as the singing nun in The Sound of Music or as Anne Hathaway’s grandma, the Queen of Genovia, in The Princess Diaries, Julie Madly Deeply probably isn’t for you. But you needn’t be as big of a fan as Young—frankly, I don’t think anyone is—in order to appreciate her 110-minute musical tribute.
Young starts at the very beginning (a very good place to start): Andrews’ voice lessons at age 9; a vaudeville act with her mother and stepfather; a revue at the London Hippodrome; singing for the King of England; coming to New York; being put through the paces by Cy Feuer in The Boy Friend, her Broadway debut; being put through the paces by Moss Hart in My Fair Lady, her Broadway breakthrough… “In the end, including Broadway and London, she would play the part of Eliza Doolittle for nearly 2,000 performances. I haven’t had relationships that last that long,” Young says of My Fair Lady. “No punchline. Just my life.”
While chronicling the hits and misses and ups and downs of Andrews’ career and personal life—including her marriage to and collaborations with Blake Edwards—Young, accompanied by pianist/musical director Michael Roulston, sings not only many of the star’s greatest hits (her “Do-Re-Mi” is appropriately ebullient) but also a few of her oft-overlooked gems: “Could I Leave You?” from 1993’s Sondheim revue Putting It Together, which marked Andrews’ then–long-awaited return to the New York stage; “I’ll Give You Three Guesses” from the infamous 1970 Edwards-directed big-screen flop Darling Lili.
Though she sings beautifully (her “Feed the Birds” is gorgeous), Young doesn’t sing like Andrews and she doesn’t try; all she has is as an undying admiration for the star that began when Young was a young girl and wrote this letter: “Dear Julie, please come and marry my dad. He’s off Thursdays. I have taken down the curtains already and cannot wait to see you. Love, Sarah. PS. Please bring your guitar.” Her enthusiasm carries Julie Madly Deeply—and it’s genuine. If she’s backstage eating schnitzel with noodles after the show, I wouldn’t be one bit surprised.
Julie Madly Deeply opened June 16, 2019, and runs at 59E59 Theaters through June 30. Tickets and information: 59e59.org
