John Raitt

[cachluv]

John Raitt, the robust baritone who created the role of Billy Bigelow in the original New York production of Carousel and sang with Doris Day in the movie Pajama Game, died at
88.


Raitt, the father of singer Bonnie Raitt, died peacefully from complications of pneumonia at his Pacific Palisades home, his manager, James Fitzgerald, said in a statement. (Related items: Hear a clip of John Raitt singing Soliloquy from Carousel | Bonnie Raitt mourns her father)
Raitt had become well known on the West Coast for his handsome presence and ringing voice when in 1944 he was invited to New York to try out for the role of Curly in the road company of Oklahoma! He was rushed from Penn Station to the St. James Theater and an audition with Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers.
In 1995, Raitt recalled: "I hadn't sung since California, so I said, 'Do you mind if I warm up?' I sang Figaro's aria from The Barber of Seville. Then I sang all of Curly's songs.'"
There was silence when he finished. The problem was not his voice, which was both melodic and powerful, but his height. At 6 feet 2 was he too tall for Curly? Hammerstein reasoned: "I'm a tall man. Why can't Curly be tall?" Raitt was hired for the Chicago company of Oklahoma!
Rodgers and Hammerstein had been working on their second collaboration, Carousel, and they chose Raitt for the role of the doomed hero Billy Bigelow.
Raitt astounded the opening-night audience in 1945 with his dynamic soliloquy, which he called "practically a one-act opera which took six and a half minutes to sing." He said Hammerstein had been inspired to write it when he heard the newcomer sing Figaro at the audition.

[Kathyf]

I did not know her Dad was a singer. Thats nice when they have something like that in common.