© 2024 254 North Front Street, Suite 300, Wilmington, NC 28401 | 910.343.1640
News Classical 91.3 Wilmington 92.7 Wilmington 96.7 Southport
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Carol Channing: In Memoriam Playlist

Carol Channing, performing in Los Angeles in 2004. Channing died Tuesday at age 97.
Frazer Harrison
/
Getty Images
Carol Channing, performing in Los Angeles in 2004. Channing died Tuesday at age 97.

The late Carol Channing's charisma and ebullience were so big that only a Broadway stage could contain her. In the two iconic roles she created — her breakout turn as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and later, as the fast-talking matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi inHello, Dolly — her crackling voice and blazing theatrical chops became legendary. Her outsized mouth, fluttering eyes and nimbus of platinum-blonde hair just underscored those gifts.

But she shared some of her comedic magic in other realms, too. Her entry on the Marlo Thomas-speared kids' classic Free To Be ... You And Me, "Housework" (written by lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who also wrote the lyrics for Fiddler On The Roof), is a sparkling takedown of consumer culture, and a sketch called "The Inside Story," from the musical revue Show Girl, isssss a classsssssic.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Anastasia Tsioulcas is a reporter on NPR's Arts desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards and the myriad accusations of sexual misconduct against singer R. Kelly.