By Seth Rudetsky
27 Oct 2008

At the end of college, the famous choreographer Eugene Loring came to her school with his troupe of dancers. He heard Karen perform and told her that she had what it took to make it. He convinced her to move to L.A. and promised her that she could perform with his troupe as the lead singer. She got the okay from her parents and moved to the West Coast. She showed up at Eugene Loring's studio and…he didn't remember her! Devastating! She then hightailed it to New York.

As opposed to Betty Buckley, who got a great part in 1776 within hours of arriving in New York, Karen arrived in Manhattan, went in to audition for Subways Are for Sleeping… and got typed out. That's when they stand you in a line, and the auditioner points and says, "You, you and you stay, everyone else thank you very much." She got an appointment with an agent and as soon as she walked in, he asked her the existential question, "So…who are you?" Karen was dumbstruck. The agent shook his head and said, "From day one, Doris Day knew who she was." But then her friend got her another agent audition, and she went in and wasn't asked a moronic Jean-Paul Sartre question. Instead, she sang. After her first song, the auditioner got on the phone. Rude? Hardly. He said into the receiver, "Honey, listen to this," held up the phone and had Karen sang again. Turns out, his wife was his partner, and they both signed her.

Her first big audition was as a last-minute replacement for JoAnne Worley in the Off-Broadway show Sing Muse. She got hired on the spot (!), and as she left she mentioned she was hopping on the subway. The producer stopped her and said, "Subway? Take a cab…you're gonna be a star!" He then handed her five dollars. In those days, that could have paid for a cab ride back to Des Moines. After that, she did the national tour of The Unsinkable Molly Brown as the standby for Tammy Grimes. She got to take over the role but didn't know how to handle doing a lead eight times a week. She thought she was supposed to go out with the cast after the show every night and par-tay. Suffice it to say, after a month of the show, her voice had timbre of a young Joe Cocker.

After she toured, she got her voice back and decided she wanted to be thinner, so she went to a blood doctor to help her lose weight. She later found out that the weight loss potion he was injecting her with was speed! I guess "blood doctor" should read "pusher." Regardless, she loved her new bod and auditioned for Richard Rodgers for a revival of The Boys From Syracuse. He said, "I would love for you to do this role…but you're just too thin!" That's a statement that has ne'er been said to me. She still wound up getting the gig, and they had to pad her to give her some girth.

I asked her about shows she didn't get, and she remembered being at the final callback for 110 in the Shade. She was sitting backstage with Gretchen Wyler…and suddenly, in walked tall, beautiful Inga Swenson with no makeup on and a long, flowing braid. They knew they were sunk. I never realized that my main competition at auditions was the person with no make-up and the long braid. That must be why I keep losing all my gigs to Willie Nelson.

Karen had two auditions in the mid-sixties. One was for a show that there was a ton of buzz for, and the other one had very little advance chatter. Karen decided that the one with all the talk had nowhere to go but down, and the one no one talked about had nowhere to go but up. And, that's how she wound up taking I Had a Ball, which gave her a signature song and a brilliant "Ed Sullivan Show" performance on film forever. The show she decided against was Kelly, which wound up running for 1 (one!) day! If you've not seen her brilliant rendition of the title song on "The Ed Sullivan Show," you must go to my website and watch the whole thing (SethRudetsky.com). It's the epitome of a great Broadway performance. FYI, her waist looks like it's 16 inches, yet her agent at William Morris said she was too heavy. Who was her agent? Lara Flynn Boyle? Right now, Karen lives in L.A. and teaches a wonderful musical theatre performance class. Go to her website and watch the videos and listen to the belting (www.KarenMorrow.com)!

On Friday night, I hightailed to Cipriani on 42nd Street, which is a gorgeous, cavernous event room that used to be the Bowery Savings Bank. Andrea Martin asked me to help out at a benefit for the Children of Armenia Fund (COAFkids.org). It's a great organization that helps the poorest villages in Armenia completely re-build their schools, hospitals and irrigation systems, which fell into complete decay as soon as the Soviets left. Andrea was the host and told the audience, "I know we're going through some hard economic times, but let's forget about that tonight. And what better way to forget hard economic times than by having dinner in an abandoned bank!" Brava. The multi-talented Bill Irwin performed one of his baggy pants clown acts, and Andrea opened the show with "Come on-a My House," which was originally sung by Rosemary Clooney but was written by two Armenians! I told Andrea that we needed a big finale to end the evening, and I would be in charge of finding someone. Well, of course, just like how I did my AP English papers, I waited 'til the last minute. I emailed the fabulous Mary Bond Davis (the original Motormouth Maybelle from Hairspray) and spoke to her around 3 PM that afternoon. She showed up a few hours later totally decked out and brought the house down with Amanda McBroom's "The Dieter's Prayer" (i.e. "Lord, let me think..that Tofu's a food. And not something you made up…while in a bad mood"). Watch this link of her as Motormouth. I love when she rips her pants off! http://bluegobo.com/production.php?var=10216&mode=P&vid=0

Tonight I'm hosting a salon for BC/EFA. Essentially, people pay money to come to a beautiful apartment on Central Park South to eat up a storm, mingle with celebs, and watch them perform in the living room. Fun! Andrea McArdle, Chris Noth, Anthony Rapp, Bebe Neuwirth and more are coming! I'm, of course, obsessing about the delicious food and how I can surreptitiously do all my hosting from the buffet area. Visit www.broadwaycares.org for ticket information. Tomorrow night (Tuesday, Oct. 28) I'll be at the Huntington Barnes and Noble reading from my books "The Q Guide to Broadway" and "Broadway Nights." If you're on Long Island, come see me, unless you're Mrs. Jaffe.

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(Seth Rudetsky is the host of "Seth's Big Fat Broadway" on SIRIUS Satellite Radio and the author of "The Q Guide to Broadway" and the novel "Broadway Nights." He has played piano in the orchestras of 15 Broadway musicals and hosts the BC/EFA benefit weekly interview show Seth's Broadway Chatterbox at Don't Tell Mama every Thursday at 6 PM. He can be contacted by visiting www.sethrudetsky.com.)