Word: barbara
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Born. To Mickey Rooney, 42, balding, bespectacled, bankrupt Hollywood cinemite and Barbara Ann Rooney, 26, his fifth wife: their fourth child, third daughter (Mickey has three sons from previous marriages); in Santa Monica...
...Barbara swirls captivatingly through the fashion world, and behind her Dior dresses trails David. The love affairs between the two is trite, yet touching: she gives up everything, including the wealthy "patron" for whom she serves as a decoration rather than a mistress, to run away with her lover. They sing beautiful duets together, but she cannot make him write...
Finally, after a last fling in Monte Carlo and St. Tropez, David is convinced that he must go home to Maine if he is ever to write again. Only then is the racial issue, up to then irrelevant, discreetly introduces. Barbara realizes that she cannot renounce her "safe, beautiful world" in Paris and go to Maine, where she would be a social outcast. The couple part, telling themselves "it never happened...
...Barbara McNair and Howard Keel receive the support of an excellent cast. Bernice Massi plays the part of Comfort O'Connor, a tempestuous tornado from Tulsa, with show-stopping vitality. Her sizzling rendition of "Be My Host" was one of No Strings best songs. Beti Seay, a Playboy Bunny type, exudes sex as a French pastry named Jeannette Valmy...
David Hays' sets and Joe Layton's choreography combine to produce striking visual effects. Often the stage is starkly simple, as in the first scene, when Barbara and David stand beneath their separate spotlights, shrouded in darkness and oblivious of each other. Strolling flutists and clarinetists share the stage with the singers. Among other things, No Strings represents a successful experiment in integrating music and action; all musical accompaniment occurs on stage, and often the musicians participate in the action itself...