Celebrate Julie Andrews' 90th Birthday by Looking Back on Her 'Loverly' Career | Playbill

Special Features Celebrate Julie Andrews' 90th Birthday by Looking Back on Her 'Loverly' Career

Did you know that the icon still doesn't have a Tony Award?

Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady

October 1 marks Dame Julie Andrews' 90th birthday, a milestone that we at Playbill think deserves a career retrospective. This year also sees milestones for some of Andrews' most iconic works: The Sound of Music film turns 60, while the stage musical Victor/Victoria (which opened on Broadway October 25, 1995) turns 30.

For many, Andrews (and her crystalline soprano) personified the Hollywood movie musical, whether it was her rambunctious Maria in Sound of Music, the wise Mary Poppins, the angelic Cinderella, or the "Le Jazz Hot" Victor/Victoria. And not to mention her historic collaboration with composing team Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, which saw her originating the roles of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and Guenevere in Camelot on Broadway. Truly, in the 1960s, Andrews' voice was the most "loverly" of them all.

Andrews' last Broadway credit is Victor/Victoria, the stage adaptation of the 1982 film that Andrews starred in, a film where the singer played a woman who finds more success when she pretends to be a drag queen. In a time when it was still considered criminal to be gay in America, Victor/Victoria's unapologetically queer sensibility was revolutionary. In 1995, the stage adaptation of Victor/Victoria opened on Broadway, with Andrews reprising her role as the titular character(s). When it came time for the Tony Awards, only Andrews was nominated from the show, which led her to decline the Tony nomination altogether (it was her third nomination). As such, even though the Dame has an Academy Award, three Grammy Awards, and three Emmy Awards, Andrews is still missing the T in her EGOT. 

Victor/Victoria was also Andrews' final singing role; she took her final bow June 8, 1997, in order to have surgery to remove some vocal nodules. The botched surgery left Andrews unable to fully sing. Yet that didn't diminish Andrews' voice. In recent years, Andrews has occasionally sung in concerts and even on screen (if you want a good cry, see her sing "The Rain in Spain" from My Fair Lady with Michael Crawford in a 2000 concert, the first time she sang post-surgery). More recently, a new generation has fallen in love with Andrews due to her voicing the role of Lady Whistledown in the hit Netflix series Bridgerton. Happy birthday to the "practically perfect in every way" Julie Andrews!

Celebrate Andrews' career by flipping through the gallery below.

Celebrate Julie Andrews' 90th Birthday

 
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