Re-Post

I met the girl they hired for Val, she was alot more professional than I, a trained singer. Went on to do her own tv show...forget the name, the one with John Mama and the Papas Phillips daughter in it, sorry, it's a bad day for names for me today.

The girl who played Val in Henry Sweet Henry was Robin Wilson. I have been unable to find any other credits for her anywhere on stage, TV or film. William Goldman wrote in his book The Season that she was hired partly because of her big Streisand-like voice but this asset turned into a liability when it made her seem older than Val is supposed to be. By the time the show opened on October 12, 1967, her big voice had been "toned down" and what remained was apparently not very interesting. Her understudy, Rebecca Urich (aka Rebecca York), was making her Broadway debut, and later appeared in three more Broadway shows, most recently as a replacement during the original Broadway run of A Chorus Line. (The show's Marian Gilbert, Neva Small, went on to a more substantial career, including playing Chava in the film of Fiddler on the Roof. Her understudy, Pia Zadora, went on to do some interesting things too!)

Elizabeth, I think the TV show that you're referring to is One Day at a Time, which ran from 1974 to 1984. Bonnie Franklin would have been 23 when Henry Sweet Henry opened on Broadway, but I can find no record of her ever being in it during its brief New York run. Her only Broadway credit to date is Applause (1970) (though she's done some off-Broadway).

I know that Henry Sweet Henry received an off-Broadway revival in the early 1970s at the Mercer Arts Center on West 3rd Street, which contained six theatres, two acting workshops and a rock club. Both Henry Sweet Henry and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest were running there when the building collapsed on August 4, 1973. Perhaps Bonnie Franklin was in that production. If so, luckily she survived.

Trivia: both Bonnie Franklin and Pia Zadora were replacements for the role of Ruby (originated by Bernadette Peters) in Dames at Sea during its 1969-70 run at the Theatre de Lys (aka Lucille Lortel Theater).

My favorite anecdote about Henry Sweet Henry is Tony Randall's response when he was asked to do the show: "I'd love to do it... if I were a teenage girl!"

My best wishes to you Elizabeth!


Answer me. I know you have a civil tongue in your head because I sewed it there myself.

Sounds like you're having one of those days. Hang in there.

As many writers have said, the world has a way of beating us up pretty bad; it is a hard place a lot of the time, especially when you try to live in it! That bad part of the world will never go away, and maybe it shouldn't? But remember, there is so much beauty out there too. Beauty grows, and life recovers, in the most neglected places—but it takes time.

I would also encourage Elizabeth to refelct on her life through writing. She has a strong voice. Something every day, pieces from a certain time or place, as if telling it to someone listening; or responding to a question about memories. That little piece she wrote about seeing the attractive man in the park, and how a family in Virginia lived, and how those things stuck with her, was poignant and worthwhile, small but telling moments from a life. But yes, writing can be the hardest thing in the world to do. It can take a lot out of you; but heal & strengthen you too with a little lucky providence.