Background
Her mother, a singer, named her after the heroine of Bellini"s opera, Norma.
Her mother, a singer, named her after the heroine of Bellini"s opera, Norma.
Rather than have Dunne also play the role of Kim in the movie, the producers chose musical comedy star Sunnie O"Dea for the role.
She reprised her role in the first New York revival of the show in 1932. However, she was not selected to reprise her role in the 1929 part-talkie film, nor in the 1936 film version. Irene Dunne, who was discovered for Hollywood in the first touring company of Show Boat, would make her film debut in 1929, and go on to become one of the greatest stars of Hollywood"s Golden Age.
lieutenant was Dunne who eventually eclipsed Terris as Magnolia, playing the role in the 1936 film.
The musical was a failure, but in 2001, it was given a highly acclaimed studio cast recording. She made two films during the early days of talking pictures - Married In Hollywood, and the 1930 version of Cameo Kirby, which was, like Show Boat, a riverboat musical involving a gambler.
Cameo Kirby appears to be lost, and only twelve minutes of Married in Hollywood apparently survive. Mr. In 1961 she appeared at a performance of the American Light Opera Company production of Show Boat in Washington, District of Columbia at the invitation of its director, Donn B. Murphy.
On the stage at the Trinity Theatre, she reminisced about the original production.
Climbing atop a piano at a cast party after the show, she did a devastating impersonation of an inebriated Helen Morgan (who had created the role of Julie) singing "Bill" from the show. In 1984, Goodspeed Musicals created a second performance venue in Chester, Connecticut which is named the Norma Terris Theatre. Terris was, until her death in 1989, two days after her 85th birthday, the last surviving adult actor to have appeared in the original production of Show Boat.
