Suave Goulet a star to remember

In 1968, when I was in the audience of the Tony Award-winning musical "The Happy Time," the star of the show, Robert Goulet, came on stage as the curtain rose and began to belt out the title song.

After Goulet had sung a couple of bars, suddenly a well-dressed couple came dashing down the center aisle and, with embarrassed expressions on their faces, took their seats on the front row.

The debonair Goulet paused during the song and, with his blue eyes sparkling, said directly to the couple, "So glad you could make it!"

The audience laughed uproariously, for as everyone knows, it's taboo to be late to a Broadway show.

When Goulet died Oct. 30 at age 73 while awaiting a lung transplant in Los Angeles, I almost felt as if I had suffered a personal loss.

This Christmas will make the first time in nine years that I haven't received a shimmering, oversized yuletide card from Goulet with a picture of him and Vera, his red-haired, attractive wife of 25 years, on the front. On the back of the beige envelope was always clearly embossed his home address in Las Vegas.

I often thought that if I ever got to Las Vegas, I might just drop in to say hello.

I got to know Goulet in 1998 when I interviewed him before his three performances in a touring production of "Camelot" as part of Gaillard Auditorium's touring Broadway series.

Although, as he said, alcoholism had caused him setbacks and caused others a lot of trouble, he had the courage to begin anew.

His career had been launched in 1960 when he played the role of Sir Lancelot in the hit Broadway show "Camelot," which starred Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as Queen Guenevere.

Since this was 38 years later, Goulet portrayed the older King Arthur. He said the role of Arthur in the touring production had been offered first to Richard Harris, who had played Arthur in the film version, which, Hollywood being Hollywood, did not include any of the Broadway stars.

"But a movie offer came up for Harris and so I became Arthur," he said, adding that being second choice for the tour didn't bother him at all.

I remember that Goulet's rich baritone was as resonant at age 64 as it had been in 1968 in "The Happy Time." And he wowed the audience during the three performances.

What I admired about Goulet was that he never gave up performing and gleaning the most from life.

His play credits included such well-known musicals as "The Pajama Game," "Carousel" and "South Pacific," but he also played the small role of a lounge singer in Louis Malle's 1980 film "Atlantic City."

Goulet also changed with the times and returned to Broadway in 2005, at age 71, as one half of a gay couple in "La Cage aux Folles," for which he was praised by The Associated Press for his "affable, self-deprecating charm."

In the 1970s, he frequently headlined in clubs such as the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. As those gigs dried up for him, he went on to lesser venues, but with no less enthusiasm. His last performance, on Sept. 20, 2007, was in the hinterlands of upstate New York, singing in a one-man show in Syracuse.

What I admired about the engaging singer was his unrelenting enthusiasm for all of life.

It reminded me of a famous quote from Cary Grant: "Just stay on the bus. You start at the front, then you go to the middle and then you go to the back of the bus. Finally you have to stand up and make room for others to get on. But you still stay on the bus."

I will miss getting my glitzy Christmas card from Las Vegas this year, and the indomitable spirit it represented.

'Two Pillars' at CSO

Former Charleston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster and world-renowned violinist Alex Kerr returns to Charleston on Saturday to perform with a CSO Masterworks Concert titled "Two Pillars," conducted by Music Director David Stahl.

Playing a famed violin made by Andrea Guarneri and loaned to him by the Irwin Miller family, Kerr will join the CSO in Beethoven's Violin Concerto, considered one of the most important works in the violin concerto repertoire.

The CSO will begin the evening with Beethoven's "Coriolan" Overture and also will feature Brahms' Symphony No. 4.

The concert will be at 8 p.m. Saturday at Gaillard Auditorium. Tickets are $15-$55 and $5 for full-time students with ID. To purchase tickets, call 554-6060, visit the Gaillard box office or go to www.charlestonsymphony.com.

International Piano Series

Russian-born pianist Jan Rautio will perform in the College of Charleston's International Piano Series at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Sottile Theatre, 44 George St.

Rautio began his musical education at the Gnesin School of Music in Moscow and won scholarships to the Royal College and Royal Academy of Music in London, where he finished his studies in 2001 with top honors.

He has been appointed the Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.

He has been a soloist in concerts at the Moscow Philharmonic Hall and the Kremlin and performed with the London Soloists Orchestra at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London. Also, he has been broadcast live on the BBC.

On Tuesday, Rautio will perform the music of Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninoff and Brahms.

Tickets are $20, free to College of Charleston students and those younger than 18.

Tickets may be purchased at the door at the Sottile or by calling 953-6575.

Reach Dottie Ashley at 937-5704 or dashley@postandcourier.com.

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