Alfred Drake

Alfred Drake 1914-92, American singer, actor, and director, b. New York City, originally named Alfred Capurro. Drake first appeared on stage in 1935 in The Mikado. The Broadway production of Oklahoma! (1943) brought him stardom, followed by leading roles in Kiss Me Kate (1948) and Kismet (1953). In 1964 he played the king in John Gielgud's production of Hamlet, and in 1973 he appeared in the musical Gigi, both on Broadway.

Drake, Alfred [né Alfredo Capurro] (1914–92), actor and singer. A “Broadway old‐timer” is reputed to have said, “Nobody looks at a woman like Alfred Drake. It turns out he looks at everything like that. It's a good look.” Whatever the reason for his particular magnetism, the darkly handsome Drake was the finest leading man of the 1940s and 1950s, combining a superb baritone voice with exceptional acting and comic skills. He studied singing in his native New York, then made his debut in the chorus of several 1935 Gilbert and Sullivan revivals and White Horse Inn (1936). After playing increasingly important roles in Babes in Arms (1937), The Two Bouquets (1938), One for the Money (1939), The Straw Hat Revue (1939), and Two for the Show (1940), Drake won widespread recognition when he created the role of Curly in Oklahoma! (1943). He was applauded for his performances in Sing Out, Sweet Land (1944), The Beggar's Holiday (1946), The Cradle Will Rock (1947), and Joy to the World (1948), before starring as the shrew‐taming Fred Graham in Kiss Me, Kate (1948). After a brief appearance as the egotistical David Petri in The Gambler (1952), he scored again as the wily Hajj in Kismet (1953), then played Othello and Benedick for the American Shakespeare Festival. Drake later garnered excellent notices in three failures, Kean (1961), Lorenzo (1963), and Gigi (1973). Drake helped adapt several Italian plays, including The Gambler, and directed a number of shows.

Babes in Arms (1937), a musical comedy by Richard Rodgers (book, music), Lorenz Hart (book, lyrics). [Shubert Theatre, 289 perf.] Threatened with assignment to a work farm, the children of traveling vaudevillians band together to mount a musical revue. The show wins critical acclaim but loses money, so the children are sent to the farm. They are rescued when a French aviator on a transatlantic flight makes an emergency landing on their farm and comes to their aid. Notable songs: Babes in Arms; I Wish I Were in Love Again; Johnny One Note; The Lady Is a Tramp; My Funny Valentine; Where or When; Way Out West. Hailed by John Mason Brown as “joyous and delectable,” the Dwight Deere Wiman–produced musical's major claim to fame, apart from its large list of great songs, was the many young talents to which it gave a leg up: Alfred Drake, Mitzi Green, Ray Heatherton, Wynn Murray, Dan Dailey, and Robert Rounseville. Although professional groups infrequently revive it, schools and summer theatre continue to present the musical with a revised libretto.