Theatre Register

Helen Dowdy

Shows · Helen Dowdy

ActorOn stage 19301954

Helen Dowdy (? - Feb. 1971) was an American Broadway actress and singer who played the role of Queenie in the 1946 revival of Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat (a role originally played by Tess Gardella in 1927). She was born in New York City. Dowdy created the roles of Lily and the Strawberry Woman in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess — roles she played for nearly twenty years in several productions. She appeared in Run, Little Chillun. In the 1951 so-called "complete" recording of the opera, Dowdy sang both roles as well as that of Maria. In 1944, Dowdy performed with Katherine Dunham, troupe on tour. Dowdy also appeared on television on the October 17, 1957, episode of Hallmark Hall of Fame…

On stage 10 productions, 24 years

1930 Scarlet Sister Mary Ethel Barrymore Theatre · Original · directed by E. M. Blyth 24 perf.
1935 Porgy and Bess Alvin Theatre · Original · directed by Rouben Mamoulian 124 perf.
1940 Cabin In The Sky Martin Beck Theatre · Original · directed by George Balanchine, Albert Lewis 156 perf.
1942 Porgy and Bess Majestic Theatre · Revival · directed by Robert Ross 286 perf.
1943 Run, Little Chillun Hudson Theatre · Revival · directed by Clarence Muse 16 perf.
1946 Show Boat Ziegfeld Theatre · Revival · directed by Hassard Short 418 perf.
1948 Kiss Me, Kate New Century Theatre · Original · directed by John C. Wilson 1,077 perf.
1948 Show Boat City Center · Revival 15 perf.
1953 Porgy and Bess Theatre not recorded · Revival 305 perf.
1954 Mrs. Patterson National Theatre · Original · directed by Guthrie McClintic 101 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once12 names

Walter Mosby 3 productions
Todd Duncan 3 productions
John Garth 3 productions
J. Rosamond Johnson 3 productions
William C Smith 2 productions
Warren Coleman 2 productions
The Eva Jessye Choir Eva Jessye Choral Conductor 2 productions
Seldon Bennett 2 productions
Ruby Elzy 2 productions
Rosalie King 2 productions
Ray Yeates 2 productions
Olive Ball 2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership — a long-running company puts the same forty people together every night — but it is where one would start looking. 7 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

Also credited on1 work

The Green Pastures

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature3 passages

  • Original revival cast (1946) : Jan Clayton, Carol Bruce, Charles Fredericks, Kenneth Spencer, Helen Dowdy, Edwin McArthur (conductor). ‡ebooks/Block, Geoffrey/Enchanted Evenings_The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber - Geoffrey Block.txt
  • Cast: Todd Duncan, Anne Brown, Warren Coleman, John W. Bubbles, Abbie Mitchell, Ruby Elzy, Georgette Harvey, Edward Matthews, Helen Dowdy, J. Rosamond Johnsonebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • "No Shoes" dance number in Show Boat, with (center) Laveme French as Sam, Pearl Primus as Sal, and Helen Dowdy as Queenie. New York, Ziegfeld Theatre, 1946. [Culver Pictures]theatre-pdfs/McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, v. 3 (I-N).txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Birth or death year. Neither is on the record.
  • Any portrait. 1,626 of 7,139 people have one, so this is the usual case rather than the exception.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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