In Star!, Julie Andrews played the real-life stage star Gertrude Lawrence, in a musical biography that traced a career from childhood to fame.
Star! was released in 1968, directed by Robert Wise. It was a film biography of Gertrude Lawrence, the British stage actress and singer who became a star in London and on Broadway in the early twentieth century. Julie Andrews played Lawrence from her early years in the theatre through her successes in musical revues and in plays, including her partnership with Noel Coward.
The film used Lawrence’s own story as a way of showing how a performer grew up in the theatre. Andrews, who had herself begun as a child performer and then moved from London to Broadway, brought a natural understanding to the role. The musical numbers recalled the songs and styles of Lawrence’s era, rather than trying to turn her into a modern star.
Star! was a long film and it did not find a large audience on its first release, but it remains a valuable part of Andrews’s filmography. It was a serious attempt to tell the story of a stage legend, and it gave Andrews a role that connected her own theatrical roots with the history of the musical theatre she had inherited.