Cue The Music
Having
worked extensively in the world of musical theater, when John McCook (Eric)
stepped into the soap spotlight as ‘THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS’ Lance
Prentiss back in the ‘70s, he figured the role would give his vocal chords a
nice break. Then again, maybe not. “I had to sing the first day I was on
Y&R, and I freaked out,” he laughingly recalls. “We sang all the
time,” McCook says of the show’s then-innovative approach to music. “We
did some pretty nice things,” he muses, specifically recalling a sequence
featuring Lance and his love interest, Leslie (played by Victoria Mallory).
“We took a classical piece from Chopin and matched it to Barbra Streisand’s
song, ‘Evergreen.’ Lance and Leslie each were playing at their pianos,
thinking about each other. It was very beautiful,” he remembers, adding, “
despite the fact that it was outrageously corny!”
Soaps in Depth 10/26/99