It is remarkable to hear how different Muriel Smith sang "Bali Ha'i" when she played Bloody Mary in London vs when she dubbed Juanita Hall in the South Pacific film.

This is a tweet for maybe six of you, but when Muriel was onstage with Mary Martin in 1951, she delivered Bloody Mary in the full range of her operatic mezzo voice.

Muriel has an entirely different approach to the song when voicing Juanita, showing some restraint and nuance in her voice while creating something that Juanita could play.

It's so unusual because Juanita WAS a singer and won the Tony for Blood Mary.

For the curious: Richard Rodgers requested that Muriel sing Bloody Mary for the South Pacific film. He was quite enamored with her singing in the original London productions of South Pacific and The King and I (where she sang a sensational "Something Wonderful")

Muriel Smith's association with Oscar Hammerstein dates back further: she was the OG Carmen Jones on Broadway.

Juanita Hall created the role of Madame Liang in Flower Drum Song on Broadway. Once again she recreated her role on film but this time was allowed to do her own singing (though none of her material comes close to what she had in South Pacific)

("Chop Suey" is really an interesting idea for a song gone horribly wrong)