Ondine was a sweet-tempered sprite who lived in a lake. Raised from infancy by an old fisherman, she used magic powers to keep his leaky boat afloat, to make his lake calm and to fill his net every day with exactly 12 fish. Ondine was a kind of cousin to the tricky Lorelei, but she was altogether a nicer type of girl.
In the title role of Ondine, Audrey Hepburn came triumphantly to Broadway on March 1954. Her film success on Roman Holiday had brought her so much luster that the opening night was one of the season's gala events. The sight of Audrey, with her hair dyed blond in order to look more nymphlike and wearing a sprite's wardrobe designed by Valentina Sanina, sent the drama critics scurrying to find new ways of saying "enchanting" and "magical". Showing new ease and authority, the young star brought both sophistication and freshness to the play, which was written by Jean Giraoudoux, adapted from the French by Maurice Valency and handsomely staged by Alfred Lunt. More than anyone else in the cast Audrey had the good sense to play the old fairy tale about a sprite who loves a wandering knight as if she beloieved every poetic word of it.
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images and info provided by the LIFE Magazine / LIFE Magazine International / LIFE Magazine Atlantic ARCHIVE from the Zetu Harrys Collection
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