Abbreviations for frequently cited sources:
KM Ken Mandelbaum, Not Since Carrie
LAT Los Angeles Times
NYT New York Times
SSM Steven Suskin, More Opening Nights on Broadway
SSO Steven Suskin, Opening Nights on Broadway
SSS Steven Suskin, Show Tunes
TT Rodgers and Hammerstein Interviews with Tony Thomas, broadcast over the radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, February 1960. F/CD 8108; Facet.
1. McCabe, George M. Cohan, p. 51.
2. Cohan, Twenty Years on Broadway, p. 211. Cohan recounted how he took some incidental music from his first flop play, Popularity, and “blended two of the strains into a march,” which was published as “The Popularity March” and became “one of the first rag marches to score a popular hit.” As a child, one of his ambitions had been to be “a black faced comedian in a musical comedy act” (p. 9). He had plenty of influences to draw upon, including African American musicians already composing generally in a ragtime march style, as well as vaudevillians, in particular Edward Harrigan of Harrigan and Hart, whose personal characteristics and comedy talents Cohan much admired (p. 50).
3. McCabe, George M. Cohan, p. 51.
4. Bordman, American Operetta, p. 67.
5. Freedland, Jerome Kern, p. 19.
6. NYT, January 19, 1919.
7. Ibid., December 2, 1924.
8. Ibid.
9. Nolan, Lorenz Hart, p. 55. Nolan’s account—which quotes Dreyfus telling Rodgers, “There’s nothing of value here. I don’t hear any music and I think you’d be making a great mistake”—runs contrary to the one offered by Max Wilk (OK!, p 43), relating how Dreyfus saw potential talent but felt that Rodgers and Hart were “too young for the business” and encouraged them to seek more study.
10. Mordden, Broadway Babies, p. 12.
11. Ibid., p. 7.
12. Variety, December 1, 1926.
Oscar Hammerstein’s personality has been consistently documented in theatre books. Hugh Fordin, who offers the more nuanced account, supplies details of Hammerstein’s tougher literary nature as well as his rather rigid relationship to his sons.
1. TT.
2. Lerner, The Musical Theatre, pp. 61–63.
3. Hammerstein, Lyrics, pp. 41–43.
4. Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. 70.
5. Ibid., p.79.
6. Variety, January 4, 1928.
7. Bordman, American Operetta, p. 136.
8. Mordden, Broadway Babies, p. 77.
9. Hammerstein, Lyrics, p. 19.
10. Green, Broadway Musicals, p. 101.
11. Variety, October 3, 1933.
12. Ibid., June 9, 1931.
13. Specific details of Cole Porter’s personal life are exhaustively chronicled in Cole Porter by Schwartz.
14. Schwartz, Cole Porter, p. 137.
15. Variety, November 27, 1934.
16. TT. These revealing interviews, inexplicably ignored by virtually all books on the subject, are recommended to all Rodgers and Hammerstein fans, and to scholars and historians in general.
17. Nolan, Lorenz Hart, p. 262.
18. TT.
19. Nolan, Lorenz Hart, p 245.
20. Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 198.
1. Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 200.
2. Variety, January 1, 1941.
3. Green, Rodgers & Hammerstein Fact Book, p. 245.
4. From jacket liner notes, by Richard Rodgers, for Columbia Records (COL 4364) studio recording of Pal Joey.
5. SSO, p. 537.
6. Hammerstein, Lyrics, p. 8.
7. Nolan, The Sound of Their Music, pp. 25–26. The remark is attributed to producer Mike Todd. However, according to Max Wilk in his informative account of the making of this legendary work (OK!, p 17), Walter Winchell’s secretary, Rose, dispatched to New Haven to review the show, walked out at intermission and wired back to the boss the tart critique he ran in his next day’s column, “NO LEGS NO JOKES NO CHANCE.” In any event, the doubters overlooked, as reported by author Nolan, the “encouraging reaction of the New Haven audience.”
8. Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. 201.
9. Atkinson, Broadway, p. 338.
10. Anderson, Mantle, and Waldorf quotes all from SSO, p. 499.
11. Variety, April 7, 1943.
12. SSO, p. 144.
13. Variety, October 13, 1943.
14. SSO, p. 525.
15. Ibid., p. 120.
16. Tharin, Chart Champions. Tharin’s work offers a careful listing, year by year and week by week, of top 100 singles on the popular charts. The songs from Annie Get Your Gun became so well known to the public that it is, indeed, tempting to think of them each as a chart champion. Such was simply not the case.
17. SSO, p. 445.
18. Atkinson, Broadway, p. 344.
19. Variety, January 15, 1947.
20. Ibid., November 2, 1949.
21. Ibid., April 3, 1946.
22. SSO, p. 587.
23. Ibid., p. 589.
24. Wilk, They’re Playing Our Song, p. 218.
25. SSO, p. 212.
26. Ibid., p. 369.
1. Freedland, Jerome Kern, p. 81.
2. Liner notes by Ben Bagley, Vernon Duke Revisited album, on Painted Smiles Records, PS 1342.
3. Variety, November 30, 1949.
4. KM, p. 230.
5. Wilk, They’re Playing Our Song, p. 147.
6. Lerner, The Musical Theatre, p. 104.
7. SSO, p. 288.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., p. 222.
10. Ibid., p. 236.
1. TT.
2. Frommer, It Happened on Broadway, p. 117.
3. Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 306.
4. Wilk, They’re Playing Our Song, p. 53.
5. Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. 343.
6. Ibid.
7. Jablonski, Alan Jay Lerner, p. 50.
8. TT. Rodgers’ preposterous claim that he had no knowledge of salaries, etc.—probably advanced to sustain the image of creative artist rather than corporate head—is clearly at odds with well-known details about his active involvement in every aspect of the operation. See Hyland, Richard Rodgers, p. 188.
9. Nolan, The Sound of Their Music, p. 149.
10. Hyland, Richard Rodgers, p. 224.
11. TT.
12. Ibid.
13. Jablonski, Alan Jay Lerner, p. 204.
14. Tynan, Curtains, p. 245.
15. SSO, p. 360.
16. Variety, October 15, 1947.
17. Green, Rodgers and Hammerstein Fact Book, p. 556.
18. SSO, p. 43.
19. Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 253.
20. SSO, p. 426.
21. Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. 326.
22. Ibid.
23. SSO, p. 554.
24. Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 287.
25. SSO, p. 226.
26. Variety, December 3, 1958.
27. Tynan, Curtains, p. 289.
28. TT.
29. Variety, October 7, 1959.
30. SSO, p. 637. The lingering assertion of “mixed reviews” ignores the notices issued by the seven major New York newspaper drama critics, their collective reception to any new work then deemed to represent the highest forum of theatrical adjudication.
31. Tynan, Curtains, p. 330.
1. Variety, May 21, 1952.
2. SSO, p. 602.
3. Tynan, Curtains, p. 282.
4. SSO, p. 205.
5. Ibid., p. 453.
6. Ibid., p. 608.
7. Ibid., p. 656.
8. Ibid., p. 674.
9. Ibid., p. 350.
10. KM, p. 53.
11. SSO, p. 271.
12. Tynan, Curtains, p. 345.
13. KM, p. 108.
14. SSO, p 302.
15. SSM, p. 157.
16. SSO, p. 637.
17. Variety, December 7, 1960.
18. SSO, p. 125.
19. Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 315.
20. SSM, p. 669.
21. Jablonski, Alan Jay Lerner, p. 257.
22. Ibid., p. 298.
23. SSM, p. 227.
24. Ibid., p. 410.
25. Ibid., p. 151.
26. Ibid., p. 464.
1. Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 126.
2. SSO, p. 695.
3. Tynan, Curtains, p. 280.
4. Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 150.
5. Mordden, Broadway Babies, p. 166.
6. Bergreen, As Thousands Cheer, p. 502.
7. SSO, p. 535.
8. Ibid., p. 171.
9. Ibid., p. 215.
10. Ibid., p. 305.
11. Ibid., p. 704.
12. Ibid., p. 706.
13. Ibid., p. 397.
14. The music of Mary Rodgers fell short of the promise that at least one critic saw. Brooks Atkinson was utterly charmed, writing, “She has a style of her own, an inventive mind, and a fund of cheerful melodies … be comforted by the fact that the musical theatre has acquired a genuine new composer” (SSO, p. 519). When Rodgers returned to Broadway three years later, in collaboration with another hack lyric writer, Martin Charnin, on the 43-performance disaster Hot Spot, the experts were no longer genuflecting. In 1978, Rodgers contributed a single unmemorable tune to Working. Rarely will a composer achieve distinction without distinguished lyrics.
15. Ibid., p. 200.
16. Variety, April 25, 1951.
17. SSO, p. 676.
18. KM, p. 267.
19. SSM, p. 265.
20. SSO, p. 241.
1. SSO, 450. Identifying the first rock song ever sung in a stage musical would probably be as difficult as pinpointing the first rock and roll number itself. “Jacques D’Iraque” is the most striking candidate. According to Steve Suskin (SSS, p. 418), producer Jule Styne (yes, the composer), too busy with work on screen and television projects to write a score for the Sammy Davis, Jr., vehicle, scouted for songwriters and took something of a chance on Bock and Holofcener, and then added pop tunesmith George Weiss to the mix.
2. Wilk, They’re Playing Our Song, p. 66.
3. SSM, p. 657.
4. Ibid., p. 599.
5. Ibid., p. 951.
6. Richard, Great Rock Musicals, p. x.
7. SSM, p. 729.
8. Ibid., p. 387.
9. Ibid., p. 91.
1. Peyser, Bernstein, p. 262. Bernstein, who was originally granted co-lyricist credit by contract, had begun sketching out words before Sondheim came on board; he had given Sondheim a number of his own lines as starting points, and he had fostered an intense and prolific communication between the two during the creation of the score. For these reasons, it seems clear that Bernstein was a de facto contributor to the lyrics. More importantly, he may well have provided Sondheim the critical runway into the terse stylistic approach the neophyte collaborator employed, by handing over to him such lines as “Boy, boy, crazy boy/Get cool, boy!”
2. Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 31.
3. Ibid., p. 270.
4. Ibid., p. 37.
5. Ibid., p. 56.
6. Ibid., p. 91.
7. Variety, October 2, 1957.
8. Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 117.
9. Ibid., pp. 126–127.
10. Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. xiii.
11. SSO, p. 58.
12. Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 318.
13. Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 178.
14. Rogers, Musical Stages, p. 319.
15. Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 179.
16. SSM, p. 237.
17. Ibid., p. 193.
18. New Yorker, May 2, 1970.
19. SSM, p. 299.
20. Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 216.
21. SSM, p. 692.
22. Zadan, Sondheim & Company, p. 221.
23. SSM, p. 690.
24. Variety, May 9, 1984.
25. Zadan, Sondheim & Company, p. 363.
26. Ibid., p. 287.
27. Ibid., p. 364.
28. NYT, January 4, 1976.
29. Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 179.
30. SSM, p. 889.
31. Ibid., p. 603.
32. Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 324.
33. Zadan, Sondheim & Company, p. 361.
1. SSM, p. 645.
2. Ibid., p. 895.
3. Ibid., p. 806.
4. Ibid., p. 823.
5. KM, p. 271.
6. SSM, p. 164.
7. SSS, p. 514.
8. As quoted in the jacket liner notes of the original cast album, RCA Victor LSO-1161.
9. SSM, p. 253.
10. Kelly, One Singular Sensation, p. 255.
1. SSS, p. 567.
2. Variety, December 11, 1985.
3. KM, pp. 277–278.
4. SSM, p. 106.
5. KM, p. 280.
6. Mordden, Broadway Babies, p. 220.
7. SSO, p. 288.
8. Lerner, The Musical Theatre, p. 216. Lerner recounts that the only person who did not enjoy the show was Bacharach, who suffered from his inability to control the quality of singing as he could in a recording studio, and thereafter resisted encouragement—including from Lerner himself with offers to collaborate—to embark on more stage musical projects. Lerner lamented, as would many, the theatre’s loss of “that amazingly talented man.”
9. Gottfried, Broadway Musicals, p. 339.
10. As quoted in the jacket liner notes of the original cast album, CBS Records, 37790.
11. Variety, May 12, 1982.
12. Ibid., December 7, 1983.
13. Ibid., September 25, 1995.
14. Ibid., May 9, 1984.
15. Ibid., November 11, 1987.
1. McKnight, Andrew Lloyd Webber, p. 38.
2. Ibid., p. 244.
3. Ibid., p. 68.
4. Ibid., p. 72.
5. SSM, p. 490.
6. Ibid., p. 498.
7. Ibid., p. 271.
8. McKnight, Andrew Lloyd Webber, p. 125.
9. Ibid., p. 223.
10. One is likely to encounter throughout U.S. theatrical circles a pervasive disdain for Webber’s work. And often in expressing their contempt, Webber haters reveal themselves to be ardent Sondheim fans, suggesting that the theatre world offers only two creative options. San Francisco’s 42nd Moon, which presents staged readings of old American musicals, for a few seasons featured prominently on its annual promotional fliers the quip of a local critic praising its fare for offering “the perfect antidote to Andrew Lloyd Webber.” During one of the company’s special fund raising activities, Webber was dismissed in derisive terms and audiences laughed approvingly.
11. Lerner, The Musical Theatre, p. 225.
12. Ibid., p. 232.
13. Ibid., p. 234.
1. “At The Revolution’s Fore,” LAT, December 12, 1999.
2. NYT, January 21, 1903.
3. Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 323.
4. McKnight, Andrew Lloyd Webber, p. 248.
5. NYT, October 17, 1982.
6. Ibid., October 8, 1982.
7. Ibid., March 16, 1987.
8. Ibid., January 27, 1988.
9. Ibid., February 14, 1988.
10. Boston Globe, April 27, 1990.
11. Ibid.
12. The Times, May 25, 1990.
13. McKnight, Andrew Lloyd Webber, p. 191.
14. Recapped in LAT, March 14, 1987.
15. NYT, March 13, 1987.
16. Variety, March 18, 1987.
17. LAT, April 12, 1991.
18. Variety, August 8, 1994.
19. LAT, April 12, 1991.
20. As reported in NYT, July 18, 1996.
21. NYT, November 12, 1996.
22. Variety, July 22, 1996.
23. Ibid., July 13, 1998.
24. Ibid., January 11, 1999.
25. From an AP story printed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 26, 1998.
26. AP story printed in The Columbian, March 8, 1998.
1. NYT, July 12, 1992.
2. From review excerpts printed in ad for the show.
3. Variety, April 27, 1997.
4. NYT, April 24, 1997.
5. LAT, January 24, 1999.
6. Wall Street Journal, April 25, 1997.
7. NYT, October 16, 1997.
8. Variety, October 20, 1997.
9. Ibid., April 29, 1996.
10. Lerner, The Musical Theatre, p. 192.
11. LAT, September 5, 1999.
12. Ibid., January 3, 1999.
13. NYT, October 5, 1997.
14. NYT, April 29, 1997.
15. LAT, May 5, 2000.
1. Variety, November 21, 1962.
2. SSM, P. 139.
3. NYT, January 4, 1976.
4. SSM, p. 643.
5. Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 318.
6. Tynan, Curtains, p. 322.
7. Playbill, Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco, May, 1998, p. 18.
8. Kreuger, Show Boat, p. 43.
9. NYT, September 25, 1988.
10. The Daily Telegraph, January 31, 1998.
11. AP story printed in The Ottawa Citizen, March 9, 1998.
12. Back Stage, March 27, 1998.
13. TT.
14. Hyland, Richard Rodgers, p. 320. In addition to the clause prohibiting the addition of new lyrics to his work, in his 1975 will Richard Rodgers included remarks to wife Dorothy and daughter Mary (his executors and trustees) that “The artistic integrity and reputation of the musical compositions and lyrics written by me and the manner in which my works will be performed or otherwise presented after my death is of great importance to me” (Hyland, p. 299).
15. Variety, October 9, 1995.
16. NYT, October 15, 1995.
17. Ibid., November 20, 1995.
18. Ibid.
1. Variety, November 17, 1997.
2. LAT, June 7, 1998.
3. Ibid., October 8, 2000.
4. NYT, April 23, 1994.
5. Ibid.
6. LAT, June 7, 1998.
7. NYT, January 25, 1998.
8. Before his financial fall, Drabinsky’s high expectations for future success were well cataloged in two feature stories about him: “He Just Keeping Rolling Along,” LAT, November 10, 1996, and “Gambling from Ragtime to Riches,” NYT, February 19, 1998.
9. LAT, December 5, 1999.
10. Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2000.
11. Variety, December 21, 1998.
12. NYT, December 28, 1998.
13. Wall Street Journal, April 14, 1998. Offers fascinating inside information, including ill-advised cost-consuming practices in the marketing and logistics aspects of the operation. For example, sets for three separate touring companies of Show Boat, which lost massive amounts of money—“a big mistake,” according to Drabinsky himself—were not compactly designed, making them difficult to move in and out of theatres on the road. This oversight caused the producer to incur an additional $300,000 in transpiration charges for each move from city to city. See also “Shaky Ragtime Producer Is Said to Find Lenders,” NYT, November 30, 1998.
1. Author’s tape recording of rebroadcast, circa 1988, by Bob Lyons on his “Old Time Radio Show,” KCRW-FM, Los Angeles, of “A Musical Tribute to Jerome Kern,” originally aired December 9, 1945 (radio network unknown).
2. SSO, p 612.
3. Ibid.
4. SSM, p. 662.
5. From New York Times story printed in The Arizona Republic, March 22, 1998.
6. Time, December 13, 1999.
7. Ibid.
8. NYT, December 19, 1999.
9. Variety, December 6, 1999.