4

The Golden Age Musicals
of Broadway

Note: Entries marked with an * are designated as flops, indicating a run of fewer than 161 (1–160) performances.

*ALL AMERICAN (March 19, 1962; Winter Garden Theatre; 80 performances). Director: Joshua Logan; Composer: Charles Strouse; Lyricist: Lee Adams; Librettist: Mel Brooks; Choreographer: Danny Daniels. Ray Bolger, as university professor Fodorski, led the cast in a show that applied engineering principles to football strategies and featured muscular men stripped to the waist. Critics found the songs unmemorable, and the production was not helped by a city newspaper strike, which cut off most advertising.

Tony nominations: Best Actor in a Musical (Bolger), Best Direction of a Musical

*ALLAH BE PRAISED! (April 20, 1944; Adelphi Theatre; 20 performances). Directors: Robert H. Gordon and Jack Small; Composers: Don Walker and Baldwin Bergersen; Lyricist/Librettist: George Marion Jr.; Choreographer: Jack Cole. This is a confusing tale about a search for a missing American, played by Edward Roecker, in the postwar harems of Sultanbad. When he is finally discovered, it turns out that he is the sultan.

ALLEGRO (October 10, 1947; Majestic Theatre; 315 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Theatre Guild; Director/Choreographer: Agnes de Mille; Composer: Richard Rodgers; Lyricist/Librettist: Oscar Hammerstein II

Original cast: Marjorie Taylor (Annamary Dickey), Dr. Joseph Taylor (William Ching), Joe Jr. (John Battles), Jennie Brinker (Roberta Jonay), Emily West (Lisa Kirk), Charlie Townsend (John Conte)

Synopsis: In 1905, Marjorie and Joe have a son, Joe Jr. His father wants him to become a doctor, but Grandma says the child will decide. Joe Jr. grows into a shy lad who falls in love with Jenny. When he finishes college and does become a doctor, he goes back to their small town and they marry. But it is the Depression and times are hard. At Jenny’s urging, they move to Chicago, where Joe builds a successful practice; however, his wife begins to cheat on him. When Joe finally realizes that, he moves back to his small town.

Songs: “Joseph Taylor Jr.”; “I Know It Can Happen Again”; “One Foot, Other Foot”; “Children’s Ballet”; “The Winters Go By”; “A Fellow Needs a Girl”; “Freshman Dance”; “It’s a Darn Nice Campus”; “She Is Never Far Away”; “So Far”; “Money Isn’t Everything”; “Yatata, Yatata, Yatata”; “The Gentleman Is a Dope”; “Allegro”; “Come Home”

Comments: This Broadway Musical collaboration (after Oklahoma! [1943] and Carousel [1945]) by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein was the first time that Hammerstein did not adapt from an older work.

ANKLES AWEIGH (April 18, 1955; Mark Hellinger Theatre; 172 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Howard Hoyt, Reginald Hammerstein, and Fred F. Finklehoffe; Director: Fred F. Finklehoffe; Composer: Sammy Fain; Lyricist: Dan Shapiro; Librettists: Guy Bolton and Eddie Davis; Choreographer: Tony Charmoli

Original cast: Tommy (Bill Costin), Elsey (Betty Kean), Wynne (Jane Kean), Dinky (Lew Parker), Spud (Gabriel Dell), Lt. Bill Kelley (Mark Dawson), Captain Zimmerman (Mark Allen), Admiral Pottles (Will Hussung), Chipolata (Thelma Carpenter), Joe Mancinni (Mike Kellin), Tony (Herb Fields), Lucia (Betty George), The Duchess (Karen Shepard)

Synopsis: In what critics called a typical 1950s musical, Wynne, a Hollywood starlet, violates a clause in her contract while filming a movie in Sicily and weds a navy flier. He is Bill Kelley, whose ship is on maneuvers in the Mediterranean Sea. With the help of her sister, Elsey, and the groom’s service buddies, Dinky and Spud, the bride dons the guise of a sailor and stows away on his ship. Their honeymoon in many exotic Mediterranean settings is constantly interrupted by demands from her studio in addition to those from some serious top navy brass. The young marrieds find themselves in the middle of a spy ring, led by Kelley’s former girlfriend from Morocco. What with a chorus line, old-fashioned tap dancing routines, and comedians, the lovers are never alone. But in the end, Bill is cleared of all crimes and becomes a hero.

Songs: “Italy”; “Old-Fashioned Mothers”; “Skip the Build-Up”; “Nothing at All”; “Walk Like a Sailor”; “Headin’ for the Bottom”; “Nothing Can Replace a Man”; “Here’s to Dear Old Us”; “His and Hers”; “La Festa”; “Ready Cash”; “Kiss Me and Kill Me with Love”; “Honeymoon”; “The Villain Always Gets It”; “The Code”; “Eleven O’Clock Song”

Comments: Sonny Tufts was the original lead in the show, but he left while the production was still on the road. The musical returned somewhat to vaudeville-style entertainment; critic Walter Kerr in the Tribune did not think it worked.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (May 16, 1946; Imperial Theatre; 1,147 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II; Director: Joshua Logan; Composer/Lyricist: Irving Berlin; Librettists: Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields; Choreographer: Helen Tamiris

Original cast: Annie Oakley (Ethel Merman), Frank Butler (Ray Middleton), Colonel William F. Cody (William O’Neal), Charlie Davenport (Marty May), Trainman (John Garth III), Foster Wilson (Art Barnett), Dolly Tate (Lea Penman), Winnie Tate (Betty Ann Nyman), Tommy Keeler (Kenny Bowers), Minnie Oakley (Nancy Jean Rabb), Jessie Oakley (Camilla De Witt), Nellie Oakley (Marlene Cameron), Little Jake Oakley (Clifford Sales), Waiter (Leon Bibb), Porter (Clyde Turner), Chief Sitting Bull (Harry Bellaver)

Synopsis: Based loosely on the real life cowgirl, the show features Annie Oakley, a poor country girl who happens to be very accurate with a gun. When Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show gets to Cincinnati, Ohio, star and womanizer Frank Butler challenges anyone to a shooting match. Annie wins, and her talent lands her in the show. She immediately falls for Frank, but Frank wants a dainty girl, which Annie is not, and he and Annie can agree on very little; however as time passes, Frank becomes interested in Annie. But when the show plays in Minneapolis, Annie does a surprise trick, which angers Frank, and he leaves to join a competing show. Both competing shows go broke, and Frank and Annie meet again at a reception and decide to make up and marry, but when Annie shows Frank all the sharpshooting medals she has won, he becomes angry again; however, they agree to one last shooting match between the two sharpshooters. Annie is advised by Sitting Bull to lose. Reluctantly, she loses the match to win the man, and they merge the shows.

Songs: “Doin’ What Comes Natur’ly”; “The Girl That I Marry”; “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun”; “There’s No Business Like Show Business”; “They Say It’s Wonderful”; “I Got Lost in His Arms”; “I Got the Sun in the Morning”; “Anything You Can Do”

Comments: The producers originally chose Jerome Kern to write the score, but when he died, Irving Berlin was called in and produced what is generally regarded as his greatest work. As for Ethel Merman, if she had not been before, she became the leading musical comedy star of her generation in this production. Merman had been playing this type of role in musicals of the 1930s, tough and big-hearted more than glamorous, but this time, the role was just perfect for her voice and her talents. The road company starred Mary Martin. Judy Garland was originally supposed to play the role in the movie, but Betty Hutton became Annie in the 1950 movie version, with Howard Keel as her rival. The show won a Tony in 1999 for Best Revival.

*ANYONE CAN WHISTLE (April 4, 1964; Majestic Theatre; 9 performances). Director: Arthur Laurents; Composer/Lyricist: Stephen Sondheim; Librettist: Arthur Laurents; Choreographer: Herbert Ross. Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick, and Harry Guardino starred in a show about a corrupt mayoress (Lansbury) and the efforts to save a bankrupt town by advertising a miracle—water flowing from a rock. Critics thought Sondheim’s music was fresh and original but not the show.

Tony nomination: Best Choreography

ARE YOU WITH IT? (November 10, 1945; New Century Theatre; 164 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Richard Kollmar and James W. Gardiner; Director: Edward Reveaux; Composer: Harry Revel; Lyricist: Arnold B. Horwitt; Librettists: Sam Perrin and George Balzer; Choreographer: Jack Donohue; Original source: George Malcolm Smith’s novel Slightly Imperfect

Original cast: Wilbur Hawkins (Johnny Downs), Marge Keller (Jane Dulo), Bunny La Fleur (Dolores Gray), Goldie (Lew Parker), Cleo (June Richmond), Vivian Reilly (Joan Roberts), Sally Swivelhips (Diane Adrian), Mr. Bixby (Sydney Boyd), Cicero (Bunny Briggs), Snake Charmer’s Daughter (Jane Deering), Carter (Lew Eckels), Office Boy (Hal Hunter), Balloon Seller (Mildred Jocelyn), Strong Man (William Lundy), Policeman (Duke McHale), Georgetta (Buster Shaver), George (George Shaver), Olive (Olive Shaver), Mr. Mapleton (Johnny Stearns), Loren (Loren Welch)

Synopsis: The setting is Hartford, Connecticut, where Goldie, a carnival barker, persuades Wilbur to join the troop. He has been fired from his job at the insurance company because he missed a decimal point. Literal and serious-minded, Wilbur does not seem to be the carnival type, although he does try to fit in, even though he looks out of place when he orders a glass of milk at Joe’s Bar Room. But it is there that he meets Vivian and falls in love.

Songs: “Five More Minutes in Bed”; “Nutmeg Insruance”; “When a Good Man Takes to Drink”; “Poor Little Me”; “Are You with It?”; “Send Us Back to the Kitchen”; “Here I Go Again”; “This Is My Beloved”; “Slightly Slightly”; “Just Beyond the Rainbow”; “In Our Cozy Little Cottage of Tomorrow”

AS THE GIRLS GO (November 13, 1948; Winter Garden Theatre; 414 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Michael Todd; Director: Howard Bay; Composer: Jimmy McHugh; Lyricist: Harold Adamson; Librettist: William Roos; Choreographer: Hermes Pan

Original cast: Waldo Wellington (Bobby Clark), Lucille Thompson Wellington (Irene Rich), Kenny Wellington (Bill Callahan), Mickey Wellington (Betty Lou Barto), Tommy Wellington (Donny Harris), Guard and Secret Service Man (John Shehan), Kathy Robinson (Betty Jane Watson), Barber (Hobart Cavanaugh), Guard and Ross Miller (Jack Russell), White House Visitor (John Brophy), Miss Swenson (Cavada Humphrey), Butler (Curt Stafford), Floyd Robinson (Douglas Luther), Diane (Mildred Hughes), Photographers (Kenneth Spaulding and William Reedy), Daphne (Dorothea Pinto), Blinky Joe (Dick Danna), Darlene (Rosemary Williamson), Secret Service Man (George Morris), Secret Service Women (June Kirby and Truly Barbara), Secretary (Ruth Thomas), President of Potomac College (Douglas Luther), Premier Danseuse (Katharine Lee)

Synopsis: The year is 1953, and the first woman has been elected president of the United States. She is now guarded by Secret Service women, and her husband is known as the First Gentlemen. With little to do, he mainly spends his time in the company of the beautiful girls who guard his wife. In his spare time, the First Gentlemen both helps and hinders his son Kenny’s romance with Kathy Robinson.

Songs: “As the Girls Go”; “Nobody’s Heart but Mine”; “Brighten Up and Be a Little Sunbeam”; “Rock, Rock, Rock”; “It’s More Fun Than a Picnic”; “American Cannes”; “You Say the Nicest Things, Baby”; “I’ve Got the President’s Ear”; “Holiday in the Country”; “There’s No Getting Away from You”; “Lucky in the Rain”; “Father’s Day”; “It Takes a Woman to Get a Man”

Tony Award: Best Conductor and Musical Director (Max Meth)

Comments: As a sign of things to come, the top ticket theatre price jumped to $7.20, unheard-of when Broadway tickets averaged about $4.00. The show, which cost $300,000 to produce, was hurt by an American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) strike.

BAJOUR (November 23, 1964; Shubert Theatre; 311 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Edward Padula, Carol Masterson, Harris Masterson, and Norman Twain; Director: Lawrence Kasha; Composer/Lyricist: Walter Marks; Librettist: Ernest Kinoy; Choreographer: Peter Gennaro

Original cast: Johnny Dembo (Herschel Bernardi), Lt. Lou MacNiall (Robert Burr), Helen Kirsten (Mae Questel), Steve (Gus Trikonis), Emily Kirsten (Nancy Dussault), Anyanka (Chita Rivera), King of Newark (Herbert Edelman)

Synopsis: In this production set in present-day New York, Johnny Dembo and his gypsy family are studied by anthropologist Emily Kirsten, who reports their movements to Lt. Lou MacNial, her cousin. Dembo wants to marry his son Steven to Anyanka, the daughter of a gypsy king in Newark, New Jersey, but for the marriage to go ahead, Anyanka must pull off a swindle (a bajour in the gypsy language), which she does with the help of an unsuspecting Emily.

Songs: “Move Over, New York”; “Where Is the Tribe for Me?”; “The Haggie”; “Love-Line”; “Words, Words, Words”; “Mean”; “Bajour”; “Must It Be Love?”; “Soon”; “I Can”; “Living Simply”; “Honest Man”; “Guarantees”; “Love Is a Chance”; “The Sew-Up”; “Move Over, America”

Tony nominations: Best Actress in a Musical (Dussault), Best Choreography (Gennaro)

Comments: With a weak plot and not outstanding score, the show depended on Chita Rivera, who kept it on the boards for the season.

BAKER STREET (February 16, 1965; Broadway Theatre; 311 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Alexander H. Cohen; Director: Harold Prince; Composer/Lyricists: Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel; Librettist: Jerome Coopersmith; Choregrapher: Lee Beeker Theodore

Original cast: Professor Moriarty (Martin Gabel), Irene Adler (Inga
Swenson), Sherlock Holmes (Fritz Weaver), Mrs. Hudson (Paddy Edwards), Wiggins (Teddy Green), Killers (Avin Harum, Tommy Tune, and Christopher Walken), Captain Gregg (Patrick Horgan), Inspector Lestrade (Daniel Keyes), Perkins (George Lee), Duckbellows (Bert Michaels), Murillo (Jay Norman), Nipper (Sal Pernice), Dr. Watson (Peter Sallis), Macipper (Mark Jude Sheil), Daisy (Virginia Vestoff), Baxter (Martin Wolfson)

Synopsis: The musical is loosely based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, set in London in 1897, the Diamond Jubilee in the reign of Queen Victoria. The celebration is depicted by an elaborate royal possession of Bil Baird’s marionettes. In this version, Irene Adler becomes an associate of Holmes rather than an opponent, which opens up the opportunity for romance between the two.

Songs: “It’s So Simple”; “I’m in London Again”; “Leave It to Us, Gov”; “Letters”; “Cold, Clear World”; “Finding Words for Spring”; “What a Night This Is Going to Be”; “I Shall Miss You”; “Roof Space”; “A Married Man”; “I’d Do It Again”; “Pursuit”; “Jewelry”

Tony Award: Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Motley). Tony nominations: Best Actress in a Musical (Swenson), Best Author (Coopersmith), Best Costume Design of a Musical (Motley)

Comments: Dancer Tommy Tune made his Broadway debut in this production. Before opening night, producer Cohen established a dress code for the audience—jackets and ties for men, dresses for women—but quickly vetoed it when the mixed reviews came in. The top ticket theatre prices were now $9.90.

*BAREFOOT BOY WITH CHEEK (April 3, 1947; Martin Beck Theatre; 106 performances). Producer/Director: George Abbott; Composer: Sidney Lippman; Lyricist: Sylvia Dee; Librettist: Max Shulman; Choreographer: Richard Barstow. In another Abbott musical frolic, Nancy Walker played the lead as a woman who tries to convert the University of Minnesota to her “pink” views. She also tries to win the heart of Asa Hearthrug, but loses him to Clothilde Pfefferkorn. Critics said Walker’s clowning kept the show running as long as it did.

*THE BEAST IN ME (May 14, 1963; Plymouth Theatre; 4 performances). Director: John Lehne; Composer: Don Elliot; Lyricist/Librettist: James Costigan; Librettist: W. S. Gilbert; Choreographer: John Butler; Original source: Based on the book Fables for Our Times by James Thurber. This musical could not be saved, even with the talents of Kaye Ballard. Audiences did not warm to almost all characters in the sketches and songs being portrayed as animals.

*BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL (February 10, 1960; Martin Beck Theatre; 5 performances). Director: David Doyle; Composer: Leon Pober; Lyricist/Librettist: Bud Freeman; Choreographer: Peter Hamilton. Beatniks Betty Garrett and Eddie Bracken played sister and brother who ran a health food store in a run-down section of a huge U.S. city in the 1950s. They meet with friends at the Pit. The focus of attention is the sister’s agony over choosing between another beatnik or a square type of guy.

*BEGGAR’S HOLIDAY (December 6, 1946; Broadway Theatre; 111 performances). Director: Nicholas Ray; Composer: Duke Ellington; Lyricist/Librettist: John Latouche; Choreographer: Valerie Bettis. Duke Ellington’s music was lost in this production with Alfred Drake playing an American gangster type. An updated version of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, it included an interracial relationship that resulted in pickets outside the theatre each night, which might have shortened the run.

BELLS ARE RINGING (November 29, 1956; Shubert Theatre; 925 performances)

Production credits: Director: Jerome Robbins; Composer: Jule Styne; Lyricists/Librettists: Betty Comden and Adolph Green; Choreographers: Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse

Original cast: Ella Peterson (Judy Holliday), Jeff Moss (Sydney Chaplin), Blake Barton (Frank Aletter), Inspector Barnes (Dort Clark), Olga (Norma Doggett), Charles Bessemer, Another Anchor, Singer, and Nightclub (Frank Green), Telephone Man (Eddie Heim), Larry Hastings (George S. Irving), Sandor (Eddie Lawrence), Mrs. Mallet (Jeannine Masterson), Maitre D’Hotel (David McDaniel), Ludwig Smiley (Frank Milton), Man from Corvello Mob (John Perkins), Carol (Ellen Ray), Michelle (Michelle Reiner), Paul Arnold (Steve Roland), Madame Grimaldi (Donna Sanders), Sue (Jean Stapleton), Waiter (Ed Thompson), Dr. Kitchell (Bernie West), Francis (Jack Weston), Gwynne (Pat Wilkes), Police Officer (Gordon Woodburn)

Synopsis: Ella Peterson works for a telephone-answering service but can’t seem to stop meddling in her customers’ lives. Aspiring playwright Jeff Moss gets special attention, and they fall in love, although they have never met and she pretends to be a motherly old lady. Unbeknownst to Ella, she also takes orders for what is actually a betting ring. In come the police and out goes romance, but in the end the two are reunited.

Songs: “Bells Are Ringing”; “Better Than a Dream”; “Do It Yourself”; “Drop That Name”; “Hello, Mazurka”; “Hello, Hello There!”; “I Met a Girl”; “I’m Goin’ Back”; “Is It a Crime?”; “It’s a Perfect Relationship”; “It’s a Simple Little System”; “Just in Time”; “Long Before I Knew You”; “The Midas Touch”; “Mu-Cha-Cha”; “The Party’s Over”; “Salzburg”; “Santa’s Lullaby”; “You’ve Got to Do It”

Tony Awards: Best Actress in a Musical (Holliday), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Chaplin). Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Choreography (Robbins/Fosse)

Comments: The main reason for the show’s success was the charm and talent of Judy Holliday in her first star billing role on Broadway.

BEN FRANKLIN IN PARIS (October 27, 1964; Lunt-Fontanne Theatre; 216 performances)

Production credits: Producers: George W. George and Frank Granat; Director/Choreographer: Michael Kidd; Composer: Mark Sandrich Jr.; Lyricist/Librettist: Sidney Michaels

Original cast: Captain Wickes (Sam Greene), Benjamin Franklin (Robert Preston), Temple Franklin (Franklin Kiser), Benjamin Franklin Bache (Jerry Schaefer), Footman (Anthony Falco), Louis XVI (Oliver Clark), Vergennes (Art Bartow), Turgot (Clifford Fearl), Madame La Comtesse Diane de Vobrillac (Ulla Sallert), British Grenadier (Roger Le Page), David Lord Stormont (Byron Webster), Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais (Bob Kaliban), Jacques Finque (John Taliaferro), Pedro Count de Aranda (Jack Fletcher), Bookseller and Abbe de Morellet (Herb Mazzini), Janine Nicolet (Susan Watson), Spanish Aide-de-Camp (Kip Andrews), Spanish Solider (Art Matthews), Spanish Ambassador’s Daughter (Suzanne France), Yvonne (Lauren Jones)

Synopsis: Ben Franklin arrives in Paris with his two grandsons to win over the king to the side of the colonies in their war against England. Franklin reunites with an old love, the Countess Diane de Vobrillac, and asks her to help persuade the king, but she needs proof that the colonies will triumph. He gets her to ride in a hot air balloon with him and also gets her to agree to help if he can find another country to contribute to the colonies’ war effort. She agrees, Franklin gets Spain involved, and in the end the king greets him as the first ambassador from the new United States of America.

Songs: “We Sail the Seas”; “I Invented Myself”; “Too Charming”; “What Became of Old Temple”; “Half the Battle”; “A Balloon Is Ascending”; “To Be Alone with You”; “You’re in Paris”; “How Laughable It Is”; “Hic Haec Hoc”; “God Bless the Human Elbow”; “When I Dance with the Person I Love”; “Diane Is”; “Look for Small Pleasures”; “I Love the Ladies”

Tony nomination: Best Author (Sidney Michaels)

Comments: Critics called the score mediocre and the book trite, but Robert Preston kept it running. The highlight of the evening was Ben Franklin landing on stage in a balloon.

BILLION DOLLAR BABY (December 21, 1945; Alvin Theatre; 219 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Paul Feigay and Oliver Smith; Director: George Abbott; Composer: Morton Gould; Lyricists/Librettists: Betty Comden and Adolph Green; Choreographer: Jerome Robbins

Original cast: Cigarette Girl and Singer (Jeri Archer), Dapper Welch (David Burns), M. M. Montague (Robert Chisholm), J. C. Creasy (Horace Cooper), Champ Watson (Danny Daniels), Pa Jones (William David), Jerry Bonanza (Don De Leo), Neighbor (Douglas Deane), Watchman (Robert Edwin), Miss Texas (Althea Elder), Neighbor (Helen Gallagher), Reporter (Alan Gilbert), Georgia Motley (Mitzi Green), Neighbor (Maria Harriton), Art Leffenbush (Eddie Hodge), Maribelle Jones (Joan McCracken), Rocky (James Mitchell), Ma Jones (Emily Ross), Master of Ceremonies (Richard Sanford)

Synopsis: The show is set on Staten Island, New York, and in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the late 1920s. Marabelle Jones, an ambitious young woman, ditches her nice-guy boyfriend for a gangster on the run. She is looking for wealth in the Prohibition Era. Her rise to fame includes a gaudy gangster funeral and finally a wealthy tycoon type—all this before the Stock Market crash of 1929.

Songs: “Million Dollar Smile”; “Who’s Gonna Be the Winner”; “Dreams Come True”; “Charleston”; “Broadway Blossom”; “Speaking of Pals”; “There I’d Be”; “One-Track Mind”; “Bad Timing”; “The Marathoners”; “A Lovely Girl”; “Havin’ a Time”; “The Marathon Dance Faithless”; “I’m Sure of Your Love”; “A Life with Rocky”; “The Wedding”

Comments: Reviewers felt that the show ran as long as it did, despite a mediocre score, because it faced no real competition for several months.

BLOOMER GIRL (October 5, 1944; Shubert Theatre; 567 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Nat Goldstone and John C. Wilson; Directors: E. Y. Harburg and William Schorr; Composer: Harold Arlen; Lyricist: E. Y. Harburg; Librettists: Sid Herzig and Fred Saidy; Choreographer: Agnes de Mille

Original cast: Evelina Applegate (Celeste Holm), Hetty (Arlene Anderson), Paula (Lee Barrie), Herman Brasher (William Bender), Horatio (Matt Briggs), Jeff Calhoun (David Brooks), Hamilton Calhoun (Blaine Cordner), Gus (John Call), Augustus (Hubert Dilworth), Dolly Bloomer (Margaret Douglass), Delia (Nancy Douglass), Hiram Crump (Dan Gallagher), Julia (Toni Hart), Governor Newton (Butler Hixon), Sheriff Quimby (Charles Howard), Alexander (Richard Huey), Prudence (Eleanor Jones), Lydia (Claudia Jordan), Joshua Dingle (Robert Lyon), Phoebe (Carol MacFarlane), Ebenezer Mimms (Joe E. Marks), Daisy (Joan McCracken), Octavia (Pamela Randell), Serena (Mabel Taliaferro), Wilfred Thrush (Vaughn Trinnier), Pompey (Dooley Wilson)

Synopsis: Based on the struggles of Dolly Bloomer for civil rights, the show takes place in Civil War days, where Evelina Applegate has a mind of her own in Cicero Falls, New York. She refuses to marry her father’s choice and instead backs her aunt’s campaign to replace the hoopskirt, which her father manufactures, with the more comfortable bloomer. In addition, she decides to marry a southern slaveholder.

Songs: “When the Boys Come Home”; “Evelina”; “Welcome Hinges”; “Farmer’s Daughter”; “It Was Good Enough for Grandma”; “Eagle and Me”; “Right as the Rain”; “T’Morra’, T’Morra’”; “Rakish Young Man with the Wiskuhs”; “Sunday in Cicero Falls”; “I Got a Song”; “Satin Gown and Silver Shoe”; “Liza Crossing the Ice”; “Never Was Born”; “Man for Sale”

Comments: “Evelina” became one of the most popular tunes of the 1940s.

*THE BODY BEAUTIFUL (January 23, 1958; Broadway Theatre; 60 performances). Director: George Schaefer; Composer: Jerry Bock; Lyricist: Sheldon Harnick; Librettists: Joseph Stein and Will Glickman; Choreographer: Herbert Ross. A rich and handsome Dartmouth graduate (Steve Forrest) decides that he will box his way to fame and glory. The problem is that his girlfriend hates boxing. Singer Barbara McNair made her Broadway debut in this show.

THE BOY FRIEND (September 30, 1954; Royale Theatre; 485 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin; Director: Vida Hope; Composer/Lyricist/Librettist: Sandy Wilson; Choreographer: John Heawood

Original cast: Hortense (Paulette Girard), Nancy (Millicent Martin), Maisie (Ann Wakefield), Fay and Lolita (Stella Claire), Dulcie (Dilys Lay), Polly (Julie Andrews), Marcel and Pepe (Joe Milan), Alphonse (Buddy Schwab), Pierre (Jerry Newby), Madame Dubonnet (Ruth Altman), Bobby Van Husen (Bob Scheerer), Percival Browne (Eric Berry), Phillipe (Jimmy Alex), Monica (Berkley Marsh), Lord Brockhurst (Geoffrey Hibbert), Lady Brockhurst (Moyna MacGill), Susanne (Lyn Connorty), Gendarme (Douglas Deane), Waiter (Lyn Robert)

Synopsis: A reminder of the Jazz Age, the musical is set on the French Riviera in the 1920s. Polly arrives at the school for young ladies and tells everyone about her supposed boyfriend who will soon arrive from Paris. Polly’s widowed father arrives instead and is attracted to the headmistress, once an old flame of his. Polly ends up as the only one without a boyfriend and a partner for the dress ball. Tony delivers her costume, and they are attracted to each other. They meet later at the ball, where Tony is at first mistaken for a thief. But it ends happily when Polly’s father and the headmistress are to be married and Polly and Tony find love.

Songs: “Perfect Young Ladies”; “The Boy Friend”; “Won’t You Charleston with Me?”; “Fancy Forgetting”; “I Could Be Happy with You”; “Sur La Plage”; “A Room in Bloomsbury”; “You Don’t Want to Play with Me Blues”; “Safety in Numbers”; “It’s Never Too Late to Fall in Love”; “Poor Little Pierrette”

Comments: The delight of the show was the arrival of Julie Andrews on Broadway.

*BRAVO GIOVANNI (May 19, 1962; Broadhurst Theatre; 76 performances). Director: Stanley Prager; Composer: Milton Schafer; Lyricist: Ronny Graham; Librettist: A. J. Russell; Choreographer: Carol Haney. Opera singer Cesare Siepi and Michelle Lee starred in a tale about the problems of a small, family-style trattoria in Rome. An upscale restaurant opens next door, and a friend suggests that the owner make a tunnel from his basement to steal food from the new restaurant’s dumbwaiter.

Tony nominations: Best Composer and Lyricist, Best Choreography, Best Conductor and Musical Director

BRIGADOON (March 13, 1947; Ziegfeld Theatre; 581 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Cheryl Crawford; Director: Robert Lewis; Composer: Frederick Loewe; Lyricist/Librettist: Alan Jay Lerner; Choreographer: Agnes de Mille

Original cast: Stuart Dalrymple (Delbert Anderson), Fiona MacLaren (Marian Bell), Jean MacLaren (Virgina Bosler), Meg Brockie (Pamela Britton), Tommy Albright (David Brooks), Jane Ashton (Frances Charles), Andrew MacLaren (Edward Cullen), Maggie Anderson (Lidija Franklin), Mr. Lundle (William Hansen), Kate MacQueen (Margaret Hunter), Jeff Douglas (George Keane), Fishmonger (Bunty Kelley), Harry Veaton (James Mitchell), MacGregor (Earl Redding), Angus McGuffie (Walter Scheff), Archie Beaton (Elliot Sullivan), Charlie Dalrymple (Lee Sullivan), Sandy Dean (Jeffrey Warren)

Synopsis: Tommy and Jeff, two Americans lost in a Scottish wood, come upon a quaint village where the people are celebrating the upcoming marriage of Jean and Charlie. Tommy and Jean’s sister Fiona are attracted to each other, as are Jeff and Meg, but Tommy is troubled because he feels the village is so odd, such as the fact that the villagers don’t know about telephones. Fiona takes him to the schoolmaster, who tells Tommy that the village of Brigadoon is under a spell. It will return for only one day every 100 years. Learning this, the Americans flee, but Tommy’s love is so strong that he returns to Scotland. The village reappears just long enough to take him in.

Songs: “Once in the Highlands”; “Brigadoon”; “Down on MacConnachy Square”; “Waitin’ for My Dearie”; “I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean”; “The Heather on the Hill”; “The Love of My Life”; “Jeannie’s Packing Up”; “Come to Me, Bend to Me”; “Almost Like Being in Love”; “The Chase”; “There But for You Go I”; “My Mother’s Weddin’ Day”; “From This Day On”

Tony Award: Best Choreography (de Mille)

Comments: Al Jolson popularized “Come to Me, Bend to Me” on his radio shows. “Almost Like Being in Love” became an instant hit. The score was also the highlight of the highly successful movie version in 1954 with Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, and Cyd Charisse, and directed by Vincente Minnelli.

*BUTTRIO SQUARE (October 14, 1952; 59th Street Theatre; 7 performances). Director/Choreographer: Eugene Loring; Composer: Arthur Jones and Fred Stamer; Lyricist: Gen Genovese; Librettists: Billy Gilbert and Gen Genovese; Choreographer: Eugene Loring. Billy Gilbert headed a show about U.S. soldiers in an Italian village where fraternizing is forbidden. Critics called it tedious and trite, with too much strenuous dancing. The audience agreed, and the show closed in less than one week.

BY THE BEAUTIFUL SEA (April 8, 1954; Majestic Theatre; 270 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Robert Fryer and Lawrence Carr; Director: Marshall Jamison; Composer: Arthur Schwartz; Lyricist: Dorothy Fields; Librettists: Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields; Choreographer: Helen Tamiris

Original cast: Cora Belmont (Mary Harmon), Molly Belmont (Cindy Robbins), Lillian Belmont (Gloria Smith), Ruby Monk (Mae Barnes), Mrs. Koch (Edith True Case), Carl Gibson (Cameron Prud’homme), Lottie Gibson (Shirley Booth), Half-Note (Robert Jennings), Diabolo (Thomas Gleason), Baby Betsy Busch (Carol Leigh), Mickey Powers (Richard France), Dennis Emery (Wilbur Evans), Flora Busch (Anne Francine), Willie Slater (Ray Dooley), Sidney (Eddie Roll), Mr. Curtis (Paul Reed), Burt Mayer (Larry Laurence), Viola (Gaby Monet)

Synopsis: In 1907, vaudevillian Lottie returns to the family boardinghouse on Coney Island after another tour. One of the boarders is actor Dennis Emery, with whom she falls in love. But there are problems. Dennis needs $1,000 to get his show working again, so Lottie decides to help him out by raising the money, even if that includes jumping out of a hot air balloon. To complicate her problems, Dennis’s ex-wife shows up at the boardinghouse with his seventeen-year-old daughter. Already unhappy about the divorce, the daughter has no intention of sharing her father with Lottie.

Songs: “Mona from Arizona”; “The Sea Song”; “Old Enough to Love”; “Coney Island Boat”; “Alone Too Long”; “Happy Habit”; “Good Time Charlie”; “I’d Rather Wake Up by Myself”; “Hooray for George the Third”; “More Love Than Your Love”; “Lottie Gibson Specialty”; “Throw the Anchor Away”

Comments: The presence of Shirley Booth on stage was mainly the reason for the run.

BYE BYE BIRDIE (April 14, 1960; Martin Beck Theatre; 607 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Edward Padula, in association with L. Slade Brown; Director/Choreographer: Gower Champion; Composer: Charles Strouse; Lyricist: Lee Adams; Librettist: Michael Stewart

Original cast: Albert Peterson (Dick Van Dyke), Rose Grant (Chita Rivera), Ursula Merkle (Barbara Doherty), Kim MacAfee (Susan Watson), Mrs. MacAfee (Marijane Maricle), Mr. MacAfee (Paul Lynde), Mae Peterson (Kay Medford), Conrad Birdie (Dick Gautier), Mayor (Allen Knowles), Mayor’s Wife (Amelia Haas), Hugo Peabody (Michael J. Pollard), Randolph MacAfee (Johnny Borden), Mrs. Merkle (Pat McEnnis)

Synopsis: Singing star Conrad Birdie is about to be drafted. That means Albert Peterson, his agent, will lose his commissions and will not be able to marry Rose Grant. Rose comes up with a plan to write a hit song so they can have the royalties while Birdie is away. Mayhem develops when they choose Kim as the girl Birdie will sing to in her hometown of Sweet Apple because she falls for him. But all ends well when Kim goes back to her boyfriend. Albert and Rose are happy, and Birdie is headed for the army.

Songs: “An English Teacher”; “The Telephone Hour”; “How Lovely to be a Woman”; “We Love You, Conrad!”; “Put on a Happy Face”; “Normal American Boy”; “One Boy”; “Honestly Sincere”; “Hymn for a Sunday Evening”; “What Did I Ever See in Him?”; “A Lot of Livin’ to Do”; “Baby, Talk to Me”; “Shriners’ Ballet”; “Spanish Rose”; “Rosie”

Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Van Dyke), Best Choreography, Best Direction of a Musical. Tony nominations: Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Gautier), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Rivera), Best Scenic Design (Robert Randolph), Best Conductor and Musical Director (Elliott Lawrence)

Comments: This show was Gower Champion’s first direction on Broadway.

*CAFÉ CROWN (April 17, 1964; Martin Beck Theatre; 3 performances). Director: Jerome Eskow; Composer: Albert Hague; Lyricist: Marty Brill; Librettist: Hy Kraft; Choreographer: Ronald Field. The musical is set in and around the Café Crown on Second Avenue and 12th Street in New York City in the early 1930s, where the cafe’s busboy (Sam Levene) dreams of a future in the theatre.

CALL ME MADAM (October 12, 1950; Imperial Theatre; 644 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Leland Hayward; Director: George Abbott; Composer/Lyricist: Irving Berlin; Librettists: Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse; Choreographer: Jerome Robbins

Original cast: Mrs. Sally Adams (Ethel Merman), Secretary of State (Jeffrey Lumb), Supreme Court Justice and Grand Duke Otto (Owen Coll), Congressman Wilkins (Pat Harrington), Henry Gibson (William David), Kenneth Gibson (Russell Nype), Senator Gallagher (Ralph Chambers), Secretary to Mrs. Adams (Jeanne Bal), Butler (William Hail), Senator Brockbank (Jay Velie), Cosmo Constantine (Paul Lukas), Pemberton Maxwell (Alan Hewitt), Clerk (Stowe Phelps), Hugo Tantinnin (E. A. Krumschmidt), Sebastian Sebastian (Henry Lascoe), Princess Maria (Galina Talva), Court Chamberlain (William David), Maid (Lily Paget), Grand Duchess Sophie (Lilia Skala)

Synopsis: Mrs. Sally Adams is totally without diplomatic skills, but that does not stop her from becoming the new ambassador to Lichtenburg. She gets the job due to her one area of expertise—she is a dazzling society hostess. But when Sally arrives to take over duties in Lichtenburg, she immediately falls for Cosmo, the prime minister, while her assistant, Kenneth, becomes enchanted with Princess Maria; however, opposing factors doom both love affairs, and life becomes unbearable for all. In the end, the lovers win out in both cases.

Songs: “Mrs. Sally Adams”; “The Hostess with the Mostest on the Ball”; “Washington Square Dance”; “Lichtenburg”; “Can You Use Any Money Today?”; “Marrying for Love”; “The Ocarina”; “It’s a Lovely Day Today”; “The Best Thing for You Would Be Me”; “Something to Dance About”; “Once a Time Today”; “They Like Ike”; “You’re Just in Love”

Tony Awards: Best Actress in a Musical (Merman), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Nype), Best Original Score (Berlin), Best Stage Technician (Pete Feller)

Comments: Reviewers called Ethel Merman a “blowsy delight.” This was Irving Berlin’s last Broadway success, honoring the famous hostess of Washington, D.C., Pearl Mesta, who was appointed ambassador to Luxembourg by President Harry S Truman. Elaine Stritch was Merman’s standby. The 1953 movie version featured Merman, along with Donald O’Connor, Vera-Ellen, George Sanders, and Walter Slezak.

CAMELOT (December 3, 1960; Majestic Theatre; 873 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, and Moss Hart; Director: Moss Hart; Composer: Frederick Loewe; Lyricist/Librettist: Alan Jay Lerner; Choreographer: Hanya Holm; Original source: Based on the novel The Once and Future King by T. H. White

Original cast: Sir Dinadan (John Cullum), Sir Lionel (Bruce Yarnell), Sir Gwilliam (Jack Dabdoub), Merlyn (David Hurst), Arthur (Richard Burton), Guenevere (Julie Andrews), Nimue (Marjorie Smith), Pages (Leland Mayforth and Peter De Vise), Lancelot Du Lac (Robert Goulet), Dap (Michael Clarke-Laurence), King Pellinore (Robert Coote), Clarius (Richard Kuch), Lady Anne (Christina Gillespie), Lady Sybil (Leesa Troy), Sir Sagramore (James Gannon), Herald (John Starkweather), Sir Castor of Cornwall (Frank Bouley), Lady Catherine (Virginia Allen), Mordred (Roddy McDowall), Morgan Le Fey (M’el Dowd), Sir Ozanna (Michael Kermoyan), Scottish Knight (Paul Huddleston), Tom (Robin Stewart)

Synopsis: In this love triangle, Arthur and Guenevere are nervous about their forthcoming marriage, and once they are married, Lancelot falls in love with her. He goes away but returns to court her secretly. Mordred discovers the two and exposes the romance. When the lovers flee to France, Arthur follows and confronts them just before he is going into battle.

Songs: “I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight?”; “The Simple Joys of Maidenhood”; “Camelot”; “The Lusty Month of May”; “Then You May Take Me to the Fair”; “How to Handle a Woman”; “Before I Gaze at You Again”; “If Ever I Would Leave You”; “The Seven Deadly Virtues”; “The Persuasion”; “Fie on Goodness!”; “I Loved You Once in Silence”; “Guenevere”

Tony Awards: Best Actor in a Musical (Burton), Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, Best Conductor and Musical Director. Tony nomination: Best Actress in a Musical (Andrews)

Comments: Director Moss Hart suffered a heart attack before the show opened. The costs of production had risen to more than $500,000 even before it got to Broadway. The musical opened to mixed reviews despite the attraction of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Julie Andrews, and Richard Burton. Some critics thought the production suffered because it was too often compared to My Fair Lady.

CAN-CAN (May 7, 1953; Shubert Theatre; 892 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Cy Feurer and Ernest Martin; Director/Librettist: Abe Burrows; Composer/Lyricist: Cole Porter; Choreographer: Michael Kidd

Original cast: Bailiff (David Collyer), Registrar and Doctor (Michael Cavallaro), Judge Paul Barriere (C. K. Alexander), Court President (David Thomas), Judge Aristide Forestier (Peter Cookson), Claudine (Gwen Verdon), Gabrielle (Mary Anne Cohan), Marie (Beverly Purvin), Celestine (Jean Kraemer), Hilaire Jussac (Erik Rhodes), Boris Adzinidzinadze (Hans Conried), Hercule (Robert Penn), Theophile (Phil Leeds), Etienne (Richard Purdy), Waiter (Clarence Hoffman), La Mome Pistache (Lilo), Second Waiter and Prosecutor (Ferdinand Hilt), Café Waiter (Jon Silo), Café Customer (Joe Cusanelli), Jailer (Deedee Wood), Model (Pat Turner), Mimi (Dania Krupska), Policeman and Second (Arthur Rubin)

Synopsis: Two stories take place in this production: In one, a judge, Aristide Forestier, investigates outrageous dancing at a café in Montmartre and falls in love with the café’s owner, La Mome Pistache. After that, he helps to get the dance, the can-can, legalized. In the other story, Claudine, one of the café dancers, has two suitors, Boris and Hilaire, who end up fighting a duel on a rooftop.

Songs: “Maidens Typical of France”; “Never Give Anything Away”; “C’Est Magnifique”; “Quadrille”; “Come Along with Me”; “Live and Let Live”; “I Am in Love”; “If You Loved Me Truly”; “Montmartre”; “Never, Never Be an Artist”; “It’s All Right with Me”; “Every Man Is a Stupid Man”; “The Apaches”; “I Love Paris”; “Can-Can”

Tony Awards: Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Verdon), Best Choreographer (Kidd)

Comments: Cole Porter’s score was at first coolly received but eventually became a main reason for the long run. The other reason was Gwen Verdon, whose dancing was spectacular. After her opening night performance of an Apache number, the audience would not let the show continue until she came out for an extra bow.

CARMEN JONES (December 2, 1943; Broadway Theatre; 502 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Billy Rose; Director: Charles Friedman; Composer: Georges Bizet; Lyricist/Librettist: Oscar Hammerstein II; Choreographer: Eugene Loring; Original source: Based on Meilhac and Halevy’s adaptation of Carmen

Original cast: Carmen (Muriel Smith and Muriel Rahn, alternating), Joe (Luther Saxon and Napoleon Reed, alternating), Cindy Lou (Carlotta Franzell and Elton J. Warren, alternating), Husky Miller (Glen Bryant), Frankie (June Hawkins), Remo the Drummer (Cosy Cole). Nearly all the original cast was new to the theatre.

Synopsis: With an all-black cast, the story of the volatile Carmen is modernized. Carmen Jones, a parachute maker, is interested in Joe, an air force man, who in turn is in love with sweet Cindy Lou, but Carmen charms and seduces him. However, while waiting for Joe to be released from military prison, she gets involved with boxer Husky Miller. Carmen gives in to the luxurious life he can offer her and abandons Joe. When Joe returns to try to convince her to come back to him, she spurns him and he kills her.

Songs: “Lift ’Em Up and Put ’Em Down”; “Dat’s Love”; “You Talk Just Like My Maw”; “Dere’s a Cafe on de Corner”; “Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum”; “Stan’ Up and Fight”; “Whizzin’ Away along de Track”; “Dis Flower”; “De Cards Don’t Lie”; “My Joe”; “Dat’s Our Man”

Comments: Because the original story, although modernized, and score were retained, the lead singers had to alternate because the roles were so strenuous. The 1954 film version starred Dorothy Dandridge in the lead role. She became the first African American actress nominated for an Oscar.

CARNIVAL (April 13, 1961; Imperial Theatre; 719 performances)

Production credits: Producer: David Merrick; Director/Choreographer: Gower Champion; Composer/Lyricist: Bob Merrill; Librettist: Michael Stewart; Original source: Based on material by Helen Deutsch

Original cast: Jacquot (Pierre Olaf), Mr. Schlegel (Henry Lascoe), Roustabouts (George Marcy, Tony Gomez, Johnny Nola, and Buff Shurr), Cyclist (Bob Murray), Miguelito (George Marcy), Dog Trainer (Paul Sydell), Wardrobe Mistress (Carvel Carter), Harem Girls (Nicole Barth, Iva March, and Beti Seay), Bear Girl (Jennifer Billingsley), Princess Olga (Luba Lisa), Band (C. B. Bernard and Peter Lombard), Stilt Walker (Dean Crane), Jugglers (Martin Brothers), clowns (Bob Dixon and Harry Lee Rogers), Strongman (Pat Tolson), Gladys Zuwicki (Mary Ann Niles), Gloria Zuwicki (Christine Bartel), Gypsy (Christine Bartel), Marco the Magnificent (James Mitchell), Incomparable Rosalie (Kaye Ballard), Greta Schlegel (June Meshonek), Lili (Anna Maria Alberghetti), Paul Berthalet (Jerry Orbach), Aerialist (Dean Crane), Dr. Glass (Igors Gavon)

Synopsis: Based on the film Lili but with a new score, this is the story of an orphan who is taken in by the folk at a small carnival in Europe. Lili fails at several jobs with the run-down troupe; however, she becomes the center of a rivalry between Marco the Magnificent, the troupe’s magician, and Paul Berthalet, a puppeteer with an injured leg. Marco seems to be winning her affections, but Paul communicates through his charming puppets. Lili finally joins the puppet act, and in the end she dramatically rejects the beguiling Marco and exits with Paul, the one who is true.

Songs: “Direct from Vienna”; “A Very Nice Man”; “Fairyland”; “I’ve Got to Find a Reason”; “Mira”; “Sword, Rose, and Cape”; “Humming”; “Yes, My Heart”; “Everybody Likes You”; “Magic, Magic”; “Tanz Mit Mir”; “Carnival Ballet”; “Yum Ticky”; “The Rich”; “Beautiful Candy”; “Her Face”; “Grand Imperial Cirque de Paris”; “I Hate Him”; “Always, Always You”; “She’s My Love”

Tony Awards: Best Actress in a Musical (Alberghetti), Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Will Steven Armstrong). Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Author of a Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Olaf), Best Direction of a Musical, Best Producer of a Musical

Comments: The two stars of the show were Anna Maria Alberghetti and Gower Champion’s choreography.

*CARNIVAL IN FLANDERS (September 8, 1953; New Century Theatre; 6 performances). Director: Preston Sturges; Composer: Jimmy Van Heusen; Lyricist: Johnny Burke; Librettist: Preston Sturges; Choreographer: Helen Tamiris. Based on a 1934 French comedy and set in seventeenth-century Flanders, starring John Raitt and Dolores Gray, the show concerns a Spanish duke and his entourage descending upon a small community. In the shortest-lived Tony-honored performance ever, Gray won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical.

CAROUSEL (April 19, 1945; Majestic Theatre; 890 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Theatre Guild; Director: Rouben Mamoulian; Composer: Richard Rodgers; Lyricist/Librettist: Oscar Hammerstein II; Choreographer: Agnes de Mille; Original source: Based on Ferenc Molnar’s play Lilion, adapted by Benjamin F. Glazer

Original cast: Carrie Pipperidge (Margot Moser), Julie Jordan (Iva Withers), Mrs. Mullin (Jean Casto), Billy Bigelow (John Raitt), Nettie Fowler (Christine Johnson), Louise (Bambi Linn), Jigger Craigin (Murvyn Vye), Enoch Snow (Eric Mattson), Carrie (Jean Darling)

Synopsis: In the late 1800s, rowdy carnival barker Billy Bigelow wants to meet the lovely Julie Jordan but proves to be unexpectedly shy. He vows to change for the better, and they are married in June; however, when they are expecting a child, Billy and his evil friend Jigger stage a holdup to get money. Billy kills himself rather than be caught. He is allowed to return to earth and redeem himself and see his now grown daughter, Louise. When she refuses to accept a star he has stolen, he is angry and slaps her. For that, he returns to purgatory, but he knows she and Julie have a good life without him.

Songs: “You’re a Queer One, Julie Jordan”; “When I Marry Mister Snow”; “If I Loved You”; “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over”; “When the Children Are Asleep”; “Blow High, Blow Low”; “This Was a Real Nice Clambake”; “Geraniums in the Winder”; “What’s the Use of Wond’rin”; “You’ll Never Walk Alone”; “The Highest Judge of All”

Comments: This production was said to be the most ambitious and successful score ever written by Richard Rodgers. Instead of an overture, the show opened with a dance-pantomine set to the marvelous “Carousel Waltz,” originally written for Paul Whiteman’s jazz band but never performed by him. In this most musical musical, “If I Loved You,” sung by Billy, runs nearly ten minutes. The 1956 movie version starred Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones.

*THE CONQUERING HERO (January 16, 1961; ANTA Theatre; 8 performances). Director: Albert Marre; Composer: Moose Charlap; Lyricist: Norman Gimbel; Librettist: Larry Gelbart; Choreographer: Todd Bolender. The timeliness of a man mistaken as a World War II hero (Tom Poston) was lost on 1961 audiences. There was much trouble in this production before opening night, including the fact that Bob Fosse was replaced as both director and choreographer.

*COPPER AND BRASS (October 17, 1957; Martin Beck Theatre; 36 performances). Director: Marc Daniels; Composer: David Baker; Lyricist: David Craig; Librettists: Ellen Violet and David Craig; Choreographer: Anna Sokolow. Nancy Walker was unable to bring to life this musical story of Katey O’Shea, a somewhat scatterbrained policewoman in New York City who constantly gets everything mixed up. Critics felt that one of Walker’s first-act numbers correctly caught the tenor of the show; it was entitled “I Need All the Help I Can Get.”

*COURTIN’ TIME (June 14, 1951; National Theatre; 37 performances). Director: Alfred Drake; Composers: Don Walker and Jack Lawrence; Lyricists: Jack Lawrence and Don Walker; Librettist: William Roos; Choreographer: George Balanchine. Eden Phillpotts’s play The Farmer’s Wife, originally about a young farming couple in rural Nebraska, is set to music with a Maine 1898 setting. Trouble plagued the production; Lloyd Nolan was replaced by director Alfred Drake, who was later replaced by Joe E. Brown.

DAMN YANKEES (May 5, 1955; 46th Street Theatre; 1,019 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith, and Harold S. Prince, in association with Albert B. Taylor; Director: George Abbott; Composers/Lyricists: Richard Adler and Jerry Ross; Librettists: George Abbott and Douglas Wallop; Choreographer: Bob Fosse; Original source: Adapted from Wallop’s book The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant

Original cast: Meg (Shannon Bolin), Joe Boyd (Robert Shafer), Applegate (Ray Walston), Sister (Jean Stapleton), Joe Hardy (Stephen Douglass), Henry (Al Lanti), Sohovik (Eddie Phillips), Smokey (Nathaniel Frey), Vernon (Albert Linville),Van Buren (Russ Brown), Rocky (Jimmie Komack), Gloria (Rae Allen), Lynch (Del Horstmann), Welch (Richard Bishop), Lola (Gwen Verdon), Miss Weston (Janie Janvier)

Synopsis: This is a new approach to the Faustian legend about selling one’s soul to the devil. Applegate (the devil) appears to Joe Boyd to accept his soul in exchange for making the Washington Senators champions of the baseball world. Suddenly, average Joe is athlete Joe Hardy. A winning streak follows, but Joe misses his wife. His wife, however, does not recognize him as a young man. Thinking that Joe might not go through with the plan to sell his soul, Applegate sends Lola to Joe as a warning. Instead, Joe goes home to his wife and watches the Senators lose again.

Songs: “Six Months Out of Every Year”; “Goodbye, Old Girl”; “Heart”; “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo”; “A Man Doesn’t Know”; “A Little Brains”; “Whatever Lola Wants”; “Who’s Got the Pain?”; “The Game”; “Near to You”; “Those Were the Good Old Days”; “Two Lost Souls”

Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Walston), Best Actress in a Musical (Verdon), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Brown), Best Choreography (Fosse), Best Conductor and Musical Director (Hal Hastings), Best Stage Technician (Harry Green). Tony nominations: Best Actor in a Musical (Douglass), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Allen)

Comments: Jerry Ross died shortly after the opening, and Richard Adler left the Broadway scene for years. During tryouts, Gwen Verdon as Lola did not appear until well into the first act. It was soon noted that whenever she was on, audience interest visibly increased; therefore, by the time the show hit Broadway, Lola appeared on stage much earlier in the production.

THE DAY BEFORE SPRING (November 22, 1945; National Theatre; 167 performances)

Production credits: Producer: John C. Wilson; Director: Edward Padula; Composer: Frederick Loewe; Lyricist/Librettist: Alan Jay Lerner; Choreographer: Anthony Tudor

Original cast: Lucille (Bette Anderson), Peter Townsend (John Archer), May Tompkins (Lucille Benson), Voltaire (Paul Best), Harry Scott (Robert Field), Leonore (Lucille Floetman), Plato (Ralph Glover), Susan (Ariouine Goodjohn), Gerald Barker (Tom Helmore), Alex Maitland (Bill Johnson), Freud (Hermann Leopoldi), Marjorie (Estelle Loring), Katherine Townsend (Irene Manning), Eddie Warren (Dwight Marfield), Christopher Randolph (Patricia Marshall), Joe McDonald (Don Mayo), Anne (Betty Jean Smythe)

Synopsis: Katherine and Peter Townsend go back to Harrison University for their tenth reunion, where Katherine is reunited with Alex Maitland, with whom she almost eloped ten years before. Stirred by a novel that he has written about her, Katherine decides to leave her husband and run away with Maitland again. This time, as before, the car breaks down. In the end, all is forgiven—at least partly.

Songs: “The Day Before Spring”; “God’s Green World”; “You Haven’t Changed at All”; “My Love Is a Married Man”; “Friends to the End”; “A Jug of Wine”; “I Love You This Morning”; “Where’s My Wife?”; “This Is My Holiday”

Comments: Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe were reunited in this production. The cast and music were good, but the story—which included a ballet for each of the main characters—proved to be tedious on stage. The show was revived by the York Theatre Company in New York City in 2007 and included material missing from the production since it closed in 1946.

DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (April 23, 1959; Imperial Theatre; 473 performances)

Production credits: Producers: David Merrick, in association with Max Brown; Director/Choreographer: Michael Kidd; Composer/Lyricist: Howard Rome; Librettist: Leonard Gershe

Original cast: Bartender and Bailey (Ray Mason), Frenchy (Dolores Gray), Wash (Jack Prince), Sheriff Keogh (Oran Osburn), Kent’s Gang (Marc Breaux, Swen Swenson, and George Reeder), Mayor Slade (Don McHenry), Claggett (Don Crabtree), Kent (Scott Brady), Chloe (Libi Staiger), Rose Lovejoy (Elizabeth Watts), Jack Tyndall (Nolan Van Way), Destry (Andy Griffith), Stage Driver (Chad Block), Ming Li (Reiko Sato), Mrs. Claggett (May Muth), Clara (Rosetta LeNoire), Dimples (Sharon Shore)

Synopsis: Adapted from a 1939 Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart film, the musical is set in the Wild West at the turn of the century. Destry is hired to stop a murderous gang that is terrorizing the town, but he is actually a shy sort against violence. Kent is the leader of the gang, and he unsuccessfully tries to get his girlfriend, Frenchy, to seduce Destry. In a gun battle that he is forced to enter, Destry must resort to violence. Frenchy helps save his life. With the gang gone, peace returns to the town, and Destry and Frenchy realize that they are in love.

Songs: “Bottleneck”; “Ladies”; “Hoop-de-Dingle”; “Tomorrow Morning”; “Ballad of the Gun”; “I Know Your Kind”; “I Hate Him”; “Paradise Alley”; “Anyone Would Love You”; “Once Knew a Fella”; “Every Once in a While”; “Fair Warning”; “Are you Ready, Gyp Watson?”; “Not Guilty”; “Only Time Will Tell”; “Respectability”; “That Ring on the Finger”; “I Say Hello”

Tony Award: Best Choreography. Tony nominations: Best Direction of a Musical (Kidd), Best Actor in a Musical (Griffith), Best Actress in a Musical (Gray)

Comments: Although it ran more than a year, the show was a financial failure; however, reviewers praised Kidd’s choreography, especially the number where the dancers fill the air with slashing bullwhips.

DO I HEAR A WALTZ? (March 18, 1965; 46th Street Theatre; 220 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Richard Rodgers; Director: John Dexter; Composer: Richard Rodgers; Lyricist: Steven Sondheim; Librettist: Arthur Laurents; Choreographer: Herbert Ross; Original source: Based on Arthur Laurents’s play The Time of the Cuckoo

Original cast: Leona Samish (Elizabeth Allen), Mauro (Christopher Votos), Signora Fioria (Carol Bruce), Eddie Yaeger (Stuart Damon), Mrs. McIllhenny (Julienne Marie), Mr. McIllhenny (Jack Manning), Giovanna (Fleury D’Antonakis), Vito (James Dybas), Renato di Rossi (Sergio Franchi), Man on Bridge (Steve Jacobs), Mrs. Victoria Haslam (Helon Blount)

Synopsis: Lonely and alone in Venice, Leona Samish has convinced herself that she will hear a waltz in the air when the right man comes along. Then she meets romantic shopowner Renato and is enchanted when he gives her a necklace, but enchantment turns to sorrow when she later learns he is married. To make matters worse, she discovers that he has not paid for the necklace, which she is now obligated to do. And there is one more final blow, when Leona discovers that the romantic-appearing Renato is not only a liar, but he has also been given a commission on the sale of the necklace.

Songs: “Someone Woke Up”; “This Week Americans”; “What Do We Do? We Fly!”; “Someone Like You”; “Bargaining”; “Here We Are Again”; “Thinking”; “No Understand”; “Take the Moment”; “Moon in My Window”; “We’re Gonna Be All Right”; “Do I Hear a Waltz?”; “Stay”; “Perfectly Lovely Couple”; “Thank You So Much”

Tony nominations: Best Actress in a Musical (Allen), Best Composer and Lyricist, Best Scenic Design (Beni Montresor)

Comments: This was the shortest run of a Richard Rodgers musical during the era, due mainly to a competent but not outstanding score and the absence of a big star.

*DONNYBROOK! (May 18, 1961; 46th Street Theatre; 68 performances). Director/Choreographer: Jack Cole; Composer/Lyricist: Johnny Burke; Librettist: Robert E. McEnroe; Original source: Based on the film The Quiet Man (1952). Art Lund and Joan Fagan played the roles created by John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in this story of a prizefighter who killed a man in the ring in the United States and returns to Ireland with a vow never to fight again. But he woos a tempestuous lass who wants a man who will stand up and fight for her.

DO RE MI (December 26, 1960; St. James Theatre; 400 performances)

Production credits: Producer: David Merrick; Director: Garson Kanin; Composer: Jule Styne; Lyricists: Betty Comden and Adolph Green; Librettist: Garson Kanin; Choreographers: Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood

Original cast: Hubert Cram (Phil Silvers), Kay Cram (Nancy Walker), Fatso O’Rear (George Mathews), John Henry Wheeler (John Reardon), Brains Berman (David Burns), Tilda Mullen (Nancy Dussault), Skin Demopoulos (George Givot), Moe Shtarker (Al Lewis)

Synopsis: Hubert and Kay Cram live the high life anytime one of his hairbrain schemes pays off, but this time they feel they have really run into success. Hubert decides to get into the jukebox business, even though such a move means he will have to associate with the mob. Although the scheme pays off and they are soon very wealthy, Kay begins to long for the good old days. Finally, Hubert is forced out of the jukebox business, and things return to normal, until his next big idea.

Songs: “Adventure”; “All of My Life”; “All You Need Is a Quarter”; “Ambition”; “Asking for You”; “Cry Like the Wind”; “Fireworks”; “He’s a V.I.P.”; “I Know about Love”; “It’s Legitimate”; “The Juke Box Hop”; “The Late, Late Show”; “Make Someone Happy”; “Success”; “Take a Job”; “V.I.P.”; “Waiting, Waiting”; “What’s New at the Zoo?”; “Who Is Mister Big?”

Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Silvers), Best Actress in a Musical (Walker), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Dussault), Best Direction of a Musical (Kanin)

Comments: This was another show with a good run that ended in the loss column. The strength of the production rested with its two star comics.

*DRAT! THE CAT! (October 10, 1965; Martin Beck Theatre; 8 performances). Director/Choreographer: Joe Layton; Composer: Milton Schafer; Lyricist/Librettist: Ira Levin. The story revolves around a love affair between a policeman and a heiress in 1890s New York society, where a cat burglar is plundering the rich. Patrolman Bob Purefoy vows to uphold the law as he guards the social event of the season; however, he falls in love with the daughter of the rich couple who is throwing the party, and she vows to help him catch the burglar.

Tony nomination: Best Scenic Design

*DREAM WITH MUSIC (May 18, 1944; Majestic Theatre; 28 performances). Director: Richard Kollmar; Composer: Clay Warnick; Lyricist/Librettist: Edward Eager; Choreographer: George Ballanchine. Another Arabian Nights theme, this concerns a soap-opera author (Vera Zorina) with settings in her apartment, in a palace in Baghdad, on a magic carpet in the clouds, China, and in the palace of Aladdin, who is played by Ronald Graham.

*THE DUCHESS MISBEHAVES (February 13, 1946; Adelphi Theatre; 5 performances). Director: Martin Manulis; Composer: Frank Black; Lyricist/Librettist: Gladys Shelley; Choreographer: George Tapps. Jackie Gleason thought so little of the show that he left during tryouts. It was the only Broadway musical for Shelley, who was a favorite of New York nightclub singers.

FADE OUT—FADE IN (May 26, 1964; Mark Hellinger Theatre; 271 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Lester Osterman and Jule Styne; Director: George Abbott; Composer: Jule Styne; Lyricists/Librettists: Betty Comden and Adolph Green; Choreographer: Ernest Flatt

Original cast: Bryon Prong (Jack Cassidy), Woman (Diana Eden), Man and Rex (Darrell J. Askey), Helga Sixtrees (Judy Cassmore), Pops (Frank Tweddell), Rosco (Bob Neukum), Billy Vespers (Glenn Kezer), Lyman and Frank Governor (John Dorrin), Hope Springfield (Carol Burnett), Chauffeur (William Louther), First Girl (Wendy Taylor), Ralph Governor (Mitchell Jason), Rudolph Governor (Dick Patterson), George Governor (Howard Kahl), Harold Governor (Gene Varrone), Arnold Governor (Stephen Elmore), Myra May Melrose (Virginia Payne), Seamstress (Diane Arnold), Miss Mallory (Jo Tract), Custer Corkley (Dan Resin), Approval (Smaxie), Photographer (Sean Allan), Max Welch (Richard Frisch), Lou Williams (Tiger Haynes), Dora Dailey (Aileen Poe), Lionel Z. Governor (Lou Jacobi), Dr. Anton Traurig (Reuben Singer), Gloria Curie (Tina Louise), Madame Barrymore (Penny Egelston)

Synopsis: In the 1930s, Hope Springfield, a chorus girl, is accidentally given a starring part in a motion picture. When the mistake is discovered, the film is put on the shelf; however, Rudolf Governor, who is the nephew of the studio head, sees the film and arranges a preview. Unexpectedly, the movie is successful. Now, Hope becomes a star, and she and Rudolf become a team.

Songs: “The Thirties”; “It’s Good to Be Back Home”; “Fear”; “Call Me Savage”; “The Usher from the Mezzanine”; “I’m with You”; “My Fortune Is My Face”; “Lila Tremaine”; “Go Home Train”; “Close Harmony”; “You Mustn’t Be Discouraged”; “The Dangerous Age”; “L. Z. in Quest of His Youth”; “The Fiddler and the Fighter”; “Fade Out—Fade In”

Tony nomination: Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Cassidy)

Comments: Carol Burnett suffered from neck and back problems during the run, so the show had to close for a three-month period since no one else could be found to replace her.

*A FAMILY AFFAIR (January 27, 1962; Billy Rose Theatre; 84 performances). Director: Harold Prince; Composer: John Kander; Lyricists: James Goldman and John Kander; Librettists: James Golden and William Golden; Choreographer: John Butler. Rita Gardner and Larry Kert starred as a young couple living in Chicago. Their chaotic marriage plans set off World War III among their extended family. The musical ends with what some critics referred to as the looniest wedding of the year.

FANNY (November 4, 1954; Majestic Theatre; 888 performances)

Production credits: Producers: David Merrick and Joshua Logan; Director: Joshua Logan; Composer/Lyricist: Harold Rome; Librettists: S. N. Behrman and Joshua Logan; Choreographer: Helen Tamiris; Original source: Based on the trilogy of Marcel Pagnoli

Original cast: The Admiral (Gerald Price), First Sailor (Tom Gleason), Sailor (Herb Banke), Marius (Steve Wiland), Sailmaker (Jack Washburn), Honorine (Edna Preston), Fanny (Florence Henderson), Claudette and Claudine (Tani Seitz and Dran Seitz), Charles (Wally Strauss), Nanette (Norma Doggett), Mimi (Carolyn Maye), Marie (Ellen Matthews), Michellette (Jane House), Panisse (Walter Slezak), Escartifigue (Alan Carney), M. Brun (Don McHenry), Cesar (Ezio Pinza), Nun (Ruth Schumacher), Cesario (Lloyd Reese)

Synopsis: Marius dreams of going off to sea, but his father, Cesar, who owns a waterfront café in Marseilles, wants him to marry Fanny. Instead, Marius defies his father and leaves behind a pregnant and still-unwed Fanny. She marries Panisse, a kindly old sailmaker. When Marius returns and looks for Fanny, Cesar steps in to prevent a rekindling of the romance to spare the feelings of Panisse. Marius leaves once more and returns several years later. When the boy born to Fanny reaches his twelfth birthday, Panisse, who is about to die, tells Fanny to wed Marius so that the boy will have a father.

Songs: “Octopus Song”; “Restless Heart”; “Never Too Late for Love”; “Cold Cream Jar Song”; “Does He Know?”; “Welcome Home”; “I Like You”; “I Have to Tell You”; “Fanny”; “The Sailing”; “Oysters, Cockles, and Mussels”; “Panisse and Son”; “Birthday Song”; “To My Wife”; “The Thought of You”; “Love Is a Very Light Thing”; “Other Hands, Other Hearts”; “Be Kind to Your Parents”

Tony Award: Best Actor in a Musical (Slezak)

Comments: Reviewers called this one of Slezak’s best roles.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (September 22, 1964; Imperial Theatre; 3,242 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Harold Prince; Director/Choreographer: Jerome Robbins; Composer: Jerry Bock; Lyricist: Sheldon Harnick; Original source: Based on a book by Joseph Stein adapted from Sholom Aleicheim’s stories

Original cast: Tevye (Zero Mostel), Golde (Maria Karnilova), Tzeitel (Joanna Merlin), Hodel (Julia Migenes), Chava (Tanya Everett), Shprintze (Marilyn Rogers), Bielke (Linda Ross), Yente (Beatrice Arthur), Motel (Austin Pendleton), Perchik (Bert Convy), Lazar (Michael Granger), Mordcha (Zvee Scooler), Rabbi (Gluck Sandor), Mendel (Leonard Frey), Avram (Paul Lipson), Nachum (Maurice Edwards), Grandma Tzeitel (Sue Babel), Constable (Joseph Sullivan), Fyedka (Joe Ponazecki), Shandel (Helen Verbit)

Synopsis: It is 1905 in a poor Jewish community in a Russian village. Dairyman Tevye has five daughters, and he and his wife have asked the village matchmaker to find a husband for the eldest. When Lazar asks for Tzeitel’s hand, the problem seems to be solved, except that Tzeitel does not want him. She loves Motel, the tailor. Tevye decides not to object, but the wedding is postponed because of a pogrom. Then the second daughter, Hodel, falls in love with a radical, Perchik. He is shipped to Siberia, and Hodel follows him. Unhappiest of all for Tevye, his third daughter decides to marry a Christian. This time he opposes the marriage, so Chava and Fyedka elope. When Tevye learns that the Jews must leave his village for the United States, he joins the exodus.

Songs: “Tradition”; “Matchmaker, Matchmaker”; “If I Were a Rich Man”; “Sabbath Prayer”; “To Life”; “Miracle of Miracles”; “The Tailor”; “Motel Kamzoil”; “Sunrise, Sunset”; “Now I Have Everything”; “Do You Love Me?”; “I Just Heard”; “Far from the Home I Love”; “Anatevka”

Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Mostel), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Karnilova), Best Composer and Lyricist (Bock and Harnick), Best Author (Stein), Best Direction of a Musical, Best Producer of a Musical, Best Choreography, Best Costume Design (Patricia Zipprodt). Tony nomination: Best Scenic Design (Boris Aronson).

Comments: This was the season’s biggest hit, and it is often called the last great masterwork of the era. The show closed on July 2, 1972, the longest run of the Golden Age.

FINIAN’S RAINBOW (January 10, 1947; 46th Street Theatre; 725 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Lee Sabinson and William R. Katzell; Director: Bretaigne Windust; Composer: Burton Lane; Lyricist: E. Y. Harburg; Librettists: E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy; Choreographer: Michael Kidd

Original cast: Finian McLonergan (Albert Sharpe), Sharon McLonergan (Ella Logan), Og (David Wayne), Senator Billboard Rawkins (Robert Pitkin), Woody Mahoney (Donald Richards)

Synopsis: Finian McLonergan, who says he is from Glocca Morra, has stolen a crock of gold from the leprechauns and comes to the United States to the town of Rainbow Valley. He and his daughter, Sharon, intend to plant the gold at Fort Knox in the mistaken belief that it will grow and multiply. At Rainbow Valley, Woody Mahoney falls for Sharon, as does the leprechaun Og, who tries to stir up trouble until he realizes his love for her is hopeless. Woody discovers the same thing, and Finian and Sharon are free to wander once more.

Songs: “This Time of the Year”; “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?”; “If This Isn’t Love”; “Look to the Rainbow”; “Old Devil Moon”; “Something Sort of Grandish”; “Necessity”; “When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich”; “The Begat”; “When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love”; “That Great Come and Get It Day”

Tony Awards: Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Wayne; this was the first time this award was given), Best Choreography (Kidd), Best Conductor and Musical Director (Milton Rosenstock)

Comments: The critics loved everything about this musical, praising the score, with some saying it was the best musical of the season. It has been revived three times on Broadway, in 1955, 1960, and 1967. The 1968 film version starred Fred Astaire and Petula Clark.

FIORELLO! (November 23, 1959; Broadhurst Theatre; 795 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince; Director: George Abbott; Composer: Jerry Bock; Lyricist: Sheldon Harnick; Librettists: Jerome Weidman and George Abbott; Choreographer: Peter Gennaro

Original cast: Announcer and Second Player (Del Horstmann); Fiorello (Tom Bosley), Neil (Bob Holiday), Morris (Nathaniel Frey), Mrs. Pomerantz (HelenVerbit), Mr. Lopez and Politician (H. F. Green), Mr. Zappatella (David Collyer), Dora (Pat Stanley), Marie (Patricia Wilson), Ben (Howard Da Silva), Ed Peterson and Frantic (Stanley Simmonds), Third Player and Commissioner (Michael Quinn), Fourth Player (Ron Husmann), Fifth Player and Tough Man (David London), Sixth Player (Julian Patrick), Seedy Man, Fourth Heckler, and Judge Carter (Joseph Toner), First Heckler (Bob Bernard), Second Heckler, Frankie Scarpini, and Second Man (Michael Scrittorale), Third Heckler (Jim Maher), Nina (Pat Turner), Floyd (Mark Dawson), Sophie (Lynn Ross), Thea (Ellen Hanley), Secretary and Florence (Mara Landi), Senator (Frederic Downs), Mitzi (Eileen Rogers), First Man (Scott Hunter)

Synopsis: The show, which took the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, features highlights in the career of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and opens with him reading comics to children over the radio during a newspaper strike in New York City. With warmth and humor, it tells the story of his rise to power as mayor of New York City in a time when the political machine known as Tammany Hall ruled the town with vice and corruption.

Songs: “On the Side of the Angels”; “Politics and Poker”; “Unfair”; “Marie’s Law”; “The Name’s LaGuardia”; “The Bum Won”; “I Love a Cop”; “Till Tomorrow”; “Home Again”; “When Did I Fall in Love”; “Gentleman Jimmy”; “Little Tin Box”; “The Very Next Man”

Tony Awards: Best Musical (tie with The Sound of Music), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Bosley), Best Direction of a Musical. Tony nominations: Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Da Silva), Best Scenic Design (William and Jean Eckart), Best Choreography, Best Conductor and Musical Director (Hal Hastings)

*FIRST IMPRESSIONS (March 19, 1959; Alvin Theatre; 108 performances). Director/Librettist: Abe Burrows; Composers/Lyricists: Robert Goldman, Glenn Paxton, and George Weiss, with James Mitchell; Choreographer: Jonathan Lucas; Original source: Based on Jane Austin’s book Pride and Prejudice in musical form. The story centers on the Bennett family in England in 1813. Mrs. Bennett’s primary aim in life is to see that her daughters—all five of them—get married. She is pleased when the wealthy Fitzwilliam Darcy arrives in nearby Netherfield Hall, but an instant dislike springs up between daughter Elizabeth and Darcy.

*FLAHOOLEY (May 14, 1951; Broadhurst Theatre; 50 performances). Director/Lyricist: E. Y. Harburg; Composer: Sammy Fain; Librettists: E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy; Choreographer: Helen Tamiris. Barbara Cook headed the cast of a show, which also included Yma Sumac, which deals with sales from a laughing doll. The score sung by Cook and Jerome Courtland was pleasing, but reviewers were critical.

*FLORA, THE RED MENACE (May 11, 1965; Alvin Theatre; 87 performances). Director: George Abbott; Composer: John Kander; Lyricist: Fred Ebb; Librettists: George Abbott and Robert Russell; Choreographer: David Baker. Liza Minnelli was in the title role about a girl whose boyfriend persuades her to join the Communist party, even though it compromises her job. In the end, she must sacrifice one or the other for true happiness. Minnelli won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical that year at age nineteen, the youngest to win until Frankie Michaels took the award (as featured actor in Mame) in 1966 at age eleven.

Tony Award: Best Actress in a Musical (Minelli)

FLOWER DRUM SONG (December 1, 1958; St. James Theatre; 600 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, in association with Joseph Fields; Director: Gene Kelly; Composer: Richard Rodgers; Lyricist: Oscar Hammerstein II; Librettists: Oscar Hammerstein II and Joseph Fields; Choreographer: Carol Haney; Original source: Based on the novel by C. Y. Lee

Original cast: Madam Liang (Juanita Hall), Liu Ma (Rose Quong), Wang San (Patrick Adiarte), Wang Ta (Ed Kenny), Wang Chi Yang (Keye Luke), Sammy Fong (Larry Blyden), Dr. Li (Conrad Yama), Mei Li (Miyoshi Umeki), Linda Low (Pat Suzuki), Mr. Lung (Harry Shaw Lowe), Helen Chao (Arabella Hong), Professor Cheng (Peter Chan), Frankie Wing (Jack Soo), Night Club Singer (Anita Ellis), Dr. Lu Fong (Chao Li), Madam Fong (Eileen Nakamura)

Synopsis: In the ways of their ancestors, Sammy is under contract to marry Mei Li; however, he is actually in love with Linda Low, a nightclub hostess. Sammy tries to arrange a marriage for Mei Li with Wang Ta, who Sammy thinks also likes Linda, but Wang Ta begins to cool toward Linda and is attracted to Mei Li, which causes the Three Family Association to declare that Sammy and Mei Li must marry right away. With no other choice, the wedding takes place, but it is Linda who is under the veil, and now Mei Li and Wang Ta are free to marry.

Songs: “You Are Beautiful”; “A Hundred Million Miracles”; “I Enjoy Being a Girl”; “I Am Going to Like It Here”; “Like a God”; “Chop Suey”; “Don’t Marry Me”; “Grant Avenue”; “Love Look Away”; “Fan Tan Fannie”; “Gliding through My Memoree”; “The Other Generation”; “Sunday”

Tony Awards: Best Conductor and Musical Director (Salvatore Dell’Isola). Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Blyden), Best Actress in a Musical (Umeki), Best Costume Design, Best Choreography

Comments: The cast was excellent and the score humorous and sentimental. Although not considered a major work for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, the production nonetheless pleased audiences for two seasons.

FOLLOW THE GIRLS (April 8, 1944; New Century Theatre; 882 performances)

Production credits: Producers: David Wolper, in association with Albert Dorde; Directors: Harry Delmar and Fred Thompson; Composers/Lyricists: Phil Charig, Dan Shapiro, and Milton Pascal; Librettists: Guy Bolton, Fred Thompson, and Eddie Davis; Choreographer: Catherine Littlefield

Original cast: Bubbles La Marr (Gertrude Niesen), Goofy Gale (Jackie Gleason), Spud Doolittle (Tim Herbert), Sailor Val and Felix Charrel (Val Valentinoff), Dinky Riley (Buster West), Anna Viskinova (Irina Baranova), Petty Officer Banner (Lee Davis), Phyllis Brent (Toni Gilman), Peggy Baker (Dorothy Keller), Seaman Pennywhistle and Archie Smith (Frank Kreig), Captain Hawkins (Walter Long), Bob Monroe (Frank Parker), Officer Flanagan (George Spaulding), Catherine Pepburn (Geraldine Strock), Yokel Sailor (Bill Tabbert), Dan Daley (Robert Tower)

Synopsis: The thin story line concerns a striptease queen who becomes the star attraction at a servicemen’s club in Great Neck, Long Island, New York, during World War II. As a contribution to the war effort, burlesque Bubbles La Marr takes over the servicemen’s canteen, but her boyfriend, Goofy Gale, is 4-F, so he steals a Wave’s uniform to gain entrance to the club.

Songs: “At the Spotlight Canteen”; “Where You Are”; “You Don’t Dance”; “Strip Flips Hip”; “Thanks for Lousy Evening”; “You’re Perf”; “Twelve O’Clock and All Is Well”; “Out for No Good”; “Follow the Girls”; “John Paul Jones”; “I Wanna Get Married”; “Today Will Be Yesterday Tomorrow”; “A Tree That Grows in Brooklyn”

Comments: This was one of the last Golden Age “rowdy” musicals that much resembled burlesque.

*FOXY (February 16, 1964; Ziegfeld Theatre; 72 performances). Director: Robert Lewis; Composer: Robert Emmett Dolan; Lyricist: Johnny Mercer; Librettists: Ian Hunter and Ring Lardner Jr.; Choreographer: Jack Cole. Best known for his movie portrayal of the Lion in The Wizard of Oz, Bert Lahr had the title role in this musical set in the days of the Klondike gold rush. It was his last Broadway appearance before his death. Despite poor reviews and a mediocre score, Lahr won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical.

Tony Award: Best Actor in a Musical (Lahr). Tony nomination: Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Julienne Marie)

FUNNY GIRL (March 26, 1964; Winter Garden Theatre; 1,348 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Ray Stark; Director: Garson Kanin; Composer: Jule Styne; Lyricist: Bob Merrill; Librettist: Isobel Lennart: Choreographer: Carol Haney; Original source: Based on Isobel Lennart’s original story

Original cast: Fanny Brice (Barbra Streisand), John (Robert Howard), Emma (Royce Wallace), Mrs. Brice (Kay Medford), Mrs. Strakosh (Jean Stapleton), Mrs. Meeker (Lydia S. Fredericks), Mrs. O’Malley (Joyce O’Neil), Tom Keeney (Joseph Macaulay), Eddie Ryan (Danny Meehan), Heckie (Victor R. Helou), Snub Taylor and Ben (Buzz Miller), Trombone Smitty (Blair Hammond), Five Finger Finney (Alan E. Weeks), Bubbles (Shellie Farrell), Polly (Joan Lowe), Maud (Ellen Halpin), Nick Arnstein (Sydney Chaplin), Florenz Ziefeld Jr. (Roger De Koven), Mimsey (Sharon Vaughn), Ziegfeld Tenor and Adoph (John Lankston), Mrs. Nadler (Rose Randolf), Paul (Larry Fuller), Kathy (Joan Cory), Vera (Lainie Kazan), Jennie (Diane Coupe), Mr. Renaldi (Marc Jordan), Mike Halsey (Robert Howard)

Synopsis: The Funny Girl of the show was the real life Fanny Brice, a comedienne and Broadway and film star who hid her shyness and imperfections behind a display of bravado and gags. The musical is set in and around New York City following World War I. It traces the rise of the talented performer from her beginnings on the burlesque stage to stardom in the Ziegfeld Follies. It also traces her romance and finally her troubled marriage to entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein, who is sent to prison for embezzlement. At the end of the show, Arnstein is released from prison, and they decide to separate.

Songs: “If A Girl Isn’t Pretty”; “I’m the Greatest Star”; “Cornet Man”; “Who Taught Her Everything?”; “His Love Makes Me Beautiful”; “I want to Be Seen with You Tonight”; “Henry Street”; “People”; “You Are Woman”; “Don’t Rain on My Parade”; “Sadie, Sadie”; “Find Yourself a Man”; “Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat”; “Who Are You Now?”; “The Music That Makes Me Dance”

Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Chaplin), Best Actress in a Musical (Streisand), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Meehan), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Medford), Best Composer and Lyricist, Best Choreography (Haney), Best Producer (Stark).

Comments: With this show, Barbra Streisand became a star, reaching a lofty pinnacle she never left. At the opening, orchestra seats were $8.80, but her drawing power was such that all seats were raised to $9.60 not long afterward. Streisand took the show to London for fourteen weeks and also starred in the acclaimed movie version in 1968 with Omar Sharif. She sang many Fanny Brice songs on her television program, but the biggest song hit of Funny Girl—“People”—belonged not to Brice, but to Streisand.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (May 8, 1962; Alvin Theatre; 966 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Harold Prince; Director: George Abbott; Composer/Lyricist: Stephen Sondheim; Librettists: Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart; Choreographer: Jack Cole; Original source: Based on the plays of Plautus

Original cast: Prologus and Pseudolus (Zero Mostel), Proteans (Eddie Phillips, George Reeder, and David Evans), Senex (David Burns), Domina (Ruth Kobart), Hero (Brian Davies), Hysterium (Jack Giford), Lycus (John Carradine), Tintinabula (Roberta Keith), Panacea (Lucienne Breidou), Germinae (Liza James and Judy Alexander), Vibrata (Myrna White), Gymnasia (Gloria Kristy), Philia (Preshy Marker), Erronius (Raymond Walburn), Miles Gloriosus (Ronald Holgate)

Synopsis: A mixture of burlesque and comedy, the story centers on Pseudolus, the slave of Hero, who bids for his freedom by obtaining the courtesan Philia for his master; however, Miles Gloriosus has already bought Philia from Lycus, and Hero’s father, Senex, has other plans for her. So Pseudolus spreads the word that Philia has died of the plague, and a mock funeral follows. When Miles finds out he is Philia’s brother, he gives her to Hero, who gives Pseudolus his freedom.

Songs: “Comedy Tonight”; “Love, I Hear”; “Free”; “The House of Marcus Lycus”; “Lovely”; “Pretty Little Picture”; “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid”; “I’m Calm”; “Impossible”; “Bring Me My Bride”; “That Dirty Old Man”; “That’ll Show Him”

Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Mostel), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Burns), Best Author of a Musical (Shevelove and Gelbart), Best Direction of a Musical, Best Producer of a Musical. Tony nominations: Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Gilford), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Kobart)

*THE GAY LIFE (November 18, 1961; Shubert Theatre; 113 performances). Director: Gerald Freedman; Composers/Lyricists: Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz; Librettists: Fay Kanin and Michael Kanin; Choreographer: Herbert Ross. Set in Vienna in 1904, this is the story of a bachelor and man about town (Walter Chiari), who, on the day of his marriage to Liesl (Barbara Cook), is discovered to have a woman in his bedroom. When Liesl finds out, the marriage is off—for a time.

Tony Awards: Best Costume Design. Tony nominations: Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Elizabeth Allen), Best Scenic Design (Oliver Smith), Best Conductor and Musical Director (Herbert Greene)

GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (December 8, 1949; Ziegfeld Theatre; 740 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Herman Levin and Oliver Smith; Director: John C. Wilson; Composer: Jule Styne; Lyricist: Leo Robin; Librettists: Joseph Fields and Anita Loos; Choreographer: Agnes de Mille; Original source: Based on the novel by Anita Loos

Original cast: Dorothy Shaw (Yvonne Adair), Steward (Jerry Craig), Lorelei Lee (Carol Channing), Gus Esmond (Jack McCauley), Frank (Robert Cooper), George (Eddie Weston), Sunbathers (Pat Donahue and Marjorie Winters), Lady Phyllis Beekman (Rita Shaw), Sir Francis Beekman (Rex Evans), Mrs. Ella Spofford (Alice Pearce), Deck Stewards (Bob Buckhart and Jay Harnick), Henry Spofford (Eric Brotherson), Olympic (Kurt Stafford), Josephus Cage (George S. Irving), Deck Walkers (Fran Kegan and Junior Standish), Bill (Peter Birch), Gloria Stark (Anita Alvarez), Pierre (Bob Neukum), Taxi Driver and Head Waiter (Kazimir Kokic), Leon (Peter Holmes), Robert Lemanteur (Mort Marshall), Louis Lemanteur (Howard Morris), Flower Girl (Nicole France), Maitre d’Hotel (Crandall Diehl), Zizi (Judy Sinclair), Fifi (Hope Zee), Coles and Atkins (Charles Coles and Cholly Atkins), Tenor (William Krach), Policeman (William Diehl), Mr. Esmond Sr. (Irving Mitchell)

Synopsis: Lorelei Lee is a little girl from Little Rock, Arkansas, and she is about to head for Europe on a ship. Lorelei does not hide the fact that her mission in life is to get money—anyway she can. At the moment, all her expenses for the trip are paid by a button manufacturer named Gus. He finances the trip to Europe not only for Lorelei but also for her best friend, Dorothy. Once in England, Lorelei dates a dashing young Englishman. When she learns that he is richer than her button manufacturer, she makes plans to dump Gus and then discovers that Dorothy has already moved in.

Songs: “It’s High Time”; “Bye, Bye Baby”; “A Little Girl from Little Rock”; “I Love What I’m Doing”; “Just a Kiss Apart”; “The Practice Scherzo”; “It’s Delightful Down in Chile”; “Sunshine”; “I’m a Tingle, I’m a Glow”; “House on Rittenhouse Square”; “You Say You Care”; “Mamie Is Mimi”; “Coquette”; “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”; “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”; “Homesick Blues”; “Keeping Cool with Coolidge”; “Button Up with Esmond”

Comments: Carol Channing made such an impression in this role that it made her an instant star. A little more than a year after the show opened, Channing’s name appeared in lights above the title. On May 13, 1952, she gave her 1000th performance in the role. The highly successful 1953 movie starred Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe as Dorothy and Lorelei. Through the years, the musical has been revised in its original version and also revised as Lorelei.

*THE GIRL FROM NANTUCKET (November 8, 1945; Adelphi Theatre; 12 performances). Directors: Henry Adrian and Edward Clarke Lilley; Composer: Jacques Belasco; Lyricist: Kay Twomey; Librettists: Paul Stamford, Harold Sherman, and Hy Cooper; Choreographer: Val Raset. Set in New York City and Nantucket, Massachusetts, this is a tale about a house painter who, in a mix-up, is assigned the job of painting a museum mural. In one reviewer’s opinion, “It lacks everything.”

*THE GIRL IN PINK TIGHTS (March 5, 1954; Mark Hellinger Theatre; 115 performances). Director: Shepard Traube; Composer: Sigmund Romberg; Lyricist: Leo Robin; Librettist: Jerome Chodorov; Choreographer: Agnes de Mille. The music of operetta composer Sigmund Romberg (who died in 1951) highlights this tale about the opening of a French ballet company at the end of the Civil War. The show introduced ballerina Jeanmaire in her stage debut.

*THE GIRL WHO CAME TO SUPPER (December 8, 1963; Broadway Theatre; 112 performances). Director/Choreographer: Joe Layton; Composer/Lyricist: Noël Coward; Librettist: Harry Kurnitz. Neither Noël Coward’s music nor the presence of José Ferrer and Florence Henderson could bring to life this musical version of The Sleeping Prince. In addition, the show was not helped by opening so soon after John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Tony Award: Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Tessie O’Shea). Tony nominations: Best Author, Musical (Coward), Best Author, Musical (Kurnitz), Best Costume Design (Irene Sharaff)

THE GOLDEN APPLE (April 20, 1954; Alvin Theatre; 173 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Alfred De Liagre Jr. and Roger L. Stevens; Director: Norman Lloyd; Composer: Jerome Moross; Lyricist/Librettist: John Latouche; Choreographer: Hanya Holm

Original cast: Helen (Kaye Ballard), Lovey Mars (Bibi Osterwald), Mrs. Juniper (Charlotte Rae), Miss Minerva Oliver (Portia Nelson), Mother Hare (Martha Larrimore), Penelope (Virginia Copeland), Menelaus (Dean Michener), Ulysses (Gary Gordon), Theron (Stephen Couglass), Mayor Juniper (Jerry Stiller), Paris (Jonathan Lucas), Hector Charybdis (Jack Whiting)

Synopsis: This is an adaptation of Homer’s epic poems of the Trojan War, reset in the American northwest. Traveling salesman Paris drops in on the little town of Angel’s Roost, Washington, in a hot air balloon. The sheriff’s wife, Helen, who is much younger than her husband and a woman of easy virtue, promptly falls for him. The two run off to Rhododendron, with Ulysses, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, and the other townsfolk in close pursuit. Ulysses and Paris end up in a boxing match. Ulysses returns home where ever-faithful, loyal, and long-suffering Penelope waits.

Songs: “Nothing Ever Happens in Angel’s Roost”; “Mother Hare’s Séance”; “My Love Is on the Way”; “The Heroes Come Home”; “It Was a Glad Adventure”; “Come Along, Boys”; “It’s the Going Home Together”; “Mother Hare’s Prophecy”; “Helen Is Always Willing”; “The Church Social”; “Introducin’ Mr. Paris”; “The Judgment of Paris”; “Lazy Afternoon”; “The Departure for Rhododendron”; “My Picture in the Papers”; “The Taking of Rhododendron”; “Hector’s Song”; “Windflowers”; “Store-Bought Suit”; “Calypso”; “Scylla and Charybdis”; “Goona-Goona”; “Doomed, Doomed, Doomed”; “Circe, Circe”; “Ulysses’ Soliloquy”; “The Sewing Bee”; “The Tirade”

Comments: The show actually opened on March 11, 1954, at the Phoenix Theatre, and got such rave reviews that it was hurriedly transferred uptown. but the uptown crowds did not come and, although it cost only $75,000 to produce, it was taken off the boards at a loss. No one was ever sure why; critics suspect one of the reasons was that uptown audiences did not like the fact that the show had no dialogue.

GOLDEN BOY (October 20, 1964; Majestic Theatre; 569 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Hillard Elkins; Director: Arthur Penn, Composer: Charles Strouse; Lyricist: Lee Adams; Librettists: Clifford Odets and William Gibson; Choreographer: Donald McKayle; Original source: Based on the play by Clifford Odets

Original cast: Tom Moody (Kenneth Tobey), Roxy Gottlieb (Ted Beniades), Tokio (Charles Welch), Joe Wellington (Sammy Davis Jr.), Lorna Moon (Paula Wayne), Mr.Wellington (Roy Glenn), Anna (Jeannette DuBois), Ronnie (Johnny Brown), Frank (Louis Gossett), Terry (Terrin Miles), Hoodlum (Buck Heller), Eddie Satin (Billy Daniels), Benny (Benny Payne), Al (Albert Popwell), Lola (Lola Falana), Lopez (Jaime Rogers), Mabel (Mabel Robinson), Les (Lester Wilson), Drake (Don Crabtree), Fight Announcer (Maxwell Glanville), Reporter (Bob Daley), Driscoll (Ralph Vucci)

Synopsis: Joe is a young black man who wants to get rich quick. His way to wealth is boxing, despite his father’s objections. His white manager feels that Joe would be a better fighter if he put his heart into it, so he asks Lorna, the manager’s girlfriend, to persuade Joe to fight harder. Joe and Lorna fall in love. In a major fight, Joe knocks out Lopez and later learns the boxer is dead. That knowledge, coupled with the realization that Lorna is his manager’s girl, drives Joe to his Ferrari and his death.

Songs: “Workout”; “Night Song”; “Everything’s Great”; “Gimme Some”; “Stick Around”; “Don’t Forget 127th Street”; “Lorna’s Here”; “The Road Tour”; “This Is the Life”; “Golden Boy”; “While the City Sleeps”; “Colorful”; “I Want to Be with You”; “Can’t You See It?”; “No More”; “The Fight”

Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Davis), Best Choreography, Best Producer of a Musical

Comments: The choreography included a boxing match, but the score was judged lackluster, and the show ran as long as it did mainly because of Sammy Davis Jr. The 1939 movie, with the lead character a white boxer, presented Willian Holden in his starring debut and also starred Lee J. Cobb and Barbara Stanwyck.

GOLDILOCKS (October 11, 1958; Lunt-Fontanne Theatre; 161 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Producers Theatre; Director: Walter Kerr; Composer: Leroy Anderson; Lyricists: Joan Ford, Walter Kerr, and Jean Kerr; Librettists: Walter Kerr and Jean Kerr; Choreographer: Agnes de Mille

Original cast: Maggie Harris (Elaine Stritch), George Randolph Brown (Russell Nype), Max Grady (Don Ameche), Lois Lee (Pat Stanley), Pete (Nathaniel Frey), Andy (Richard Armbruster), J. C. (Martin Wolfson), Bessie (Margaret Hamilton), Chauffeur (Samye Van)

Synopsis: This is a love letter to the silent movies that Walter Kerr remembered as a child. In the movie colony of 1913 Fort Lee, New Jersey, there are many clashes between silent star actress Maggie Harris and vain movie producer Max Grady. Their rocky relationship becomes more complicated with the appearance of the beautiful Lois Lee, who decides that she wants Max for herself. But Maggie is intent on making one more picture under the title of Goldilocks, and this time the sardonic actress and cocky movie director find the way to true romance.

Songs: “Lazy Moon”; “Give the Little Lady”; “Save a Kiss”; “No One’ll Ever Love You”; “If I Can’t Take It with Me”; “Who’s Been Sitting in My Chair?”; “There Never Was a Woman”; “The Pussy Foot”; “Tom Cat”; “Brunette”; “Blondo”; “Lady in Waiting”; “The Beast in You”; “Shall I Take My Heart and Go?”; “Bad Companions”; “I Can’t Be in Love”; “I Never Know When”; “Two Years in the Making”; “Heart of Stone”

Tony Awards: Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Nype), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Stanley). Tony nominations: Best Choreography, Best Costume Design (Castillo), Best Conductor and Musical Director (Lehman Engel)

*GREAT TO BE ALIVE (March 23, 1950; Winter Garden Theatre; 52 performances). Director: Mary Hunter; Composers: Abraham Ellstein and Robert Russell Bennett; Lyricist: Walter Bullock; Librettists: Walter Bullock and Sylvia Regan; Choreographer: Helen Tamiris. Originally titled What a Day!, the show is set in an old Pennsylvania mansion and starred Vivienne Segal and Stuart Erwin in a tale about those who live happily among ghosts.

*GREENWILLOW (March 8, 1960; Alvin Theatre; 95 performances). Director: George Roy Hill; Composer/Lyricist: Frank Loesser; Librettists: Lesser Samuel and Frank Loesser; Choreographer: Joe Layton. In the magical rural American town of Greenwillow, it is the fate of the eldest male in the Briggs family—in this case Gideon (Anthony Perkins)—to leave his home to wander, even if that means breaking the heart of his sweetheart. But this time, with the help of a newcomer to Greenwillow, the Reverend Birdsong, Gideon is able to stay in the place he loves with the woman he loves.

Tony nominations: Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Pert Kelton), Best Choreography, Best Scenic Design, Musical (Peter Larkin), Best Costume Design (Alvin Colt), Best Conductor and Musical Director (Abba Bogin), Best Stage Technician (James Orr)

GUYS AND DOLLS (November 24, 1950; 46th Street Theatre; 1,194 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin; Director: George S. Kaufman; Composer/Lyricist: Frank Loesser; Librettists: Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows; Choreographer: Michael Kidd; Original source: Based on Damon Runyon stories and characters

Original cast: Sky Masterson (Robert Alda), Miss Adelaide (Vivian Blaine), Nathan Detroit (Sam Levene), Sarah Brown (Isabel Bigley), Arvide Abernathy (Pat Rooney Sr.), Nicely-Nicely Johnson (Stubby Kaye), Benny Southstreet (Johnny Silver), Big Jule (B. S. Pully), The Horse (Tom Pedi)

Synopsis: The musical revolves around two love stories and the colorful Damon Runyon characters. Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide have been engaged for fourteen years. The date gets no closer because Nathan always has another floating crap game to attend. Sky Masterson, also a gambler, makes a bet with Nathan that he can date Sarah from the Mission. They fall in love, but she is infuriated when she learns about the bet. In the crap game in an underground sewer, Sky wins and all the losers have to attend a Mission meeting. In the end, he marries Sarah, and Nathan and Adelaide are to be married at the Mission.

Songs: “Runyonland”; “Fugue for Tinhorns”; “Follow the Fold”; “The Oldest Established”; “I’ll Know”; “A Bushel and a Peck”; “Adelaide’s Lament”; “Guys and Dolls”; “If I Were a Bell”; “My Time of Day”; “I’ve Never Been in Love Before”; “Take Back Your Mink”; “More I Cannot Wish You”; “Luck Be a Lady”; “Sue Me”; “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat”; “Marry the Man Today”

Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Alda), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Bigley), Best Director, Best Choreography

Comments: Most of the reviewers gave raves to the production. Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, and Stubby Kaye headlined the 1955 hit movie, which added some songs to the score, such as “Woman in Love.” “If I Were a Bell” made the hit parade in 1950.

GYPSY (May 21, 1959; Broadway Theatre; 702 performances)

Production credits: Producers: David Merrick and Leland Hayward; Director/Choreographer: Jerome Robbins; Composer: Jule Styne; Lyricist: Stephen Sondheim; Librettist: Arthur Laurents; Original source: Based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee

Original cast: Uncle Jocko and Mr. Goldstone (Mort Marshall), Baby Louise (Karen Moore), Baby June (Jane Mayo), Louise (Sandra Church), June (Lane Bradbury), Herbie (Jack Klugman), Rose Lee (Ethel Merman), Tulsa (Paul Wallace), Yonkers (David Winters), Agnes (Marilyn Cooper), Miss Cratchitt (Peg Murray), Dolores (Marilyn D’Honau), Phil (Joe Silver)

Synopsis: This is the story of Gypsy Rose Lee’s rise to the top in burlesque, although the central figure is her mother, Rose, the ultimate stage mother. Rose, with children Baby June and Louise, searches for fame and fortune. June and Louise grow up on stage. June eventually elopes, which infuriates Rose after all she has worked for. Then she turns to Louise, who is at first reluctant but at last becomes a star.

Songs: “May We Entertain You”; “Some People”; “Small World”; “Baby June and Her Newsboys”; “Mr. Goldstone”; “You’ll Never Get Away from Me”; “Dainty June and Her Farmboys”; “If Momma Was Married”; “All I Need Is the Girl”; “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”; “Madame Rose’s Toreadorables”; “Together, Wherever We Go”; “You Gotta Get a Gimmick”; “Let Me Entertain You”; “Rose’s Turn”

Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Actress in a Musical (Merman), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Klugman), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Church), Best Direction of a Musical (Robbins), Best Conductor (Milton Rosenstock), Best Scenic Design (Jo Mielziner), Best Costume Design (Raoul Penne Du Bois)

Comments: Most reviewers praised the show (although it won no Tonys), but all were adamant that this was Ethel Merman’s finest hour on Broadway. The film (1962), starring Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood, was generally praised, but it lacked the electricity of Merman. A television adaptation in 1993 starred Bette Midler, for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress that year.

HALF A SIXPENCE (April 25, 1965; Broadhurst Theatre; 512 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Allen-Hodgden, Stevens Productions, and Harold Fielding; Director: Gene Saks; Composer/Lyricist: David Heneker; Librettist: Beverly Cross; Choreographer: Onna White; Original source: Based on H. G. Wells’s book Kipps

Original cast: Arthur Kipps (Tommy Steele), Sid Pornick (Will Mackenzie), Ann Pornick (Polly James), Helen Walsingham (Carrie Nye), Buggins (Norman Allen), Walsingham (John Cleese), Pearce (Grover Dale), Carshot (William Larsen), Flo (Michele Hardy), Emma (Reby Howells), Kate (Louise Quick), Victoria (Sally Lee), Mr.Shalford (Mercer McLeod)

Synopsis: Half a sixpence is the small gift that Arthur Kipps, an apprentice, gives to sweetheart Ann, a maid, but when he goes to school at night, he falls in love with the teacher, Helen. After learning that he has come into a large inheritance, he asks Helen to marry him, but he changes his mind when he discovers how snobbish she is. Arthur marries Ann, but she does not care for the way that wealth has changed him; however, Arthur is cheated out of his money by Helen’s brother, so he and Ann open a small shop and are happy.

Songs: “All in the Cause of Economy”; “Half a Sixpence”; “Money to Burn”; “A Proper Gentleman”; “She’s Too Far Above Me”; “If the Rain’s Got to Fall”; “The Old Military Canal”; “Long Ago”; “Flash Bang Wallop”; “I Know What I Am”; “The Party’s On the House”

Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Composer and Lyricist, Best Actor in a Musical (Steele), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (James Grout), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Nye), Best Direction of a Musical, Best Choreography, Best Producer of a Musical, Best Author, Musical

Comments: Originally produced in London, the show delighted Broadway audiences, especially with Tommy Steele in the star role. But after he left the cast, audience interest dropped, and it closed on July 16, 1966, losing about one-third of its original $300,000 investment.

*THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (April 3, 1961; Martin Beck Theatre; 96 performances). Director: Cyril Ritchard; Composer: Jacques Offenbach; Lyricist: E. Y. Harburg; Librettists: Fred Saidy and Henry Mayers; Choreographer: Dania Krupska. Cyril Ritchard directed and starred as the chief of state of Athens in this musical based on an ancient Greek comedy. Critics gave it glowing reviews, but audiences were generally lukewarm.

Tony nomination: Best Choreography

*HAPPY AS LARRY (January 6, 1950; Coronet Theatre; 3 performances). Director: Burgess Meredith; Composer: Mischa Portnoff; Lyricist: Donagh MacDonagh; Librettist: Donagh MacDonagh; Choreographer: Anna Sokolow. This short-lived musical fantasy is set anytime, anywhere, featuring Burgess Meredith. He played the role of Larry, an Irish tailor who goes back to his grandfather’s time. A weak score and plot hastened its demise.

HAPPY HUNTING (December 6, 1956; Majestic Theatre; 412 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Joe Mielziner; Director: Abe Burrows; Composer: Harold Karr; Lyricisit: Matt Dubey; Librettists: Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse; Choreographers: Alex Romero and Bob Herget

Original cast: Sanford Stewart Jr. (Gordon Polk), Mrs. Sanford Stewart Sr. (Olive Templeton), Joseph (Mitchell M. Gregg), Beth Livingstone (Virginia Gibson), Jack Adams (Seth Riggs), Harry Watson (Gene Wesson), Charlie (Delbert Anderson), Liz Livingstone (Ethel Merman), Lord Foley (Mary Finney), Police Sergeant (Marvin Zeller), Arturo (Leon Belasco), Duke of Granada (Fernando Lamas), Count Carlos (Renato Cibella), Waiter (Don Weismuller), Ship’s Officer and Mr. T. (John Leslie), Barman (Warren J. Brown), Mrs. B. (Florence Dunlap), Mrs. D. (Madeline Clive), Mrs. L. (Kelly Stevens), Terrence (Jim Hutchison), Tom (Eugene Louis), Daisy (Moe), Mr. M. (Jay Velie), Albert (George Martin), Margaret (Mara Landi)

Synopsis: Liz Livingstone, a rich, widowed Philadelphia hostess with a heart of gold, experiences what she regards as a snub when she is not invited to the Grace Kelly–Prince Rainier wedding in Monaco. So, she decides to arrange an even grander marriage for her daughter, Beth. She soon discovers the impressively titled Duke of Granada, but then she falls for him herself. In the meantime, Beth only has eyes for Sanford Stewart, the society lawyer. Liz eventually finds love, even though it turns out that the Duke is quite possibly penniless.

Songs: “Postage Stamp-Principality”; “Don’t Tell Me”; “It’s Good to Be Here”; “Mutual Admiration Society”; “For Love or Money”; “Bikini Dance”; “It’s Like a Beautiful Woman”; “Wedding-of-the-Year Blues”; “Mr. Livingstone”; “If’n”; “This Is What I Call Love”; “A New-Fangled Tango”; “She’s Just Another Girl”; “The Game of Love”; “Happy Hunting”; “I’m a Funny Dame”; “This Much I Know”; “Just Another Guy”; “Anyone Who’s Who”

Tony nominations: Best Actor in a Musical (Lamas), Best Actress in a Musical (Merman), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Gibson), Best Costume Design

Comments: This was one of Ethel Merman’s rare failures, mostly because she had no “belting” tunes.

*HAPPY TOWN (October 7, 1959; 54th Street Theatre; 5 performances). Director: Alan A. Buckhantz; Composer: Gordon Duffy; Lyricist: Harry M. Haldane; Librettist: Max Hampton; Choreographer: Lee Scott. Set in various locales in Back-A-Heap, Texas, this musical tells the tale of the townspeople who are upset because this is one Texas town without a millionaire. Despite poor reviews and only five performances, choreographer Lee Scott was nominated for a Tony.

Tony nomination: Best Choreography

HAZEL FLAGG (February 11, 1953; Mark Hellinger Theatre; 190 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Jule Styne, in association with Anthony B. Farrell; Director: David Alexander; Composer: Jule Styne; Lyricist: Bob Hilliard; Librettist: Ben Hecht; Choreographer: Robert Alton; Original source: Based on a story by James Street and the film Nothing Sacred

Original cast: Editor (Dean Campbell), Oleander (Jonathan Harris), Laura Carew (Benay Venuta), Wallace Cook (John Howard), Mr. Billings (Lawrence Weber), Mr. Jenkins (Robert Lenn), Hazel Flagg (Helen Gallagher), Dr. Downer (Thomas Mitchell), Man on the Street (George Reeder), Bellboy (Jerry Craig), Maximilian Lavian (John Pelletti), Miss Winterbottom (Betsy Holland), Tenth Avenue Merchant (Ross Martin), Mayor of New York (Jack Whiting), Whitey (Sheree North), Willie (John Brascia), Dr. Egelhofer (Ross Martin), Policeman (Eric Schepard)

Synopsis: Hazel Flagg is a country girl from Vermont. A New York magazine gets word that she is near death from radium poisoning. The magazine sponsors her trip to the big city, where she promptly falls in love with the worldly Wallace Cook. As it turns out, Hazel is not going to die after all, but the country girl is now in love with New York, and the romance continues.

Songs: “A Little More Heart”; “The World Is Beautiful Today”; “I’m Glad I’m Leaving”; “Hello, Hazel”; “Make the People Cry”; “Every Street’s a Boulevard in Old New York”; “How Do You Speak to an Angel?”; “I Feel Like I’m Gonna Live Forever”; “You’re Gonna Dance with Me, Willie”; “Who Is the Bravest?”; “Laura De Maupassant”

Tony Awards: Best Actor in a Musical (Mitchell), Best Costume Design (Miles White)

Comments: Dancer Sheree North got her first Broadway notice in a lively number that had little to do with the plot. At 190 performances, the show was a financial loss.

*HEAVEN ON EARTH (September 16, 1948; New Century Theatre; 12 performances). Director: John Murray Anderson; Composer: Jay Gorney; Lyricist: Barry Trivers; Librettist: Barry Trivers; Choreographer: Nick Castle. Critics called this a rather dismal affair about a New York taxi driver who, with the help of a pixie, aids a poor couple who live in a tree. The only highlight was the sets by Raoul Pene Du Bois, including Central Park recreated on stage.

HELLO, DOLLY! (January 16, 1964; St. James Theatre; 2,844 performances)

Production credits: Producer: David Merrick; Director/Choreographer: Gower Champion; Composer/Lyricist: Jerry Herman; Librettist: Michael Stewart; Original source: Based on Thornton Wilder’s play The Matchmaker

Original cast: Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi (Carol Channing), Ernestina (Mary Jo Catlett), Ambrose Kemper (Igors Gavon), Horse (Jan LaPrade and Bonnie Mathis), Horace Vandergelder (David Burns), Cronelius Hackl (Charles Nelson Reilly), Barnaby Tucker (Jerry Dodge), Irene Molly (Eileen Brennan), Minnie Fay (Sondra Lee), Mrs. Rose (Amelia Haas), Rudolph (David Hartman), Judge (Gordon Connell), Court Clerk (Ken Ayers)

Synopsis: The setting is New York City and environs in the 1890s, and the musical centers around Dolly Levi, who is into everything and everyone’s business, as she is fond of saying, “I meddle.” At the moment, she is mostly concerned with finding a suitable wife for wealthy Horace Vandergelder. Actually, Dolly is secretly scheming to get him for herself. Between the distractions of Dolly’s communications with her deceased husband Ephraim and her plans to get Horace’s daughter a husband, she leads everyone on a merry chase. Finally, Horace decides there is no use resisting, and they plan to marry.

Songs: “I Put My Hand In”; “It Takes a Woman”; “Put on Your Sunday Clothes”; “Ribbons Down My Back”; “Motherhood”; “Dancing”; “Before the Parade Passes By”; “Elegance”; “The Waiters’ Gallop”; “Hello, Dolly!”; “Come and Be My Butterfly”; “It Only Takes a Moment”; “So Long Dearie”

Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Actress (Channing), Best Composer/Lyricist (Herman), Best Librettist (Stewart), Best Choreographer and Director (Champion), Best Producer (Merrick), Best Scenic Design (Oliver Smith), Best Costume Design (Freddy Wittop), Best Conductor (Shepard Coleman)

Comments: The cast was superb and the title song the most musical to come out of Broadway in many a season. It got a boost from Louis Armstrong’s great recording. Reviewers called this role the best of Carol Channing’s career. Strangely enough, the highly successful show ran into trouble during the try-out period. David Merrick was originally displeased with the musical numbers, and there was a good deal of fast rewriting.

HERE’S LOVE (October 3, 1963; Shubert Theatre; 338 performances)

Production credits: Producer/Director: Stuart Ostrow; Composer/Lyricist/Librettist: Meredith Willson; Choreographer: Michael Kidd; Original source: Based on the film Miracle on 34th Street

Original cast: Mr. Kris Kringle (Laurence Naismith), Fred Gaily (Craig Stevens), Susan Walker (Valerie Lee), Marvin Shellhammer (Fred Gwynne), Doris Walker (Janis Paige), R. H. Macy (Paul Reed), Harry Finfer (Sal Lombardo), Mrs. Finfer and Girl Scout Leader (Mara Landi), Hendrika (Kathy Cody), Hendrika’s New Mother (Suzanne France), Miss Crookshank (Reby Howells), Mr. Psawyer (David Doyle), Governor (Darrell Sandeen), Mayor and Mailman (Hal Norman), Mr. Gimbel and Murphy (William Griffis), Policeman (Bob McClure), Clara (Mary Louise), Judge Martin Group (Cliff Hall), District Attorney Thomas Mara (Larry Douglas), Tammany O’Halloran (Arthur Rubin), Nurse (Leesa Troy), Bailiff (Del Horstman), Thomas Mara Jr. (Dewey Golkin)

Synopsis: Macy’s hires the real Kris Kringle because its regular Santa Claus is drunk. Kris is so honest that no one can believe him, and the government takes him to court. In the meantime, young Susan Walker manages to find a husband, Fred Gaily, for her divorced mother and a new father for herself. In the end, the true spirit of Christmas prevails.

Songs: “Arm in Arm”; “You Don’t Know”; “The Plastic Alligator”; “The Bugle”; “Here’s Love”; “My Wish”; “Pine Cones and Holly Berries”; “Look, Little Girl”; “Expect Things to Happen”; “Love Come Take Me Again”; “She Hadda Go Back”; “That Man Over There”; “My State”; “Nothing in Common”

Comments: This was Meredith Willson’s third musical on Broadway. Most reviewers felt the show was appealing but forgettable.

HIGH BUTTON SHOES (October 9, 1947; New Century Theatre; 727 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Monte Proser and Joseph Kipness; Director: George Abbott; Composers/Lyricists: Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn; Librettists: George Abbott and Stephen Longstreet; Choreographer: Jerome Robbins

Original cast: Harrison Floy (Phil Silvers), Mr. Pontdue (Joey Faye), Uncle Willie (Donald Saddler), Henry Longstreet (Jack McCauley), Stevie Longstreet (Johnny Stewart), Fran (Loris Lee), Sara Longstreet (Nanette Fabray), Nancy (Helen Gallagher), Hubert Ogglethorpe (Mark Dawson), Shirley Simpkins (Carole Coleman), Elmer Simpkins (Nathaniel Frey), Elmer Simpkins Jr. (Donald Harris), Coach (Tom Glennon), Mr. Anderson (William David), Boy at the Picnic (Arthur Partington), Playmate (Sondra Lee), Popular Girl (Jacqueline Dodge), Betting Man (George Spelvin), Another Betting Man (Howard Lenters)

Synopsis: Harrison Floy is a small-time con man who returns to his small-town New Jersey home, where his neighbors think he has become a tycoon. After he starts selling real estate to them and they discover the land is a swamp, he leaves town for Atlantic City, taking Sara’s sister, Fran, with him. They both return, Fran to her old boyfriend and Floy to make amends. He bets on the Princeton-Rutgers football game to get cash, even trying to get Rutgers to throw the game. When Rutgers wins, Floy gets out of town again.

Songs: “He Tried to Make a Dollar”; “Can’t You Just See Yourself in Love with Me?”; “There’s Nothing Like a Model T”; “Next to Texas, I Love You”; “Security”; “Bird Watcher’s Song”; “Get Away for a Day in the Country”; “A Summer Incident”; “Papa, Won’t You Dance with Me?”; “On a Sunday by the Sea”; “You’re My Girl”; “I Still Get Jealous”; “You’re My Boy”; “Nobody Ever Died for Dear Old Rutgers”; “Castle Walk”

Tony Award: Best Choreographer (Robbins)

Comments: Although a successful musical, this was Jule Styne’s and Sammy Cahn’s last collaboration for almost a decade. Nanette Fabray and Jack McCauley stopped the show with their musical numbers, but the highlight of the evening was the Mack Sennett Ballet staged by Jerome Robbins in which the Keystone Cops, among others, chase Floy and end in a jumbled heap of bodies with a flag-waving cop on top. Sennett won a lawsuit for using his name as well as the Keystone Cops in the ballet scene without permission.

HIGH SPIRITS (April 7, 1964; Alvin Theatre; 376 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Lester Osterman, Robert Fletcher, and Richard Horner; Director: Noël Coward; Composers/Lyricists/Librettists: Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray; Choreographer: Danny Daniels; Original source: Based on Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit

Original cast: Charles Condomine (Edward Woodward), Edith (Carol Arthur), Ruth Condomine (Louise Troy), Mrs. Bradman (Margaret Hall), Dr. Bradman (Lawrence Keith), Madame Arcati (Beatrice Lillie), Elvira (Tammy Grimes), Bob (Robert Lenn), Beth (Beth Howland), Rupert (Gene Castle)

Synopsis: Writer Charles Condomine hosts a séance conducted by Madame Arcati so he can learn her tricks for his next novel. He assumes she is a fake, but instead she goes into a trance and manages to bring back his first wife, Elvira, even though he is the only one who can see her. This greatly upsets his second marriage to Ruth, who thinks this is all a joke, until Elvira moves into the Condomine household and plans to kill Charles so he can join her. She accidently kills Ruth instead. Now both female apparitions drive Charles crazy.

Songs: “Was She Prettier Than I?”; “The Bicycle Song”; “You’d Better Love Me”; “Where Is the Man I Married?”; “The Sandwich Man”; “Go into Your Trance”; “Forever and a Day”; “Something Tells Me”; “I Know Your Heart”; “Faster Than Sound”; “If I Gave You”; “Talking to You”; “Home Sweet Heaven”; “Something Is Coming to Tea”; “The Exorcism”; “What in the World Did You Want?”

Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Actress in a Musical (Lillie), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Troy), Best Composer and Lyricist, Best Choreography (Daniels), Best Direction of a Musical (Coward), Best Author, Best Conductor (Fred Werner)

Comments: This was Beatrice Lillie’s last Broadway show. When she could not get along with director Noël Coward, Gower Champion took over. Lillie treated her audiences to such elegant madnesses as taking a series of curtain calls early in the second act. Although the show had a respectable run, it failed financially.

*HIT THE TRAIL (December 2, 1954; Mark Hellinger Theatre; 4 performances). Directors: Charles W. Christenberry Jr. and Byrie Carr; Composer: Frederico Valerio; Lyricist: Elizabeth Miele; Librettist: Frank O’Neill; Choreographer: Gene Baylies. A primadonna hits Virginia City, Nevada, during the late nineteenth century.

*HOLD IT! (May 5, 1948; National Theatre; 46 performances). Director: Robert E. Perry; Composer: Gerald Marks; Lyricist: Samuel M. Lerner; Librettists: Matt Brooks and Art Arthur; Choreographer: Michael Kidd. The production is set in and around Lincoln University and centers on the tale of a boy dressed as a girl who wins a Hollywood beauty contest. Most critics thought it unprofessional, and so did the audiences, who mainly stayed away.

*HOT SPOT (April 19, 1963; Majestic Theatre; 43 performances). Director: Morton DaCosta; Composer: Mary Rodgers; Lyricist: Martin Charnin; Librettists: Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert; Choreographer: Onna White. Inspired by the furor caused when a Peace Corps volunteer described conditions in Nigeria in 1961, fictional volunteer Sally Hopwinder concocts a plan to get aid for the pretend country of D’hum. In a Broadway record, opening night was postponed four times. Even Judy Holliday, in her final stage performance, could not save this musical.

HOUSE OF FLOWERS (December 30, 1954; Alvin Theatre; 165 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Saint Subber; Director: Peter Brook; Composer: Harold Arlen; Lyricists: Truman Capote and Harold Arlen; Librettist: Truman Capote; Choreographer: Geoffrey Holder

Original cast: Madame Fleur (Pearl Bailey), Alvin (Alvin Ailey), Mother (Miriam Burton), Ottillie, alias Violet (Diahann Carroll), Townspersons (Joseph Comacho and Hubert Dilworth), Carmen (Carmen De Lavallade), Monsier Jamison (Dino DiLuca), Madame Tango (Juanita Hall), Mamselle Honolulu (Mary Mon Toy), Gladiola (Ada Moore), Pansy (Enid Mosier), Chief of Police (Don Redman), Mamselle Ibo-Lele (Pearl Reynolds), Royal (Rawn Spearman), Mamselle Cigarette (Glory Van Scott), Captain Jones (Ray Walston)

Synopsis: On a West Indies island, there is trouble between the brothel run by Madame Tango and the one run by Madame Fleur. All the girls are named for flowers. When mumps breaks out, Madame Fleur wants to sell Ottillie, whose professional name is Violet, to a merchant, but she wants to marry Royal. So Madame Fleur has Royal kidnapped, but he escapes in time to stop the marriage.

Songs: “Waitin’”; “One Man Ain’t Quite Enough”; “A Sleepin’ Bee”; “Bamboo Cage”; “House of Flowers”; “Two Ladies in the Shade”; “What Is a Friend For?”; “Mardi Gras”; “I Never Has Seen Snow”; “I’m Gonna Leave Off Wearing My Shoes”; “Has I Let You Down?”; “Slide, Boy, Slide”; “Don’t Like Goodbyes”; “Turtle Song”

Tony Award: Best Scenic Design (Oliver Messel)

Comments: Some reviewers were surprised the show opened at all since rumors spread that the backstage fighting during tryouts was vicious. This was Diahann Carroll’s Broadway debut. Barbra Streisand featured “A Sleepin’ Bee” in her first Grammy-winning album.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (October 14, 1961; 46th Street Theatre; 1,417 performances)

Production credits: Producers: Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin, in association with Frank Productions; Director: Abe Burrows; Composer/Lyricist: Frank Loesser; Librettists: Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert; Choreographer: Hugh Lambert; Original source: Based on the book by Shepherd Mead

Original cast: J. Pierpont Finch (Robert Morse), Gatch and Toynbee (Ray Mason), Jenkins (Robert Kaliban), Tackaberry (David Collyer), Peterson (Casper Roos), J. B. Biggley (Rudy Vallee), Rosemary (Bonnie Scott), Bratt (Paul Reed), Smitty (Claudette Sutherland), Frump (Charles Nelson Reilly), Miss Jones (Ruth Kobart), Mr. Twimble and Womper (Sammy Smith), Hedy (Virginia Martin), Scrubwomen (Mara Landi and Silver Saundors), Miss Krumholtz (Mara Landi), Ovington (Lanier Davis), Policeman (Bob Murdock)

Synopsis: Satirizing the “rags-to-riches” story by Horatio Alger, this show both lampoons and cheers the corporate way. Ambitious J. Pierpont Finch is a window washer who buys a book on how to succeed in business and consults it whenever necessary, which is quite often. In an amazingly short period of time, he gets the attention of the company boss, gets the girl, and goes from a nobody to chairman of the board.

Songs: “How To”; “Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm”; “Coffee Break”; “The Company Way”; “A Secretary Is Not a Toy”; “Been a Long Day”; “Grand Old Ivy”; “Paris Original”; “Rosemary”; “Finaletto”; “Cinderella, Darling”; “Love from a Heart of Gold”; “I Believe in You”; “The Yo Ho Ho”; “Brotherhood of Man”

Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Morse), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Reilly), Best Author of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Producer of a Musical, Best Conductor and Musical Director (Elliot Lawrence). Tony nominations: Best Composer.

Comments: Even after Robert Morse and Rudy Vallee left the show, it continued as a hit with numerous replacements. The 1967 movie version featured Morse and Vallee and was the film debut for Michele Lee.

I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE (March 22, 1962; Shubert Theatre; 300 performances)

Production credits: Producer: David Merrick; Director: Arthur Laurents; Composer/Lyricist: Howard Rome; Librettist: Jerome Weidman; Choreographer: Herbert Ross; Original source: Based on Howard Rome’s novel

Original cast: Miss Marmelstein (Barbra Streisand), Maurice Pulvermacher (Jack Kruschen), Meyer Bushkin (Ken Le Roy), Harry Bogen (Elliot Gould), Tootsie Maltz (James Hickman), Ruthie Rivkin (Marilyn Cooper), Mrs. Bogen (Lillian Roth), Martha Mills (Sheree North), Mario (William Reilly), Mitzi (Barbara Monte), Eddie (Edward Verso), Blanche Bushkin (Bambi Linn), Teddy Asch (Harold Lang), Buggo (Kelly Brown), Miss Springer (Pat Turner), Velma (Francine Bond), Lenny (William Sumner), Norman (Stanley Simmonds), Manette (Luba Lisa), Gail (Wilma Curley), Rosaline (Marion Fels), Noodle (Jack Murrary), Sam (Don Grilley), Moxie (Ed Collins), Sheldon Bushkin (Steve Curry), Edith (Margaret Gathright)

Synopsis: In the 1930s world of the New York City garment district, pushy Harry Bogen gets rid of his partners as he shoves his way to the top. His mother and girlfriend, Ruthie, try to warn him that what he is doing is unethical, but he ignores them. He even ditches Ruthie for a flamboyant nightclub performer. In the end, Harry’s double dealings end in bankruptcy, and the only ones left to console him are his mother and Ruthie.

Songs: “Well Man”; “The Way Things Are”; “When Gemini Meets Capricorn”; “Momma, Momma”; “The Sound of Money”; “Family Way”; “Too Soon”; “Who Knows?”; “Have I Told You Lately?”; “Ballad of the Garment Trade”; “A Gift Today”; “Miss Marmelstein”; “A Funny Thing Happened”; “What’s in It for Me?”; “What Are They Doing to Us Now?”; “Eat a Little Something”

Tony nomination: Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Streisand)

Comments: At age nineteen, future superstar Barbra Streisand made her debut on Broadway and took the show’s only Tony nomination.

I HAD A BALL (December 15, 1964; Martin Beck Theatre; 199 performances)

Production credits: Producer: Joseph Kipness; Director: Lloyd Richards; Composers/Lyricists: Jack Lawrence and Stan Freeman; Librettist: Jerome Chodorov; Choreographer: Onna White

Original cast: Garside (Buddy Hackett), Stan the Shpieler (Richard Kiley), Ma Maloney (Rosetta LeNoire), Addie (Luba Lisa), Morocco (Morocco), Jeannie (Karen Morrow), Gimlet (Al Nesor), Brooks (Steve Roland), Officer Millhauser (Ted Thurston), Joe the Muzzler (Jack Wakefield), George Osaka (Conrad Yama), Lifeguard (Marty Allen), Jimmy (Nathaniel Jones)

Synopsis: The setting is in and around Coney Island, New York, where Garside decides to turn matchmaker, although he doesn’t prove very good at it. He tries to make a couple out of Brooks and Jeannie, a loan shark and a ferris wheel operator, as well as pitchman Stan and hustler Addie. Brooks and Jeannie discover that they actually might work out, but the others are not so sure.

Songs: “Garside the Great”; “Coney Island, U.S.A.”; “The Other Half of Me”; “Addie’s at It Again”; “I’ve Got Everything I Want”; “Dr. Freud”; “Think Beautiful”; “Faith”; “Can It Be Possible?”; “Neighborhood”; “The Affluent Society”; “Almost”; “Fickle Finger of Fate”; “You Deserve Me”; “Lament”; “Be a Phony”; “Tunnel of Love Chase”

Tony nomination: Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Lisa)

IRMA LA DOUCE (September 29, 1960; Plymouth Theatre; 524 performances)

Production credits: Producers: David Merrick, in association with Donald Albery and H. M. Tennent Ltd., by arrangement with Henry Hall; Director: Peter Brook; Composer: Marguerite Monnot; Lyricist: Julian More (English); Librettists: Julian More, David Heneker, and Monty Norman; Choreographer: Onna White; Original source: Adapted from the original French book

Original cast: Bob-Le-Hotu (Clive Revill), Irma-La-Douce (Elizabeth Seal), Client (Eddie Gasper), Jojo-Les-Yeux-Sales (Zack Matalon), Roberto-Les-Diams (Aric Lavie), Persil-Le-Noir (Osborne Smith), Frangipane (Stuart Damon), Polyte-Le-Mou (Fred Gwynne), Police Inspector (George S. Irving), Nestor-Le-Fripe (Keith Michell), M. Bougne and Second Warder (George Del Monte), Counsel for the Prosecution and Third Warder (Rico Froehlich), Counsel for the Defense and Tax Inspector (Rudy Tronto), Usher, First Warder, and Priest (Elliott Gould), Honest Man (Joe Rocco), Court Gendarme (Byron Mitchell)

Synopsis: This is the story of a bad girl with a good heart. Irma is a prostitute in the red-light district who is supporting her law student boyfriend, Nestor. Nestor becomes jealous of Irma’s occupation, so he poses as Monsieur Oscar, who pays Irma 10,000 francs for her services, but she gives the money to Nestor, so the same money goes back and forth. When Irma falls for Oscar, Nestor decides it is time to get rid of him. He gets arrested but escapes and returns to Irma as they are about to have a child.

Songs: “Valse Milieu”; “Sons of France”; “The Bridge of Caulaincourt”; “Our Language of Love”; “She’s Got the Lot”; “Dis-Donc”; “Le Grisbi Is le Root of le Evil in Man”; “Wreck of a Mec”; “That’s a Crime”; “From a Prison Cell”; “Irma-la–Douce”; “There Is Only One Paris for That”; “The Freedom of the Seas”; “But”; “Christmas Child”

Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Revill), Best Direction of a Musical, Best Costume Design (Musical), Best Choreography, Best Conductor and Musical Director (Stanley Lebowsky)

Comments: There was some audience and critic objection to the story line but not so much that it spoiled a run of more than 500 performances.

*THE JACKPOT (January 13, 1944; Alvin Theatre; 69 performances). Director: Roy Hargrave; Composer: Vernon Duke; Lyricist: Howard Dietz; Librettists: Guy Bolton, Sidney Sheldon, and Ken Roberts; Choreographers: Lauretta Jefferson and Charles Weidman. This is an old-fashioned musical about Sally Madison (Nanette Fabray), who becomes first prize in a bond rally. It also starred Wendell Cory, Allan Jones, Jerry Lester, and Betty Garrett.

JAMAICA (October 31, 1957; Imperial Theatre; 555 performances)

Production credits: Producer: David Merrick; Director: Robert Lewis; Composer: Harold Arlen; Lyricist: E. Y. Harburg; Librettists: E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy; Choreographer: Jack Cole