Canadian-born composer whose rock musical scores include Hair (1968), Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971), Dude (1972), and Via Galactica (1972); the first two succeeded, while the latter two failed. With Hair, MacDermot proved that rock could be a viable style on Broadway.
British producer frequently associated with the megamusical who is known for creating vivid theatrical experiences without a reliance on highly recognizable stars. His most notable successes include Cats (1981, London; 1982, New York), Song and Dance (1982, London; 1985, New York), Les Misérables (1985, London; 1987, New York), The Phantom of the Opera (1986, London; 1988, New York), Miss Saigon (1989, London; 1990, New York), and Mary Poppins (2005, London; 2006, New York), the last a co-production with Disney Theatrical Productions that Mackintosh co-created. He also produced the Broadway revivals of Oliver! (1984) and Carousel (1994), both of which originated in London.
(30 August 1910, New Amsterdam, 231 performances.) Music by Karl Hoschna, lyrics and book by Otto Hauerbach (later Otto Harbach). Based on a French vaudeville of the same name by Maurice Ordonneau, the New York version included plot changes and a new score. It ran in New York City for about eight months before touring. The complicated story involved Edward Sherry (Jack Gardner), whose rich, eccentric Uncle Theophilus (Ralph Herz) lives in Greece, and his uncle’s niece (but not Edward’s blood cousin) Yvonne (Lina Abarbarnell). The unsigned review in the New York Times glowed with praise, starting with the polka “Every Little Movement,” which is reprised throughout the show. The critic described the show as a combination of Viennese operetta, French vaudeville, and American musical comedy and found that the “plot plays a much more important role than it usually does in an American musical comedy.” The reviewer praised the “hodge-podge” of a score, singling out “I’m All Right,” “The Dublin Rag,” and the waltz “The Birth of Passion.”
(28 May 1974, Cort, 1,920 performances.) Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Bob Randall. Primarily a vehicle for illusionist Doug Henning, The Magic Show was a treat for those who enjoyed frightening feats of magic. The thin plot concerned the Top Hat nightclub in Passaic, New Jersey, which was in decline until its owners found a splendid magician who could fill the seats. Clive Barnes, writing in the New York Times, was agog at Henning’s prowess, noting that he “could not see how one single trick was done.” Among other feats, Henning burned a girl to a skeleton and impaled himself on a falling ceiling of spikes. Barnes found Schwartz’s songs too similar and the book poor, but it did not really matter because The Magic Show had Doug Henning and ran for four and a half years.
(15 January 1948, Broadhurst, 429 performances.) Music by Richard Lewine, lyrics and sketches by Arnold B. Horwitt. A pleasant and witty revue, Make Mine Manhattan boasted a cast that included David Burns, Sid Caesar, and Joshua Shelley. The latter sang “Subway Song” while playing a man who is dating a woman who lives at the far end of the subway line. In another sketch, Caesar was a Hollywood director with a fake German accent who was shooting a film in New York City. Burns drove him crazy as a passerby telling him how to shoot the film. Caesar also appeared in a parody of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Allegro, where he makes absurd moral choices. New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson called it a “very pleasant musical revue” about “Manhattan foibles,” such as the qualifications of newspaper drama critics. He found Caesar to be the “most original” member of the cast, but “he is hardly versatile enough yet to carry . . . a whole evening.”
Lyricist for Baby (1983), Miss Saigon (1991), Nick & Nora (1991), and Big: The Musical (1996) and director for Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1978), Baby, Song and Dance (1985), Fosse (1999), and Ring of Fire (2006). He conceived Ain’t Misbehavin’ and wrote additional lyrics for the show, prepared the American adaptation of Song and Dance and supervised the production, conceived Fosse, and served as production consultant for Bea Arthur on Broadway (2002). He won a Tony Award for Best Director for Ain’t Misbehavin’.
(24 May 1966, Winter Garden, 1,508 performances.) Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, choreography by Onna White. Based on Patrick Dennis’s novel Auntie Mame and Lawrence and Lee’s play of the same name, Mame was a triumph for Angela Lansbury and ran for almost four years. Lansbury played the irrepressible title character, a Manhattan socialite who becomes guardian to her 10-year-old nephew Patrick (Frankie Michaels). Mame is a hopeless mother—she urges Patrick to live life to the fullest, just as she does. The Depression leaves her penniless, so she marries a rich southerner who dies years later (while climbing one of the Alps) and leaves Mame again rich. Her best friend is Vera Charles (Beatrice Arthur). At the end, Patrick (now played by Jerry Lanning) is grown and married, and Mame starts to work her wiles on his young son. Some felt that Herman’s score for Mame sounded too much like Hello, Dolly!, but the songs worked within the plot. Hits included the celebratory title tune, “Open a New Window,” the hope-filled “We Need a Little Christmas,” “The Man in the Moon,” “If He Walked into My Life,” and the insult-ridden “Bosom Buddies,” one of the classic female duets of the musical theater. Stanley Kauffmann, writing for the New York Times, found the score “strongly rhythmic and sufficiently tuneful,” admired the direction and production values, but also found the show a bit long and predictable. Lucille Ball and Beatrice Arthur starred in the 1974 film version, and Lansbury reprised her role in the short-lived 1983 Broadway revival.
(18 October 2001, Winter Garden, 5,598 performances as of 26 April 2015.) Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, some songs with Stig Anderson, book by Catherine Johnson. Originally produced in London in 1999, Mamma Mia! is a celebratory jukebox musical featuring the music of ABBA. The thin plot, set on a Greek island, concerns a girl, Sophie, who is about to get married. She does not know who her father is and invites three men from her mother’s past to her wedding, hoping that one of them will turn out to be her father. Her mother, meanwhile, has invited two friends with whom she used to perform to the wedding. All ends happily, of course, and the show is fundamentally a reason to hear classic ABBA songs, such as “Money, Money, Money,” “Dancing Queen,” “S.O.S.,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “The Winner Takes It All,” and the title song. A film version starring Meryl Streep appeared in 2008.
An important figure in the full integration of the musical, Mamoulian was director for several elegant Broadway shows, including Porgy and Bess (1935), Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), and Lost in the Stars (1949).
(24 May 1965, ANTA Washington Square, 2,328 performances.) Music by Mitch Leigh, lyrics by Joe Darion, book by Dale Wasserman. A daring musicalization of Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote de la Mancha, Man of La Mancha became one of the favorite shows of the 1960s and has remained popular. The musical had a clever framing device: the author Miguel de Cervantes and his servant are thrown in an Inquisition dungeon. They have a large chest, and other prisoners start to steal their possessions and put Cervantes “on trial,” but he placates them by offering entertainment. He tells the story of Don Quixote through simple props and suggestion, aided by the prisoners. The show’s intensity came partly from the lack of an intermission but also from truly violent emotions, especially in a startling rape scene. As Cervantes and Don Quixote, Richard Kiley gave a stunning performance. His sidekick Sancho (Irving Jacobson) brought the same doses of comedy and reality found in the original novel. Aldonza (Joan Diener), identified by Don Quixote as his lady Dulcinea, is nothing more than a kitchen strumpet, and she pays dearly when she starts to accept the mad knight’s dreams. The Innkeeper (Ray Middleton) watches as Don Quixote turns his establishment upside down and then dubs him Knight of the Woeful Countenance. The Padre (Robert Rounseville) tries to help Don Quixote’s family deal with his madness. The fantasy’s ending was unforgettable, as Don Quixote, Sancho, and Aldonza briefly revive the dream before the knight’s death. At the end of the show, Cervantes is called before the Inquisition, and his fellow prisoners exhort him to “dream the impossible dream.”
Howard Taubman, writing in the New York Times, gave the show a somewhat mixed review, finding a “remarkable spirit” despite vulgar and trite moments. He was taken with Kiley, calling him “admirably credible—a mad, gallant, affecting figure who has honestly materialized from the pages of Cervantes” and describing his performance at great length. Taubman found Jacobson’s Sancho “sympathetic” but noted how close the actor remained to his Yiddish theater background. Taubman seemed less than impressed with the music, admitting that Leigh and Darion sought to integrate the songs with the plot and characters but that “their muse . . . does not always soar.” Many disagreed with Taubman’s verdict on the music. Several tunes alternate between 6/8 and 3/4, which many hear as a Spanish sound. This may be found, for example, in “Man of La Mancha,” “Dulcinea,” and “Aldonza.” The orchestra included multiple guitarists, adding to the Spanish effect. The score’s biggest hit was Don Quixote’s “The Impossible Dream,” a soaring ballad to a Latin beat. Secondary characters also had engaging music, including the Padre’s “To Each His Dulcinea” and Sancho’s “I Really Like Him.” The 1972 film version starred Peter O’Toole, Sophia Loren, and James Coco, and the 2002 Broadway revival featured Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Ernie Sabella.
He began his career as a journalist and wrote librettos for musical comedies before teaming up with Laurence Schwab on No, No, Nanette! (1925). Mandel and Schwab produced a series of successful shows in the 1920s, including the sports-themed musical comedies Good News! (1927) and Follow Thru (1929) and the operettas The Desert Song (1926) and The New Moon (1928). They continued to produce operettas with scores by Sigmund Romberg in the 1930s, including East Wind (1931) and May Wine (1935), but after the failure of these shows, Mandel went to Hollywood, where he directed films until his retirement in 1942. Mandel and Schwab helped inaugurate a new type of operetta, one that was not purely escapist in nature but rather addressed contemporary social issues and in many ways prefigured the “musical drama” so closely associated with the work of Richard Rodgers and their own collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II.
(Also credited as Terrence V. Mann, 1951–.) Actor, singer, and dancer who created the role of Rum Tum Tugger in Cats (1981). Other credits include Saul in Rags (1986), Javert in Les Misérables (1987), the Beast in Beauty and the Beast (1994), and Chauvelinin in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1997). His rich baritone voice and commanding stage presence infuse a sense of authority into his roles.
Classically trained singer whose Broadway credits include Eulalie Bland in Susanna, Don’t You Cry (1939) and Katherine Townsend in The Day before Spring (1945). Manning appeared in numerous musical films; among her most famous roles was that of Fay Templeton in the George M. Cohan biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).
(2 December 1999, Vivian Beaumont, 42 performances.) Music and words by Michael John LaChiusa, directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele. A retelling of the legend of Medea set in New Orleans and Chicago during the 1890s, Marie Christine was an ambitious work built around the considerable talents of Audra McDonald, who played the title role. Marie Christine is a young woman of mixed race who carries her mother’s talents for sorcery. Her lover is sea captain Dante Keyes (Anthony Crivello), and the show is told in flashback, beginning and ending in the women’s prison where Marie Christine is incarcerated for murdering her children. The work represented a shift in the Broadway musical toward extremely serious themes and a sophisticated musical score that included such notable numbers as Marie Christine’s “Beautiful,” the female nearly operatic duet “Way Back to Paradise,” the moving lullaby “I Will Love You,” Dante’s “Your Name,” and the finale, “Innocence Dies.”
One of the leading Broadway operetta singers of the 1920s. His lyrical voice and impressive range garnered him tremendous praise. He created the roles of Franz Schober in Blossom Time (1921), the title character in The Student Prince in Heidelberg (1924), Ned Hamilton in Cherry Blossoms (1927), and Gaylord Ravenal in Show Boat (1927). He starred in numerous Gilbert and Sullivan revivals on Broadway during the 1930s.
Choreographer who won Tony Awards for the revivals of Wonderful Town (2004) and The Pajama Game (2006).
Imaginative dancer, choreographer, and director whose choreography for revivals of She Loves Me (1993), Damn Yankees (1994), Company (1995), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1996), Cabaret (1998), and Little Me (1999), the last two of which he also directed, garnered him tremendous critical acclaim. He appeared in the original production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985), choreographed Victor/Victoria (1995) on Broadway, and directed the 2002 film version of Chicago.
Actress and comedian known largely for her work on television and film who has played several unforgettable roles on Broadway. She played Aunt Eller in the 2002 revival of Oklahoma!, was a replacement Golde in the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof, created Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein (2007), and dazzled audiences as Berthe in the 2013 revival of Pippin, singing “No Time at All” from a trapeze and winning a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Legendary Broadway star whose immediate “Everywoman” quality made her an audience favorite as well as one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most famous leading ladies. Her first major appearance was in 1938 in Cole Porter’s Leave It to Me!, where she did a mock striptease atop a trunk in “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” She introduced the Kurt Weill song “Speak Low” in One Touch of Venus (1943) and played the lead in a touring production of Annie Get Your Gun, a show that, though written by Irving Berlin and Dorothy Fields, was produced by Rodgers and Hammerstein. She captivated the legendary team with her commanding stage presence, and they wrote their next show, South Pacific (1949), for her. As Nellie Forbush, she brought a no-nonsense sensibility to the Arkansas nurse who overcomes her racial prejudices to marry Emile De Becque. She delighted audiences and critics with songs such as “Wonderful Guy,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” (during which she shampooed her hair onstage), and “Honey Bun” (performed in male drag) as well as duets with her operatic costar Ezio Pinza, such as “Twin Soliloquies.” Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote for her again in 1959, this time creating The Sound of Music, in which Martin played Maria, a nun who eventually leaves her order, marries Captain von Trapp, and becomes stepmother to his children. Martin worked with the real-life Maria von Trapp while preparing the role and sang such classics as “The Sound of the Music,” “My Favorite Things,” and “Do Re Mi.” Martin won Tony Awards for South Pacific and The Sound of Music. She was also well known for her portrayal of the title role in Peter Pan (1954), both onstage and in television productions. Her pure voice, ability to portray a wide range of emotions, and physical appearance helped epitomize her as one of the leading Broadway actresses of the 20th century.
German-born operetta soprano best remembered for creating the role of Kathie in Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince (1924). Her fine singing and physical appeal made her an audience favorite. She also starred in revivals of the classic operettas Naughty Marietta (1929, 1931) and The Firefly (1931).
(16 November 2006, New Amsterdam, 2,619 performances.) Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe; book by Julian Fellowes; directed by Richard Eyre. Based on the P. L. Travers Mary Poppins stories and the 1964 Walt Disney film (with Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, and Ed Wynn), the stage version of Mary Poppins, coproduced by Disney Theatrical Productions and Cameron Mackintosh, opened in London in 2004. On Broadway, Ashley Brown, a replacement Belle in Beauty and the Beast, played the title role, and Gavin Lee reprised his acclaimed London performance as Bert. Songs from the film were given new dramatic contexts, and new songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe appeared alongside those the Sherman brothers wrote for the film. Among the new songs were Mary Poppins’s “Practically Perfect” and Mrs. Banks’s emotive “Being Mrs. Banks,” sung by Rebecca Luker. Visual effects include flying entrances and exits for Mary Poppins, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” signed letter by letter by the ensemble, and Bert dancing on all four walls of the proscenium during “Step in Time.”
(11 April 2013, Shubert, 852 performances as of 26 April 2015.) Based on Roald Dahl’s novel for children about the power of stories and reading, Matilda the Musical began its life under the aegis of the Royal Shakespeare Company and became successfully ensconced in London’s West End in 2011. Born into a family that does not value reading, five-year-old Matilda, who redefines precocity, finds solace in her books and improves her family and school. The production team, led by director Matthew Warchus, brilliantly captured the world of small children with their dreams and dreads, especially in the school led by sadistic headmistress Miss Trunchbull. Bertie Carvel memorably played her in drag, an impersonation that the New York Times said “breaks the mold of cross-dressing on Broadway.” Dennis Kelly’s “bright, efficient book” traveled effectively between the dismal real world, children’s fantasies, and even the dark dreams of Trunchbull. Tim Minchin’s score included “addictive songs” that figured into an integrated whole “as classic as ‘Oklahoma!’” The score ranged from lyrical numbers that demonstrate the special relationship between Matilda (originally played by Sophia Gennusa, Oona Laurence, Bailey Ryon, and Milly Shapiro at alternate performances) and her mentor Miss Honey (Lauren Ward) to delightful numbers featuring the title character’s overbearing family as they praise the glories of television and being noisy.
(5 December 1935, St. James, 213 performances.) Music by Sigmund Romberg, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Frank Mandel, produced by Laurence Schwab. The long-running Depression-era musical began with Professor Johann Volk (Walter Slezak), a Viennese psychologist, confessing to murdering his wife. The story unfolds in flashback and ends with the revelation that Volk, who had been the subject of a malicious plan devised by Baron Kuno Adelhurt, shot only a mannequin. Songs were treated as psychological soliloquies and included such evocative numbers as “I Built a Dream,” “Dance, My Darlings,” “Somebody Ought to Be Told,” and an ode to a one-night stand titled “Once around the Clock.”
(16 August 1917, Shubert, 492 performances.) Libretto by Rida Johnson Young with assistance by Cyrus Wood, music by Sigmund Romberg. When the Shuberts decided to adapt Walter Kollo’s immensely popular German operetta Wie einst im Mai for American audiences, they faced a tremendous challenge: World War I. Knowing that the work’s German setting and source material would be major liabilities on Broadway, they had Rida Johnson Young transfer the action to New York City (from its original Berlin) and Sigmund Romberg create an entirely new score. This was Romberg’s first complete score, and it proved to be one of his most successful. The story, which takes place over a 60-year period, begins with the forbidden love of Richard Wayne (Charles Purcell) and Ottilie van Zandt (Peggy Wood). Richard, or Dick, is from a poor family, and Ottilie’s wealthy father will not allow his daughter to marry beneath her class. In the operetta’s fourth and final act, the grandchildren of the thwarted lovers (played by the same actors who appear as Richard and Ottilie in the first three acts) meet and fall in love. In the operetta’s bittersweet ending, the grandchildren realize the love their grandparents were denied. Romberg unifies the score through a recurring waltz duet, “Will You Remember,” also known by the first two words of its refrain, “Sweetheart, Sweetheart.” The song appears in each act as a symbol of the undying love between Richard and Ottilie. The New York Times reviewer called it “a work of extraordinary skill,” and Maytime’s nostalgic and romantic atmosphere made it among the most popular musical theater offerings of its time. A film version starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy appeared in 1937, though the story was completely changed, and the only song retained from the original was “Will You Remember.”
Lyrical singing actress who created the roles of Clara in Passion (1994) and Mother in Ragtime (1998) and brought a sympathetic portrayal to both parts. She played Lili/Katharine opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell in the 1999 revival of Kiss Me, Kate. Replacement roles include Aldonza/Dulcinea in the revival of Man of La Mancha (in 2003), the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot (in 2006), and Diana in Next to Normal (in 2010). She also appeared as Helen Sinclair in the ill-fated Bullets over Broadway (2014).
Actress who played the title role in Annie (1975) when she was 12 and whose Broadway career continued to flourish as she reached adulthood. She appeared in Starlight Express (1987), Les Misérables (replacement Fantine, 1993), and Beauty and the Beast (replacement Belle, 1999) and created the role of Margy Frake in the Broadway version of State Fair (1996).
(Born Audra Ann McDonald, 1970–.) Juilliard-trained soprano who has won six competitive Tony Awards, more than any other actor, and is the only person to win awards in all four acting categories: Best Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Best Leading Actress in a Play, and Best Supporting Actress in a Play. She won her first Tony, for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, for her first original role on Broadway, Carrie, in the 1994 revival of Carousel. She won the Tony for Best Supporting Actress in a Play for Master Class (1995), in which she sang an aria from Verdi’s opera Macbeth. She created Sarah in Ragtime (1998), for which she won her third Tony, this one for Best Actress in a Musical. Other musical roles include the title role in Marie Christine (1999), Lizzie Curry in the 2004 revival of 110 in the Shade, and Bess in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (2012), winning another Tony for her portrayal of Bess. She played Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (2014), an original play with music, for which she earned her Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Play. She has appeared in New York concert versions of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2000, 2014) and Dreamgirls (2001). In addition to her work in musical theater, she has appeared in concert, on recordings, on television (including as Mother Abbess in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! [2013]), and in legitimate plays on Broadway. McDonald is known for her strong dramatic and vocal talents and the ability to use them in order to create multidimensional characters.
(Born Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall, 1928–1998.) British-born film, television, and stage actor who created the role of Mordred in Camelot (1960) and introduced “The Seven Deadly Virtues.”
Singing actor known for his work on Broadway and in London’s West End, in concert, and as a voice-over artist on film and television. The dashing and suave actor created the role of John Jasper/Mr. Clive Paget in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985) and played Billy Crocker in the 1987 revival of Anything Goes opposite Patti LuPone. McGillin has sung the title role in The Phantom of the Opera more than any other actor—his performance on 26 January 2009 marked his 2,544th time to appear in the acclaimed part.
(Also known as Jack McGowan, 1894–1977.) Librettist, director, and producer who began his Broadway career as a performer. He was involved with creating the librettos for the musical comedies Hold Everything (1928), Flying High (1930), and Girl Crazy (1930).
(Also known as James McHugh, 1894–1969.) Prolific composer of popular song whose Broadway credits include Blackbirds of 1928 (with lyricist Dorothy Fields, his first major collaborator), The International Revue (1930, lyrics by Fields, included “On the Sunny Side of the Street”), Keep Off the Grass (1940), and As the Girls Go (1948). Since he envisioned songs as discrete entities, his work appeared mostly in revues and occasionally in musical comedies. His music was featured in Sugar Babies (1979), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1988), and numerous jukebox musicals.
Dancer and singer who infuses a sincere sense of joy into any performance she gives. McKechnie created the roles of Kathy in Company (1970), in which she danced the daring solo “Tick-Tock” number, and Cassie in A Chorus Line (1975), for which she won a Tony Award. She also played Emily Arden in the stage version of State Fair (1996). She is also known for her relationship, both professional and personal, with choreographer Michael Bennett, who was a guiding force in her career.
Playwright and librettist who collaborated with composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb on The Rink (1984), Kiss of the Spider Woman—The Musical (1993), and The Visit (2015). He also created the librettos for Ragtime (1998), The Full Monty (2000), and Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life (2005). He won four Tony Awards: two for Best Book of a Musical (Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime) and two for Best Play (Love! Valour! Compassion! [1995] and Master Class [1995]). His work is characterized by strong characters and often controversial subject matter.
(28 May 1953, Majestic, 358 performances.) Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II, directed by George Abbott, choreography by Robert Alton, produced by Rodgers and Hammerstein. For Rodgers and Hammerstein’s sixth show, Rodgers wanted to create a musical comedy similar to Pal Joey, one of his later shows with Lorenz Hart, which had a successful revival in 1952. Rodgers and Hammerstein consciously wrote songs in an older style and hired the great musical comedy director George Abbott and choreographer Robert Alton. The plot was a backstage story about the preparation of a musical with a love story between second assistant stage manager George (Randy Hall) and a chorus girl, Jeanie (Isabel Bigley). Opening in Cleveland because no theater in New Haven (the usual tryout town) could accommodate the large set, Me and Juliet looked like a hit. This was not the case, however. The show opened to disappointing reviews, including that of Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times, where he commented that although captivating, it looked like a rehearsal: “beautiful, talented, full of good things but still disorganized.” Problems included Hammerstein’s original play (never his forte), its weak “play-within-a-play” premise, and the overdomination of the set. “No Other Love,” with its Latin rhythmic underpinning, was the only song from the score that became popular. (The melody was also used in the television series Victory at Sea.)
(10 August 1986, Marquis, 1,420 performances.) Music by Noel Gay, lyrics and book by L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber, book revised by Stephen Fry. A West End hit from 1937 and successfully revived there in 1985, Me and My Girl enjoyed a fine run on Broadway with star Robert Lindsay reprising his role from the London revival. He played Bill Snibson, a Cockney from Lambeth who inherits an earldom. In order to collect his legacy, he requires manners and breeding but delights in shocking aristocrats at every possible opportunity by stealing, handling women inappropriately, and making fun of servants. He has a true love from his own class, Sally Smith (Maryann Plunkett). Some of Gay’s songs for the original score were exchanged for other hits, but others, including the title tune and “The Lambeth Walk,” remained.
(18 May 1970, Orpheum, 208 performances; Broadway: 18 December 1970, Helen Hayes, 378 performances.) Music by Gary William Friedman, lyrics by Will Holt. Based on Stephen M. Joseph’s book of the name, The Me Nobody Knows told the story of 12 young people who live in New York City slums. Joseph played the teacher who assigns them to write essays on their lives and then turns their compelling stories into the basis for the musical. According to Clive Barnes’s review in the New York Times, the show had no plot but told many stories. He loved the show’s “understanding and compassion” and praised the “eloquent music” and “tersely apt yet poetic lyrics,” which allowed the show to be “both bitter and joyous.” He compared the show to Hair in its effective introduction to a way of life.
A type of musical theater especially popular from the late 1970s through the 1990s in which everything—sets, costumes, singing, choreography, musical style, and emotion—are impressively grandiose. Many British imports, especially those associated with producer Cameron Mackintosh, are exemplars of the approach. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Claude-Michel Schönberg are two composers whose work helped define the style. Notable megamusicals include Les Misérables (1985, London; 1987, New York) and The Phantom of the Opera (1986, London; 1988, New York).
(19 October 2009, Shubert, 1,165 performances.) A slickly crafted fictional look at the beginnings of white interest in African American popular music in the segregated South during the 1950s, Memphis won several Tony Awards—including Best Musical—and ran for nearly three years. A white high school dropout, Huey Calhoun, falls in love with music he hears in African American clubs and manufactures a career for himself as a radio deejay while falling in love with Felicia, one of the singers he promotes, causing trouble for the couple and challenging their families’ attitudes toward race. The New York Times noted that Chad Kimball played Huey with “a quirky, boyish presence” and “strong” voice, while Montego Glover was “beautiful and poised” as Felicia. The Times praised other members of the “appealing cast,” including Cass Morgan as Huey’s mother and J. Bernard Calloway as Delray, Felicia’s brother. The reviewer directed barbs at the writers, including Joe DiPietro (book and some lyrics) and composer/lyricist David Bryan, but this appears to have been a sophisticated reviewer looking for something that audiences were not because Memphis was a solid hit on Broadway, in London, and on multiple national tours. In an age when jukebox musicals offer actual hits of the past, a danger exists in writing new songs in bygone styles, but Memphis demonstrated that this was entirely possible.
Composer for film and stage whose Broadway scores include Little Shop of Horrors (1986, off-Broadway; 2003, Broadway), Beauty and the Beast (1994), The Little Mermaid (2008), Newsies (2012), and Aladdin (2014). He is best known for his songs in Disney animated features and has worked with lyricists Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, Stephen Schwartz, and Glenn Slater.
Actress known for her convincing and sympathetic portrayals of morally ambiguous characters. She created the role of Maureen Johnson in Rent (1996, which she reprised in the 2005 film version) and won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Elphaba in Wicked (2003). In green makeup, Menzel brought a sensitive pathos to the character who later became the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. She uses her rich pop-oriented voice to bring an extremely high level of dramatic intensity to her musical interpretations. She played a recurring role on the musical television series Glee and returned to Broadway as Elizabeth in If/Then (2014).
(Also known as John Mercer, 1909–1976.) Lyricist, singer, and composer who created lyrics for St. Louis Woman (1946, music by Harold Arlen) and Li’l Abner (1956, music by Gene de Paul). Most of his successful songs were written for Hollywood films. Mercer believed in the primacy of the song and integrated colloquial aspects of his southern upbringing to his lyrics. His lyrics have appeared in many jukebox and dance musicals, including Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (1978), Sophisticated Ladies (1981, featuring the music of Duke Ellington), Dream (1997, based on Mercer’s lyrics), and Fosse (1999).
(Born Ethel Agnes Zimmerman, 1909–1984.) Celebrated actress whose iconic belt voice established her as one of the leading Broadway singers from the 1930s through the 1950s. She made her Broadway debut as the saloonkeeper’s wife in Girl Crazy (1930), introducing the Gershwin standard “I Got Rhythm.” During the 1930s and 1940s, she starred in five musicals by Cole Porter: Anything Goes (1934), Red, Hot and Blue! (1936), Du Barry Was a Lady (1939), Panama Hattie (1940), and Something for the Boys (1943). A favorite of Irving Berlin in his later years, she starred in his Annie Get Your Gun (1946) and Call Me Madam (1950). Her already legendary career reached new heights when she created the role of Mama Rose in Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim’s Gypsy (1959). She introduced musical theater classics such as “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” “They Say It’s Wonderful,” “Doin’ What Comes Naturally,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Some People,” “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” and “Rose’s Turn,” songs that remain closely associated with the genre-defining actress.
One of Broadway’s most flamboyant producers and showmen, Merrick’s list of hits is long and varied and includes Gypsy (1959), Carnival (1961), Oliver! (1963), Hello, Dolly! (1964), Promises, Promises (1968), and 42nd Street (1980). He is often remembered for his attention-grabbing publicity stunts but was important in the development of dance-infused shows and innovative marketing strategies.
Composer and lyricist who wrote pop songs during the 1940s and 1950s (including “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window” and “Mambo Italiano”) before beginning his career on Broadway. He created music and lyrics for New Girl in Town (1957), Take Me Along (1959), and Carnival! (1961) and lyrics for Funny Girl (1964) and Sugar (1972). He brought the sensibility from his popular song career to his work for Broadway and wrote some of the musical stage’s most memorable lyrics, such Funny Girl’s “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “People.”
(26 September 1927, Erlanger’s, 208 performances.) Music, lyrics, book, and produced by George M. Cohan. Another show in which Cohan exhibited his Irish heritage, The Merry Malones included all of Cohan’s usual markers. It opened the new Erlanger Theater and was the last time that Cohan appeared in one of his own shows. Joe Westcott (Alan Edwards), a millionaire’s son, is in love with Molly Malone (Polly Walker) from the Bronx but cannot marry her until he disinherits himself. He accomplishes his task, but his father convinces Molly to accept his money. Cohan ended up playing Molly’s father because the actor hired for the part died while the show was in Boston. None of the songs achieved popularity outside of the show. The unsigned review in the New York Times characterized it as a “shamrock-studded harlequinade” and reported that, as always, Cohan waved the flag, but the evening’s main message was “that God is good to the Irish.”
(21 October 1907, New Amsterdam, 416 performances.) Music by Franz Lehár, lyrics by Adrian Ross, book by Victor Léon and Leo Stein with English translation by Basil Hood. One of the most famous pieces of light musical theater, The Merry Widow came to New York after triumphing in European capitals. It premiered in Vienna as Die lustige Witwe on 30 December 1905, and Basil Hood’s translation into English for London was fairly loyal to the original libretto. The Merry Widow opened in London on 8 June 1907, running there for 778 performances. The same version came to New York. Its fabulous popularity led to touring companies, a reinvigoration of Viennese-style operetta in the United States, endless commercial tie-ins, and the increased popularity of the waltz on Broadway.
The plot and some character names were slightly altered in the English-language version. The title character is now Sonia (Ethel Jackson), a wealthy widow from the fictional, tiny country of Marsovia. Her fellow Marsovians worry that she might marry a foreigner. This would remove her fortunes from the national bank, and their economy would collapse. They encourage Prince Danilo (Donald Brian) of Marsovia to woo Sonia, which he does, but his heart is with the ladies who frequent Maxim’s in Paris. Danilo, however, comes to love Sonia, saving Marsovia. The sets of the Marsovian embassy and Maxim’s were glorious, and the score became hugely popular in New York. Lehár was a gifted waltz composer and filled The Merry Widow with numbers intended for singing and dancing. Among the hits were “The Merry Widow Waltz” (also called “I Love You So”), “Maxim’s,” “Vilja,” “A Dutiful Wife,” and “The Women.” The show’s popularity was unaffected by the bank panic that started two days after it opened in New York.
Theater and classical music critics raved about The Merry Widow. The unsigned New York Sun review (probably written by noted music critic W. J. Henderson) called The Merry Widow far superior to the “lamentable rot and debasing rubbish” that usually bears the name “comic opera.” The show provides “excellent comedy” and calls for “genuine acting ability.” Reginald De Koven, in the New York World, praised the show’s “dramatic purpose and coherency, the artistic sincerity.” The unsigned review in the New York Times describes a packed theater and assures the reader that The Merry Widow has lost none of it “gayety in crossing the ocean.” The Merry Widow returned to Broadway in 1921, 1929, 1931, and 1943 and regularly appears on opera stages.
(28 January 1944, Winter Garden, 481 performances.) Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, produced by Michael Todd. A vehicle for Bobby Clark, Mexican Hayride was an approachable musical comedy in the time-honored mold. Clark played Joe Bascom, an American fugitive in Mexico. He meets Lombo Compos (George Givot) and sets up a numbers racket. Among those trying to track down Bascom is the American chargé d’affaires, David Winthrop (Wilbur Evans). Winthrop’s love interest is an American female bullfighter, Montana (June Havoc). Clark and Givot use several ridiculous disguises and are finally caught, while Winthrop and Montana end up together. Lewis Nichols, writing in the New York Times, enjoyed the show. He found Clark “upholding the tradition of Broadway comedy,” the book “harmless,” and Porter’s score “satisfactory.” He praised most aspects of the production and many in the cast, calling June Havoc “pert and attractive” and noting that Wilbur Evans “has an unusually good voice.” Basically, “everything is in order.” The best songs were “I Love You” and “Count Your Blessings.”
Lyrical singing actor whose leading roles include John Kent in Roberta (1933), Washington Irving in Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Sam Cooper in Love Life (1948), and the Innkeeper in Man of La Mancha (1967). He was a replacement Emile De Becque in the original production of South Pacific (1949).
(10 October 1961, Martin Beck, 543 performances.) Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, book by Don Appell. The first Broadway musical to take place in Israel and Jerry Herman’s first Broadway score, Milk and Honey ran for about 16 months but reportedly made no profit. Robert Weede played Phil, an American businessman separated from his wife and visiting his daughter and her husband on an Israeli kibbutz. He meets fellow American Ruth (Mimi Benzell), and they fall in love, but finally Ruth decides to go back to the United States and wait for Phil to divorce his wife. The comedy revolved around Clara Weiss (Molly Picon), an older American in Israel trying to find a husband, which she does in Mr. Horowitz (Reuben Singer). Herman’s delightful score possessed an engaging combination of Jewish musical ideas and traditional Broadway writing. In his New York Times review, Howard Taubman praised the show’s “heartwarming integrity” and “respect for human beings” but found that the “comedy is not sparkling.” Among the show’s best songs are “Shalom” and “I Will Follow You.”
(Born Johnnie Lucille Ann Collier, 1923–2004.) Dancer, known especially for her remarkable tap dancing, bouffant hairdos, and belt voice, who appeared in George White’s Scandals (1938) before achieving tremendous fame in Hollywood film musicals during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1969, she took over the title role in the original production of Mame and also appeared in Sugar Babies (1979).
(Also known as Marilynn Miller, born Mary Ellen Reynolds, 1898–1936.) Tap-dancing singer who appeared in numerous revues, including editions of The Passing Show and Ziegfeld Follies. As a result of her commanding stage presence and tumultuous romantic relationship with Florenz Ziegfeld, she starred in several of his musical comedies, including Sally (1920), Sunny (1925), and Rosalie (1928). She also appeared in the 1933 Irving Berlin revue As Thousands Cheer.
Miller sang with the gospel choir at her local church in South Carolina, experience that certainly came in handy when she created the lead role of Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act in London in 2009 and made her Broadway debut with the same role in 2011. She won a Tony Award for her performance as the Leading Player in the 2013 revival of Pippin.
(11 April 2010, Nederlander, 489 performances.) Based on a legendary day in 1956 at the Sun Records studio in Memphis when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis had a jam session with the tape running, the show’s score includes the spirituals on which the performers harmonized that day as well as well-known hits by each artist that they did not play for each other those many years ago. The slender, 90-minute show was tied together by stories and commentary from Sam Phillips (played amiably by Hunter Foster), the studio’s owner, who explains how he sold Presley’s contract to RCA to keep his studio going and how he wished to hold onto his other talent. It was a thin plot on which to hang the songs, but performances of this music by four musicians/actors constituted the show’s major draw. The principals included Eddie Clendening (Presley), Lance Guest (Cash), Levi Kreis (Lewis), and Robert Britton Lyons (Perkins), with Elizabeth Stanley in a small role as Presley’s girlfriend. The New York Times noted that the four main cast members approached their roles “with no apparent discomfort” while “impersonating some of the most revered names in pop music, from their slick pompadours right down to their frisky, agile fingertips.”
The daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, she won her first Tony Award for the title role in John Kander and Fred Ebb’s Flora, the Red Menace (1965). She built her reputation singing the work of Kander and Ebb, substituting for Gwen Verdon in Chicago (1975), then starring in The Act (1977) and subsequently winning a second Tony. She can move almost indistinguishably between speech and song and uses her dramatic vocal capabilities to portray the full range of human emotion.
Composer, lyricist, actor, and rapper of Puerto Rican ancestry who not only conceived and created music and lyrics for In the Heights (2008) but also starred as Usnavi in the production. He provided Spanish-language translations of selected dialogue and lyrics for the 2009 revival of West Side Story and crafted music and lyrics for Bring It On: The Musical (2012), a show about competitive cheerleading and loosely based on the 2000 film of the same name.
(12 March 1987, Broadway, 6,680 performances.) Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer after French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, adapted and directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird, presented by Cameron Mackintosh. Based on Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Misérables, billed as “the world’s most popular musical,” as of 2015 has played in 319 cities in 42 countries in 22 languages and has been seen by more than 51 million people worldwide. After Les Misérables opened in Paris, Cameron Mackintosh supervised its adaptation for the London stage, which became the basis for all subsequent productions, including the American one. Several members of the London cast re-created their roles in New York, including Colm Wilkinson as the hero Jean Valjean and Terrence Mann as Javert. The large cast included several important roles played by Randy Graff (Fantine), David Bryant (Marius), Frances Ruffelle (Eponine), Judy Kuhn (Cosette), Michael Maguire (Enjolras), Leo Burmester (Thenardier), and Jennifer Butt (Mme. Thenardier). These varied characters participate in a tapestry of events surrounding the unsuccessful French Revolution of 1832, with students and radicals dying on the barricades. The megamusical includes themes of human love, sacrifice, redemption, and social justice, set to a sung-through score filled with soaring ballads, stirring marches, and even some comic numbers.
New York Times critic Frank Rich raved about the show, noting that anyone who doubts whether the “contemporary musical theater can . . . yank an audience right out of its seats” should see the act 1 finale. Rich goes on to describe this ensemble finale, where several points of the story are woven into the song “One Day More.” He also describes how the production helps make the number work, concluding that the success of such a scene shows how well this European work has transferred to Broadway. He warns those who love the entirety of Hugo’s novel that many favorite scenes are missing, but “the thematic spirit of the original is preserved.” Although most critics liked the show, Howard Kessel of the Daily News disliked the spectacle and called the music “drivel.” Les Misérables owes as much to the tradition of 19th-century grand opera as it does the modern musical theater. The stage spectacle is overwhelming, with two enormous towers that lower into position to become the barricades manned by the doomed students, although for most of the three-hour show, sets are minimal. Famous songs include “At the End of the Day,” “I Dreamed a Dream,” “Who Am I?,” “Master of the House,” “Do You Hear the People Sing?,” “One Day More,” “On My Own,” “Bring Him Home,” and “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.” One of the show’s most memorable moments is Valjean’s solo “Bring Him Home,” when he prays for the safe return of the young revolutionary Marius. The show was revived on Broadway in 2006 and 2014.
(15 July 1949, Imperial, 308 performances.) Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Robert E. Sherwood, staged by Moss Hart, dances and musical numbers staged by Jerome Robbins. With a score by America’s most successful songwriter, a book by a fine playwright, and other luminaries among the creators, one might have expected Miss Liberty to soar, but the show misfired. The plot involved France’s famous gift to the United States and also encompassed a romantic triangle, a search for the sculptor’s model, and a newspaper turf war. The stars included Eddie Albert, Allyn McLerie, and Mary McCarty. Berlin’s score featured “Let’s Take an Old-Fashioned Walk,” “Homework,” and the famous setting of Emma Lazarus’s poem “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor.” Brooks Atkinson pulled no punches in his New York Times review. He opened by stating that “‘Miss Liberty’ is a disappointing musical comedy . . . put together without sparkle or originality.” He calls the book “a pedestrial tale” and the score “not one of Mr. Berlin’s most memorable.” Atkinson liked the cast, however, especially Albert.
(11 April 1991, Broadway, 4,092 performances.) Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil, adapted from original French lyrics by Boublil, directed by Nicholas Hytner, musical staging by Bob Avian, presented by Cameron Mackintosh. The first musical to be set during the Vietnam War and bearing a close resemblance to Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly, Miss Saigon gave the creators of Les Misérables another international hit. After opening successfully in London, Mackintosh announced that he intended to bring Miss Saigon to New York with Lea Salonga (Kim) and Jonathan Pryce (the Engineer) reprising their London roles. Asian American actors in the Actors’ Equity Association tried to bar Pryce, a Caucasian, from playing an Asian role. Mackintosh canceled the production, and Actors’ Equity backed down, providing Miss Saigon with additional publicity.
In the story, Kim is a prostitute in Saigon, working for the Engineer, a pimp. Chris, an American soldier stationed in Vietnam, and Kim fall in love, but he is forced to leave as Saigon falls, not knowing that she is carrying his child. Thuy (Barry K. Bernal) tries to blackmail Kim because of her son, and in one of the show’s most dramatic moments, she shoots him. The Engineer has thoughts of going to America, the land of capitalist opportunity, and shares his vision in the spectacular “The American Dream.” After the war, Chris’s friend John (Hinton Battle) takes interest in the plight of the Bui-Doi, the children fathered by American soldiers in Vietnam who are outcasts in their own country. (This is the show’s theme of social justice.) Through John, Chris learns of his son. However, Chris is now married to Ellen (Liz Calloway), and the couple goes to Vietnam, where Ellen meets Kim. The only way Kim can guarantee that her son will return with his father to America is to kill herself, which she does.
Critical response in New York was mixed. Frank Rich, writing in the New York Times, concluded that “however sanitizing the words and corny the drama of ‘Miss Saigon,’ the real impact of the musical goes well beyond any literal reading.” The score, like that of Les Misérables, includes some fine music, and the overall influence of rock is stronger in Miss Saigon than in Les Mis. This is understandable, considering that Schönberg uses musical styles of the 1970s to evoke the decade. Especially effective are the opening nightclub number “The Heat Is On in Saigon,” the love duet between Chris and Kim “Sun and Moon,” and Chris’s anthem “Bui Doi,” accompanied by visual images of dispossessed and interned children.
Singing actor with a rich and resonant baritone voice who created the role of Coalhouse Walker in Ragtime (1998) and won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Fred/Petruccio in the revival of Kiss Me, Kate. He starred in the 2002 revival of Man of La Mancha, played Emile De Becque in the 2005 Carnegie Hall concert version of South Pacific, broadcast on PBS, and appeared as Ivan in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2010). His strong acting ability and malleable singing voice allow him to convincingly play a wide variety of characters.
Director who rose from the ranks of dancers and choreographers and worked on many shows in the decades around 1900, including A Trip to Chinatown (1891), Babes in Toyland (1903), and early editions of Ziegfeld Follies.
Stage manager, assistant, and producer who worked closely with Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim. She won a Tony Award for Cabaret (1966) and a Special Tony Award for the 1974 revival of Candide.
Comic actor, writer, and director who won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for creating Dr. Downer in Hazel Flagg (1953). Directorial credits include the revues Calling All Stars (1934) and At Home Abroad (1935).
(25 December 1905, Knickerbocker, 202 performances.) Music by Victor Herbert, lyrics and book by Henry Blossom. Conceived for opera singer Fritzi Scheff, Mlle. Modiste ran for almost seven months in New York and toured for three years. Scheff played Fifi, a hat shop clerk who loves Captain Etienne de Bouvray (Walter Percival). Her paramour’s uncle, a count, does not want the officer to marry below his station, and her boss, Madame Cecile, wants her to marry her son. An American millionaire, Hiram Bent (Claude Gillingwater), meets Fifi and learns that she wants a stage career. He pays for her voice lessons and helps her career flourish, and the Count removes his objections to the union. Herbert’s score included the hit waltz “Kiss Me Again” (a tune associated with Scheff for the rest of her career) and the cleverly titled “I Want What I Want When I Want It.”
Actress, singer, and writer known for her work onstage, in film, and on television. She has received several Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations, winning a Tony for the play Redwood Curtain (1993) and a Drama Desk Award for Curtains (2007), in which she played Carmen Bernstein, the brassy producer of the show-within-a-show. As a member of the performance group Pump Boys and Dinettes, she cowrote, codirected, and costarred in the Broadway musical Pump Boys and Dinettes (1982). Other musical roles include Lily Connors in the ill-fated Nick & Nora (1982), Joanne in the 1995 revival of Company, Shelby Stevens in Steel Pier (1997), and Madame Raquin in Thou Shalt Not (2001).
(12 February 1919, Winter Garden, 254 performances.) Music by Sigmund Romberg and Jean Schwartz, book and lyrics by Harold Atteridge. Similar in concept to the Al Jolson vehicles in that a framing story surrounded what was in essence a revue, Monte Cristo, Jr. starred Charles Purcell, a singer known for his work in operetta, as Monte, who falls asleep and dreams that he is Dante, the actor who is playing the lead in a stage adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo.
(17 March 2005, Shubert, 1,575 performances.) Lyrics and book by Eric Idle, music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle. Although billed as a “musical lovingly ripped off from Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” the show included other Monty Python references and songs and numerous reflexive references to the world of the Broadway musical, including a pastiche of a 1990s-style ballad in “The Song That Goes Like This” (sung by Galahad [Christopher Sieber] and the Lady of the Lake [Sara Ramirez]) with visuals that parody the journey to the underground lake in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera) and the musical-theater obsession of Sir Robin (David Hyde Pierce). American references abound, including a Las Vegas–style number where Arthur’s (Tim Curry) Round Table becomes a roulette wheel, and in a 21st-century twist to the Arthurian tale, Lancelot (Hank Azaria) is gay. The show won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Musical.
Operatic soprano who appeared in revues, including Hitchy-Koo (1920), the 1923 and 1924 editions of Irving Berlin’s Music Box Revues, and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931. She also appeared in film, including New Moon (1930), the first film version of Sigmund Romberg’s The New Moon.
(Born Melba Hill, 1945–.) Rhythm-and-blues and gospel singer and actress who played Dionne in the original production of Hair (1968), won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Lutiebelle in Purlie (1970), and starred as Marsinah in Timbuktu! (1978). She created incidental music and lyrics for the play Inacent Black, in which she also appeared, and in 1995 was a replacement Fantine in Les Misérables.
Director with a gift for comedy whose Broadway musical credits include Promises, Promises (1968), Lorelei (1974), They’re Playing Our Song (1979), and Woman of the Year (1981).
Performer who epitomized the concept of musical comedy. He created numerous memorable characters, including “Shorty” McGee in Oh, Kay! (1926), Herbert in Funny Face (1927), Vice President Alexander Throttlebottom in Of Thee I Sing (1931) and its sequel Let ’Em Eat Cake (1933), Moonface Martin (Public Enemy No. 13) in Anything Goes (1934), bathtub salesman Alonzo P. Goodhue in Leave It to Me! (1938), and Senator Oliver P. Loganberry in Louisiana Purchase (1940). He performed the music of George Gershwin and Cole Porter and appeared onstage with the likes of Gertrude Lawrence, Ethel Merman, and Mary Martin.
Musical theater star who created the role of Julie in Jerome Kern’s Show Boat (1927) and forged an iconic image by sitting on top of an upright piano while singing “Bill.” Two years later, Kern created Sweet Adeline as a vehicle for her.
After appearing in several films and a handful of short-lived Broadway shows, Morison achieved a career success as the original Lilli Vanessi/Katherine in Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate (1948). In the role, she aptly demonstrated her strong sense of comic timing and wide-ranging vocal abilities, from near vaudevillian to coloratura.
(Born Doretta Marano, 1927–1968.) Singing actress whose creamy vocal timbre brought her praise as Tuptim in The King and I (1951), in which she sang “My Lord and Master,” “We Kiss in a Shadow,” and “I Have Dreamed” and as Marsinah in Kismet (1953), which featured her in “Baubles, Bangles and Beads,” “Stranger in Paradise,” and “And This Is My Beloved.” Prior to these successes, she played Kitty Verdun in the musical comedy Where’s Charley? (1948).
Singing actor who won a Tony Award for his portrayal of corporate ladder–climbing J. Pierrepont Finch in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1961) and reprised the role in the 1967 film. Other roles include Richard in Take Me Along (1959), Jerry in Sugar (1972), and David in the short-lived So Long, 174th Street (1976).
(3 May 1956, Imperial, 676 performances.) Music, lyrics, and book by Frank Loesser. Producing an opera is unusual on Broadway, but Frank Loesser basically wrote one in The Most Happy Fella. Derived from Sidney Howard’s play They Knew What They Wanted, Loesser endowed the show with more than 40 musical numbers and included very little dialogue. The story involves a lonely, middle-aged Italian owner of a Napa Valley winery, Tony (Robert Weede). He has set his eye on the waitress at a San Francisco eatery and writes her, asking for her photograph. Rosabella (Jo Sullivan) complies but requests a picture in return. Tony sends one of a younger hired hand, Joe (Art Lund). She comes to the ranch and discovers the deception, but before she can leave, Tony is injured, and she remains with him out of compassion. Tony and Rosabella marry but not before she has an affair with Joe and becomes pregnant. Tony accepts the child and promises to raise it. Critics were divided on the show, mostly because of its widely disparate tone. Loesser wrote primarily operatic music for Weede (such as “My Heart Is So Full of You”) but more traditional Broadway ballads for Rosabella (such as “Somebody, Somewhere”). There are also pure musical comedy numbers, such as the perennially popular “Standing on the Corner (Watching All the Girls Go By)” and “Big D.” Loesser himself called the show an “extended musical comedy.” Brooks Atkinson, writing in the New York Times, found Fella “a profoundly moving dramatic experience” and stated that “Loesser has range and depth enough to give it an overwhelming musical statement.” Ultimately, though, he concluded that Loesser and director Joseph Anthony’s attempt to combine “music drama” and “Broadway entertainment” was unsuccessful.
Vivacious actor with a commanding stage presence who won Tony Awards for his portrayals of Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof (1964). Mostel was able to move seamlessly between speaking and singing and integrated the two types of vocal production in his performance style.
(14 April 2013, Lunt-Fontanne, 738 performances.) A jukebox musical designed to tell a brief history of an entire label, Berry Gordy, who ran Motown Records, crafted the thin book. The audience came to hear good singers perform big hits, something Gordy delivered in spades, including 50 different songs, often in shortened versions. Most songs were delivered in concert performances, but a few became part of the plot, at times in strained fashion. The New York Times reviewer described the proceedings as a “dramatically slapdash but musically vibrant trip back to the glory days of Detroit” and praised musical sequences and performers impersonating Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, a young Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye, and many others. The critic stated that the show was “mechanically directed” by Charles Randolph-Wright and described the dialogue as “often vinyl-stiff,” but the singers carry a “verve and an admirable lack of self-consciousness.” Brandon Victor Dixon effectively played the adult Berry Gordy, who sang some of the songs and served as an omniscient emcee in the show’s brief book moments.
(24 October 2002, Richard Rodgers, 1,303 performances.) Music and lyrics by Billy Joel; conceived, directed, and choreographed by Twyla Tharp. Director-choreographer Twyla Tharp conceived the spectacular jukebox musical featuring Billy Joel songs. The plot of the dance musical followed a group of five friends from their high school graduation in the 1960s, through Vietnam and its aftermath, to their reunion years later. The story is told through Tharp’s choreography, and, as opposed to Contact with its prerecorded music, Movin’ Out utilizes live music, led by piano-playing Michael Cavanagh. Tharp won a Tony Award for Best Choreography, and Billy Joel and Stuart Malina won the Tony for Best Orchestrations.
(20 October 1962, St. James, 265 performances.) Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, staged by Joshua Logan, choreography by Peter Gennaro. Irving Berlin’s Broadway swan song, Mr. President was a disappointment and ran for only eight months. Reminiscent of the Kennedys, who were then occupying the White House, the show starred Robert Ryan and Nanette Fabray. The Russians ruin President Henderson when they cancel his goodwill visit to Moscow as he is en route. The President arrives in the middle of the night and is ignored; he loses the next election because of the humiliation. In act 2, he turns down a seat in the Senate for reasons of principle but then serves the next president. A subplot involved a relationship between the couple’s daughter (Anita Gillette) and a Secret Service agent (Jack Haskell). In his New York Times review, Howard Taubman panned the book, calling it “remnants of lame topical allusions, pallid political jokes and stale gags,” and described the whole show as “mechanical in an old-fashioned way.” He called Berlin’s contribution as below his best efforts but cited notable songs, such as “Pigtails and Freckles” and “Empty Pockets Filled with Love.”
(22 March 1956, Broadway, 383 performances.) Music and lyrics by Jerry Bock, Larry Holofcener, and George Weiss; book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman; conceived by Jule Styne. A vehicle for nightclub performer Sammy Davis Jr., Mr. Wonderful ran for nearly a year. Davis played Charlie Welch, a nightclub entertainer whose friends convince him to try out his act in Miami. Act 2 was essentially the nightclub act that Davis had been doing with his father and uncle, Sammy Davis Sr. and Will Mastin. Brooks Atkinson, writing for the New York Times, described the show as “redundant” because all it did was demonstrate that Sammy Davis Jr. is a talented nightclub performer. The critic states that the show opens “with an explosion of mediocrity” that is exciting but “corny.” The two best songs in the show were “Too Close for Comfort,” which Davis sang, and the title song, performed by Olga James.
(13 January 1879, Theatre Comique, 153 performances.) Music by David Braham, lyrics and book by Edward Harrigan. One of the early musical comedies from the team of Harrigan and Hart, The Mulligan Guards’ Ball brought together stereotypical characters and situations that Harrigan and Hart had previously used in shorter skits. Harrigan and Hart mined their Irish heritage and included other ethnic character types as well, including Germans and African Americans, who were treated with sensitivity and dignity. The Mulligan Guards’ Ball was not a full-length piece and was always offered along with a vaudeville act. The “guards” in the title referred to a group of men who, organized by a local politician, paraded in uniforms and drank large amounts of beer. Dan Mulligan (Harrigan), leader of such a group named after him, fights off younger men who desire to take over. An African American group has double booked the hall he rented for their ball, and the African Americans move to a room directly above the Mulligans. The upstairs merrymaking becomes so wild that revelers come tumbling through the floor. Meanwhile, Dan’s son has fallen in love with a German girl; the children elope, and the families accept their marriage on their return. Popular songs included “The Babies on Our Block” and “Paddy Duffy’s Cart” as well as interpolations.
With credits in the original production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985), it was her heartfelt portrayals of Fosca in Passion (1994) and Anna in a revival of The King and I (1996) that brought her Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and tremendous professional acclaim. She played Ruth Sherwood in a revival of Wonderful Town (2003) that demonstrated her versatility as an actress and singer and intense analysis of any characters she plays. Murphy appeared in highly acclaimed City Center Encores! productions of Wonderful Town (2000), Follies (2007), and Anyone Can Whistle (2010).
(22 September 1921, Music Box, 313 performances; 23 October 1922, 272 performances; 22 September 1923, 273 performances; 1 December 1924, 184 performances.) A notable series of revues that Irving Berlin and Sam H. Harris initiated to help launch their new theater, the Music Box Revue ran for four years. The Music Box was smaller than some Broadway houses, allowing for an intimacy that many revues lacked. The Music Box Revue became famous for its opulent production numbers and spectacular stage effects. The first edition boasted a winning score that included “Say It with Music,” which became the title tune each year; “Everybody Step,” a number with Sam Bernard and Rene Riano that lampooned dance marathons; “They Call It Dancing”; “I’m a Dumbbell,” during which Riano nearly tied herself in knots; and “Eight Notes,” where eight women representing the notes of the scale surrounded Berlin. An unnamed reviewer for the New York Times asserted that the production established “the Music Box as the pre-eminent home of rich and gorgeous revue in America.” Charlotte Greenwood had a major hit in the second edition with “Pack Up Your Sins (and Go to the Devil),” during which she sent impersonators of jazz musicians and popular entertainers to the lower regions. In that edition, John Steel sang “Lady of the Evening,” and the production numbers were huge, especially the finale, “Porcelain Maid.” The third edition included “What’ll I Do,” added after the show opened and sung by Steel and Grace Moore before she became a famous opera star. The edition’s biggest production number was “An Orange Grove in California,” which featured countless orange-colored lights and orange scent misted into the audience. For the fourth and final edition, the host was Rip Van Winkle (Joseph McCauley), who slept through most of the show. Berlin wrote 20 songs, not one of them a hit. He added “All Alone,” sung by Moore and Oscar Shaw from either end of the stage into telephones. Fannie Brice sang “Don’t Send Me Back to Petrograd” and, with Bobby Clark, “I Want to Be a Ballet Dancer.” The “Tokio Blues” was a major production number. It was clear that interest in huge annual revues was waning, so Berlin and Harris closed the series.
(8 November 1932, Alvin, 342 performances.) Music by Jerome Kern, lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II, staged by Kern and Hammerstein. Five years after Show Boat, Kern and Hammerstein again tried to integrate music and plot, this time in a work set in Europe and with strong operetta overtones. Brooks Atkinson noticed, opening his New York Times review, “At last the musical drama has been emancipated.” The plot took place in a small Bavarian hamlet and in Munich. Working with the elderly music teacher, Dr. Walther Lessing (Al Shean), Karl Reder (Walter Slezak) writes a song. They decide to get it published in Munich, where they go with Karl’s girlfriend Sieglinde (Katherine Carrington) and the Edendorf Walking Club. Karl meets a prima donna who becomes Sieglinde’s rival, and Sieglinde finds a composer who wants to write an operetta for her. The Edendorfers finally decide that they prefer their small town. The musical score featured “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star,” “Egern on the Tegern See,” and “When Spring Is in the Air.” Atkinson called the show “a fable that flows naturally out of a full-brimming score” and praised Hammerstein’s story as “an effortless piece of craftsmanship.”
(19 December 1957, Majestic, 1,375 performances.) Music, lyrics, and book by Meredith Willson. Americans adore nostalgic looks at their past, and few shows captured such sentiment better than The Music Man. Meredith Willson grew up in a small town in Iowa at the time the musical takes place, the early 20th century. He took the audience back to fictional River City, Iowa, to meet realistic, entertaining people. Professor Harold Hill (Robert Preston, in his Broadway musical debut) is a con man who sells band instruments and uniforms to unsuspecting locals, skipping town before being discovered. He romances the town’s librarian and piano teacher Marian Paroo (Barbara Cook), but his plan unwinds when they fall in love. Marian lives with her mother (Pert Kelton) and younger brother Winthrop (Eddie Hodges). The shy boy lisps, but the purchase of a shiny cornet helps bring him out of his shell. Despite her doubts, Marian has feelings for Hill and destroys evidence that could expose his fraud. The town’s many memorable citizens include the school board, which forms a barbershop quartet. Hill must produce a band by the end, which he does. Parents ignore the cacophonous results when they see their beloved children in their uniforms.
Brooks Atkinson described the show in the New York Times “as American as apple pie and a Fourth of July oration.” Willson brought great imagination and skill to his score, producing tunes of varied types, with most songs sounding like they belonged to the period. The big hit was “Seventy-Six Trombones,” a rollicking march in the Sousa tradition. Willson transformed the melody into a sentimental waltz for “Goodnight My Someone,” allowing for a dramatic duet between Harold and Marian. The opening song, in which traveling salesmen chant about their livelihood and the scourge of con men like Hill to the rhythm of a speeding and slowing train, is most effective. Hill lures the people of River City into his gambit with the patter song “Trouble.” “Till There Was You” is another fine love duet. The nostalgic glow that surrounds The Music Man still thrills audiences almost six decades after its premiere. Preston appeared with Shirley Jones in the 1962 film version. The 2000 Broadway revival starred Craig Bierko and Rebecca Luker with direction and choreography by Susan Stroman, while the 2003 television version, broadcast on The Wonderful World of Disney, featured Matthew Broderick and Kristin Chenoweth.
A comic play with inserted songs and dances, especially those written for Broadway and London’s West End since the 1890s. Its antecedents included vaudeville, minstrel shows, and burlesque. Of the Broadway genres popular at the beginning of the 20th century, the musical comedy was the most American, combining a lighthearted plot with Tin Pan Alley songs and popular dances, often rendered by a scantily clad female chorus. Among the first true musical comedies was A Trip to Chinatown (1891), praised for its fast pace and based on vaudeville routines with language close to natural American speech. The leading musical comedy figure in the first two decades after 1900 was George M. Cohan, who crafted rapid-fire entertainment and formed the prototype for a musical comedy star: a genial actor who could sing (or at least declaim songs) and dance and might have other specialty acts that would be worked into every show. The golden decade for the musical comedy was the 1920s and featured such fine songwriters as Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, the Gershwin brothers, and Jerome Kern. Dozens of musical comedies opened each year, and the most successful ran just over a year. Audiences enjoyed high production values and high-profile stars who could nearly guarantee a show’s success. Musical comedies remained similar in the 1930s, but economic realities caused fewer shows to open. The advent of film talkies brought the genre to the screen, and a number of Broadway creators moved to Hollywood.
Broadway genres changed forever with Oklahoma! (1943), which included many musical comedy conventions amid greater concern for integration. Even some shows from the 1940s that strongly resembled the musical comedy, such as On the Town and Annie Get Your Gun, showed more of a sense of integration. Closer to old-time musical comedies were High Button Shoes and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. In the 1950s, many shows represented a true synthesis of the traditional musical comedy and strong elements of the musical play. Characters in Guys and Dolls, for example, were New York types familiar from earlier musical comedies, but the songs advanced the plot and described characters. Much the same could be said for The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees, both directed by George Abbott, the musical comedy’s acknowledged master. The trend continued in the 1960s with shows such as Hello, Dolly! Musical comedy elements remained in shows from the 1980s and beyond as a means to recall earlier times and styles, as is evident in 42nd Street, My One and Only, Crazy for You, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Producers, and Monty Python’s Spamalot.
A show in which the musical numbers and sequences (and perhaps the dances) play major roles in advancing the plot; the genre is sometimes referred to simply as the “musical.” Movement toward the musical play began in the first half of the 20th century, and by about 1950, audiences expected musicals to be integrated. Almost every musical comedy and operetta shows some degree of plot/music integration. An early step toward an intentional integration of plot and music may be seen in the so-called Princess Theatre musicals by Jerome Kern, P. G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton, and others in the mid-1910s. In Oh, Boy! (1917), for example, Kern and his collaborators combined a witty book with careful song placements. An important musical play was Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Show Boat (1927), in which the creators combined a serious plot with musical conventions from both musical comedy and operetta. All of the songs advance the plot and add depth to the characterization. Girl Crazy (1930), for example, often cited as typical musical comedy, includes a number of songs that at least comment on the plot or add some depth to characterization. The plot, however, is silly, serving only as a vehicle for George Gershwin’s delightful songs. Another significant step was the innovative Lady in the Dark (1941) with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and book by Moss Hart. A landmark work in the genre is Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! (1943), whose plot includes a dangerous character and his death onstage, elements alien to musical comedy. Rodgers and Hammerstein placed their songs carefully within the plot, deciding from the beginning what moments would be told best through dialogue, song, or dance.
The musical play could be seen as an attempt to move a commercial medium toward a more artistic product. Rodgers and Hammerstein confirmed their approach in Carousel (1945), then in almost all of their subsequent shows. Other creators rushed to include lengthy musical sequences and ballets that advanced the plot; Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe wrote their first musical play in Brigadoon (1947). The genre’s commercial importance was clear by 1950; in subsequent years, almost every show that has had a long run bears some of its characteristics. Canonic musical plays include The King and I (1951), My Fair Lady (1956), West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), and Man of La Mancha (1965). Important examples of the genre from the 1990s and 2000s include Ragtime (1998) and Wicked (2003).
(15 March 1956, Mark Hellinger, 2,717 performances.) Music by Frederick Loewe, lyrics and book by Alan Jay Lerner, directed by Moss Hart, choreographed by Hanya Holm. A smash-hit adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. Although he was deceased by the time this masterwork appeared, the creation of My Fair Lady depended on the persistence of Hungarian producer Gabriel Pascal. He bought film rights from Shaw for several of his plays and musical rights for Pygmalion. Starting in the early 1950s, Pascal pitched the project to every major Broadway creator or creative team. Like Rodgers and Hammerstein and others, Lerner and Loewe turned it down because of the unusual plot. In July 1954, Lerner read that Pascal had died, and he reconsidered Pygmalion. He now decided to adapt it into a musical without adding any characters or subplots. Lerner convinced Loewe of his approach, and the team began working on the show before securing rights from Pascal’s estate. Lerner retained as many of Shaw’s lines as possible and used others as inspirations for songs, depending more on Shaw’s script for the 1930s film version than the original play. Lerner and Loewe’s concern for integration is especially clear in the songs, which represent fine situational writing. They knew the identity of their major actors early on and wrote specifically for them.
Seldom have songwriters captured personalities and characterizations as well as they did for Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins, Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle, or Stanley Holloway as Alfred P. Doolittle. They describe Higgins’s character beautifully in the songs “Why Can’t the English” and “A Hymn to Him.” His final song, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” is a multisectioned musical scene of uncanny power. The song is ready proof of Lerner’s ability to capture Shaw’s voice in poetry, and Loewe effectively switches musical moods. Mr. Doolittle’s easygoing nature is captured brilliantly in “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time,” pieces that Loewe based on the English music hall style. Eliza’s complex character plays out well in her songs, from the hopefulness of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” the anger of “Show Me,” the playful happiness of “I Could Have Danced All Night,” and the triumphant defiance of “Without You.” Other songs are similarly successful, such as the understated comedy of the “Ascot Gavotte” and the hilarity of “The Rain in Spain.” Perhaps the most notable quality of My Fair Lady was the way that so many distinctive talents came together on the right project at the right time.
(12 September 1927, Jolson’s, 312 performances.) Music by Sigmund Romberg, lyrics and book by Dorothy Donnelly, produced by the Shuberts. Based on a play by Clyde Fitch that romanticized the Civil War legend of Barbara Frietchie, My Maryland ran for about nine months in Philadelphia and for a similar period in New York City. Soprano Evelyn Herbert played the main character, a lovely young southern woman who finds herself with two suitors: Jack Negly, with Confederate sympathies, and Captain Trumball (Nathaniel Wagner) of the Union army. Romberg’s score included “Won’t You Marry Me?,” “Silver Moon” (the show’s principal waltz), “Mother,” and “Your Land and My Land,” a male-choral march that quotes “Battle Hymn of the Republic” at the end of the refrain.
(1 May 1983, St. James, 767 performances.) Music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, book by Peter Stone and Timothy S. Meyer, staged and choreographed by Thommie Walsh and Tommy Tune. Intended as a revival of Funny Face, My One and Only went through a difficult creative period but emerged as a success. Tommy Tune played Captain Billy Buck Chandler, whose dream is to be the first pilot to fly solo from New York to Paris. He finds his efforts complicated by Edith Herbert (Twiggy), a famous swimmer of the English Channel. Tune and Thommie Walsh provided a true dancing spirit with contemporary interpretations of traditional tap dancing, as in the witty finale to “Kickin’ the Clouds Away,” when Billy and Edith marry in a Harlem chapel. Other songs in the score included “’S Wonderful,” “High Hat,” “Funny Face,” “Strike Up the Band,” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”
(2 December 1985, Imperial, 608 performances.) Based on Charles Dickens’s unfinished novel of the same name, creator Rupert Holmes received Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book. The show won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Leading Actor (George Rose as Mayor Thomas Sapsea/Chairman William Cartwright). During the show’s long run, the name was changed to Drood. The show includes elements of British music hall and pantomime traditions, particularly with a cross-dressed woman playing Drood and the vital role of audience participation. In the musical, members of the Musical Hall Royale offer their own lighthearted version of Dickens’s bleak tale. John Jasper, the local choirmaster, meets his young nephew Edwin Drood, who is engaged to Jasper’s music pupil and object of desire, Miss Rosa Bud. Other characters include Reverend Crisparkle and his two wards from Ceylon, Helena and Neville Landless; Princess Puffer, who runs an opium den in London; and Durdles, a drunken stonemason. Drood goes missing, and Dick Dathery, a private investigator usually played by the same actor who plays Drood, is among those trying to find him.
Since Dickens left the novel unfinished, the audience votes on several aspects of how the story turns out, something that can therefore change from performance to performance. (The cast must learn multiple endings, depending on how an audience votes at any given performance.) The audience votes on Datchery’s true identity, who killed Drood, and which two cast members will fall in love to provide the requisite happy ending. Frank Rich quipped in his New York Times review that during the voting, “the atmosphere in the theater becomes as merry as that of an unchaperoned auditorium of high-school kids.” Notable original cast members included Betty Buckley (Drood/Miss Alice Nutting), Howard McGillin (John Jasper/Mr. Clive Paget), and Cleo Laine (the Princess Puffer/Miss Angela Prysock). Donna Murphy, Judy Kuhn, and Rob Marshall were members of the ensemble. The 2012 revival (13 November 2012, Studio 54, 136 performances) starred Stephanie J. Block (Drood/Miss Alice Nutting), Will Chase (John Jasper/Mr. Clive Paget), and Chita Rivera (the Princess Puffer, Miss Angela Prysock).