(11 January 1976, Winter Garden, 193 performances.) Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by John Weidman, directed by Harold Prince, presented by Prince in association with Ruth Mitchell. Based on Weidman’s play about Commodore Perry’s 1853 voyage that opened commerce between Japan and the United States, the musical version included conventions of the Kabuki theater and an entirely Asian cast. Writing in the New York Times, Clive Barnes was most taken with Sondheim’s score, calling it “Japonaiserie” but with a “carefully applied patina of pastiche.” He was willing to forgive problems in the show, however, because the concept was “so bold” and “fascinating.” Broadway audiences were not as open to the experiment, however, and Pacific Overtures, in its original run, was a noble failure. Musical highlights included “Chrysanthemum Tea,” “A Bowler Hat,” and the dramatic finale, “Next.” The 2004 Broadway revival starred B. D. Wong as the Reciter and was based on Amon Miyamoto’s 2000 production at the New National Theatre in Tokyo.
Singer with a large, comforting voice who made his Broadway debut as a replacement Lion in The Wiz and played Nicely-Nicely Johnson in an all-black revival of Guys and Dolls (1976). He created the roles of Fats Waller in Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1978) and Old Deuteronomy in Cats (1982), reprising the latter for the show’s 1998 video release.
One of the leading singing actresses of the British musical stage whose credits include creating Grizabella in Cats, Paige made her Broadway debut as a replacement Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1996) and subsequently appeared as Carlotta in the 2011 revival of Follies.
(12 November 1951, Shubert, 289 performances.) Music by Frederick Loewe, lyrics and book by Alan Jay Lerner, choreographed by Agnes de Mille, produced by Cheryl Crawford. Lerner enjoyed Bret Harte’s stories of the Old West and conceived a story about the “life and death of a ghost town,” desiring more realism than the western folksiness of Oklahoma! Lerner’s story involves a town inhabited entirely by men, except for one woman. The show’s creation was difficult because Lerner’s quest for untheatrical realism made problems with the book insoluble. Tryout runs in both Philadelphia and Boston were extended for rewrites. The show opened in New York to mixed critical reaction. Brooks Atkinson, writing in the New York Times, was impressed, calling Paint Your Wagon “a bountiful and exultant jamboree” but noting that it did not meet the “artistic standard of Brigadoon.” Loewe captured the spirit of western folk songs in his settings of Lerner’s descriptive lyrics, as in the songs “They Call the Wind Maria” and “I Talk to the Trees.” Lerner constructed a new plot for the 1969 film.
(13 May 1954, St. James, 1,063 performances.) Music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell, staged by Abbott and Jerome Robbins, choreography by Bob Fosse. Based on Richard Bissell’s novel 71/2 Cents, The Pajama Game was a delightful romp and Adler and Ross’s first score for a book musical. George Abbott assisted Bissell in adapting his novel, providing delightful comedy and situations for musical numbers. The lead comic was Eddie Foy Jr., who played Hines, the efficiency expert at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory. He has decided, with the help of management, to speed up the machines. The union’s grievance officer, Babe Williams (Janis Page), goes to the factory superintendent, Sid Sorokin (John Raitt), and demands a raise of seven and a half cents per hour. Sid quickly falls for Babe, and after many complications, the two are together at the final curtain. Slanted significantly on the workers’ side, the show worked because the tone remained light and the cast was superb. The show was the first time Bob Fosse choreographed a major musical, and his dance “Steam Heat” became one of his most famous numbers. Brooks Atkinson, in the New York Times, found the score “exuberant . . . in any number of good American idioms without self-consciousness.” The score included several memorable songs, including “Hernando’s Hideaway”; a mock sexy tango, “Steam Heat”; the love ballad “Hey There”; and the comic numbers “I’ll Never Be Jealous Again” and “Think of the Time I Save.” The 2006 Broadway revival starred Kelli O’Hara and Harry Connick Jr.
(25 December 1940, Ethel Barrymore, 374 performances.) Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, book by John O’Hara, staged and produced by George Abbott. Based on John O’Hara’s fictional letters about the title character that were published in the New Yorker, Pal Joey was one of Broadway’s groundbreaking musicals. Gene Kelly played Joey, a heel loaded with ambition and the superficial charm to get others to pay for his dreams. He has begun to date the innocent, young Linda English (Lelia Ernst) but dumps her quickly when he has the chance to become a gigolo for Vera Simpson (Vivienne Segal), a bored but wealthy middle-aged married woman. She sees right through Joey but wants to have fun and pays for everything until Joey becomes a problem. Linda, whose feelings for Joey have cooled, warns Vera that he plans to blackmail her about their affair. Vera cuts Joey loose, and he starts looking for a new patsy. Many were not ready for the frank story and character, but the show’s wonderful score and Gene Kelly’s engaging nature softened its less appealing aspects. Brooks Atkinson, for one, found Pal Joey hard to swallow. He concluded his New York Times review with a famous question about this “expertly done” show: “Can you draw sweet water from a foul well?” He admits the show’s glories: the score, effective dances, wonderful scenery and costumes, and a fine cast. But O’Hara’s book is “a pitiless portrait of his small-time braggart,” a role that Kelly plays “with remarkable accuracy.” One can only revel, however, in the show’s score. Joey sang “I Could Write a Book,” one of the great Broadway ballads. Vera sang “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” her coy, sexy admission of her feelings for Joey, set to an especially memorable melody. A nightclub performer sang “Zip” during a striptease, a parody of Gypsy Rose Lee’s monologues. There were a number of other fine songs, such as “You Mustn’t Kick It Around,” and others sung in nightclub routines. The 1952 revival starred Segal and Harold Lang, while the 1957 film version featured Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, and Kim Novak. Patti LuPone, Peter Gallagher, and Bebe Neuwirth appeared in the City Center Encores! 1995 production. An 85-performance revival opened in 2008 with Stockard Channing as Vera Simpson and Matthew Rich as Joey Evans.
(30 October 1940, 46th Street, 501 performances.) Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Herbert Fields and B. G. De Sylva. An original story conceived as a vehicle for Ethel Merman, Panama Hattie featured Merman as Hattie Maloney, a singer who works in a bar in the Panama Canal Zone. Among her songs was “Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please.” Three sailors spend much of the show searching for girls, but Hattie falls for Nick Bullett (James Dunn), who is from a respectable Philadelphia family. He asks Hattie to marry him, but she insists that his young daughter Geraldine (Joan Carroll) must first accept her. By the end of the show, Hattie and Geraldine sing “Let’s Be Buddies.” Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times found that “everything is noisy, funny and in order” but criticized the show’s bawdy theme. He found Merman to be a “coarse-timbered entertainer with a heart of gold,” playing a part she “rolls through . . . with the greatest gusto.”
Innovative producer who was founding director of the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park and brought many of his shows from there, as well as from the Public Theatre, to Broadway, including Hair, Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Chorus Line, the 1981 revival of The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
(17 December 1998, Vivian Beaumont, 85 performances.) Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, book by Alfred Uhry, coconceived by Harold Prince. Based on the historic 1913 “Trial of the Century,” Parade was the story of Leo Frank (Brent Carver), a New York Jew living in Atlanta who is falsely accused of killing young Mary Phagan, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged. His wife Lucille (Carolee Carmello) launches a campaign on his behalf and convinces the governor to overturn her husband’s death decree, only to have a group of vigilantes break into the prison in the midst of night and lynch the innocent man. Musical highlights include the opening “The Old Red Hills of Home” (which is reprised as the finale) and the powerful duets for the Franks, “This Is Not Over Yet” and “All the Wasted Time.” The show won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score.
(20 January 1933, Majestic, 46 performances.) Music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, book by Herbert Fields, produced by Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley. A commercial failure, the show, in its final form, was a vehicle for Jack Pearl, famous as Baron Munchausen on the radio, here playing a Dresden police commissioner who wrongfully arrests two Americans in a show that tested the limits of sexual content for the day. Brooks Atkinson noted in the New York Times that the show “rolled around in the gutter.” The score included the songs “Lorelei,” “My Cousin in Milwaukee,” and “Isn’t It a Pity.”
Noted author, playwright, and screenwriter who wrote lyrics for Candide (1956). She was known for her sharp wit and clever one-liners.
(22 July 1912, Winter Garden, 136 performances; 24 July and 29 September 1913, Winter Garden, 116 performances; 1 June 1914, Winter Garden, 133 performances; 29 May 1915, Winter Garden, 145 performances; 22 June 1916, Winter Garden, 140 performances; 26 April 1917, Winter Garden, 196 performances; 25 July 1918, Winter Garden, 124 performances; 23 October 1919, Winter Garden, 280 performances; 29 December 1920, Winter Garden, 191 performances; 20 September 1922, Winter Garden, 85 performances; 14 June 1923, Winter Garden, 118 performances; 3 September 1924, Winter Garden, 93 performances.) A Shubert-produced series of revues that began in The Passing Show in 1912 to compete with the success of Ziegfeld Follies, they were filled with topical humor and satirical looks at contemporary culture. The Shuberts took the name from what is generally considered to be the first American revue, George W. Lederer’s The Passing Show (1894). Productions were elaborate, but the Shuberts were unwilling to match Ziegfeld’s salaries, so they offered young talent that soon moved on. The 1912 edition starred Charlotte Greenwood and also introduced the brothers Eugene and Willie Howard. The New York Times praised how the chorus girls and principals “romped through a jumble of things politic, theatric, and social, leaping from comedy scenes to elaborate musical numbers with an agility inspired by an unusually energetic stage director.” Marilyn Miller starred in The Passing Shows of 1914 and 1915, the latter considered one of the best with the Howards mocking Charlie Chaplin and Shakespeare and Miller appearing as Mary Pickford. Ed Wynn headlined in 1916, parodying Theodore Roosevelt’s bellicose calls for war. The show also included live horses on treadmills facing the audience, imitating a cavalry charge.
Harold Atteridge usually wrote the books and lyrics for The Passing Show. The music that such composers as Sigmund Romberg and Jean Schwartz wrote for the annual shows included few hits and was generally in the slightly syncopated style popular at the time, but in later editions, some interpolations became quite popular. The year 1917 brought “Goodbye Broadway, Hello France,” and the 1918 show featured the songs “Smiles” and “My Baby-Talk Lady!,” along with a young Fred and Adele Astaire. Highlights of the later versions, as interest in the annual revues waned and the thrifty Shuberts became ever more conscious of the bottom line, included the song “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” in 1919, a young Fred Allen and the song “Carolina in the Morning” in 1922, and comedian George Jessel in 1923. Another Shubert revue that appeared with regularity was the racy Artists and Models.
(9 May 1994, Plymouth, 280 performances.) Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book and direction by James Lapine. A musical about obsessive love based on a French film, Passion showed another side of Sondheim and Lapine as collaborators. Their insistence on bringing art and ambivalent emotions to the Broadway musical was already clear in Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods, but in Passion, they plunged into deeper emotional terrain. The handsome soldier Giorgio (Jere Shea) is happily involved with his married mistress Clara (Marin Mazzie), but then the Italian army transfers him to an isolated outpost. There, he meets Fosca (Donna Murphy), an unattractive invalid who falls completely in love with the uninterested Giorgio. He ends up fighting a duel with his colonel (Gregg Edelman), Fosca’s cousin, and then has a nervous breakdown. After his recovery, he learns that Fosca died from her obsessive love for Giorgio. He finds himself moved and transformed by her feelings. Conceived in one act (but often performed with an intermission), the show is a rhapsody about the many dimensions of love, not all of which have happy resolutions. David Richards, in the New York Times, described the production as “ravishing” and believed that Sondheim and Lapine “achieved an uncommonly graceful intertwining of dialogue and music.”
A leading theater owner and impresario at the turn of the 20th century, Pastor was especially influential in the fields of variety and vaudeville. Among his most notable efforts was his success in catering to mixed-gender audiences.
(Born Mandel Patinkin, 1952–.) The versatile actor and singer’s Broadway credits include Che Guevara in Evita (1979), George Seurat in Sunday in the Park with George (1986), and Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden (1991). He won a Tony Award for Evita. Patinkin uses his distinctive falsetto tenor and ability to create a musical line to bring emotional life to every song he sings and intensity and depth to every role he plays.
(27 December 1926, Vanderbilt, 333 performances.) Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, book by Herbert Fields. Based on Tillie’s Nightmare, a musical vehicle for Marie Dressler that premiered in 1910, Peggy-Ann featured Helen Ford in the title role as a young woman who has glorious dreams about her life but never gets past her dreams and nightmares. The show incorporated some Freudian thinking as well as a Cinderella-like plot. Although it appeared early in Rodgers and Hart’s career, the unnamed critic of the New York Times noted the “freshness” of the team’s shows and believes here that “they travel a little further along their road.” The critic especially praised the song “Where’s That Rainbow?”
Diminutive dancer, actress, and singer who starred in multiple editions of Ziegfeld Follies and George White’s Scandals in the 1910s and 1920s. She was especially known for the “Black Bottom” dance, which she introduced in the 1926 edition of George White’s Scandals. Pennington created the role of Lola McGee in The New Yorkers and also achieved success in silent and sound motion pictures.
(20 October 1954, Winter Garden, 152 performances.) Music by Mark Charlap, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, additional music by Jule Styne, additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins. A musicalization of J. M. Barrie’s famous children’s play, Peter Pan had a disappointing initial run but became popular through various television productions and stage versions. It was conceived as a vehicle for Mary Martin, who engagingly brought to life the adolescent male hero. Cyril Ritchard was an effective Captain Hook and also played Mr. Darling. Other leading cast members included Margalo Gillmore as Mrs. Darling, Sondra Lee as Tiger Lily, and Kathy Nolan as Wendy. Jerome Robbins wrote the book (without credit) and for the first time served as both director and choreographer. Robbins Americanized the story and had the idea to cast the pirates with children. The show opened first in San Francisco with a score by Leigh and Charlap, but more and different music was needed for Broadway, and Comden, Green, and Styne entered the project. Brooks Atkinson’s review of the original version in the New York Times was mixed, lauding it as “a bountiful, good-natured show” but also lamenting that the huge production might “look ponderous toward the end.” He called Martin “the liveliest Peter Pan in the record book,” flying with abandon and performing “with skill and enjoyment.” Some of the songs in Peter Pan have entered the popular consciousness, at least among children, especially “I Gotta Crow” and “I’m Flying,” both by Leigh and Charlap. Comden, Green, and Styne wrote the fine “Captain Hook’s Waltz” and “Never Never Land.”
(Born Bernadette Lazzaro, 1948–.) One of the most distinctive musical theater actresses of her generation, Peters brings a depth of character to her roles that is rarely matched. She originated the roles of Mabel in Mack and Mabel (1974), Dot in Sunday in the Park with George (1983), Emma in Song and Dance (1985), the Witch in Into the Woods (1987), and Marsha in The Goodbye Girl (1993). In addition to her original roles, she brought new and riveting interpretations to revivals as Annie in Annie Get Your Gun (1999), Rose in Gypsy (2003), a replacement Desirée in A Little Night Music (2010), and Sally in Follies (2011).
(26 January 1988, Majestic, 11,335 performances as of 26 April 2015.) Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, book by Stilgoe and Lloyd Webber, musical staging and choreography by Gillian Lynne, directed by Harold Prince, presented by Cameron Mackintosh and the Really Useful Theatre Company. Based on the famous novel by Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera became the longest-running Broadway musical of all time on 9 January 2006, with 7,486 performances, surpassing the previous record holder, Cats, another Lloyd Webber show. Phantom and other megamusicals have raised public interest in spectacle and musical opulence, changing the essential thrust of the popular musical theater. At its core, The Phantom of the Opera concerns the love triangle of the murderous title character (Michael Crawford); Christine Daae, a dancer in the chorus (Sarah Brightman); and Raoul, a friend from her youth. The disfigured Phantom wants to achieve immortality through Christine and ensures (through threats and murders) that she will have a starring role at the Paris Opera. The show’s staging is extraordinary: the falling chandelier (in the house), the underground lake with rising candelabra, the Phantom’s lair, and scenes from three created operas provide unforgettable theatrical effects. The score is likewise grandiose and expansive. Several of Phantom’s songs have become well known outside of the show, including the title number, “Music of the Night,” “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again,” “Think of Me,” and “Angel of Music.” The septet “Prima Donna,” “Masquerade,” and opera sequences (including the modernist Don Juan Triumphant) are works of considerable skill.
Frank Rich’s review in the New York Times is instructive. Widely viewed as dismissive of megamusicals, especially those by Lloyd Webber, Rich’s reaction to Phantom is varied. There are aspects, particularly the staging, that he found extraordinary. He described the show as “a characteristic Lloyd Webber project—long on pop professionalism and melody and impoverished of artistic personality and passion”—and found its most convincing love story to be that which the creators have with “the theater itself.” Rich was astonished by the opening sequence, when the theater transforms instantly from something ready to be torn down to glorious life. Rich found the story “skeletal” but copiously praised Crawford’s performance, even through the iconic mask. The 2004 film version starred Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum, and in 2006, a 95-minute version opened in a purpose-built theater at the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas.
A German immigrant, Philipp was among the most important producers and creators of German-language theater in New York in the early 20th century. His approach to creating works by, for, and featuring German Americans had far-reaching consequences in English- and German-speaking communities. Among his most famous works was Alma, wo wohnst du?, which was produced in English as Alma, Where Do You Live? (1910).
(13 March 1911, New Amsterdam, 312 performances.) Music by Ivan Caryll, lyrics and book by C. M. S. McLellan. Based on the French farce Le Satyre by Georges Berr and Marcel Guillemand, The Pink Lady’s unlikely but enjoyable plot involved a satyr running through the Forest of Compiègne, where he steals hugs and kisses from young ladies. In the human world, Lucien Garidel (William Elliott) is to marry Angele (Alice Dovey) in six weeks but seeks one last fling with Claudine (Hazel Dawn), a former girlfriend and the so-called Pink Lady. Lucien and Angele reconcile in the end, Claudine is alone, and the satyr turns out to be a disguised antique dealer. The New York Times critic was most impressed with the book and the “dash” of a full plot that all takes place in a single day. Songs included “On the Saskatchewan,” “My Beautiful Lady,” “Hide and Seek,” and “Donny Did, Donny Didn’t.”
Noted African American actress whose roles include Anita in Jelly’s Last Jam (1992), Kate in The Wild Party, and Caroline Thibodeaux in Caroline, or Change (2004). She brings a dramatic depth to her characters through her commanding stage presence and versatile vocal technique.
(27 November 1937, Labor Stage, 1,108 performances.) Music and lyrics by Harold Rome; sketches by Arthur Arent, Marc Blitzstein, Emanuel Eisenberg, Charles Friedman, and Rome; directed by Friedman; produced by Labor Stage, Inc., under the sponsorship of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. A revue acted by members of the union, the only originally scheduled performances of Pins and Needles were for the opening weekend. Nightly performances did not start until 3 January 1938, by which time the show had become very popular. It ran at the old Princess Theatre, renamed the Labor Stage for the event, part of the show’s leftist stance. The review in the New York Times, signed by “J. G.,” noted that the players “do not miss any plugs for the anti-fascism cause and for the working man in general,” but their message is all part of the entertainment. Harold Rome did his first significant work for Broadway in Pins and Needles, providing such songs as “Sing Us a Song with Social Significance,” “Doin’ the Reactionary,” “Four Little Angels of Peace Are We,” and “One Big Union for Two.” The Times critic remarked that the show “is certainly a revue out of the ordinary.” The low budget helped the show enjoy a long run, and material was changed as current events demanded it.
Operatic bass-baritone who played Emile DeBecque in South Pacific (1949) and won a Tony Award for his performance. He also starred as Cesar in Fanny (1954).
(30 November 1955, Shubert, 246 performances.) Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II, directed by Harold Clurman, produced by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s seventh show and their least successful, Pipe Dream was the team’s grittiest show. Set in a Cannery Row brothel, the story dealt with softhearted Madame Fauna (opera singer Helen Traubel) who brings together hard-edged Suzy (Judy Taylor) and impoverished marine biologist Doc (William Johnson). Based on John Steinbeck’s novel-in-progress Sweet Thursday, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the show as Steinbeck delivered his book to them chapter by chapter. New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson found the play “sweet, pleasant and enjoyable,” but Rodgers and Hammerstein were “in a minor key.” Traubel sang “The Bum’s Opera,” “Sweet Thursday,” “The Happiest House on the Block,” and “How Long?,” and the act 1 finale, “All at Once You Loved Her,” enjoyed fame outside the theater. The 2012 City Center Encores! production and subsequent recording featured Will Chase as Doc, Laura Osnes as Suzy, and Leslie Uggams as Fauna.
(23 October 1972, Imperial, 1,944 performances.) Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Roger O. Hirson, directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse. Considered a triumph for Fosse, Pippin was a musical with simple content that found its audience and enjoyed a long run. The plot concerned a search for identity by Pepin (respelled for the American audience), son of the medieval emperor Charlemagne. John Rubinstein played Pippin, but Ben Vereen, as the Leading Player, stole the show. Pippin experiences the challenges of war, sex, revolution, and quiet living with his wife and family. Nothing satisfies him, but after he is offered the chance to be burned to death in a flaming hoop, domesticity suddenly looks acceptable, and there the musical ends. Many criticized the underdramatic story, but Fosse’s staging carried them all away. During rehearsals, Fosse literally took over the show, inserting a racy tone that contradicted what Hirson and Schwartz had planned. The cast functioned much like a commedia dell’arte troupe with some in clown makeup and the Leading Player in modern dress. Fosse gave the show what Clive Barnes, in the New York Times, called “the pace of a roller derby and the finesse of a conjuror.” Barnes dismissed the book as “feeble” and the music as “bland” but admitted that Schwartz wrote some “memorable” ballads. One was “Colors of the Sky,” a fine song in the accessible pop idiom that Schwartz had used so successfully in Godspell. Barnes and other critics missed the appeal the show had for the younger generation. A search for one’s identity was a popular theme in the early 1970s, and Schwartz’s music carried enough of a rock beat to capture the youngsters. Pippin benefited from the first intensive television campaign for a Broadway musical, and many also probably enjoyed its naughtiness. The 2013 revival, envisioned in a circus aesthetic, starred Patina Miller as the Leading Player and featured 67-year-old Andrea Martin as Berthe performing “No Time at All” on a trapeze.
(8 January 1981, Uris, 772 performances.) Music by Arthur Sullivan and adapted by William Elliott, lyrics by W. S. Gilbert, choreography by Graciela Daniele, presented by Joseph Papp, a New York Shakespeare Festival production. A witty rethinking of this popular operetta, this rendition first appeared in Central Park the previous July. Aspects of the updating included Elliott’s new orchestrations, which did away with the strings and gave the accompaniment a brassier sound, and casting rock stars Linda Ronstadt and Rex Smith as the young lovers. The Pirate King was Kevin Kline, who brought a maniacal quality to the role, and George Rose delightfully played Major General Stanley. The show provided many memorable moments, especially Rose’s “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” and several unexpected moments of dancing, such as a kick line inspired by the finale of A Chorus Line as the show ended. Frank Rich, writing in the New York Times, was charmed. He applauded the union of “civilized British wit and American show-biz” and praised most members of the cast, such as George Rose, who is “having so much devilish fun it’s indecent.” Of the musical numbers, he liked Ronstadt’s singing of “Poor Wandering One,” which “somehow merges pure sex with virginal rapture.” Kline, however, occupied “a class by himself” with all of the elements of a star’s performance. The show ran for nearly two years and also toured.
(27 January 1955, Mark Hellinger, 461 performances.) Music by Albert Hague, lyrics by Arnold B. Horwitt, book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman. Based on an original story that took two New Yorkers into Pennsylvania Amish country, Plain and Fancy managed a run of more than 13 months before disappearing almost completely. Ruth Winters (Shiri Conway) and Dan King (Richard Derr) go to Lancaster County to sell a farm that Dan has inherited. A possible buyer is Papa Yoder (Stefan Schnabel), whose daughter Katie (Gloria Marlowe) is to marry Ezra Reber (Douglas Fletcher Rodgers). Katie, however, loves Ezra’s brother Peter, who has left the community and been shunned. Peter proves his worthiness, and Katie agrees to marry him about the time the two New Yorkers declare their love for each other. Brooks Atkinson, writing in the New York Times, appreciated act 1 but thought that act 2 relied excessively on “the old staples of Broadway.” Atkinson’s favorite song was “Plain We Live,” a declaration of Amish values. “Young and Foolish,” sung by Katie and Peter, also achieved some popularity.
Actor known primarily for his dramatic roles who played Cyrano de Bergerac in Cyrano (1973) and won a Tony Award for his performance. In musical theater circles, he is perhaps most famous for playing Captain von Trapp in the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music.
(28 July 1920, Central, 119 performances.) Music by Richard Rodgers and Sigmund Romberg, lyrics by Lorenz M. Hart and Alex Gerber, book by George Campbell and Lew Fields, produced by Fields. The first Broadway musical comedy for which Rodgers and Hart wrote a complete score, the neophyte team was shocked and embarrassed on opening night, when they learned that eight of their songs had been replaced during the tryout period with new ones by Romberg and Gerber. The plot involved a chorus girl, Annie Farrell (Florence Webber), who sublets a luxury Riverside Drive apartment, only to have its bachelor owner, William Pembroke (Charles Purcell), return. He does not know about the sublet but agrees to let her stay there until the farce in which she is performing, Poor Little Ritz Girl, is over. They, of course, fall in love. Rodgers and Hart’s songs were more in the line of musical comedy, while Romberg’s contributions, including the waltz “When I Found You,” were closer to operetta.
(3 September 1923, Apollo, 346 performances.) Music by Stephen Jones and Arthur Samuels, lyrics and book by Dorothy Donnelly. Although unknown today, Poppy ran for an entire season, most unusual at the time. This was largely because of W. C. Fields, already famous for his work in Ziegfeld Follies, who played Professor Eustace McGargle, a traveling showman who comes to a Connecticut town and discovers that his daughter Poppy McGargle (Madge Kennedy) is a long-lost heiress. Luella Gear sang “What Do You Do Sundays, Mary?” and “Alibi Baby,” two interpolations by Howard Dietz and Arthur Samuels.
(10 October 1935, Alvin, 124 performances.) Music by George Gershwin, lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, libretto by Heyward, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, produced by the Theatre Guild. Billed as “An American Folk Opera,” Porgy and Bess premiered on Broadway because there was no place else to perform it in New York City at that time. Gershwin approached the project with different intentions than he did in his other Broadway projects. He spent more than a year composing it and traveled to South Carolina to hear African Americans sing the music that he imitated in the score. The novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward appeared in 1925, and Gershwin was soon interested in an operatic treatment. The next version was the play Porgy by Dorothy and DuBose Heyward, produced by the Theatre Guild (1927). Heyward then chose Gershwin’s operatic proposal over a musical starring Al Jolson (perhaps with music by Jerome Kern). Heyward drafted the libretto and sent each finished scene to Gershwin. Heyward was supposed to create the lyrics, but that summer, Ira Gershwin entered the project and wrote many of the words. Heyward argued for spoken dialogue with songs, but Gershwin wanted a “grand opera” and wrote recitatives. African American characters sing almost every line, while whites can only speak. The creators found a fine cast of African Americans. Todd Duncan and Anne Wiggins Brown took the title roles, while John W. Bubbles made an inspired Sportin’ Life, the smarmy pimp and drug pusher.
Early in the show, Bess’s man, Crown (Warren Coleman), kills Robbins (Henry Davis) and leaves Catfish Row. Bess moves in with Porgy, and they fall in love. Later, Porgy kills Crown in a fight and, after being jailed, manages to convince the police of his innocence. He returns to find that Sportin’ Life has tempted Bess with cocaine, her nemesis, and taken her to New York to be a prostitute. Porgy leaves Charleston for New York on his goat cart as the chorus sings “O Lawd, I’m on My Way.” Gershwin’s score is loaded with gems, many of them jazz- and blues-inflected songs like he had been writing for years but now with far greater vocal demands. Among the show’s highlights are “Summertime,” “My Man’s Gone Now,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” and “I Got Plenty of Nothin’.” How well Gershwin actually captured the African American musical style has been a matter of some debate, but few can question the quality of the score or its melodic inspiration. The critical reaction to the original production was mixed. It managed a run of only 124 performances and was a financial failure. As has been often noted, however, this is a very long run for an opera. For the next few decades, Porgy and Bess remained controversial, especially among African Americans, who resented their portrayal by white creators. Perhaps its vindication on Broadway came in the 1976 Houston Grand Opera production, when the musical quality of the score became brilliantly clear with a superb cast and splendid production.
Diane Paulus directed a highly lauded revival (12 January 2012, Richard Rodgers, 293 performances) under the title The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, which was originally produced by the American Repertory Theatre with a book adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre Murray. Norm Lewis and Audra McDonald gave especially poignant interpretations to the title roles.
Composer and lyricist of tremendous sophistication, Porter came from a wealthy family and enjoyed social and financial privilege throughout his troubled life. His music possesses an advanced harmonic style atypical of American popular song of his time, while his lyrics are filled with clever wordplays, ingenious rhyme schemes, and delightful double entendres. Although his first full score for Broadway, See America First (1916), was a failure, he kept persevering with relatively successful shows during the 1920s, including Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), before achieving true success with Anything Goes (1933), starring Ethel Merman. He had a string of hits in the 1930s and early 1940s, several of which featured Merman, including Red, Hot and Blue! (1936), Du Barry Was a Lady (1939), Panama Hattie (1940), and Something for the Boys (1943). Hits continued to appear, with Kiss Me, Kate (1948), Can-Can (1953), and Silk Stockings (1955). In the midst of these successes, Porter suffered a personal trauma: a riding accident in 1937 left him in almost constant pain, and the injuries to his right leg led to its amputation in 1958. Porter loved Paris, and references to the city, such as the song “I Love Paris” from Can-Can and “Paris Loves Lovers” from Silk Stockings, regularly appear in his work. Porter struggled throughout his life with his homosexuality, an aspect of his life omitted from the biopic Night and Day (1946), in which Cary Grant played Porter, but addressed in the subsequent film celebration of Porter and his music, De-Lovely (2004), which starred Kevin Kline as the legendary songwriter.
Exuberant solo tap dancer and actress known primarily for her work in Hollywood. Her Broadway credits include Molly in Follow Thru (1929) and Miss Hunter in Fine and Dandy (1930). She performed “Got a Bran’ New Suit” and “The Lady with the Tap” in the revue At Home Abroad (1935).
(Robert Preston Meservey, 1918–1987.) The legendary creator of Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man (1957), for which he won a Tony Award, Preston had a dramatic bass-baritone voice that was immediately recognizable for its clarity, depth, and expressive qualities. He reprised Hill in the 1962 film version of The Music Man and won a second Tony for his portrayal of Michael in I Do! I Do! (1966). He also created Mack in Mack and Mabel (1974).
(Or Hal Prince, 1928–.) Prince started his Broadway career as a producer, working with partner Robert E. Griffith on various shows directed by George Abbott. Early production credits include The Pajama Game (1954) and West Side Story (1957). In the 1960s, he began to produce Stephen Sondheim’s shows, often working in conjunction with Ruth Mitchell. His debut as a Broadway director was with Cabaret (1966), and this aspect of his craft has included major contributions to the concept musical in such shows as Company (1970) and Follies (1971). Taking a page from French grand opera and lacking a background in dance, Prince has gravitated to weighty set designs as a concept around which to base a show, evident in Follies, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), and The Phantom of the Opera (1986). Prince worked with significant choreographers, including Jerome Robbins in Fiddler on the Roof (1964) and Michael Bennett in Company and Follies, but many of his shows since the late 1970s have not included significant dance components. He has won 10 Tony Awards: two for Best Producer and eight for Best Director. In 2006, he received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
(2 November 1925, Century, 152 performances.) Music by Sigmund Romberg, book and lyrics by Harry B. Smith, produced by the Messrs. Shubert. The operetta adaptation of Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda was in many ways a gender-reversed remake of The Student Prince, Romberg’s hit from the previous year. Evelyn Herbert and Harry Welchman played the romantic leads. The score’s primary love song was “I Dare Not Love You,” the refrain of which is extremely similar to that of The Student Prince’s “Deep in My Heart, Dear.”
(29 September 1915, Cort, 158 performances.) Music by Victor Herbert, lyrics and book by Henry Blossom. Billed as a “comic opera,” The Princess Pat combined a charming musical score with a Long Island setting, different than the typical operetta with its exotic locales. The cast, however, remained European in type. The show starred Eleanor Painter as the Princess di Montaldo, who is married to Prince Antonio (Joseph R. Lertora). She pretends to elope with another man to save her friend from marrying him and also to incite her husband’s jealousy. The unnamed New York Times critic adored Painter, going on for more than a paragraph about her singing, acting, and dancing. Although the critic found Herbert’s score very much like his earlier work, including “whole stretches . . . amusingly reminiscent of ‘The Only Girl’ [from the previous season],” this score “is prettier.” He compared Herbert to Arthur Sullivan but did not believe that Blossom was ready to be the librettist for this “American Savoy.” The score included the hits “Love Is the Best of All” and “Neapolitan Love Song.”
A series of musical comedies from the late 1910s that appeared at the 299-seat Princess Theatre, in which songs—rooted in everyday idioms—were integrated into the narrative, comedy grew out of the plot, story lines were believable, and the lavish production values of the revue were avoided. Jerome Kern, Guy Bolton, and P. G. Wodehouse are credited with creating this new approach in works such as Very Good Eddie (1915), Oh, Boy! (1917), and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918). These shows had a significant impact on the development of musical comedy in the 1920s, evident in the work of George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, and Vincent Youmans, among others.
(20 March 2011, Palace, 526 performances.) Based on the 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert about three Australian drag queens driving through the outback in a lavender bus named “Priscilla,” the musical originated in Australia and opened in the West End (where it ran nearly three years) before coming to Broadway. Presented in a theater awash in sequins, fringe, and colored lights, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was homage to discos of the past with a score drawn from pop music of the 1970s and beyond, including Dionne Warwick, Village People, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and others. Tony Sheldon re-created the role of Bernadette, an aging drag queen; the New York Times credited his performance as carrying “an authentic note of dignified grace.” Will Swenson and Nick Adams played the other two leads, Tick/Mitzi and Adam/Felicia. With direction by Simon Phillips and choreography by Ross Coleman, Priscilla wore its feeling of karaoke in a drag club with panache while telling the story of Tick being invited into the outback by his wife to her casino to put on a show and meet the son he had never known. The Times found the most worth in the set’s wild imagery and “outlandish costumes,” stating that “any flickers of warmth and true human feeling . . . are either obscured by another onslaught of gyrating dancers or squashed flat by a giant platform heel.”
The member(s) of a creative team responsible for raising money, signing the talent, and overseeing the show in terms of business and ensuring that people can work together. Sometimes, a producer will also be the director and/or a writer. Most producers decide whether a proposal is affordable. Producers have come from a variety of theatrical professions and other businesses, and the list of those who have had lengthy, successful careers is not long. When one acquires a reputation for raising money and supervising the egos and challenging personalities that inhabit the theatrical world, that person’s career as a producer can last for decades.
The early 20th century was the era of luminary producers, such as the Shuberts, George White, and Florenz Ziegfeld, who collectively created the awe and sense of power associated with the title “producer.” In the middle of the century, Rodgers and Hammerstein, in addition to creating musicals, also produced them. George Abbott and the Theatre Guild were also major producers of the time. Cameron Mackintosh, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Company, and Disney Theatricals are among the corporate producers active in the early 21st century. The role of the producer is central to the plot of Mel Brooks’s The Producers (2001).
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(19 April 2001, St. James, 2,502 performances.) Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman. A stage version of Mel Brooks’s classic comic film, the show starred Nathan Lane as producer Max Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as accountant-turned-producer Leo Bloom. Others in the outstanding cast included Roger Bart as Carmen Ghia, Gary Beach as Roger De Bris, Cady Huffman as Ulla, and Brad Oscar (who took over the role of Max Bialystock) as Franz Liebkind. The film’s musical showpiece, “Springtime for Hitler,” is expanded into a massive production number and includes a soliloquy for Hitler, “Heil Myself.” Other new songs include “We Can Do It,” “I Wanna Be a Producer,” “Keep It Gay,” “That Face,” “Where Did We Go Right?,” “Betrayed,” and “’Til Him.” The show won a record 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score, Best Actor in a Musical (Lane), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Beach), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Huffman), Best Costume Design (William Ivey Long), Best Choreography (Stroman), and Best Direction of a Musical (Stroman). It also won 11 Drama Desk Awards. The 2005 film adaptation of the musical, directed by Stroman, starred Lane and Broderick and featured Uma Thurman as Ulla.
(1 December 1968, Shubert, 1,281 performances.) Music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David, book by Neil Simon, staged by Robert Moore, choreography by Michael Bennett, presented by David Merrick. Based on Billy Wilder’s popular movie The Apartment, Promises, Promises took a modern and amoral but also humorous and touching look at the American business world. Neil Simon’s book was filled with clever one-liners but also expressed real emotions. Chuck Baxter (Jerry Orbach) is a junior executive who lets his bosses use his apartment for their romantic trysts in hopes that this might help advance his career. J. D. Sheldrake (Edward Winter) makes frequent use of the apartment with Fran Kubelik (Jill O’Hara), until he dumps her there and she attempts suicide. Baxter tries to help Fran, and they fall in love. Together, they give Sheldrake what he deserves and find their own happiness. Clive Barnes raved about Promises, Promises in his New York Times review, admitting that he would rather “send . . . a congratulatory telegram than write a review.” He called Simon’s book “one of the wittiest . . . a musical has possessed in years,” and Burt Bacharach’s “music excitingly reflects today.” The cast was “virtually perfect,” especially Orbach and O’Hara. Barnes also extravagantly appreciates Moore’s direction and Bennett’s dances. There is no question that Bacharach’s and David’s score helped the show’s immediate appeal. Bacharach was hugely popular and brought his great sensitivity for the pop style to Promises, Promises, heard especially in the title song and the hit “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” sung by Fran to Baxter after he and a doctor have saved her from her suicide attempt. Bacharach also provided fine music for the production numbers, such as the memorable “Turkey Lurkey Time,” which closes act 1. The show worked as both comedy and satire and ran for about three years. The 2010 revival starred Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes.
British dramatic and musical actor who won a Tony Award for his portrayal of the Engineer in Miss Saigon (1991). He played Lawrence in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels for six months in 2006.
Annual awards for journalistic achievement established by Joseph Pulitzer (1847–1911), publisher of the New York World and the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Announcement of the first prizes came in 1917. Columbia University, where Pulitzer endowed the School of Journalism, administers the awards. Pulitzer originally established four literary prizes, including one for the outstanding play written by an American in a particular year. Seven Broadway musicals have been honored with Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Of Thee I Sing (1931), South Pacific (1949), Fiorello! (1959), How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1961), A Chorus Line (1975), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), and Rent (1998). The selection committee is not obligated to award a prize in each category every year.
(4 February 1982, Princess, 573 performances.) A musical written, directed, and performed by the group of the same name (John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann), the show told the story of four men who pump gas and two waitresses at the “Double Cupp Diner” in North Carolina. The songs, mostly by Jim Wann, were in a country rock/pop vein and performed with guitars, piano, bass, and kitchen utensils. The score’s biggest hit was “T.N.D.P.W.A.M. (The Night Dolly Parton Was Almost Mine).” The show enjoyed tremendous popularity at the Apollo Theatre in Chicago and was featured as a City Center Encores! Off-Center production in 2014.
Baritone who was one of the leading operetta stars of the 1910s but whose career extended into the 1940s. His created the role of Richard Wayne in Sigmund Romberg’s Maytime (1917), which catapulted him to fame. He starred in three other Romberg shows during the years that immediately followed: The Melting of Molly (1918), where he played a physically attractive weight-loss doctor; Monte Cristo, Jr. (1919), a show following the Al Jolson model at the Winter Garden Theatre; and The Magic Melody (1919), an operetta in which he played the dual roles of an Italian composer and his son, who was adopted and raised by an English couple. He also appeared in the musical comedies Poor Little Ritz Girl (1921) and Dearest Enemy (1925). In the 1930s, he appeared in revivals of The Chocolate Soldier and made his final Broadway appearance in 1946 in the musical comedy Park Avenue.
(15 March 1970, Broadway, 688 performances.) Music by Gary Geld; lyrics by Peter Udell; book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Udell; staged and presented by Rose. Based on the 1961 play Purlie Victorious by Ossie Davis, Purlie was a humorous high-energy musical that ran for about 20 months. Cleavon Little played the title role, a black preacher of the post–Civil War era who wants to organize a church and bring better lives to the sharecroppers who work on Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee’s (John Heffernon) plantation. Purlie triumphs against all obstacles, many of them erected by Cotchipee, and wins the hand of Lutiebelle (Melba Moore) in the process. Purlie even receives help from Ol’ Cap’n’s son Charlie (C. David Colson). The show opens at Ol Cap’n’s funeral, where there is general rejoicing, and then the flashback begins. Clive Barnes of the New York Times called the show “the most successful and richest of all black musicals” for “the depth of the characterizations and the salty wit of the dialogue.” He raved about Moore and Little, both of whom won Tony Awards. The score included the gospel hymn “Walk Him up the Stairs,” Purlie’s “New Fangled Preacher Man,” and Lutiebelle’s declaration “I Got Love.” A revival in late 1972 ran only 14 performances.