Librettist who worked as a journalist and screenwriter before coauthoring the book for Bloomer Girl (1944) with Sig Herzig, then creating, on his own, the librettos for Finian’s Rainbow (1947), Flahooley (1951), and Jamaica (1957).
(21 December 1920, New Amsterdam, 570 performances.) Music by Jerome Kern and Victor Herbert, lyrics by Clifford Grey, book by Guy Bolton, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. A vehicle for Marilyn Miller, Sally was one of the biggest hits of the period. Miller played the title role, one of a group of young women who come looking for work at the Elm Tree Alley Inn in Greenwich Village. She becomes a dishwasher; meets Blair Farquar (Irving Fisher), who is from a wealthy family; and marries him at the end of the show. Sally is an excellent dancer and replaces the main dancer at an evening of entertainment. By the end of the show, she finds out that she will dance in the Ziegfeld Follies. A late addition to the show was comic Leon Errol, who was given an unnecessary but entertaining part at Ziegfeld’s insistence. Kern’s score included a number of standards: “Look for the Silver Lining,” “Wild Rose,” “Whip-Poor-Will,” “You Can’t Keep a Good Girl Down,” and “The Church around the Corner.” Herbert supplied Sally’s ballet music. Alexander Woollcott reviewed the show for the New York Times and called it “an amusing and tuneful diversion.” He found Errol “comical” and Miller “a jewel.” The true star, however, was Ziegfeld, who “knows a little more than any of his competitors the secret of bringing beauty to his stage.”
(Born Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga, 1971–.) Filipino actress who created the role of Kim in Miss Saigon in both London (1989) and New York (1991), winning a Tony Award for her Broadway performance. She sang Eponine in Les Misérables in early 1992 and reprised the role for the 10th Anniversary Concert version of the musical at the Royal Albert Hall. She played Mei-Li in the heavily revised 2002 revival of Flower Drum Song.
(25 October 1987, Newhouse/Cort, 597 performances on Broadway.) Music by Mbongeni Ngema and Hugh Masekela; conceived, written, and directed by Ngema. A protest musical concerning South African apartheid, Sarafina! opened off-Broadway but ended up at the Cort Theater, where it ran for about 18 months. The show celebrated mbaqanga music, a rock-based style popular in the black townships in South Africa that inspired Paul Simon in his Graceland album. Ngema auditioned young people from the townships and selected two dozen of them for his tight-knit ensemble. The show is set at Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto, where student protests took place in 1976. The students create a play that tells their school’s story, including the presence of secret police and police massacre of schoolchildren, but that also had some light moments. Frank Rich reviewed Sarafina! for the New York Times and appreciated most the music, noting that the “company becomes a single entity, a rolling human wave,” singing close harmonies or dancing “in angular leaps coordinated even to the slightest flicks of elbows or index fingers.”
(21 October 1999, Minskoff, 501 performances.) Music by the Bee Gees, based on the Paramount/RSO Picture and a story by Nik Cohn; screenplay adaptation by Nan Knighton, in collaboration with Arlene Philips, Paul Nicholas, and Robert Stigwood; directed and choreographed by Philips. Another attempt to transfer a hit movie nearly intact to the stage, Saturday Night Fever received poor notices from critics but still ran for about 15 months because of a huge advance sale and its famous name. According to Ben Brantley, writing in the New York Times, the show “achieves the distinction of turning the two dimensions provided by celluloid into one dimension onstage,” and its creators decided to “imitate, rather than reconceive.” He did not think that the star, James Carpinello as Tony, had the charisma that John Travolta brought to the film.
Impresario Henry W. Savage presided over his own Henry W. Savage Company, Inc., as well as Boston’s Castle Square Opera Company. He brought many musical theater works to the stage in the early decades of the 20th century, including the European imports The Merry Widow and The Chocolate Soldier.
(9 November 1997, Minskoff, 772 performances.) Music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics and book by Nan Knighton, directed by Peter Hunt. Based on the famous novel by Baroness Orczy, the musical had horrible reviews but ran for almost two years with two breaks for major alterations. Douglas Sills played the dual role of Percy/Scarlet Pimpernel, Christine Andreas was his wife Marguerite, and Terrence Mann created the villain Chauvelin. The creators showed the domestic relationship between Percy and Marguerite and added heat by making Marguerite a former lover of Chauvelin, who is now executing aristocrats, except for those whom the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues. The score followed the lyrical ballad model associated with megamusicals and like many megamusicals has enjoyed tremendous worldwide popularity and has been translated into many languages.
Viennese-born operatic soprano for whom Victor Herbert created the roles of Fifi in Mlle. Modiste (1905), Mlle. Athenee in The Prima Donna (1908), and Rose in The Duchess (1911).
Composer who collaborated with librettist-lyricist Tom Jones on 110 in the Shade (1963), I Do! I Do! (1966), and Celebration (1969). The team also collaborated on the legendary long-running off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks (1960).
French composer, actor, singer-songwriter, and record producer best known for his collaborations with Alain Boublil, which include the megamusicals Les Misérables (1985, London; 1987, New York) and Miss Saigon (1989, London; 1991, New York). They also wrote the score for the ill-fated Broadway musical The Pirate Queen (2007).
Producer and librettist whose partnership with Frank Mandel resulted in a string of hits, beginning with No, No, Nanette (1925).
Composer, producer, librettist, and lyricist who created music for the revues The New Yorkers (1927), The Little Show (1929), Three’s a Crowd (1930), The Band Wagon (1931, included “Dancing in the Dark” with lyrics by Howard Dietz), Flying Colors (1932, included “Louisiana Hayride” with lyrics by Dietz), Revenge with Music (1934, included “You and the Night and the Music” with lyrics by Dietz), At Home Abroad (1935), The Show Is On (1936), and Inside U.S.A. (1948). He also wrote the scores for the book musicals A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1951) and By the Beautiful Sea (1954).
Composer whose most important Broadway works include Godspell (1971), Pippin (1972), and Wicked (2003). After writing the title song for the play Butterflies Are Free (1969), Schwartz demonstrated his ability to compose memorable music in a variety of pop idioms in his score to Godspell, which ran for more than 2,500 performances. Pippin appeared the next season, with another lively score and direction by Bob Fosse. Schwartz’s score for The Magic Show (1974) was overshadowed by Doug Henning’s magic, but, like Pippin, the show ran for more than four years. Schwartz’s other Broadway work has included several songs for Working (1978), lyrics for Rags (1986, music by Charles Strouse), and the score for Wicked. In the latter, Schwartz demonstrates his expanded range as a composer, incorporating a wider palette of musical influences and a motivically unified score.
Schwartz’s work away from Broadway has included a show that closed out of town (The Baker’s Wife, 1976) that he has reworked, a biblical musical (Children of Eden, 1991) that premiered in London and is becoming popular among regional groups, and the English lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s Mass (1971). Schwartz wrote the lyrics for Alan Menken’s music in the Disney animated features Pocahontas (1995) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Schwartz wrote both words and music for the animated feature The Prince of Egypt (1998) and the Disney television special Geppetto (2000). In 2006, Schwartz turned the latter into a stage musical, My Son Pinocchio: Geppetto’s Musical Tale.
A versatile performer, Scott created the roles of Amneris in Aida (2000), Christine in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005), Ursula in The Little Mermaid (2008), and Pepa in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2010). She starred in the one-woman show Everyday Rapture (2010), which she cowrote with Dick Scanlan. In addition to performing off-Broadway and in regional theater, she cofounded, with her husband Kurt Deutsch, Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records, one of the most important labels for new Broadway recordings. The label won its first Grammy Award in 2009 for the original cast recording of In the Heights.
(31 October 2010, Lyceum, 49 performances.) The final show by John Kander and Fred Ebb, The Scottsboro Boys used the vehicle of an inherently racist minstrel show to tell a tale of racial injustice, the real-life saga of a falsely accused group of nine young African Americans, the “Scottsboro Boys,” who were found guilty and imprisoned for raping two young white girls. David Thompson provided the book, while Kander crafted the period-sounding music and the remaining lyrics after Ebb’s death in 2004. Susan Stroman directed the production, which featured John Cullum, the only white actor in the cast, as the Interlocutor, who acts as the master of ceremonies/narrator for the intermission-less show. Charles Isherwood, in the New York Times, remarked that the musical lampooned “history as a ludicrous horror show” and showed an “implicit comparison” between minstrelsy and racist assumptions in the 1930s.
Broadway musicals have been taken to the silver screen since the advent of talkies. An early adaptation was the first film version of Show Boat (1929), which included some songs from the Broadway show. Comparison of a stage musical with its screen version is complicated because they exist in essentially different media and what works on a stage might not make for good cinema. Films, for example, can be made on location, providing many possibilities that do not exist on stage. Films also include close-ups, but the cinema often lacks the spontaneity of live theater. When a Hollywood studio makes a musical out of a Broadway property, changes are inevitable not only because of the transfer between media and time constraints (films are generally shorter than stage musicals) but also because different creators usually work on the film. For example, MGM’s adaptation of Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon (1954), which starred Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, was much more of a dancing show than its 1947 stage version. MGM’s A Chorus Line (1985), directed by Richard Attenborough, included a rethought plot and songs given different meanings.
Other reasons for major changes in screen adaptations include the presence of Hollywood stars for whom material is rewritten and also a studio’s desire to own the film’s music, usually not possible for a Broadway show. A good example of a property changing for a particular star is Hello, Dolly! (MGM, 1969), where Barbra Streisand took over Carol Channing’s Broadway role. Streisand remade the role, a major reason the movie carried a hugely different feel than the stage version. A good example of Hollywood’s desire for commercial control of the music is On the Town (MGM, 1949), in which most of Leonard Bernstein’s original songs were removed, replaced with new ones that lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote with Roger Edens.
Many Broadway shows, however, became films from which the viewer receives an accurate if cinematic idea of the stage show. This was certainly the case with such Rodgers and Hammerstein films as Oklahoma! (Rodgers and Hammerstein Productions, 1955), Carousel (20th Century Fox, 1956), and The King and I (20th Century Fox, 1956). Other faithful transcriptions include Show Boat (MGM, 1936), My Fair Lady (Warner Bros., 1964), 1776 (Columbia, 1972), Chicago (Miramax, 2002), The Producers (Universal, 2005), and Mamma Mia! (Universal, 2008). Some stage musicals have been effectively reimagined for the screen, showing substantial changes but still conveying much of the Broadway version’s intention. In the film version of Guys and Dolls (Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1955), for example, major roles were adapted to the talents of Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, but Vivian Blaine and Stubby Kaye re-created their Broadway roles. West Side Story (MGM, 1961) brought the gritty story into the streets, where it takes place along with Jerome Robbins’s choreography, but some songs were moved, and the cast was completely different. The Sound of Music (20th Century Fox, 1965) was a Rodgers and Hammerstein property that became one of the most successful films ever, with the stage version adapted effectively to the screen through lovely use of views of Salzburg and its surrounding countryside and two new songs with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers. The film version of Cabaret (Warner Bros., 1972) was directed by Bob Fosse, who expanded on Hal Prince’s concept of cabaret acts that mirror the larger society. The role of Sally Bowles, expanded because of Liza Minnelli’s talents, helped to create a film that differed substantially from the stage original, while Joel Grey’s presence as the Master of Ceremonies brought an important, original Broadway conception to the screen. Joel Schumacher’s version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera (Warner Bros., Really Useful Films/Scion Films, 2004) included a frame story that surrounded the plot of the stage musical.
Broadway musicals have also been transferred to the small screen in versions for either television or direct-to-video/DVD. Bette Midler starred in the 1993 television version of Gypsy, while the 2001 television adaptation of South Pacific starred Glenn Close, who also was one of the project’s executive producers. Several adaptations featuring noted Broadway personalities have been broadcast on The Wonderful World of Disney, including Annie (1999, with Kathy Bates, Alan Cumming, Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, and Victor Garber) and The Music Man (2003, starring Matthew Broderick and Chenoweth). Several Andrew Lloyd Webber shows have been released in specially made versions for video/DVD, including Cats (1998), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999), and Jesus Christ Superstar (2000). NBC broadcast live performances of The Sound of Music in 2013 and Peter Pan in 2014.
In 1982, a treasure trove of forgotten and presumably lost materials for Broadway shows from the early part of the 20th century was discovered at the Warner Bros. warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey. It included songs by George and Ira Gershwin, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and Sigmund Romberg, among others. The material has been used in several revivals and recordings, and some of the songs were featured in Crazy for You (1992).
(25 April 1991, St. James, 709 performances.) Music by Lucy Simon, lyrics and book by Marsha Norman, directed by Susan H. Schulman. A groundbreaking musical in that all of its principal creators were women, The Secret Garden was a musicalization of the famous novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Daisy Eagan played Mary Lennox, an orphan who comes to live with her mysterious uncle in Yorkshire, Archibald Craven (Mandy Patinkin). Through her sickly cousin, Colin (John Babcock), and a magnificent garden, Mary helps everyone come to grips with a sad past and move together into the future. The musical had an elaborate set and ghosts who crossed the stage at opportune moments, effects very much in the world and mood of the original story. Rebecca Luker, as Archibald’s dead wife Lily; Robert Westenberg, as his brother Neville; Alison Fraser, the chambermaid Martha; and John Cameron Mitchell, as her brother Dickon, completed the list of principals. Reviewing the show for the New York Times, Frank Rich offered a detailed picture of a production that he found too laden with symbolism, noting that the creators “explore the meaning of the novel’s every metaphor.” The score included a wide variety of styles, including the operatic duet “Lily’s Eyes” for the two brothers, Dickon’s folky “Wick,” Martha’s wise “Hold On,” Archibald’s impassioned “Where in the World,” and Lily and Archibald’s emotive “How Could I Ever Know.”
Singing actress who made her Broadway debut in the Sigmund Romberg operetta The Blue Paradise (1915). She achieved tremendous fame as an operetta heroine in the 1920s, starring in The Desert Song and The Three Musketeers. After a time in Hollywood, she returned to Broadway in 1938 as Countess Peggy Palarffi in I Married an Angel and two years later triumphed as Vera Simpson in Pal Joey, singing the sexually charged “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered.” She played Morgan le Fey in the 1943 revival of A Connecticut Yankee, introducing “To Keep My Love Alive,” written expressly for her by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Her far-ranging acting abilities and broad range of vocal styles allowed her to play a wide variety of roles.
(30 November 2000, Richard Rodgers, 198 performances.) Music by Stephen Flaherty; lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; book by Ahrens and Flaherty; conceived by Ahrens, Flaherty, and Eric Idle. Based on the literary creations of Dr. Seuss, the musical featured the Cat in the Hat (David Shiner) as the emcee in the musical retelling of Horton Hears a Who. The eclectic score included the vibrant gospel-inspired “Oh, the Things You Can Think,” the Caribbean-influenced “Horton Hears a Who,” the Broadway ballad “Alone in the Universe,” and the vaudeville-evoking “How Lucky You Are.” According to Flaherty and Ahrens, they wanted the sound of the Whos, represented in songs such as “Here on Who,” to resemble “marching bands on helium.” The show has become popular in a one-act version geared toward children.
(6 February 1969, 46th Street, 1,217 performances.) Music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards, book by Peter Stone, staged by Peter Hunt, musical numbers staged by Onna White. Although the musical theater is not usually a good way to deal with history, the creators of 1776 managed to tell the story of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Conceived by Sherman Edwards, a history teacher and songwriter, and with Stone’s Tony Award–winning book, 1776 brings suspense to a plot where everybody knows how it ends. Stone reduced the number of congressmen and came up with plot devices that allowed a feminine presence. He shows John Adams (William Daniels) conversing in his imagination with his wife Abigail (Virginia Vestoff) and brings Martha Jefferson (Betty Buckley) to Philadelphia to keep her husband, Thomas (Ken Howard), content while he drafted the Declaration. The latter never happened. The show takes place between early May and July 4, 1776; time passes as a clerk rips numbers off a large wall calendar. Spirited debate precedes the Declaration’s writing, followed by even more contentious consideration of the document. Those opposing independence change their minds through various devices—some based on actual history—and the South finally agrees once Jefferson’s antislavery clause is deleted. They sign the Declaration to the tolling of the Liberty Bell. Clive Barnes, a native Englishman who wrote a review for the New York Times, noted that the show is a “most striking, most gripping musical . . . with style, humanity, wit and passion.” He admitted that history has been “bent” a bit, but “the genuine thrust” is there. He found Stone’s book “literate, urbane and . . . very amusing” and Edwards’s music “apt, convincing and enjoyable.”
Every song in the score helped advance the drama. We meet the irrepressible John Adams and his frustrated colleagues in “Sit Down, John.” The effective musical scene continues as we learn more of Adams and his wife in “Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve” and “Till Then.” In “The Lees of Old Virginia,” Richard Henry Lee explains why he can draft an independence resolution. Perhaps the cleverest song is “But, Mr. Adams,” when the Declaration Committee decides who will draft the document. Martha Jefferson tells what drew her to her husband in “He Plays the Violin,” and the conservative faction in Congress sings the self-congratulatory “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men.” “Momma Look Sharp” is a haunting ballad about war sung by a military messenger visiting Congress. In “The Egg,” Adams, Benjamin Franklin (Howard Da Silva), and Jefferson debate possible national birds, their choices based on the writings of each man. After the South walks out, Adams plaintively asks “Is Anybody There?” Soon after, all are “there,” and the vote for independence is unanimous. The film version appeared in 1972, and a 333-performance Broadway revival opened in 1997.
(23 April 1963, Eugene O’Neill, 301 performances.) Music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, book by Joe Masteroff, staged by Harold Prince, choreography by Carol Haney, presented by Prince and others. Based on the Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László, which became the film The Shop around the Corner, She Loves Me was a charming combination of story and music that told the tale of Amalia Balash (Barbara Cook) and Georg Nowack (Daniel Massey), both of whom work in a music box shop in Budapest. They have been corresponding as pen pals but have never met and do not realize that they work together. The letter writers decide to meet, but Georg arrives and realizes it is Amalia and keeps his identity secret. Later, however, he falls in love with her and begins to quote his letters, and she confesses her love as well. Jack Cassidy won a Tony Award for his performance as Steven Kodaly, a suave ladies’ man. Howard Taubman reviewed the show for the New York Times, comparing it to several sweet desserts but stating that “you find yourself relishing nearly all of them.” Masteroff’s book makes “a virtue of sentiment” and maintains a fine consistency in its style. He finds that the songs have been integrated unusually well with the plot. Only the show’s title song gained much popularity outside of the theater. Judy Kuhn starred in the 1993 Broadway revival.
Singing actor who made his Broadway debut as Joe in Wish You Were Here (1952). He also appeared in My Fair Lady (1956), Canterbury Tales (1969), the replacement cast for The Rothschilds (1970), and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976) before creating the role of Oliver Warbucks in Annie (1977).
(7 January 1975, Alvin, 1,050 performances.) Music by Gary Geld; lyrics by Peter Udell; book by James Lee Barrett, Udell, and Philip Rose. Based on the 1965 film of the same name, Shenandoah was a mixed bag for critics but sufficiently liked by audiences to run for about two and a half years. In one of his greatest roles, John Cullum played Charles Anderson, a farmer who has lost his wife after they had seven sons and one daughter. He lives in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War but prefers not to be involved and tries to keep his sons out of the Confederate army. When the Union army kidnaps the youngest son, the family’s attitude changes. Clive Barnes, writing in the New York Times, found Cullum a huge presence, stating that none of his previous Broadway roles “has extended him so well and to such splendid advantage,” and compared him to Richard Kiley as an actor and singer. Unfortunately, Barnes does not appreciate most aspects of the staging, and he believes that the film’s screenplay “was richer and more interesting than the present book.” The score gave Cullum a strong soliloquy in which he sings of his wife and all of the children they had but concludes with his desire for isolationism. A good ensemble number was the country-western–sounding number for the boys, “Next to Lovin’, I Like Fightin’ Best.” A 1989 revival lasted less than a month.
Theater, musical, and opera director known for his captivating and sumptuous artistic vision, Sher’s Broadway musical credits include The Light in the Piazza (2005), South Pacific (2008), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2010), and The Bridges of Madison County (2014). He won a Tony Award for South Pacific.
English actor who served as director for more than 40 Broadway musicals, including three of the Music Box Revues (1921–1923), As Thousands Cheer (1933), and Carmen Jones (1943). Short was especially known for his lighting and stage effects.
Comedian who made his Broadway musical debut in The Goodbye Girl (1993) opposite Bernadette Peters. He won a Tony Award for his work in the 1998 revival of Little Me and conceived, wrote the book for, and starred in the sketch-filled “comedy musical” Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me (2006).
(27 December 1927, Ziegfeld, 575 performances.) Music by Jerome Kern, lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. A seminal show in Broadway history, Show Boat was a conscious effort by Kern and Hammerstein to take the American musical theater to a new level of integration between plot and music. At a time when musicals tended to be created in a few to several months and dozens of new shows opened every year, Kern and Hammerstein spent an entire year creating Show Boat. Based on Edna Ferber’s popular novel of the same name, Show Boat tells a sprawling story involving fascinating characters who live and work on and around a showboat. The plot’s principal love interests are Magnolia, or “Nola” (Norma Terris), daughter of the showboat Cotton Blossom’s owners, and Gaylord Ravenal (Howard Marsh), a riverboat gambler who falls in love with her at first sight. The primary actors on the boat are the married couple Julie (Helen Morgan) and Steve (Charles Ellis). Julie is part African American but can pass for white. Their mixed-raced marriage, however, is illegal in places along the boat’s route, and they are forced to leave the showboat. Gaylord arrives, and he and Nola become the lead actors. Other major characters include Cap’n Andy (Charles Winninger) and Parthy Ann Hawkes (Edna May Oliver), Magnolia’s parents, and the boat’s leading African American servants, Joe (Jules Bledsoe) and Queenie (Aunt Jemima). Six years pass, and Nola and Gaylord are at the 1893 Chicago Exposition with their young daughter, Kim. Gaylord, though he loves his family, has amassed large debts and leaves his wife and daughter. Nola auditions at a club where the alcoholic singer, who is none other than Julie, has been threatening to quit. When Julie spies her beloved Nola, she leaves. Despite problems at first, Magnolia wins the crowd over that night thanks to her father’s encouragement. The show ends in 1927; in a major departure from the novel, Hammerstein brings most of the main characters back for the finale. Kim is now an established singing star, Gaylord returns, and Joe gives a final reprise of one of the show’s most famous songs, “Ol’ Man River.”
Realization of Show Boat’s special status in Broadway history came fairly quickly. Even the unsigned New York Times review the next morning said it was “an excellent musical comedy.” The critic does not use the term “musical play,” which is how Ziegfeld advertised Show Boat. The reviewer clearly believed Ziegfeld to be the most praiseworthy figure in the enterprise and called him the “maestro.” The reviewer appreciated Hammerstein’s “adaptation of the novel that has been intelligently made” and noted that Show Boat “has an exceptionally tuneful score,” putting it among Kern’s best with several sure hits. The critic applauded every aspect of the show and Ziegfeld’s “unimpeachable skill and taste.” Show Boat’s score was a marvel of musicodramatic continuity and full of delightful melodies. Kern depended largely on traditional song forms, such as 32-bar AABA refrains, but his melodies show great variety and care. “Make Believe” provides a fine musical introduction between Magnolia and Gaylord. “Ol’ Man River,” which rapidly became an American “folk song,” is reprised throughout the show. “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” is critical to the plot, for it offers the first indication of Julie’s African American heritage and is also Julie’s audition number in Chicago. “Why Do I Love You” and “You Are Love” are the big love songs for Gaylord and Magnolia, the latter a waltz. Like “Ol’ Man River,” both numbers are reprised in various ways through the course of the show. Kern and Hammerstein also included “Bill,” a song from Oh, Lady! Lady!!, for Julie’s torch song in act 2. This was the song for which Helen Morgan sat atop the upright piano, creating one of Broadway’s iconic images. They also interpolated “After the Ball,” a huge hit from the 1890s, to help set time and place for Chicago in 1893. Kern’s score shows remarkable integration and unity. For example, the motive for the boat Cotton Blossom is rearranged to become the identifier “Captain Andy” in the song of the same name, showing that Andy is captain of the Cotton Blossom. Kern turned the Cotton Blossom motive upside down, the result being the music for the title words of “Ol’ Man River.” The showboat and the river are closely linked, and Kern makes this clear through the music. The creators’ close attention in adapting Edna Ferber’s novel and the care with which they crafted the score produced a show that has been revived often and been filmed three times, in 1929, 1936, and 1951. The 1994 Hal Prince production starred Mark Jacoby and Rebecca Luker, with Elaine Stritch appearing as Parthy and singing “Why Do I Love You” as a lullaby to her infant granddaughter Kim.
(25 December 1936, Winter Garden, 237 performances.) Most music by Vernon Duke; most lyrics by Ted Fetter; sketches by David Freedman and Moss Hart; dances staged by Robert Alton; conceived, staged, and designed by Vincente Minnelli; produced by the Shuberts. One of the last of the great Broadway revues, The Show Is On starred Beatrice Lillie and Bert Lahr and sported contributions by a number of the theater’s most distinguished creators. Other composers and lyricists included Hoagy Carmichael and Stanley Adams, the Gershwins, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen, and Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz. Lillie and Lahr, while not onstage for every sketch, dominated the show. Lillie, among other things, took a satirical look at Josephine Baker, swung out over the audience while sitting on a moon and singing a parody of all of those songs about our nearest celestial neighbor, and went after the popular singers of the day with Rodgers and Hart’s “Rhythm.” Lahr sang Harburg and Arlen’s “Song of the Woodman” to devastating effect and took part in other spoofs. The Gershwins’ “By Strauss” was the last number they wrote for Broadway before George’s death; it was sung by Gracie Barrie and Robert Shafer with dancing by Mitzi Mayfair. As he had done in other revues, Vincente Minnelli assembled a beautiful production. Brooks Atkinson’s review in the New York Times was an unqualified rave. Given the Christmas Day opening, he thanked Kris Kringle and Minnelli for this “finest” of revues. He noted the many wonderful hands that wrote for the show but stated that Minnelli pressed it all “into a luminous work of art.”
(14 December 2008, Broadway, 441 performances.) DreamWorks followed Disney’s success in bringing versions of its animated films to Broadway with its popular Shrek franchise, launching a show based on the first film. The book by David Lindsay-Abaire stuck closely to the screenplay, taking the ogre Shrek (Brian d’Arcy James) and his loquacious friend Donkey (Daniel Breaker) on a trek that eventually denies the ambitious Lord Farquaad (Christopher Sieber) the crown and brings the title character happiness with Princess Fiona (Sutton Foster), who is ultimately transformed into an ogre. The cast included characters from a number of other fairy tales in cameo roles. According to the New York Times, James was a fine presence despite his huge costume, and Sutton Foster “emerged as an inspired, take-charge musical comedian in the tradition of Danny Kaye and Carol Burnett.” Unlike most Disney animated features, Shrek did not bring any iconic songs from the film version, which included pop hits. Instead, Jeanine Tesori provided music and Lindsay-Abaire lyrics. Memorable moments include “I Think I Got You Beat,” where Shrek and Fiona compete on who belches and passes gas the best, and “Morning Person,” sung by Foster in what the Times called a “showstopper.” Directed by Jason Moore with choreography by Josh Prince, the show’s overall effect demonstrated a faithful transfer of a popular film to a stage musical.
At the dawn of the 20th century, three brothers, Lee (1875?–1953), Sam S. (1877?–1905), and Jacob J. (or J. J., 1879?–1963), established the Shubert Theatrical Corporation, which became the major theatrical business enterprise for the ensuing decades. During the second quarter of the century, the Shuberts owned, managed, operated, or booked nearly 1,000 theaters across the United States in addition to controlling most of the major houses on Broadway. As producers of musicals and legitimate plays, they presented more than 500 works. Most important from a musical perspective were revues, including the series Passing Show, Artists and Models, and Greenwich Village Follies, and operettas, the most famous of which had scores by Sigmund Romberg and included Maytime (1917), Blossom Time (1921), The Student Prince (1924), and My Romance (1948). The Shubert Organization continues to be a major Broadway presence as a theater owner and producing body.
Located at 225 West 44th Street just off Times Square, Lee and J. J. Shubert built the house as a tribute to their brother Sam, who was killed in 1905. Since its opening in 1913, the Shubert Theatre has almost always had a show playing on its stage. Especially notable productions include the record-setting 6,137 performances of A Chorus Line (1975–1990), Crazy for You (1992), Chicago (1997 revival), Gypsy (2003 revival), Monty Python’s Spamalot (2005), Memphis (2009), and Matilda the Musical (2013).
(23 May 1921, 63rd Street Music Hall, 504 performances.) Music by Eubie Blake, lyrics by Noble Sissle, book by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles. Although not the first show conceived entirely by African Americans to reach Broadway, Shuffle Along was the first to become a hit. It came into being in Philadelphia after a meeting between two important African American entertainment duos. Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake were songwriters, and Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles worked in vaudeville. The plot had to do with a mayoral election in Jimtown, where partners in owning a grocery, Steve Jenkins (Flournoy Miller) and Sam Peck (Aubrey Lyles), run against each other. Jenkins wins and appoints his partner police chief. Both are corrupt and ineffectual. Miller and Lyles also brought into the show one of their vaudeville specialties: a comic boxing match. Harry Walton (Roger Matthews) comes forward to help clean up the mess as a reformer, causing Jimtown to sing “I’m Just Wild about Harry.” Jenkins and Peck leave in disgrace. The show was at a shabby theater north of most Broadway houses, but it became so popular that midnight performances were added on Wednesdays, and the show ran for a surprising 15 months. The cast included such future stars as Josephine Baker, Hall Johnson, and Florence Mills.
“I’m Just Wild about Harry” was only one of the great tunes in Blake’s score, which was unlike anything Broadway had ever heard. Blake was a ragtime pianist who had mastered the intricacies of early jazz, and these he brought to Shuffle Along. Jazz was heard in many clubs in New York City, but it had not been heard in any amount from Broadway pits. The wildly syncopated rhythms thrilled audiences and seemed to make the dancers work all the harder, a point invariably noticed by white critics and audiences. Other fine songs in the score were “Love Will Find a Way” and “Bandana Days.” “I’m Just Wild about Harry” later became associated with U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
(16 October 1997, Richard Rodgers, 91 performances.) Based on the lives of the conjoined twins Daisy (Emily Skinner) and Violet (Alice Ripley) Hilton, the musical, with book and lyrics by Bill Russell and music by Henry Krieger, despite many positive reviews, closed after a short run. Its plot was a version of the rags-to-riches paradigm of searching for stardom and love but with additional challenges for its protagonists. The complex score, which includes operatic recitative in the nearly sung-through show, includes the poignant anthem duets “Who Will Love Me as I Am?” (the act 1 finale) and “I Will Never Leave You.” Ben Brantley, writing in the New York Times, remarked that “the driving emotionalism of the music keeps you hooked.” The short-lived revival (17 November 2014, St. James, 56 performances) had a revised book that was darker in approach than the original. Several new songs were added, and some songs from the original version were likewise cut. The revival featured Erin Davie as Violet and Emily Padgett as Daisy.
(24 February 1955, Imperial, 478 performances.) Music and lyrics by Cole Porter; book by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath, and Abe Burrows; directed by Cy Feuer; dances and musical numbers staged by Eugene Loring; presented by Feuer and Ernest Martin. Cole Porter’s last Broadway show had a difficult gestation period, with Abe Burrows doing major rewrites on Kaufman and MacGrath’s book and Kaufman insisting on the removal of his name as director. The plot was “suggested” by the 1939 movie Ninotchka, which starred Greta Garbo. It was a lively Cold War story but became a formulaic musical. A Soviet composer is in Paris considering offers from an American theatrical agent, Steve Canfield (Don Ameche). The communists send a serious but pretty official, Ninotchka (Hildegard Neff), to lure the composer back, but she falls in love with him. She returns to Russia, but Canfield pursues her, and they end up together in the West. Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times was taken with Silk Stockings. He noted that the show has “the wittiest dialogue of recent years” and placed it in the same class as Guys and Dolls. He found Porter’s score “bold, ironic and melodious” with his typical “intricately worded lyrics.” “All of You” was the score’s major hit.
Actor whose legendary musical comedy roles include Harrison Floy in High Button Shoes (1947), Jerry Biffle in Top Banana (1952), Hubert Cram in Do Re Mi (1960), and Prologus/Pseudolus in the 1972 revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He won Tony Awards for Top Banana and Forum.
Popular music performer and composer whose first Broadway musical, The Secret Garden (1991), earned her a Tony Award nomination. Simon’s evocative and eclectic score captures and accentuates the various narrative dimensions of Marsha Norman’s libretto.
Prolific playwright and librettist known for his innate comic skills, one-liners, and the depth of his characters. He created the librettos for Little Me (1962), Sweet Charity (1966), Promises, Promises (1968), They’re Playing Our Song (1979), and The Goodbye Girl (1993). He is also active as a screenwriter and wrote the screenplay for the 1969 film version of Sweet Charity. Most of his stories concern New Yorkers and New York City.
(14 February 1918, Winter Garden, 388 performances.) Music by Sigmund Romberg, Al Jolson, and others; lyrics and dialogue by Harold Atteridge. A vehicle for Al Jolson, Sinbad ran for almost a year. The show’s framing story concerned Long Island socialite Nan Van Decker (Virginia Fox Brooks), who consults a crystal ball and “sees” the extravagant Middle East and its inhabitants, including Inbad (Jolson), an Arabian incarnation of Gus, Jolson’s blackface valet character. Jolson never performed Romberg’s music in the show, leaving that to the rest of the cast. Instead, he delivered his own selection of songs, including “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody,” “My Mammy” (introduced while the show was on a national tour), and George Gershwin’s first hit, “Swanee” (for which Irving Caesar was lyricist).
(20 April 2011, Broadway, 561 performances.) Sister Act is based on the 1992 film in which Whoopi Goldberg taught a group of Philadelphia nuns how to have a full-gospel breakdown. The musical opened in 2009 in London’s West End, where Patina Miller played Goldberg’s role, which Miller reprised on Broadway. Victoria Clark appeared as the disapproving Mother Superior in New York. Alan Menken wrote the music to lyrics by Glenn Slater, supplying the requisite rousing numbers for the nuns and appropriate tunes for the musical comedy types that occupy the show. Cheri and Bill Steinkellner supplied the book for the London version, which was reworked by Douglas Carter Beane for New York. As Miller’s Deloris Van Cartier flees after witnessing a murder and hides at the convent, she teaches the sisters new musical skills to save their church from a predatory antiques dealer. Jerry Zaks directed a show that the New York Times called “tame, innocuous and frankly a little dull,” but Patina Miller was “a radiant presence,” and the show’s conventional nature disappeared “when the sisters break out into their rousing gospel numbers,” one of the delights of the film as well as of the stage musical.
Lyricist who, with composer Alan Menken, wrote lyrics for the stage versions of The Little Mermaid (2008) and Sister Act (2011). He also created lyrics and cowrote the book for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies (London, 2010), a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera.
Viennese baritone singer and actor who often played Central European characters. His Broadway credits include Karl Reder in Music in the Air (1932), Johann Volk in May Wine (1935), Harry Mischak Szigetti in I Married an Angel (1938), and Panisse in Fanny (1954). He won a Tony Award for his performance in Fanny.
Librettist and lyricist who contributed to more than 60 Broadway shows in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He wrote burlesque musicals for the team of Joe Weber and Lew Fields and also the libretto for Robinson Crusoe, Jr. (1916), an Al Jolson vehicle.
Prolific librettist and lyricist for 123 Broadway shows, some of which were adaptations of European works. Among his greatest successes were Robin Hood (1891, music by Reginald De Koven) and The Fortune Teller (1898, music by Victor Herbert). He also collaborated with Herbert on The Serenade (1897), Cyrano de Bergerac (1899), Miss Dolly Dollars (1905), Sweethearts (1913), and The Century Girl (1916), among others. Smith contributed to Ziegfeld Follies and worked with composers such as Jerome Kern (Very Good Eddie [1915] and Miss 1917 [1917]) and Sigmund Romberg (Princess Flavia [1925] and Cherry Blossoms [1927]).
(Born Kathryn Elizabeth Smith, 1907–1986.) Radio and television singer and recording artist most famous for her version of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Early in her career, she appeared on Broadway as Tiny Little (a comic title, considering Smith’s ample figure) in Honeymoon Lane (1926) and Pansy Sparks in Flying High (1930).
Lyricist and librettist who wrote the words for Lillian Russell’s hit “Come Down Ma’ Evenin’ Star,” from Twirly Whirly (1902). He also worked with Victor Herbert on Sweethearts and sometimes collaborated with his brother, Harry B. Smith.
(2 March 1995, Virginia, 2,036 performances.) A jukebox musical in the style of a plotless revue, Smokey Joe’s Café showcased the work of songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in a variety of styles, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and novelty songs. The show remains the longest-running revue in Broadway musical history. Jerry Zaks directed the nine-person cast who performs the musical’s 39 songs in various combinations.
Many musicals have underlying themes concerning the pursuit of justice. This was evident in operettas from the 1920s through marches such as “Song of the Vagabonds” from The Vagabond King (1925) and “Stouthearted Men” from The New Moon (1928). In 1949, both South Pacific and Lost in the Stars dealt with race relations. Later, shows such as West Side Story (1957) and Cabaret (1966) included strong references to social problems. Anthems where either soloists or the chorus face the audience and sing directly about societal problems became a feature of musicals from the 1980s and 1990s: “One Day More” and “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from Les Misérables (1985, London; 1987, New York), “Bui Doi” from Miss Saigon (1989, London; 1991, New York), and “The Day after That” from Kiss of the Spider Woman—The Musical (1993) are three examples. Twenty-first century shows such as Wicked (2003) and Caroline, or Change (2004) continue the trend of addressing socially relevant issues in Broadway musicals.
(7 January 1943, Alvin, 422 performances.) Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, staged by Hassard Short, dances arranged by Jack Cole, produced by Michael Todd. A spirited musical comedy that is now largely forgotten, Something for the Boys was created by fine Broadway professionals and starred Ethel Merman. Three cousins discover they have inherited a ranch in Texas and travel there. Merman played Blossom Hart, a former chorus girl who works in the wartime defense industry. Her cousins are salesman Harry Hart (Allen Jenkins) and nightclub singer Chiquita Hart (Paula Laurence). The ranch house is decrepit, and the local army base is using it, but they leave, and the cousins turn it into a guesthouse for servicemen’s wives. Accusations of the house’s loose morals cause the army to declare it off limits, but it turns out that Blossom can hear radio signals in her fillings. This helps save an airplane in distress, the army relents, and Blossom wins the sergeant with whom she has fallen in love. Lewis Nichols, writing for the New York Times, called the show “a big, fast glittering musical comedy” and said that Michael Todd “has been lavish to the point of excellent good taste.” The biggest hits were “Could It Be You?” and “Hey, Good Lookin’.”
(22 April 2015, St. James, six performances as of 26 April 2015.) Adding to the trajectories of Shakespeare-inspired musicals and loving reflexivity for the Broadway musical genre, Something Rotten! tells the story of the Bottom brothers, Nigel (John Cariani) and Nick (Brian d’Arcy James), who consult the soothsayer Nostradamus (Brad Oscar) to figure out how to outdo William Shakespeare (Christian Borle). The answer: “Musicals!” A fast-paced romp set in London in 1595, the show featured songs by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick and a book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell. The musical received mixed reviews, the New York Times calling it “both too much and not enough.”
(4 October 1918, Shubert, 283 performances.) Music by Rudolf Friml, lyrics and book by Rida Johnson Young. Remembered mostly as a vehicle for Ed Wynn, who was a latecomer to the show, Sometime ran for about nine months. The plot was told in flashback. Enid Vaughn (Francine Larrimore) has not spoken to her fiancé in five years because she caught him in a compromising position with Mayme Dean (Mae West). As the last five years are retold, Enid discovers that she was wrong, and the couple reunites. Wynn played Loney, who comes onstage to present his outrageous behavior, puns, and one-liners. The score’s songs included Enid’s “Sometime” and “Baby Doll” and Mayme’s “Any Kind of Man,” with which she stopped the show.
Composer and lyricist who is an undisputed reigning figure in the American musical theater. A protégé of Oscar Hammerstein II, Sondheim also studied music with noted composer Milton Babbitt. He created the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959), and the first Broadway musical for which he wrote both lyrics and music was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962). Each of his shows is unique. His songs are not only character driven but also plot specific; they often function as soliloquies that can be sung by only one character at one particular moment in the show. A motoric undercurrent typically appears in the orchestra under the singer’s well-proportioned and goal-driven melodic lines. His ensembles are extremely complicated in terms of rhythm, pitch, and counterpoint. Sondheim’s catalog for which he wrote music and lyrics includes such iconic works as Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), and Passion (1994). Sondheim has a stronger following among theater professionals, critics, and scholars than with the general public. The themes he addresses in his work—which include revenge (Sweeney Todd), creativity and the commercialization of art (Sunday), human psychology and social issues (Into the Woods, Assassins), and love that does not work out (A Little Night Music, Passion)—generally have limited popular appeal. In addition to numerous Broadway revivals, his work also appears regularly on opera stages and in regional and college/university theaters. In 2002, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., hosted a high-profile festival dedicated to Sondheim.
(18 September 1985, Royale, 474 performances.) Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Dan Black, entire production supervised by Richard Maltby Jr. and Peter Martins, presented by Cameron Mackintosh. Although panned by critics, Song and Dance managed a reasonable run because of its popular composer and Bernadette Peters’s one-woman show in act 1. She played Emma, a young English hatmaker living in New York who recalls her difficult love life through song. Frank Rich, writing in the New York Times, found Emma “a completely synthetic, not to mention insulting, creation whom no performer could redeem.” He admitted, however, that Peters brought “vocal virtuosity, tempestuous fits and husky-toned charm” to the role. “Tell Me on a Sunday” (which was the title of act 1 when it was performed separately) was among the show’s highlights. Act 2 consisted of a self-examining dance by one of the men in Emma’s life, choreographed by Peter Martins. The music was Lloyd Webber’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini for Cello and Rock Band.
(21 August 1944, Imperial, 860 performances.) Musical adaptation and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, book by Milton Lazarus, choreography and singing ensembles by George Balanchine. Song of Norway was a fictionalized story of the life of Edvard Grieg with songs based on the composer’s music. Lawrence Brooks played Grieg, who is married to Nina (Helena Bliss). Grieg falls in love with an opera singer, Louisa Giovanni (Irra Petina), and follows her to Italy but eventually he returns to his beloved wife and country. A subplot involved Henrik Ibsen (Dudley Clements) commissioning Peer Gynt, which becomes a ballet in Song of Norway and a major part of Balanchine’s work for the show. The creators found good singers; Petina, for example, was on the Metropolitan Opera roster. Lewis Nichols, in the New York Times, welcomed Song of Norway as a “pleasant show.” As for Wright and Forrest’s work, the “lyrics are not particularly distinguished but they are cheerful enough.” An example of their efforts was “Hymn of Betrothal,” based on Grieg’s “To Spring.”
(30 December 1925, 44th Street, 219 performances.) Music by Herbert Stothart and George Gershwin, lyrics and book by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, produced by Arthur Hammerstein. Billed as a “romantic opera” and loosely based on the Russian Revolution, Song of the Flame was a richly produced operetta in which Aniuta (Tessa Kosta) urges Russian peasants to overthrow their oppressors. In her red revolutionary disguise, she is called the “Flame.” Prince Volodyn (Guy Robertson) falls in love with her, ignorant of her part in the rebellion. Later, they meet in Paris and accept each other despite the past. The Russian peasantry played a major role in the production, with several scenes including 53 voices, encompassing the regular chorus and the “Russian Art Choir.” A similar number of dancers also appeared, offering, among other things, a ballet on the Russian seasons. The title number, most likely composed by Gershwin, was perhaps the best, but “Far Away” and the “The Cossack’s Love Song” were also memorable. Song of the Flame represented a departure from Gershwin’s usual kind of show. The show’s spectacle impressed the unnamed New York Times critic, especially Joseph Urban’s “gay-colored, variegated settings” and the many groups who crossed the stage “with the beauty of bizarre costumes and hangings.” He questioned the “literary propriety” of writing an operetta on the Russian Revolution so soon after it happened and wondered if the show might have benefited from a “more varied, lighter treatment.”
(1 March 1981, Lunt-Fontanne, 767 performances.) Based on the music of Duke Ellington, directed by Michael Smuin, musical staging and choreography by Donald McKayle and Smuin, co-choreography and tap choreography by Henry Le Tang. Conceived as a showpiece for Ellington’s most famous songs, Sophisticated Ladies was a fine dancing show with Ellington’s band in the pit led by the composer’s son, Mercer Ellington. The show’s nine cast members included the brilliant tap dancer Gregory Hines and female dancer Judith Jamison. Songs were clothed in a lavish production that evoked the days of the Cotton Club. Although Ellington never managed a hit on Broadway, Sophisticated Ladies gave that to him posthumously. Frank Rich, in the New York Times, noted that the show “just won’t quit until it has won over the audience with dynamic showmanship.” He described the multitalented Hines as “the frisky Ellington spirit incarnate” and Jamison, a dancer with Alvin Ailey’s company, as “towering, charismatic.” Rich thought the choreographers had found the “old-time Harlem razzmatazz.”
(16 November 1959, Lunt-Fontanne, 1,443 performances.) Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, choreography by Joe Layton, directed by Vincent J. Donehue, produced by Leland Hayward and Richard Halliday and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final collaboration began with Mary Martin as Maria, singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music,” providing a fitting epitaph to the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership. Sent by the Reverend Mother (Patricia Neway) to be governess of the seven von Trapp children, Maria enchants the children and their father, Captain von Trapp (Theodore Bikel), filling them with her love of music (“Do-Re-Mi”). Fearful that she is falling in love with the already engaged captain, Maria returns to the abbey, where the Reverend Mother tells Maria that she must face life (“Climb Every Mountain”). She returns to the von Trapp villa and learns that the captain has broken his engagement because of his fiancée’s tolerance of the Nazi threat to Austria. The captain and Maria declare their love as “An Ordinary Couple,” marry, and then escape the Nazis over Maria’s beloved mountain. The oldest child, Leisl, who is “Sixteen Going On Seventeen,” and a local boy provide a romantic subplot. Captain von Trapp and others sing of their Austrian homeland in “Edelweiss,” the last song Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote and one that was often mistaken for a genuine folk song.
Originally proposed by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse after viewing the German movie adaptation of The Trapp Family Singers, based on the autobiography of Maria von Trapp, the original musical concept was to use the repertoire of the Trapp Family Singers alongside new songs. Rodgers and Hammerstein, however, wanted to write the entire score and not compete with Mozart. On opening night, Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times was disappointed about the creators “succumbing to the clichés of operetta” and thought that their innovative string of musicals had lost some of its energy, but the show did include “melodies, rapturous singing and Miss Martin” and “is always moving. Occasionally, it is also glorious.” The 1965 film version starred Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The show is part of popular culture, and in 2006, Andrew Lloyd Webber created a reality television show in Great Britain, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?,” to cast the female lead in a new production. Twenty-three-year-old Connie Fisher was the winner and received tremendous praise from both critics and the general public for her performance.
Conductor, composer, and lyricist whose operetta El Capitan played on Broadway in 1896. His music has appeared in several shows, including the dance musical Dancin’ (1978) and Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins (1991).
(7 April 1949, Majestic, 1,925 performances.) Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan, directed by Logan, produced by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s fourth show and one of their most avidly anticipated, South Pacific was also an important step in the development of the musical play. The first three notes of the overture to South Pacific, based on the opening of the song “Bali-Ha’i,” whisks one to the mystery and romance of an island paradise where ordinary Americans deal with romance and prejudice against the backdrop of World War II. Rodgers and Hammerstein based the show on three short stories from James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific, brought to their attention by Joshua Logan and Leland Hayward. Hammerstein did not feel completely comfortable with a play about the military, in which he had never served. Logan, a World War II veteran who had just cowritten and directed Mr. Roberts, assisted him with the military mind-set and earned part of the book credit.
The play opened with French planter Emile De Becque (Metropolitan Opera star Ezio Pinza) entertaining navy nurse Ensign Nellie Forbush (Mary Martin). We learn about her character through the song “A Cockeyed Optimist,” a taste of pure Americana with its AABA form and memorable melody. Although they know little about each other, they recognize their attraction but realize they are from different worlds (“Twin Soliloquies”). Emile dreams of their future together in the sophisticated “Some Enchanted Evening.” On the nearby naval base, Tonkinese souvenir merchant Bloody Mary (Juanita Hall) meets Lieutenant Joseph Cable (William Tabbert), whom she tells about her home, the mysterious island Bali Ha’i. Seeking intelligence on Japanese fleet movements, Cable tries to enlist De Becque’s help on a dangerous mission; at first, De Becque refuses because of his love for Nellie. She is, however, confused about her feelings for him, singing the delightful “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” not long before she meets him again and sings “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy.” These straightforward songs add effectively to her characterization. Cable goes to Bali Ha’i, where Bloody Mary’s beautiful daughter Liat enchants him. Both stories involve racial prejudice because Nellie runs away from Emile after meeting his two children of mixed race by his first, Tonkinese wife, and Cable realizes that he cannot take Liat back to his parents in Philadelphia. Nellie claims that she cannot explain herself because she was born with her prejudice. Emile does not accept this, and Cable replies that “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught.” Afterward, Emile agrees to help Cable with his mission, which succeeds, but Cable dies. Nellie overcomes her prejudices and accepts Emile’s children as Emile enters just before the final curtain. The comedic subplot involved the ever-scheming Seabee Luther Billis (Myron McCormick) and his fellow Seabees, who sing rousing numbers such as “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame.” The show included several lighthearted songs to balance the generally serious tone, including the act 2 opening, “Honey Bun,” which featured Luther Billis’s gyrating ship tattoo on his belly and Nellie dancing around in her wildly oversized sailor suit.
Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times found it “a tenderly beautiful idyll of genuine people inexplicably tossed together in a strange corner of the world” where all elements of the show contributed to the mood. South Pacific won eight Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. The 1958 film version started Mitzi Gaynor and Rosanno Brazzi (with Giorgio Tozzi’s voice), and the 2001 television version featured Glenn Close, Rade Sherbedgia, and Harry Connick Jr. A sumptuous revival directed by Bartlett Sher and starring Kelli O’Hara and Brazilian opera singer Paulo Szot opened in 2008 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre and played for 996 performances.
Husband and wife creators of 35 plays, librettos, and film scripts who won a Tony Award for Kiss Me, Kate (1948), with music by Cole Porter. Both were reporters before embarking on their collaborative theatrical careers. They also wrote the book for Porter’s Leave It to Me! (1938), which they based on their play Clear All Wires.
(14 June 2011, Foxwoods, 1,066 performances.) The most expensive show in Broadway history that lost most of its investment of perhaps $75 million despite a run of two and a half years. The extraordinary creative difficulties were reflected in the record 182 previews that were interrupted by a one-month suspension for rewriting. Julie Taymor, director and designer for The Lion King, wrote the show’s book with Glen Berger and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and directed the show, but as the preopening problems dragged on, she was replaced by Philip William McKinley. The rock score was by Bono of U2 and The Edge, with choreography and aerial choreography by Daniel Ezralow and sets by George Tsypin. The cast featured Reeve Carney as Peter Parker/Spider-Man; Jennifer Damiano as his popular girlfriend Mary Jane Watson; T. V. Carpio as Arachne, a mythical web spinner; and Patrick Page as good-natured-scientist-turned-nemesis Norman Osborn/Green Goblin. The tale recounted the early years of Peter Parker becoming Spider-Man. The aerial fight between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin that took place above the audience was a dramatic high point of the show. Reviews were at times scathing: the New York Times suggested that it “may . . . rank among the worst” shows ever made, and, perhaps most damning, the reviewer simply could not find evidence in the production for all of the money that had been spent.
(10 December 2006, Eugene O’Neill, 859 performances.) Music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Based on the play by Frank Wedekind, Spring Awakening takes places in “a provincial German town in the 1890s” and focuses on the challenges of adolescence. Wendla (Lea Michele) and Melchior (Jonathan Groff) discover each other’s bodies, and she becomes pregnant. When Melchior’s best friend, Moritz (John Gallagher Jr.), commits suicide, blame falls on Melchior, and when Wendla’s mother learns of the pregnancy, she arranges a back-alley abortion for her daughter. The haunting score encompasses a range of pop-rock styles, and a parental advisory label for explicit content appears on the original cast album. Musical numbers are presented as psychological soliloquies and are thus distinguished from the main thrust of the ultimately tragic drama.
Built in 1927 by Abraham L. Erlanger, one of the founders of the Theatrical Syndicate, and opening as Erlanger’s Theatre, the 1,600-seat venue was aimed at musical production. Erlanger lost the theater during the Great Depression. It was renamed the St. James in 1932. Notable musicals to grace its stage include Oklahoma! (1943), The King and I (1951), Hello, Dolly! (1964), and The Producers (2001).
(30 March 1946, Martin Beck, 113 performances.) Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, book by Arna Bontemps, production directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Based on Bontemps’s novel God Sends Sunday, St. Louis Woman was a musical play created by a number of distinguished artists that failed to win an audience. Ruby Hill played Della Green, who loves any man who looks good at the moment. Her male friend is Biglow Brown (Rex Ingram) until Little Augie (Harold Nicholas), a winning jockey, comes along. Brown assaults Augie, but then another woman who Brown left shoots him. Brown curses Augie from his deathbed, and the jockey starts to lose races and also Della, but she returns when he starts to win again. A notable character was a young Pearl Bailey as Butterfly. Mamoulian’s staging was a highlight, as was the dancing of brothers Harold and Fayard Nicholas. Lewis Nichols, writing in the New York Times, wrote a mixed review. He found “nice things” but “not enough of them,” citing the show’s plot as its problem. He believed that the original intention was to make the show a folk play like Porgy and Bess, but the writers dressed it up as a musical comedy, making it “a hybrid affair.” He appreciated the cakewalk at the end of act 1 and remarked that Pearl Bailey “can sing a song so that it stays sung.” The tunes that Nichols named were those sung by Bailey: “Legalize My Name” and “A Woman’s Prerogative.” Another fine song from the show was “Come Rain or Come Shine.”
(15 March 1987, Gershwin, 761 performances.) Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, directed by Trevor Nunn. A musical about trains that was far more popular in London than in New York, Starlight Express was a visual extravaganza in which actors careened around tracks on roller skates. The plot concerned a boy and his train set. The steam engine Rusty (Greg Mowry) wants to beat the diesel Greaseball (Robert Torti) and does so through the spiritual guidance of Starlight Express (portrayed as a disembodied voice and a bright offstage light). John Napier’s complicated set featured three levels of train tracks, some of which went over and through the audience. Frank Rich panned the show in the New York Times, wondering for whom it was written and what part of the plot was most important. Among the score’s most effective numbers is the gospel finale, “The Light at the End of the Tunnel.”
(27 March 1996, Music Box, 110 performances.) Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Tom Briggs and Louis Mattioli after the screenplay by Hammerstein. After touring extensively, the stage version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s film musical (it was filmed twice, in 1945 and 1962), despite abysmal or somewhat unflattering reviews, managed to run through the summer. In addition to songs from the film, including “It’s a Grand Night for Singing,” other songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog were added to the show, including “The Man I Used to Be” from Pipe Dream and “That’s the Way It Happens” from Me and Juliet.
(24 April 1997, Richard Rodgers, 76 performances.) Music by John Kander; lyrics by Fred Ebb; conceived by Scott Ellis, Susan Stroman, and David Thompson; directed by Ellis; choreographed by Stroman. Called an “American fable” and set on Atlantic City’s Steel Pier in August 1933, Steel Pier captured the spirit of the Depression-era dance marathons, events where hope and perseverance could provide escape from the troubles of real life. The plot focuses on Rita Racine (Karen Ziemba), who wants to escape the world of her husband’s dance marathons and begin a new life. Others in the cast included Gregory Harrison, Daniel McDonald, Debra Monk, and Kristin Chenoweth. Kander and Ebb’s score evokes popular dance styles of the 1930s; “Somebody Dance,” “Lovebird,” and “Steel Pier” are among the outstanding musical numbers. Ben Brantley, writing in the New York Times, found Steel Pier lacking in a number of areas, especially in comparison to Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret and Chicago.
Librettist whose credits include Plain and Fancy (1955), Mr. Wonderful (1956), Take Me Along (1959), Zorbá (1968), and the 1973 revival of Irene. His greatest success, however, was Fiddler on the Roof (1964), for which he won a Tony Award.
Founding chairman of both the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (1961) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1965), Stevens produced, by arrangement, West Side Story (1957) and revivals of On Your Toes (1983) and She Loves Me (1993). In 1971, he received a Special Tony Award for his contributions to the field.
Librettist for three influential musicals staged by Gower Champion: Bye Bye Birdie, Carnival!, and Hello, Dolly! He also wrote the books for George M! and 42nd Street and the lyrics for I Love My Wife and Barnum. He was an extremely gifted wordsmith, and many of his shows extol the joys and wonders of show business in various guises.
Librettist who won three Tony Awards for Best Book: the first for 1776 (1969), the second for Woman of the Year (1981), and the third for Titanic (1997). Other librettos include Two by Two (1970), Sugar (1972), The Will Rogers Follies (1991), and Curtains (2007), which he left incomplete at the time of his death. Historic themes and events, such as Noah’s Ark, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, or the sinking of Titanic, are prevalent in his work, and re-creating the atmosphere of the past in the spirit of the present remains one of his greatest talents.
(3 October 1962, Shubert, 555 performances.) Music, lyrics, and book by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse; directed by Newley; produced by David Merrick. A hit in London before its arrival on Broadway, Stop the World—I Want to Get Off was an allegorical and satirical show about a man making his way in the world. Its staging was circus-like, and the musical was rife with imaginative moments. Newley, in addition to creating most of the material with Bricusse, directed and starred as Littlechap. He was an “Everyman” sort of figure, wearing baggy pants and makeup that suggested a clown. He begins the show as a mime but eventually starts to speak. Littlechap begins his professional career serving tea to executives but eventually directs the company, gets elected to Parliament, and receives a noble title. He also marries the boss’s daughter and has affairs with Russian, German, and American women on his travels. Anna Quayle played all of the female roles, and the Greek chorus featured seven female dancers. Howard Taubman, reviewing the show for the New York Times, found it “a brave attempt” at a new type of musical theater but that its use of allegory and satire was superficial. The tuneful score included “What Kind of Fool Am I,” a major hit in the early 1960s. A revival in 1978 ran less than a month.
Music director and composer who worked with producer Arthur Hammerstein in the 1920s. His Broadway music usually appeared alongside that of other composers. Stothart contributed music for Wildflower (1923, with Vincent Youmans), Rose Marie (1924, with Rudolf Friml), Song of the Flame (1925, with George Gershwin), and Good Boy (1928, with Harry Ruby). He is best remembered for his work as a film composer and music director at MGM studios.
Quintessential Viennese composer of operettas and waltzes whose works frequented Broadway stages in the first part of the 20th century. Among his works to play on Broadway in English-language adaptations (with the years of their Broadway productions) are Vienna Life (1901) and two works based on Die Fledermaus: A Wonderful Night (1929) and Champagne, Sec (1933). The Great Waltz (1934) featured Strauss and his father, also a composer, as characters and also included their music.
(9 January 1947, Adelphi, 148 performances.) Music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Langston Hughes, book by Elmer Rice, staged by Charles Friedman, dances by Anna Sokolow. Based on Rice’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play from 1929, Street Scene was a superior work of musical theater that proved too sophisticated for the commercial Broadway audience. One of the first works that Weill saw after moving to the United States was Porgy and Bess, and he had always dreamed of writing an American opera, which became Street Scene. It was billed as a “dramatic musical,” but the audience would hardly have been fooled when singers came from the Metropolitan Opera and the pit orchestra had 35 musicians. Rice’s play involves a short romance between Sam Kaplan (Brian Sullivan) and Rose Maurrant (Anne Jeffreys), brought to a tragic end through the actions of Rose’s mother, Anna (Polyna Stoska). They live along with other memorable characters in a row of brownstones. Weill found the play full of musical possibilities and employed various styles for different characters. For example, the leads had operatic music, while African American characters sang in the style of blues. “Moon-Faced, Starry-Eyed” was the only song to achieve fame outside of the production. Hughes’s lyrics were outstanding, universally praised for their honest emotion and plain language. Brooks Atkinson, reviewing the production for the New York Times, called Street Scene “a musical play of magnificence and glory.” The cast was “superb,” Weill “found notes to express the myriad impulses of Mr. Rice’s poem,” and Hughes’s lyrics are “affectionate.” The run of about 18 weeks was disappointing, but Street Scene is now alive in the opera repertory.
Singing actress who made her Broadway debut in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, stopping the show with “Miss Marmelstein.” She played Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, performing “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “People.” Streisand has also had a successful film, concert, and recording career. Her repertory onstage and on record includes Broadway standards, which she performs with her characteristic warm, stylized sound.
(14 January 1930, Times Square, 191 performances.) Music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, book by Morrie Ryskind, based on the libretto by George S. Kaufman. One of the first purely satirical book musicals, Strike Up the Band! closed in Philadelphia during its first production in 1927, but the revival in 1930 included important changes and became a success. The original plot involved a nonsensical war between the United States and Switzerland over an American tariff on Swiss cheese. An American cheese magnate convinces Congress to declare war on Switzerland; he offers to pay for the war if it is named after him. The war is a rollicking success, and even the Swiss profit from it, with many American soldiers staying in their hotel rooms. At the end, the Russians and Americans are discussing the possibility of their own mutually beneficial war. The satire was simply too bitter for 1927, but once the Depression had begun, audiences became more receptive to such material. Morrie Ryskind reworked the book for the 1930 production, making the plot a staged dream of a tycoon (Dudley Clements) who awakens a reformed man. Cheese also became chocolate. The score included the title tune and several other hits: “Soon” and “I’ve Got a Crush on You.” Writing in the New York Times, Brooks Atkinson found the score “an original contribution to the comic musical stage,” but he noted that the show loses its edge over the course of the evening. Strike Up the Band! directly paved the way for Of Thee I Sing.
Belt-singing actress who captivated audiences in revivals of Pal Joey (1952) and On Your Toes (1954) before being cast as Mimi Paragon in the Noel Coward musical Sail Away (1961) and singing “Why Do the Wrong People Travel?” She created the role of Joanne in Company, introducing “Ladies Who Lunch,” and was Parthy in Hal Prince’s 1994 revival of Show Boat, in which she sang “Why Do I Love You?” as a touching lullaby to her granddaughter Kim. She received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for her one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty (2002) and was a replacement Madame Armfelt in the 2009 revival of A Little Night Music.
Director-choreographer whose credits include revivals (Show Boat, 1994; The Music Man, 2000; Oklahoma!, 2002), shows incorporating older music (Crazy for You, 1992; Bullets over Broadway, 2014), and shows that emulate styles of the early part of the 20th century (Steel Pier, 1997; The Producers, 2001; Young Frankenstein, 2007; The Scottsboro Boys, 2010). She also was director-choreographer for the innovative dance musical Contact (2000), for which she also developed the concept. Other credits include Big (1996), Thou Shalt Not (2001), and The Frogs (2004). In her work, she approaches historical styles through contemporary means and creates dances that advance the plot. She often incorporates props as integral parts of her routines, as she did with aluminum walkers in “Along Came Bialy” from The Producers. Stroman is the recipient of five Tony Awards and five New York Drama Desk Awards, has worked in opera and ballet and on television, and was director-choreographer of the 2005 film version of The Producers.
Composer who collaborated with lyricist Lee Adams on Bye Bye Birdie, Golden Boy, and Applause; Martin Charnin on Annie; and Richard Maltby Jr. on Nick & Nora (1991). He works firmly in the standard Broadway idiom but adds musical dimensions appropriate to the setting of each show, such as a rock-and-roll–inspired ensemble number (“A Lot of Livin’ to Do”) in Bye Bye Birdie or an anthem of hope sung by an orphan during the Great Depression (“Tomorrow”) in Annie.
(2 December 1924, Jolson’s, 608 performances.) Music by Sigmund Romberg, lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly, produced by the Messrs. Shubert. It was the longest-running Broadway musical of the 1920s, the tale of Karl Franz (Howard Marsh), a prince from mythical Karlsberg, who goes to study at Heidelberg University and falls in love with Kathie (Ilsa Marvenga), a waitress at the local beer garden, the Inn of the Three Golden Apples. When his grandfather the king dies, Karl Franz must return to Karlsberg to become king and also to enter into an arranged marriage. The operetta ends with Karl Franz returning to Heidelberg and saying farewell to both Kathie and the days of his youth. The couple realizes that all they can keep of their first love is its memory. The Student Prince played a major role in the rehabilitation of Germany’s reputation after World War I and also cemented the importance of the male chorus in not only Romberg’s work but also the Broadway musical in general. The score included many famous songs, including the male choral numbers “Drinking Song,” “Students Marching Song,” and “Come, Boys, Let’s All Be Gay, Boys” (with a coloratura obbligato for Kathie); the waltzes “Deep in My Heart, Dear,” “Golden Days,” and “Just We Two”; and the famous “Serenade,” in which Romberg demonstrates his originality with scoring by skillfully moving between a baritone solo, a male quartet, and a male chorus. The operetta is sometimes known by its longer title, The Student Prince in Heidelberg. A film version appeared in 1954 starring Edmund Purdom (with Mario Lanza’s voice) and Ann Blyth.
Classically trained pianist, bandleader, and vocal coach who became one of the most successful Broadway composers of the mid-20th century. His first success was High Button Shoes (1947), followed by Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (in which Carol Channing sang “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”), additional music for Peter Pan, Bells Are Ringing (the Judy Holliday vehicle that included “The Party’s Over”), Gypsy (in which Ethel Merman sang “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” to Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics), Do Re Mi, Funny Girl (in which Barbra Streisand sang “People”), and Fade Out—Fade In. He won his only Tony Award for Hallelujah, Baby! (1967) and in 1972 wrote the score for Sugar, which starred Robert Morse. His last score was for Red Shoes (1993), a show that closed after only three performances. He also conceived Mr. Wonderful as a vehicle for Sammy Davis Jr. Styne wrote for some of Broadway’s most impressive stars, and his songs simultaneously exude theatrical opulence and dramatic depth.
(9 April 1972, Majestic, 505 performances.) Music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, book by Peter Stone, directed and choreographed by Gower Champion, presented by David Merrick. Based on the film Some Like It Hot, Sugar featured excellent performances by Robert Morse, Tony Roberts, Cyril Ritchard, and Elaine Joyce and ran for about 15 months. Morse and Roberts played Jerry and Joe, two musicians during Prohibition who witness a gang murder and hide in an all-girl band. Jerry draws unwanted attention from Osgood Fielding Jr. (Ritchard), an aging millionaire who proposes marriage, and Joe falls in love with “Sugar Kane” (Joyce), the part made famous by Marilyn Monroe in the film version. Many people did not believe that the film transferred well to the stage. Clive Barnes, writing for the New York Times, thought that “the performances may just about provide a reason to see ‘Sugar.’” He appreciated most Robert Morse, whose “acting shows a sharp insight into feminine psychology,” but Tony Roberts is “hardly less effective.” Ritchard and Joyce also drew considerable praise, and Champion directed the show with “demonic energy” in the midst of a fine production. Barnes despaired at the book, music, and lyrics, however, and admitted that his enjoyment of the performances came with free admission.
(8 October 1979, Mark Hellinger, 1,208 performances.) Music by Jimmy McHugh and others; lyrics by Dorothy Fields, Al Dubin, and others; conceived by Ralph G. Allen and Harry Rigby. A tribute to burlesque, Sugar Babies included many of the genre’s low-comedy effects. The stars were the irresistible Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller. After playing on Broadway for three years, Sugar Babies toured until 1986. The show was the brainchild of Ralph G. Allen, a professor at the University of Tennessee who was obsessed with the old, uproarious world of burlesque. Rooney was at his best when clowning in the skits, libidinously pursuing Miller in various settings. There were double entendres and costume gags galore, and Miller showed that her fabled ability as a tap dancer remained. Walter Kerr, reviewing the show for the New York Times, wrote copiously about Mickey Rooney and found him as “energetic and exactly as talented” as he was as a young child. Kerr thought him “at his funniest . . . in drag.” He called Miller “in stunning shape at whatever age she must be.”
British composer whose Savoy operas, collaborations with librettist-lyricist W. S. Gilbert, have appeared on Broadway since the late 19th century. H.M.S. Pinafore (1879) actually received its world premiere in New York because of international copyright law. Other Gilbert and Sullivan works to appear on Broadway include Trial by Jury, The Sorcerer, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience, Iolanthe, Princess Ida, The Mikado, Ruddigore, The Yeomen of the Guard, and The Gondoliers. Gilbert and Sullivan’s work had a tremendous influence on Broadway in terms of vocal style (virtuosic soprano writing), effusive marches, comic patter songs, lighthearted waltzes, and various combinations of recitatives, solos, duets, small ensembles, and choral numbers fused together into coherent musical-dramatic scenes.
Lyric soprano who played Polly Peachum in Marc Blitzstein’s version of Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera (1954) and created Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella (1956), with a score by her husband Frank Loesser. She served as “artistic associate” for the 1992 Lincoln Center Theatre revival of The Most Happy Fella.
(2 May 1984, Booth, 604 performances.) Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book and direction by James Lapine, presented by the Shubert Organization and Emanuel Azenberg by an arrangement with Playwrights Horizons. A show about the creative process, Sunday in the Park with George looked to the enigmatic Georges Seurat and a modern artist (perhaps George’s great-grandson). The show ran for well over a year and won a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize, partly because of its moments of magical beauty but also, some would say, for its extensive coverage by the New York Times. Act 1 follows “George” (Mandy Patinkin) as he works on his masterpiece Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, formed from thousands of dots. His model/girlfriend is cleverly called Dot (Bernadette Peters), but she barely understands her cerebral lover and his obsession with the painting and his revolutionary technique. Seurat goes to La Grande Jatte every Sunday afternoon to paint people and animals—the people he sees in the park become the images in the painting. The act 1 finale is the final creation of the famous painting and involves George positioning the other characters into their places, creating a living tableau of the painting in front of which an image of the painting drops as the act ends. Act 2 takes place in the 1980s at the Chicago Art Institute (where Sunday Afternoon hangs). George finds he can no longer be original and questions the value of art in the extended musical scene “Putting It Together.” His grandmother, Marie (Peters), tells him the story of Seurat and encourages him to travel to the site of Sunday Afternoon. He does, he experiences Dot’s spirit, and they sing the impassioned “Move On.” In the powerful finale, the characters from act 1 return and acknowledge George for creating them, and he likewise acknowledges them.
Writing in the New York Times, Frank Rich noted that Sondheim and Lapine asked the audience to completely change the way it regarded the Broadway musical. Rich called the set, designed by Tony Straiges, “an animated toy box complete with popups,” the latter cutouts of George or other characters that appeared for dramatic and sometimes hilarious effect. Rich terms Patinkin’s portrayal “a crucible of intellectual fire,” and Peters “overflows with . . . warmth and humor.” The other members of the cast provided delightful texture and memorable moments, but none emerged as fully developed as George or Dot. Rich finds the second act somewhat less effective, calling it more traditional concerning how “the modern George overcomes his crisis of confidence.” Sondheim’s score feels very much like a single work, showing the strong influence of French composers such as Maurice Ravel and constructed from many memorable phrases and motives, not unlike the innumerable dots that Seurat used in his painting. A highlight of the first act was “Finishing the Hat,” a profound patter song of amazing economy of construction. The show’s theme of moving toward an artistic whole is paralleled in the duets between George and Dot: the opening title song, “Color and Light,” “We Do Not Belong Together,” and “Move On.” Other highlights include Dot’s “Everybody Loves Louis,” in which she contrasts the popularity of a pastry chef with the nonpopularity of an experimental artist, and the act 2 opening, “It’s Hot up Here,” sung by the hapless characters in the painting.
The 2008 revival directed by Sam Buntrock featured opulent visual projections and, according to Ben Brantley in the New York Times, “shimmers with a new humanity and clarity.”
(22 September 1925, New Amsterdam, 517 performances.) Music by Jerome Kern, lyrics and book by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, staged by Hassard Short, produced by Charles Dillingham. Conceived as a vehicle for the popular Marilyn Miller, Sunny combined the talents of some of Broadway’s best creators and stage personalities. Although it opened the same week as No, No Nanette, Dearest Enemy, and The Vagabond King, Sunny managed to run for 15 months. Miller played the title character, an American circus performer in England who wants to marry Tom Warren (Paul Frawley). He boards a ship to head home, and Sunny stows away to be near him, but to avoid the brig, she must marry Tom’s friend Jim Denning (Jack Donahue). By the end of the show, she has divorced Denning and will marry Warren. The cast also included Clifton Webb, Cliff “Ukelele Ike” Edwards, and Mary Hay. Harbach and Hammerstein managed to assemble a workable book, and Kern wrote a lovely score. Along with Dillingham’s sumptuous production, Sunny provided more than enough delights for an audience coming out primarily to see Marilyn Miller’s winning dancing and captivating stage personality. The unsigned review in the New York Times was most positive, noting that the show “skipped gayly across the stage” for three hours. The critic praised how the show “has been skillfully pulled together” with a sense of “general excellence.” There is an entire paragraph on Miller, who, despite her stardom, “retains . . . an agreeable air of modesty and young beauty.” Highlights of the score included the title song, “D’ye Love Me?,” and “Who.”
(17 November 1994, Minskoff, 977 performances.) Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics and book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, directed by Trevor Nunn, musical staging by Bob Avian, produced by the Really Useful Company. Based on Billy Wilder’s 1950 film of the same name starring Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard featured a mesmerizing, Tony Award–winning performance by Glenn Close. She played Norma Desmond, a star of silent movies who desperately wants to make a comeback in modern Hollywood but has lost her grip on reality. She thinks she has found her ticket back when she meets Joe Gillis (Alan Campbell), a writer between jobs. He will write the screenplay that will make Norma a star again, and she takes him as a lover. Joe is also interested in Betty Schaefer (Alice Ripley), but this arouses Norma’s jealousy, and she shoots Joe. George Hearn played Max von Mayerling, Norma’s ex-husband and now her faithful butler. The show opens with Joe’s body floating in the swimming pool, viewed from the perspective of the drain, just one of the arresting images that John Napier brought to the stage. One of the show’s greatest stars, though, was the magnificent staircase in Norma’s mansion. At one point, the large-scale set rises from the stage floor to a more relaxed gathering of young people. The set was in the tradition of the megamusical, wowing the audience with stagecraft and spectacle. Critics were mixed about the show, but most agreed that Glenn Close was brilliant as “Norma,” taking risks and making her a monster while avoiding campiness. David Richards, writing in the New York Times, found the show at times “outlandishly good” and at other times merely “big.” Norma had some stunning music, including her opening numbers, “Surrender” and “With One Look,” and the act 2 “As if We Never Said Goodbye.” Joe’s frenetic title number, “New Ways to Dream,” “The Perfect Year,” and “Eternal Youth Is Worth a Little Suffering” were other highlights of the score.
(1 March 1979, Uris, 557 performances.) Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler, directed by Harold Prince. Based on the English legend and play by Christopher Bond, Sweeney Todd is a musical thriller that makes no concessions to popular taste or conventional Broadway fare. Sondheim always shied away from the simple and fashionable, but his psychological and musical exploration of an insane, vengeful barber was a huge gamble. It was one of his best scores, however, and enjoyed one of Sondheim’s longer runs. Benjamin Barker (Len Cariou) was a happily married barber with a young daughter before the corrupt Judge Turpin and his beadle unjustly sent him to prison so that they could have their way with the barber’s wife. Fifteen years later, Barker returns as Sweeney Todd, who intends to reestablish himself as a barber to get revenge on the judge. He returns to his old neighborhood and meets Mrs. Lovett (Angela Lansbury), an eccentric proprietor of a meat-pie shop. Traveling with Todd is young Anthony Hope (Victor Garber), who falls in love with Johanna (Sarah Rice), Sweeney’s daughter and now the judge’s ward. Interrupted by Anthony just as he is about to slit the judge’s throat, Sweeney decides to kill every visitor to his barber’s chair. Disposing of bodies is no problem because Mrs. Lovett is always looking for fresh sources of meat; their cannibalistic specialty becomes one of the most popular meals in London. Sweeney helps Anthony hatch a plan that wins him Johanna, but as events careen out of control, Sweeney kills his wife (now an unrecognizable madwoman), the judge, and then Mrs. Lovett when he realizes she has lied to him. Tobias, a simple boy who has been helping with the meat pies until he realizes the source of the meat, finally kills Sweeney.
Harold Prince and his creative team placed this horrific tale into the cavernous Uris Theater with a huge steel set, the remains of a New England foundry, a grim reminder of the industrial revolution. The steam whistle came as well, startling the audience as the show’s first sound. Richard Eder, writing in the New York Times, was overwhelmed: “There is more of artistic energy, creative personality and plain excitement in ‘Sweeney Todd’ . . . than in a dozen average musicals.” Sondheim’s score is a triumph of musicodramatic unification, a factor that has helped the work’s acceptance as part of the operatic as well as theatrical repertory. The score includes a variety of styles, from the incessant “Ballad of Sweeney Todd” (with its quotation of the “Dies Irae” theme, representing death) and the transcendent beauty of “Johanna” and “Finch and Linnet Bird” to Sweeney’s terrifying “Epiphany,” when he decides to kill whoever sits in his barber chair, followed by “A Little Priest,” a lighthearted waltz whose pun-filled lyrics praise the delights of cannibalism, revealing some of the blackest humor ever to appear in a Broadway musical. The 2005 Broadway revival, directed and reimagined by John Doyle as a tale told by inmates in a mental asylum, starred Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris.
(3 September 1929, Hammerstein, 234 performances.) Music by Jerome Kern, lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II, produced by Arthur Hammerstein. A worthy successor to Show Boat, Sweet Adeline had its run cut short by the Depression and never regained popularity. It was a vehicle for Helen Morgan, who played Addie Schmidt, a singer in her father’s beer garden in Hoboken at the time of the Spanish-American War. She loses her first love to her sister and begins singing in a Bowery theater, eventually becoming a Broadway star. James Day (Robert Chisholm) helps her career, and they fall in love. The cast included the comedian Charles Butterworth, whose reactions to such events as a burlesque show were most memorable. Kern’s score was perhaps not quite as glorious as that for Show Boat, but it bore “A Girl Is on Your Mind” and several hits that he wrote for Morgan: “Why Was I Born?” and “Here Am I.” She was a master at singing bittersweet songs, and Kern made fine use of this ability. Hammerstein’s book had its share of musical comedy silliness, but it also told a serious story about a flawed character. Brooks Atkinson reviewed the show for the New York Times and described it as “downright enjoyable all the while.” He raved about the variety of sets and tied the appeal of Kern’s score directly to Morgan, who is wonderful as she “sings in the pensive, gently melancholy mood” that many love.
(30 January 1966, Palace, 608 performances.) Music by Cy Coleman; lyrics by Dorothy Fields; book by Neil Simon; conceived, staged, and choreographed by Bob Fosse. Based on Federico Fellini’s 1957 film Nights of Cabiria, Sweet Charity was a vehicle for Gwen Verdon, who at the time was Fosse’s wife, and her considerable star power was a major reason for the show’s success. Fosse’s staging and choreography had its usual punch and style. Verdon played Charity, a dance hostess at a cheap club in New York. She desires real love and first finds an Italian movie star (James Luisi) whose date for the evening left him. Charity takes him back to her apartment, but his date returns, and Charity hides in the closet while they make love. She then meets Oscar (John McMartin), an accountant, and they start a promising relationship, but he is not the marrying type, and Charity ends up alone. Verdon, as usual, danced wonderfully in a variety of styles, sang distinctively, and exuded a mature sexiness and charm. Coleman and Fields’s songs also included “Baby, Dream Your Dream” and “I’m a Brass Band.” Fosse’s dances encompassed the show’s big hit “Big Spender,” “The Rich Man’s Frug,” and “Rhythm of Life” and were reprised in Dancin’ and Fosse. Stanley Kauffman, writing in the New York Times, missed much of the show’s charm. He derided it as “The Show That Wants to Be Loved,” designed too much to be a “heart-tugger,” but called Fosse’s work “superb,” although he ultimately found Sweet Charity to be mostly a “theatrical device” and not a real show. Christina Applegate starred in the 2005 revival.
(8 September 1913, New Amsterdam, 136 performances.) Music by Victor Herbert, lyrics by Robert B. Smith, book by Fred de Gresac and Smith. Boasting Herbert’s fine score and a typical operetta story about misplaced European royalty, Herbert wrote the role of Sylvia specifically for Christie MacDonald, an excellent singer. She was the Crown Princess of Zilania, but during a war, she was taken to the Laundry of the White Geese in Bruges for safety. Dame Paula (Ethel Du Fre Houston), also known as “Mother Goose,” raises Sylvia along with her six daughters. Years later, Sylvia has two suitors, the evil Lieutenant Karl (Edwin Wilson) and Franz (Thomas Conkey), the “Heir Presumptive” of Zilania. She marries Franz, and they rule her homeland together. Most commentators found Herbert’s score superior to the lyrics or book. The most famous song was the title number, but the score also included the love duet “The Angelus,” the male chorus “Pretty as a Picture,” and “Cricket on the Hearth.” The unnamed critic for the New York Times approached the show with tongue placed firmly in cheek, extensively quoting the published plot synopsis to demonstrate its absurdity. He thought that Herbert “has provided a very well written score” with several songs “graced with those delightful touches of unexpectedness.” Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy starred in the heavily revised 1938 film version, and a Broadway revival in 1947 ran for 288 performances.
(Born Katherine Swift, 1897–1993.) Composer and pianist whose musical Fine and Dandy (1930) featured the first complete Broadway score written by a woman. She was George Gershwin’s assistant, musical adviser, and the woman who came closest to becoming the composer’s wife. She was extremely involved with the creation of Porgy and Bess (1935). Swift attended the Institute for Musical Art (precursor to the Juilliard School), where she studied composition with Percy Goetschius. She wrote for Radio City Music Hall and was director of music for the 1939 World’s Fair.
Usually refers to someone who understudies parts in the chorus, both singing and dancing. The term can also refer to a style of jazz that has influenced the Broadway musical.