African American comedian, singer, and dancer who formed a vaudeville act with Bert Williams, and the two starred together in three Broadway musicals: In Dahomey, Abyssinia, and Bandana Land (1907). Walker had to leave Bandana Land in 1909 because of illness, and his wife Aida Overton Walker, a leading performer with the company, took over his role.
(Born Anna Myrtle Swoyer, 1922–1992.) Actress known for her dry comic delivery who made her Broadway debut in the musical comedy Best Foot Forward (1941) before creating the randy taxi driver Hidly Esterhazy in On the Town (1944). She appeared in various revues and musical comedies during the 1940s and 1950s and starred as long-suffering Kay Cram in Do Re Mi (1960).
Comic actor who played Mac in Me and Juliet (1953) and Captain Jonas in House of Flowers (1954) and who won a Tony Award for creating Applegate in Damn Yankees (1956). He played Luther Billis in the 1958 film version of South Pacific and created the lovable Uncle Martin in the television comedy My Favorite Martian (1963–1966).
(8 December 1914, New Amsterdam, 175 performances.) Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Harry B. Smith. The first show to have a score entirely by Irving Berlin, who had released “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” three years before, Watch Your Step occupied the nether region between musical comedy and revue. Jabez Hardacre has died and left his fortune to whichever male relative has never been in love, engaged, or married. Two of his family members are investigated on and off for the remainder of the evening. In the meantime, however, entertainers appear on the scene, including dancers Vernon and Irene Castle and the African American Frank Tinney, who until recently had been working in Europe. Berlin composed a huge score of 20 songs, including “The Syncopated Walk,” “Show Us How to Do the Fox Trot,” and “Simple Melody.” A grand opera spoof, done to the irritation of Giuseppe Verdi’s ghost, dominated act 2. The reviewer in the New York Times called Watch Your Step “hilarious fun” and termed Berlin’s contribution “a score of mad melodies, nearly all of them of the tickling sort.”
African American singing actress known for her work in vaudeville and revue. As a star in Irving Berlin’s As Thousands Cheer (1933), she introduced “Heat Wave” and “Supper Time” and portrayed Josephine Baker. She also appeared in At Home Abroad (1935), another revue, before playing Petunia Jackson in Vernon Duke’s Cabin in the Sky (1940). She reprised the role in the 1943 film. In 1953, she starred in the retrospective At Home with Ethel Waters.
Fine dancer and singer (a tenor) with an elegant stage presence who appeared in Sunny (1925), Treasure Girl (1928), The Little Show (1929), Three’s a Crowd (1930), and As Thousands Cheer (1933). He introduced the George and Ira Gershwin standard “I’ve Got a Crush on You” in Treasure Girl.
He formed a popular vaudeville partnership with Lew Fields; the duo became the quintessential “Dutch” (a corruption of “Deutsch”—German) act and spawned many imitators. The team opened a theater on Broadway in 1896, offering burlesques and parodies of popular hits (much like Forbidden Broadway in the late 20th and early 21st centuries). After dissolving the partnership in 1904, Weber remained active as a performer and a producer.
(27 April 2006, Al Hirschfield, 285 performances.) Music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, book by Beguelin and Tim Herlihy, directed by John Rando. Based on the 1998 film, the lighthearted romantic show with plenty of dancing was filled with references to the 1980s in its plot, jokes, and music, including the high-energy “Wedding Day.” Stephen Lynch made his Broadway debut in the title role opposite Laura Benanti as Julia.
(Born Robert Wiedefeld, 1903–1972.) One of the finest American baritones of the 20th century, Weede was equally at home on opera and musical theater stages. He created Tony in The Most Happy Fella (1956), stating that the part was as vocally demanding as any opera role. Subsequent Broadway credits included Milk and Honey (1961) and Cry for Us All (1970).
Librettist whose collaborations with Stephen Sondheim include Pacific Overtures (1976) and Assassins (1991). He also created a new book for the 1987 Lincoln Center Theatre revival of Anything Goes and the libretto for Big: The Musical (1996). He conceived and created the book for Susan Stroman’s dance musical Contact (2000).
To avoid Nazi persecution, Weill and his wife Lotte Lenya emigrated to the United States in 1935. His Broadway scores include Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), Lady in the Dark (1941), One Touch of Venus (1943), Street Scene (1947), Love Life (1948), and Lost in the Stars (1949). His Die Dreigroschenoper (1928) appeared on Broadway as The Threepenny Opera (1954). Weill successfully combined tuneful music, serious dramatic themes, and aspects of social justice in his shows. His music is closely wedded to the plot. He strove to bridge the divide between opera and Broadway, and many of his roles require classically trained singers. In the early 21st century, his works are performed by both theater and opera companies.
(26 September 1957, Winter Garden, 732 performances.) Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents, choreographed and directed by Jerome Robbins, presented by Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince. A modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set among youth gangs in New York City, West Side Story represents a high level of artistic integration between plot, music, and dance. Robbins first conceived the idea in 1949, basing it on conflict between Irish Catholics and Jews. He brought Laurents and Bernstein into the project, but they were too busy, and work ceased. They resumed discussions in the mid-1950s and created the show while Bernstein simultaneously worked on Candide. The composer intended to write the lyrics but finally asked the young Sondheim to join his first Broadway creative team. Robbins, Bernstein, Sondheim, and Laurents worked closely together, drawing song placements from Laurents’s spare plot and telling much of the story through Robbins’s expressive dances. The significance of dance in the show becomes clear in the “Prologue,” which effectively introduces the plot in dance and pantomime. Although the show’s parallels to Romeo and Juliet are many, Laurents made a number of changes, especially the ending, where he gave the surviving female lead a powerful, spoken plea for reason.
Robbins insisted that the entire cast should be dancers, except for Tony and María, who sing the most, but even the romantic leads dance. The cast was composed largely of unknowns—including Larry Kert (Tony), Carol Lawrence (María), and Chita Rivera (Anita)—allowing Robbins to forge a tight ensemble. He insisted that dancers develop personalities for every character and rigidly maintain their gang identities, even during rehearsal breaks. Robbins more or less choreographed the entire show, allowing inarticulate characters to express themselves through dance. Bernstein’s score shows a sense of musicodramatic unification and sophistication rare on Broadway to that point. It is unified musically by the frequent use of the tritone and melodic and rhythmic motives. The score’s gritty realism comes from a mixture of vernacular references, especially various types of jazz and Latin music, the latter very popular in contemporary dance halls. Bernstein’s music for the romantic leads is often based on Latin or Caribbean rhythms and includes some of his most inspired melodies, such as “María,” “Tonight,” and “One Hand, One Heart.” The musical representation of the gangs, heard in the “Prologue,” “Jet Song,” “Rumble,” “Cool,” and other pieces, was violent and dissonant and based on models such as Igor Stravinsky, Woody Herman, Dizzy Gillespie, and Milt Jackson. The score had a brilliant comic song in “Gee, Officer Krupke,” and the winning, energetic “America” was a Mexican huapango. In later years, Sondheim expressed displeasure with his lyrics for the show, believing them too clever, but others have found honest emotion in them. Although the show now has iconic status, the initial critical reception was mixed. Brooks Atkinson summed it up in the opening of his New York Times review: “Although the material is horrifying, the workmanship is admirable.” He found early moments of the show to be “facile and a little forbidding” but was won over by the “tender and affecting” balcony scene featuring the “perfectly cast” Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence and then found the remainder of the show “incandescent.” The 2009 revival, directed by Laurents, featured Spanish-language translations of selected lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
(Also known as Bob Westenberg, 1953–.) Singing actor with a resonant baritone voice who made his Broadway debut as Nikos in the 1983 revival of Zorbá. He played Alex and the Soldier in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George (1984) and was a replacement George. He created Cinderella’s Prince and Wolf in Sondheim’s Into the Woods (1987) and Dr. Neville Craven in The Secret Garden (1991).
(24 February 1964, 54th Street, 540 performances.) Music and lyrics and music by Ervin Drake, book by Budd and Stuart Schulberg. Based on Budd Schulberg’s 1941 novel of the same name, What Makes Sammy Run? featured Steve Lawrence, a popular nightclub performer, as Sammy Glick, a jerk who rises in Hollywood by stealing other people’s work and jobs. He meets a nice secretary (Sally Ann Howes) but leaves her to romance the chairman of the board’s daughter, Laurette Harrington (Bernice Massi). Howard Taubman, writing in the New York Times, asked, “Are you willing to wait until a puppet like Sammy runs through . . . a hard-nosed musical and becomes a human figure?” The outstanding songs included “A Room without Windows” and “My Hometown.”
Actor, producer, and manager who is credited with assembling The Black Crook (1877), an extravaganza that was so successful that it allowed Wheatley to retire two years after its debut.
English-born librettist, playwright, and author who won a Tony Award for A Little Night Music (1973) with a score by Stephen Sondheim. He continued his collaboration with Sondheim, contributing material to Pacific Overtures (1976) and writing the Tony Award–winning libretto for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979). He created a new book for the 1973 revival of Irene and won a Tony Award for his adaptation of Candide the following year.
(11 October 1948, St. James, 792 performances.) Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, book adapted and directed by George Abbott, dances directed by George Balanchine. Adapted from Brandon Thomas’s farce Charley’s Aunt, Where’s Charley? had the benefit of a well-known story and humorous expectations. The other most significant aspects of the production were its director, a master at whipping a musical comedy into a fast-paced frolic, and Ray Bolger, one of Broadway’s biggest stars. Bolger careened through his role as Charley Wykeham, who cross-dresses, sings, and dances with great spirit. Other cast members included Doretta Morrow as Kitty Verdun, Allyn Ann McLerie as Amy Spettigue, and Jane Lawrence as Donna Lucia d’Alvadorez, Charley’s real aunt. Brooks Atkinson, writing in the New York Times, opened by commenting that Ray Bolger makes “a mediocre musical show . . . enjoyable.” When dancing, Bolger translates “love into leaps, whirls and comic staggers.” Atkinson commented on Loesser’s varied score, calling it “lively” and showing many different influences. The critic noted that the “ballets are cultivated,” but “you can enjoy them,” and mentions Abbott’s usual “organization and tempo.” One of the most famous moments in the show was the song “Once in Love with Amy,” which Bolger performed in front of the closed curtain as a sing-along with the audience.
Producer, director, and dancer who got his start in vaudeville and later as a dancer in Ziegfeld Follies. Ziegfeld fired White when the dancer told the producer that the quality of the dances in the Follies could be improved. White then produced his own series of revues, George White’s Scandals, which lasted from 1919 to 1939, and gave Ziegfeld some stiff competition.
African American singer and actress especially known for her work in Cy Coleman musicals, including a replacement Joice Heth in Barnum (1981) and the world-weary prostitute Sonja in The Life (1997), for which she won a Tony Award and sang the lament “The Oldest Profession.” She played Effie in national tours of Dreamgirls before captivating audiences in the 1987 Broadway revival. Other Broadway credits include Miss Jones in the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, in which White infused “Brotherhood of Man” with a gospel feel, and Funmilayo Kuti in Fela! (2009).
Choreographer and dancer whose dance sequences seem like natural extensions of everyday body movements. After working as an assistant to Michael Kidd, she choreographed The Music Man (onstage in 1957 and on film in 1962), Mame (1966), 1776 (1969), I Love My Wife (1977), and Working (1978).
(4 December 1928, New Amsterdam, 379 performances.) Music by Walter Donaldson, lyrics by Gus Kahn, book by William Anthony McGuire, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. Based on Owen Davis’s play The Nervous Wreck from five years earlier, Whoopee was a popular vehicle for comedian Eddie Cantor within one of Ziegfeld’s lavish productions. Cantor was Henry Williams, a hypochondriac who marries Sally Morgan (Frances Upton) so that she can escape marrying a man she dislikes and “save” herself for Waonenis (Paul Gregory). They go to an Indian reservation because Waonenis is said to be part Native American. He is not, but Sally still gets her man, and Williams goes back to his nurse, Mary Custer (Ethel Shutta). Ruth Etting played Leslie Daw, a movie star who came on occasionally to sing songs that had nothing to do with the plot. There were also the usual Ziegfeld beauties who appeared as, among other things, Native Americans riding actual horses. Brooks Atkinson, writing in the New York Times, noted that “Mr. Cantor has never been so enjoyable as a comedian.” He appeared in the show in both blackface and without, accomplishing the former once by bursting out of a gas stove oven. The critic praised the score, noting that composer “Walter Donaldson has composed an appropriate score worthy of better singing.” Songs included “Love Is the Mountain,” “Love Me or Leave Me,” and the perennially popular “Makin’ Whoopee.”
(22 April 1993, St. James, 899 performances.) Music and lyrics by Peter Townshend, book by Townshend and Des McAnuff, additional music and lyrics by John Entwistle and Keith Moon, directed by McAnuff, choreography by Wayne Cilento. Based on the rock group The Who’s 1969 double album that the group presented in various concert performances and made into a film in 1975, The Who’s Tommy brought the story and music into a fully realized Broadway musical. As a four-year-old, Tommy watches his father come home from World War II and kill his mother’s lover; the trauma leaves him deaf, mute, and blind. He becomes a world-renowned pinball wizard and recovers his lost senses at age 18 when his mother smashes the mirror in which he saw the murder. His celebrity evaporates, but his family remains. In The Who’s Tommy, the title character appears at three different ages, with Michael Cerveris playing him at 18. He faces a distant father (Jonathan Dokuchitz), a mother (Marcia Mitzman) who ignores him, an uncle (Paul Kandel) who is sexually abusive, and numerous thugs. As Frank Rich noted in the New York Times, these characters make “‘Tommy’ a poster-simple political statement reflecting the stark rage of the Vietnam era.” Des McAnuff’s production included many special lighting effects, video screens, and an exploding pinball machine; at one point, he turned the entire theater into the inside of a pinball machine. Rich called the show “the authentic rock musical,” a phenomenon that had eluded Broadway for 20 years. He found the show “not merely an entertainment juggernaut” but “surprisingly moving” and “completely alive in its own moment.”
(30 October 2003, Gershwin, 4,787 performances as of 26 April 2015.) Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Winnie Holzman, directed by Joe Mantello, choreographed by Wayne Cilento. A successful and imaginative adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s novel of the same name, Wicked played on the continued American fascination with L. Frank Baum’s fantasy The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The creators drew characters, situations, and the basic story from Maguire but filled in many details of their own. Maguire turns the Oz story on its head, portraying the Wizard as an amoral interloper from another world who unifies the people of Oz against its talking animals. In the musical, Glinda (Kristin Chenoweth) and the future Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (Idina Menzel), whose name is derived from L. Frank Baum’s name, are college roommates and overcome their initial mutual dislike to become friends. Glinda, although occasionally realizing the Wizard’s true nature, follows a conventional path for success and eventually parts company with Elphaba, whose crusade to help the animals leads her into conflict with authorities and gets her branded “wicked.” The results of her “death” bring down the Wizard. Both Chenoweth and Menzel worked with the production for months before it opened, and their considerable vocal talents and rich stage personalities heavily influenced the writers. Joel Grey was the Wizard, and Carole Shelley played Madame Morrible, his partner in evil. Production values were high, with a large set and stage effects, but the human element remained paramount, and the female protagonists stole the evening. A not-so-subtle subplot was how the problems of Oz might parallel those of early 21st-century America.
Wicked found great popularity with audiences but had less success with some critics. The tone of Ben Brantley’s review in the New York Times, “There’s Trouble in Emerald City,” accurately summarizes his review. He rhapsodized about Kristin Chenoweth, noting that “it’s amazing how she keeps metamorphosing before your eyes and ears” as a singer and actor. He called her performance of the song “Popular” “a master class in musical phrasing.” Schwartz’s score exists primarily in the pop world, especially in the power ballads with rhythm-and-blues associations that he wrote for Idina Menzel, but there are also a host of classical references and moments conditioned by his love for earlier Broadway shows, and his lyrics are witty and helpful to the characterization. Schwartz also unified the score with several telling motives. Menzel was unforgettable in the hopeful “The Wizard and I” and the powerful act 1 finale, “Defying Gravity.” Chenoweth showed how ambivalent and deep Glinda could be in “I Couldn’t Be Happier,” and her duet with Menzel at the end, “For Good,” is one of the show’s most moving songs. Schwartz wrote a wonderful “falling into hate” number in “What Is This Feeling,” sung by the two women soon after they meet.
(13 April 2000, Virginia, 68 performances.) Music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa, book by LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe. Based on the notorious 1928 poem by Joseph Moncure March, The Wild Party addresses the urban alienation, disorientation, and ambivalence of not only the late 1920s, the setting of the musical, but also the turn of the 21st century. Decadence, American modernism, and interactions between whites and African Americans are central to the show, which includes aspects of concept musical, vaudeville, and revue. The plot concerns the tragic events surrounding a party hosted by Queenie (Toni Collette), a blonde vaudeville dancer, and her live-in lover Burrs (Mandy Patinkin), a comedian prone to violence. The score is a vivid pastiche of American music styles of the late 1920s. LaChiusa’s musical was the second Wild Party to appear in New York in 2000; an off-Broadway musical with the same title and source material, with book, music, and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club City Center Stage I on 24 February 2000 and played for 88 performances.
(16 December 1960, Alvin, 171 performances.) Music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, book by N. Richard Nash, staged by Michael Kidd. Based on Nash’s original story, Wildcat remains in the Broadway consciousness only because it starred Lucille Ball in her only lead role in a musical and for the stirring march “Hey, Look Me Over!” Ball played Wildcat Jackson, a rough-and-ready gal who comes to Centavo City in 1912 with her disabled sister Jane (Paula Stewart) to strike it rich in oil. She meets and falls in love with Joe Dynamite (Keith Andes) and makes him the foreman of her well. After many failed attempts, they finally strike oil. The best notices went to the star. Howard Taubman, writing for the New York Times, noted that Wildcat “had as much spirit and excitement as a tame, old tabby” but that Ball gave it her best, “singing and dancing with zest and reading her lines with an expert’s timing.”
(7 February 1923, Casino, 477 performances.) Music by Herbert Stothart and Vincent Youmans, lyrics and book by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. A vehicle for Edith Day, Wildflower was an extremely successful if pedestrian show that ended up being Day’s final work before she left for London. She played Nina Benedetto, who inherits a small fortune on the condition that she has no displays of temper for six months. A cousin tempts her sorely, but she wins the legacy and her lover, Guido (Guy Robertson). The New York Times panned the book as “practically never funny, and now and then even a little dull,” but “the songs are worked into the piece with not a little cleverness.” Youmans’s songs, his first for Broadway, included the hit “Bambalina.”
Composer whose Broadway debut consisted of new songs with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse to Victor/Victoria (1995). His Broadway scores include Jekyll and Hyde (lyrics by Bricusse), The Scarlet Pimpernel (book and lyrics by Nan Knighton), The Civil War (1999, for which he was co-librettist), and Dracula (2004, book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton). His music is rooted in a lush romantic style that adds emotional depth to the stories he sets.
Irish-born singing actor who created the role of Jean Valjean in the London (1985) and Broadway (1987) productions of Les Misérables. His dramatic voice and acting ability have caused many fans of the show to dub him the “definitive Valjean.” He was a member of the 1970s Irish band The Action and represented Ireland in the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest. After Les Mis, he sang the title role in the Toronto production of The Phantom of the Opera (1989), a part he originated in 1985 at one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sydmonton workshops.
(1 May 1991, Palace, 981 performances.) Music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, book by Peter Stone, directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune. A show said to be “inspired by the words of Will and Betty Rogers,” The Will Rogers Follies combined a biographical treatment of this noted American humorist with a modern version of the Ziegfeld Follies, in which Rogers performed. Keith Carradine played the title character, and Paul Ukena Jr. played Wiley Post, the pilot with whom Rogers died in a plane crash in 1935. In the show, Post keeps asking Rogers if he would like to fly with him. Between segments about Rogers, Tune re-created the effect of the Ziegfeld Follies, with its variety of acts and female chorus clad in dazzling costumes. Frank Rich, writing in the New York Times, did not know what to do with the show, which he called “the most disjointed musical of this or any other season.” He described Carradine as “beguiling” but simply did not understand combining Rogers’s life story with the Ziegfeld numbers. Rich found a musical about an entertainer who neither sang nor danced a strange idea, and Stone’s “book is longer on exposition than humor,” but the Ziegfeld-inspired numbers included “breathtaking” costumes and show Tune to be “a master of his particular art.” Musical highlights included “Willamania,” “Our Favorite Son,” and “Never Met a Man I Didn’t Like.”
African American singer, dancer, and comedian who began his career in minstrel shows and in blackface and later refused to make fun of his race. He formed a vaudeville act with George Walker, and the two starred together in three Broadway musicals: In Dahomey, Abyssinia, and Bandana Land (1907). Williams appeared in Ziegfeld Follies from 1910 to 1919 and was the first African American to appear alongside whites in a major Broadway production and the first African American to receive star billing in a white-oriented show.
The pop singer who was the first African American Miss America was a replacement Spider Woman/Aurora in Kiss of the Spider the Woman—The Musical in 1994 and played the Witch in the 2002 revival of Into the Woods.
(Robert Meredith Reiniger, 1902–1984.) His triumphal Broadway debut was as creator of music, book, and lyrics for The Music Man (1957). Two other musicals, The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1960) and Here’s Love (1963), followed, although neither achieved the popularity of The Music Man. Willson knew firsthand about bands and the Midwest, two central aspects of The Music Man, for he played flute and piccolo in John Philip Sousa’s band (and, later, the New York Philharmonic) and grew up in Mason City, Iowa. His music demonstrates an appealing blend of popular and sophisticated styles.
British author, composer, and lyricist whose most famous work, The Boy Friend, made a stage star of Julie Andrews. Wilson’s talents were in creating pastiches of earlier genres, such as 1920s musical comedies in The Boy Friend. He possessed a distinctive ability to create a sense of intimacy in an era when large-scale productions were increasingly becoming the norm.
Vaudeville actor, singer, and dancer whose comic antics and acrobatic abilities made him an audience favorite. He created the character of Jimmy Smith in No, No, Nanette (1925) and ended “I Want to Be Happy” with a back flip. His greatest fame was as Captain Andy Hawks in Show Boat (1927), a role he reprised on Broadway in 1932 and on film in 1936.
In 1911, the Shuberts turned the American Horse Exchange at Broadway and West 50th Street into a theater, the Winter Garden. Its famous runway that extended to the back of the spacious auditorium, the so-called Bridge of Thighs, was featured in many revues, including the Passing Show series, and by Al Jolson in his “My Mammy” pose. The runway was removed during renovations in the 1920s. Iconic shows to appear at the Winter Garden include West Side Story (1957), Follies (1971), Pacific Overtures (1976), and 42nd Street (1980). After extensive renovations, the Winter Garden was home to two long-running musicals in succession: Cats (1982–2000) and Mamma Mia! (2001–2013).
(25 June 1952, Imperial, 598 performances.) Music and lyrics by Harold Rome, book by Arthur Kober and Joshua Logan, directed by Logan. Based on Arthur Kober’s 1937 play Having a Wonderful Time, Wish You Were Here was a lavishly produced show about fun and romance at a Jewish summer camp. The set included an actual swimming pool and outdoor scenery, but problems with content caused the opening to be postponed several times. The elaborate set made out-of-town tryouts impossible, so there were previews in New York City. The critical response was devastating, but popular singer Eddie Fisher recorded the title song and turned it into a hit. This—and a good advance sale—gave the show some commercial appeal. The plot involved a romance between Teddy Stern (Patricia Marand) and Chuck Miller (Jack Cassidy) at Camp Karefree. Doubts arise about Teddy’s fidelity, but she clears her name. Rome’s score included the fine title song, the ballad “Where Did the Night Go?,” and some good comedy songs sung by Sidney Armus as Itchy Flexner, the camp’s social director.
(5 January 1975, Majestic, 1,672 performances.) Music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls, book by William F. Brown, direction and costumes by Geoffrey Holder, choreography and musical numbers staged by George Faison. An African American adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s famous fantasy The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wiz rode a vibrant pop score and memorable sense of style to a long run. The plot was closer to Baum’s original story than the famous MGM movie. Here, Dorothy was Stephanie Mills, a 15-year-old who Clive Barnes described in the New York Times as “having a really wonderful voice, unusually mature.” The Scarecrow (Hinton Battle), Tinman (Tiger Haynes), and Lion (Ted Ross) were part of an “admirable” cast, and “the singing throughout was first rate,” especially that of Mabel King as Evillene and Dee Dee Bridgewater as Glinda. Bridgewater won a Tony Award for her role and went on to a significant career as a jazz singer. The visual impact of the production was striking, with “vibrantly colored and wackily imaginative costumes by Geoffrey Holder.” The music was largely in rock, gospel, and soul styles. The one song that became famous outside of the production was the lively “Ease On down the Road.”
(20 January 1903, Majestic, 293 performances.) Music by Paul Tietjens and A. Baldwin Sloan, lyrics and book by L. Frank Baum. Long before the famous MGM musical, there was a successful Broadway musical with lyrics and book by the original story’s author. Baum changed the story substantially for this staged version, but Dorothy (Anna Laughlin) was still blown to Oz from her native Kansas, now with her cow. Fred Stone, the Scarecrow, and his vaudeville partner Dave Montgomery, the Tin Man, stole the show and launched their highly successful Broadway careers. The Cowardly Lion was relegated to a minor role. The scenery and other aspects of the production raised considerable comment as well, especially the cyclone. The score produced no hits, and the only songs that received commentary were interpolations. The unsigned review in the New York Times includes praise for the principal members of the cast. Anna Laughlin is “charmingly girlish and graceful,” singing “with pretty humor.” Stone and Montgomery raise considerable admiration, especially as dancers. As the Scarecrow, Stone managed “musical nonsense wherever he went.” Montgomery, despite his ungainly costume, was “clever and characteristic” when hoofing.
(Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, 1881–1975.) English comic novelist, lyricist, and librettist who, with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, created the legendary Princess Theatre musicals, which included Oh, Boy! (1917). Bolton and Wodehouse worked with George and Ira Gershwin on Oh, Kay! (1926) and with Cole Porter on the first script for Anything Goes (1934). He created the famous Jeeves and Wooster characters, which were the basis for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s By Jeeves (2001).
(17 November 2005, Marquis, 109 performances.) Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by David Zippel, book by Charlotte Jones, directed by Trevor Nunn. “Loosely based on the novel by Wilkie Collins,” The Woman in White is the tale of Anne Catherick (Angela Christian), the title character, who has a secret that will cause the downfall of Sir Percival Glyde (Ron Bohmer). The show’s protagonists are Marian Halcombe (Maria Friedman, a noted British actress in her Broadway debut), the art teacher Walter Hartright (Adam Brazier), and Marian’s half-sister Laura Fairlie (Jill Paice). In the musical, a love triangle exists between the three protagonists that does not exist in Collins’s novel. The manipulative Count Fosco (Michael Ball) dazzled the audience with his sociopathic “You Can Get Away with Anything.” The production was changed from its original London version, with many of the subtleties made obvious and a new, happier ending appended. The show did not fare well on Broadway, perhaps because of its nearly operatic music and Lloyd Webber’s sophisticated use of reprise or its source material, which was largely unknown to American audiences. The set consisted principally of video projections designed by William Dudley that simultaneously created a sense of mystery and grandeur alongside the plot’s tremendous intimacy. The score’s highlights include the soaring ballad “I Believe My Heart,” Laura’s emotive “If I Could Only Dream This World Away,” and Marian and Fosco’s tango “The Seduction.”
(29 May 1981, Palace, 770 performances.) Music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by Peter Stone, directed by Robert Moore. Based on the famous MGM movie starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, the musical Woman of the Year was conceived as a vehicle for Lauren Bacall. Bacall played Tess Harding, a famous television journalist, and her paramour was Sam Craig (Harry Guardino), a successful cartoonist. Bacall’s notices were luminous. Writing in the New York Times, Frank Rich rhapsodized about “her class . . . angular physique, her big, sensuous eyes and that snapdragon of a voice . . . she remains not only mesmerizing, but also completely fresh.” Rich was not nearly so sanguine about the remainder of the show. He called Kander’s score “tuneful,” Ebb’s lyrics “routine,” and Stone’s book not sufficiently funny and thought that the production lacked opulence. It is possible that Rich and other reviewers missed the show’s essential strengths because when Bacall left the production, it continued running with Raquel Welch in the starring role. The score included the song “The Grass Is Always Greener.”
(4 November 2010, Belasco, 69 performances.) Despite its stellar cast, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown failed to ignite with either critics or audiences. Based on the famous 1998 Pedro Almodóvar film of the same name, the musical concerns the romantic, often comic, and frequently manic escapades of a group of women living in Madrid in 1987. Its stars included Sherie Rene Scott as Pepa, Patti LuPone as Lucia, Laura Benanti as Candela, Brian Stokes Mitchell as Ivan, and Danny Burstein as the taxi driver. David Yazbek created the show’s Latin-tinged music and lyrics, and Jeffrey Lane crafted the book. Bartlett Sher directed the production, which featured impressive projections and a sparse set. Ben Brantley panned the show in the New York Times, claiming that “attention-deficit disorder, the plague of American schoolchildren, has now claimed one of Broadway’s own.”
(25 February 1953, Winter Garden, 559 performances.) Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, book by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, choreographed by Donald Saddler, staged by George Abbott. A vehicle for Rosalind Russell, Abbott and Fryer held an option for the star to appear in a musical version of the play My Sister Eileen by Fields and Chodorov, but the first musical team dragged its feet on the score, and Abbott convinced Bernstein, Comden, and Green to write the songs, which they did in six weeks. The creators brilliantly evoked the 1930s in this story of two sisters who leave Columbus, Ohio, to move to Greenwich Village, where they seek their fortunes. Their success is nebulous, but the many hysterical comic situations were adequate fodder for the inspired clowning of Russell and Edie Adams, who played her sister. Brooks Atkinson fawned over Adams, calling her “absolutely perfect,” but Russell was even better: “she makes the whole city wonderful.” He noted that the writers, composer, and choreographer “settled down joyfully to the creation of a beautifully organized fandango.” The score included a number of gems, among them “Christopher Street,” “Wrong Note Rag,” “Conversation Piece,” “Ohio,” “Conga!,” “Pass the Football,” “One Hundred Easy Ways,” “It’s Love,” and “A Little Bit in Love.” The 2003 revival, which sparked a renewed interest in the show, including a touring production, starred Donna Murphy.
Wood achieved tremendous fame as Ottilie in Sigmund Romberg’s Maytime and created the role of Sarah Millick in the original London production of Noel Coward’s Bitter Sweet. Her stunning looks and clear soprano voice made her a fine operetta heroine. Late in life, she played the Mother Abbess in the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music, but her singing had to be dubbed.
One of the most prolific drama critics for the New York Times during the 1920s, Woollcott was known for his caustic wit and florid writing style. He also wrote the “Shouts and Murmurs” column for the New Yorker magazine and numerous books, including one about Irving Berlin (The Story of Irving Berlin, 1925). He was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of writers that included Dorothy Parker, and was one of the most quoted writers of his generation.
Composer and lyricist whose work with George Forrest began in Los Angeles nightclubs before they wrote songs for 58 different films. On Broadway, their best-known shows featured adaptations of famous melodies by classical composers. These included Song of Norway (1944, Edvard Grieg), Gypsy Lady (1946, Victor Herbert), Kismet (1953, Alexander Borodin), and Anya (1964, Sergei Rachmaninoff). Their original musical Grand Hotel, which closed out of town during its tryout in 1958, finally arrived on Broadway in 1989, directed by Tommy Tune and with additional music by Maury Yeston.
Comic actor who appeared in numerous revues, including Ziegfeld Follies, Over the Top (1917), and, decades later, Laugh Town Laugh (1942). He led the cast in Rudolf Friml’s musical comedy Sometime (1918). Wynn was an important star of early radio and television and played Uncle Albert in the 1964 film Mary Poppins, delighting audiences with “I Love to Laugh,” a testimony to his long and illustrious career.