(Also known as Alex A. Aarons, 1891–1943.) Producer who, with Vinton Freedley, worked closely with George and Ira Gershwin and brought many of their shows to the stage, including Lady, Be Good! (1924), Oh, Kay! (1926), and Girl Crazy (1930). At the height of the producers’ success, they built the Alvin Theater, creating its name from the first letters of their first names (AL + VIN).
One of the most important directors and producers, “Mr. Abbott,” as he was called out of great respect, worked on more than 130 Broadway productions, from Jumbo in 1933 to reworking the book of Damn Yankees for the show’s 1994 revival. His nearly 107 years on the planet had a significant impact on the concept and development of the Broadway musical. He increased the pace of musical comedy during the 1930s and throughout his career worked to increase the integrated role of dance in a Broadway musical, working with legendary choreographers George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Bob Fosse on shows such as On Your Toes (1936), On the Town (1944), The Pajama Game (1954), and Damn Yankees (1955). Abbott insisted on creative control, often rewriting a book (with or without credit), and he ruthlessly cut dialogue, songs, and dances that slowed down the proceedings. His approach to the musical influenced noted directors Robbins, Fosse, and Hal Prince.
(20 February 1906, Majestic, 31 performances.) Music by Will Marion Cook and Bert Williams, lyrics and book by J. A. Shipp and Alex Rogers. The second African American show that the comic team of Bert Williams and George Walker brought to Broadway, following In Dahomey (1903). In Abyssinia, they travel to the African country by that name, where they encounter idealized Africans who speak the King’s English. These images were far from the minstrelsy figures that Williams and Walker typically portrayed. The review in the New York Times found much to admire: “The piece is far in advance of their last vehicle . . . in costumes, scenery, and effects, while the work of the singers, especially in the choruses, surpasses all their previous efforts.” The critic reports that the large audience was very appreciative. Scenic effects, including a live waterfall and re-creation of an African marketplace, were lavish, and the review foretold a long run. This did not materialize, however, as long-running African American musicals on Broadway were still a few decades away.
(29 October 1977, Majestic, 233 performances.) Music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by George Furth, directed by Martin Scorcese. Conceived as a vehicle for Liza Minnelli, The Act offered what appeared to be a dazzling live performance, but the play became consumed by controversy when the press learned that Minnelli had prerecorded some of the songs so that she could simply mouth them in performance. She played Michelle Craig, a film star whose career collapses after her marriage disintegrates but who resurrects herself as a nightclub performer in Las Vegas. George Furth’s book was slight, but the creators knew that the audience came to hear Minnelli. Although Martin Scorcese carried director credit, Gower Champion replaced him before opening night. Richard Eder panned the book in the New York Times but said of the show, “It is an act, and a splendid one.” He called Minnelli’s voice a “force” and added that her “strength is her improbability. In full voice she is a great bell in an insecure belfry.”
(Born Elizabeth Edith Enke, also known as Edie Adams, 1927–2008.) Comic actress and singer who created the roles of Eileen Sherwood in Wonderful Town (1953), appearing opposite Rosalind Russell and Daisy Mae in Li’l Abner (1956), for which she won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Lyricist and librettist whose credits include Bye Bye Birdie (1960); It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman!, a failure from 1966; Applause (1970); Bring Back Birdie (1981), an ill-fated sequel to Bye Bye Birdie; and Ain’t Broadway Grand (1993), a show based on the life of producer Michael Todd that had a short run. Adams’s Broadway shows evoke earlier times in 20th-century American history.
(8 April 2010, Lunt-Fontanne, 722 performances.) One could not help but assume that this popular culture icon would one day appear as a Broadway musical. Charles Addams drew his first cartoon of this ghoulish family for the New Yorker in 1938, and the characters became more recognizable through the 1960s television show and two Hollywood films. The family members were ready made for Broadway treatment, where they could sing and dance about their theatrical, unusual qualities. The show did not impress critics (the New York Times called it “genuinely ghastly”), but the franchise’s popularity allowed for a nearly two-year run and national tour. The music starred two Broadway icons: Nathan Lane as the father, Gomez Addams, and Bebe Neuwirth as his wife, Morticia. The credited directors and designers were Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch with Broadway veteran Jerry Zaks doing considerable show doctoring. The book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice told a well-worn story: the Addamses try to make themselves appear more conventional for the benefit of the family of their daughter Wednesday’s fiancé (think of La Cage aux Folles). The ploy fails, of course, but in the end, we discover that everyone is similar under the skin. Andrew Lippa wrote the music and lyrics, and Sergio Trujillo provided the choreography.
Composer, lyricist, and producer who, with Jerry Ross, wrote The Pajama Game (1954) and Damn Yankees (1955). He was producer for a handful of ill-fated shows, including Richard Rodgers’s Rex (1972), and wrote music and lyrics for Kwamina (1961), a show that pleaded for racial tolerance in South Africa and that starred his then-wife Sally Ann Howes.
Shows involving African Americans as either creators or performers or concerning experiences of African Americans have been a mainstay of the Broadway musical throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. Clorindy, the Origin of the Cakewalk (1898), In Dahomey (1903), and Abyssinia (1906) were vehicles for the comic team of Bert Williams and George Walker and introduced African American elements with increasing dignity to white audiences. Will Marion Cook provided music for the productions. Shuffle Along (1921), developed from a vaudeville sketch, was extremely popular, and its score with music by Eubie Blake and lyrics by Noble Sissle included “I’m Just Wild about Harry.” African American performers, including Josephine Baker, Adelaide Hall, Lena Horne, and Ethel Waters, also appeared in revues, some of which, such as Blackbirds of 1928 and others in the series, featured all–African American casts. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Show Boat (1927) presented a racially integrated cast and had subplots that concerned African American experiences. George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (1935) also dealt with experiences of African Americans and featured an almost exclusively African American cast, though its creators were white. Another white-conceived show involving African Americans was Cabin in the Sky (1940, music by Vernon Duke), and Lost in the Stars (1949, music by Kurt Weill) concerned South African apartheid.
More recent book musicals with African American dimensions include Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk (1996), Ragtime (1998), Marie Christine (1999), and Caroline, or Change (2004). Jukebox musicals showcasing music and performances by African Americans such as Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1978, featuring the music of Thomas “Fats” Waller) and Jelly’s Last Jam (1992, featuring the music of Jelly Roll Morton) have been extremely successful. All-black revivals of several musicals have also appeared on Broadway, including Guys and Dolls in 1976, and the cast of the long-running Hello, Dolly! became African American in 1967.
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Composer, lyricist, and librettist whose collaborations with composer Stephen Flaherty include Once on This Island (1990), My Favorite Year (1972), Ragtime (1998), Seussical (2000), new songs for Chita Rivera: A Singer’s Life (2005), and Rockey (2014). Flaherty and Ahrens’s songs possess a strong sense of dramatic purpose that allows them to be fully integrated into the plot as well as exist as independent entities outside of their original larger contexts.
(23 March 2000, Palace, 1,852 performances.) Music by Elton John; lyrics by Tim Rice; book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang; directed by Falls; choreography by Wayne Cilento. Hyperion Theatricals, a division of Disney Theatrical Productions, brought the story of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera to Broadway but with none of its famous score. For the music and lyrics, they turned to pop music giants, helping Disney to strike commercial gold with a show that took a critical drubbing. The new version kept the love triangle of Aida, Amneris, and Rademes and encased it with a frame story set in a present-day Egyptian museum gallery. Heather Headley, as the title character, was one of the few things New York Times reviewer Ben Brantley liked about the show. He wrote that she had “It—that ineffable, sensual glow.” When she sings, according to the critic, “the show springs into vital life, only to sag into its torpor again when she leaves the stage.” Brantley’s major complaint is the show’s lack of consistency of tone, careening between campiness and tragedy. As has often been the case in the era of the megamusical, however, the sophisticated Broadway critic did not understand the show. The public loved Tim Rice’s lyrics and Elton John’s score, which Brantley felt was “too similar throughout.” Brantley also disliked the book, but its very blandness guaranteed a pleasing result for the average audience member. Brantley compared the set to Las Vegas, but people love such glitz. (One of the show’s visual highlights was a vertical swimming pool on the stage’s back wall.) Aida was a commercial triumph that played for more than four years, a critic-proof show designed for such a distinction.
(9 May 1978, Longacre, 1,604 performances.) Based primarily on music and lyrics by Fats Waller, music supervision by pianist Luther Henderson. A highly successful revue of tunes that Fats Waller either wrote or performed. Conceived by Murray Horowitz and Richard Malty Jr., Ain’t Misbehavin’ achieved its long run and wide appeal on the strength of Waller’s appealing songs and a cast of energetic performers, including pianist Luther Henderson, who also did the arrangements and orchestrations. In his review in the New York Times, Richard Eder singled out cast members Nell Carter, Armelia McQueen, and Ken Page for special praise. The songs appeared either as independent songs or in skits. The functional set consisted of Henderson and his moving piano. Eder found the show to be “a whole cluster of marvels” and “heart-stopping,” a show that “no self-respecting audience could let . . . go on without interrupting it continuously.”
(20 March 2014, New Amsterdam, 462 performances as of 26 April 2015.) Disney brought another of its successful animated films to Broadway in a spectacular, high-spirited, musical comedy fashion. Like the 1992 film, the live musical version of Aladdin tells the tale of a poor young man (Aladdin, played by Adam Jacobs) who discovers a genie in a lamp (James Monroe Iglehart) and ends up marrying the princess he loves (Princess Jasmine, played by Courtney Reed) and defeating the Sultan’s evil Grand Vizier, Jafar (Jonathan Freeman). The score features, in addition to memorable songs from the film such as “A Whole New World,” three songs by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, and Tim Rice that were not used in the film, including Aladdin’s “Proud of Your Boy,” and four new ones by Menken and the musical’s book writer Chad Beguelin, notably Jasmine’s “These Palace Walls” and the ensemble number “Somebody’s Got Your Back.” The musical received mostly warm reviews, and New York Times critic Charles Isherwood was especially dazzled by Gregg Barnes’s costumes, which flaunted “enough baubles, bangles and beading to keep a whole season of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ contestants in runway attire.”
(Born Edward Albert Heimberger, 1906–2005.) Although perhaps best known as the star of the 1960s sitcom Green Acres, Albert possessed a strong high baritone voice (as heard in the theme song for Green Acres). He appeared in The Boys from Syracuse (1938), where his songs included “This Can’t Be Love” and “Dear Old Syracuse,” and Miss Liberty (1949), introducing the Irving Berlin standard “Let’s Take an Old-Fashioned Walk.”
With a career rooted in vaudeville, radio, and film, Alda was also active on Broadway and appeared in two musicals. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1951 for his portrayal of Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls and played Al Manhaim in What Makes Sammy Run? (1964).
(Born Jason Scott Greenspan, 1959–.) Actor known for his work on television, film, and stage who won the 1989 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. He also appeared in Merrily We Roll Along (1981) and The Rink (1984). He is best known for playing George Constanza on the television series Seinfeld.
(24 March 2005, Palace, 213 performances.) Book by Joe DiPietro. A jukebox musical featuring the songs of Elvis Presley, the show takes place during a 24-hour period in the summer of 1995 in a “small, you-never-heard-of-it town somewhere in the Midwest.”
(10 October 1947, Majestic, 315 performances.) Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II, choreographed and directed by Agnes de Mille, produced by Lawrence Langner and Theresa Helburn. Although it was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first show with an original book (by Hammerstein) and included a number of innovative features, Allegro was one of the team’s least successful works. The show broke ground as the first “concept” musical (even before the idea had been described) but never lived up to expectations or its record advance ticket sales as the “next” Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Hammerstein’s original story, partially based on his own experiences, chronicled the life of physician Joseph Taylor Jr. (John Battles) from birth through middle age. (Hammerstein had originally conceived a cradle-to-grave story.) The show’s “concept” included minimal sets, rear-screen projections, a Greek chorus, and songs wrapped in dialogue (patterned after “If I Loved You” from Carousel). Agnes de Mille, as one of the first director-choreographers, helped to pave the way for Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins but struggled with the enormous cast of Allegro. The New York critics were mixed, but Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times appreciated the show: “Before the mood breaks after the first act it is full of a kind of unexploited glory.” He proclaimed that the show comes close to “the final splendor of a perfect work of art.” Dance critics applauded de Mille’s choreography. The score included “So Far” and “The Gentleman Is a Dope.” Allegro has seldom been revived, and Hammerstein was reworking the play for television at the time of his death.
Comedian who began his career in vaudeville before appearing on Broadway in revues, including The Passing Show of 1922, The Little Show (1929), and Three’s a Crowd (1930), and achieving tremendous fame as a radio humorist.
Composer, lyricist, and performer whose Broadway musical Legs Diamond (1988) was a colossal flop but whose life and songs (including “I Honestly Love You” and “Don’t Cry Out Loud”) formed the basis for The Boy from Oz (1998, Sydney; 2003, New York), in which Hugh Jackman made his Broadway debut.
(Born Eleanor Geisman, 1917–2006.) Singing actress on the stage and screen whose Broadway credits include multiple roles in the revue Sing Out the News (1938), June in Very Warm for May (1939, music by Jerome Kern), Dancing Girl in Panama Hattie (1940), and Minerva in Best Foot Forward (1941).
(Robert Alton Hart, 1897–1957.) A dancer and choreographer who was one of the first to use the term “choreographer” as opposed to “dance director.” He broke up the traditional chorus line, replacing it and filling the stage with small groups of people doing different things. Credits include Anything Goes (1934), Leave It to Me! (1938), Panama Hattie (1940), Pal Joey (1940), and By Jupiter (1942). In addition to his work on Broadway, Alton choreographed several films, including many of MGM’s classic movie musicals of the 1940s.
(20 April 2010, St. James, 422 performances.) Broadway has adopted a number of popular musical styles since the late 1960s, but the genre largely avoided punk until American Idiot, filled with tunes from the band Green Day’s albums American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. The show reveled in the unfocused energy of youth finding their way in uncertain times, around 2004. The identity of the title character was President George W. Bush, whose voice declares at the start of the show that people are either with the government or terrorists. The young people reacted to such an ultimatum by looking for themselves in sex, drugs, and rock music, with a hefty portion of youthful rage. The result was invigorating, engrossing, and loud, brought to life by director Michael Mayer, choreographer Steven Hoggett, and a lively cast working on a memorable set by Christine Jones. The opening number, sharing the show’s title, began what the New York Times called “a glorious 20-minute temper tantrum,” and much of the remainder of the music, with lyrics by Green Day’s front man Billie Joe Armstrong, carried the visceral energy of youthful rebellion. Armstrong and Mayer also wrote the show’s book. The cast included John Gallagher Jr., Stark Sands, Michael Esper, Mary Faber, and Rebecca Naomi Jones, among others.
(12 April 2015, Palace, 17 performances as of 26 April 2015.) Based on the much-loved film from 1951, one might ask why it has taken so long for the property to become a Broadway show, especially at a time when so many musicals are based on movies. Directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, a British-born ballet luminary, An American in Paris is a major dance show. The book by Craig Lucas fleshes out Alan Jay Lerner’s thin screenplay a bit, and Bob Crowley, designer of both the set and costumes, brings postwar Paris to glorious life. Rob Fisher adapted about a dozen of George Gershwin’s tunes into the show’s score, including several that were not in the film. Playing the familiar roles brought to life in the film by Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, ballet dancers Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope demonstrate their singing and acting abilities in addition to offering thrilling dance sequences. The New York Times provided a rave review, noting that the show “weds music and movement, song and story with such exhilarating brio that you may find your own feet fidgeting under your seat before it’s over.”
(10 February 1931, Broadhurst, 135 performances.) Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, book by Herbert Fields. Although not one of Rodgers and Hart’s best shows, America’s Sweetheart managed to have a decent run. The plot is a satire of Hollywood that follows a leading man and woman who are in love and are trying to make the transition from silent films to talkies. Geraldine March (Harriette Lake, known as Ann Sothern in Hollywood) reveals a lisp and cannot speak on film, while Michael Perry (Jack Whiting) finds success with sound. He shows his continuing loyalty to Geraldine by escorting her to his latest premiere. Fields’s book took a satirical look at Hollywood, but reviewer Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times found problems, noting that the plot compared unfavorably to Once in a Lifetime by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, also a Hollywood satire. He was most critical of the second act, which “falls pretty well to pieces.” Atkinson felt that Rodgers and Hart “have acquitted themselves most creditably. There is a rush about the music and a mocking touch in the lyrics.”
Dancer and society emcee who directed and staged sumptuous productions between the 1910s and 1950s, including the Greenwich Village Follies (1919–1924) and Dearest Enemy (1925).
Author, playwright, and librettist who worked with Kurt Weill on Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Lost in the Stars (1949). He addressed contemporary sociopolitical issues in his libretti and lyrics, namely, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his cabinet in Knickerbocker Holiday and South African apartheid in Lost in the Stars.
(Born Julia Wells, 1935–.) Her four-octave range and crystalline sound, along with her classic beauty and impeccable sense of timing, made her one of the leading musical theater actresses of all time. Born in England, she made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend (1954). Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe were among the many captivated by her talents, and she starred in two of their most famous shows, My Fair Lady (1956, as Eliza Doolittle) and Camelot (1960, as Guenevere). She was also popular in Hollywood, starring in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s television musical Cinderella, Mary Poppins, and the film version of The Sound of Music. She returned to Broadway in 1993 in the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together and in 1996 reprised the title role she created in the film Victor/Victoria. Her precise intonation and innate ability to shape a musical line have garnered her immense respect.
(23 October 1928, 44th Street, 191 performances.) Music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, produced by Sam H. Harris. The monument to the Marx Brothers and their inspired clowning is most famous from its 1930 film version. Kaufman and Ryskind knew that their material would be subjected to the star family’s improvisatory spirit and that songs would be of secondary importance. As Brooks Atkinson reported in the New York Times, “Whatever the plot or background might be these scurrilous mimes remain very much themselves.” One famous song from the show was “Hooray for Captain Spalding,” which remained associated with Groucho Marx throughout his career.
(21 April 1977, Alvin, 2,377 performances.) Music by Charles Strouse, lyrics and direction by Martin Charnin, book by Thomas Meehan, choreography by Peter Gennaro. Based on the comic strip Little Orphan Annie, Annie took audiences on a nostalgic trip back to 1933, when a little orphan goes all the way to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s cabinet, where she helps launch the New Deal. Annie, played by Andrea McArdle, is just another unfortunate orphan in the care of Miss Hannigan (Dorothy Loudon), who detests her charges. Annie remains certain that her parents are alive and searching for her; she plots an escape (when she meets her dog Sandy) but is unsuccessful. She avoids Miss Hannigan’s reprisal because of a visit from Grace Farrell (Sandy Faison), secretary to billionaire Oliver Warbucks (Reid Shelton). Warbucks wants an orphan with whom to share Christmas, and Farrell chooses Annie. She completely wins Warbucks over, and he decides to adopt her. Annie, however, is unwilling as long as there is hope that her parents survive. Warbucks launches a campaign to find them, causing Miss Hannigan’s shifty brother and his girlfriend to pose as her parents to collect the reward. With the help of President Roosevelt and J. Edgar Hoover of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Warbucks discovers that Annie’s parents have died, so the imposters fail, and Warbucks adopts Annie.
It is a sentimental story that involves cute little girls, a dog, and Christmas—enough to send a cynic running for cover—but the creators made it work with many light scenes, laughs, and a dash of social commentary. The seven orphans sang and danced through several numbers and offered other enjoyable moments. Of the adults, Dorothy Loudon was memorable as the leering, boozing Miss Hannigan, and Reid Shelton was a steady and appealing Warbucks. Writing in the New York Times, Clive Barnes admitted that he usually shares W. C. Fields’s attitude about children and dogs onstage, but he described Annie as “whimsically charming” and “an intensely likable musical.” He comments on the many “cute but appealing references to the period” in the book and describes the music as “tuneful and supportive . . . neither unduly inventive nor memorable, but . . . distinctly pleasing.” Barnes disliked only Charnin’s lyrics, which he found “bland.”
Barnes was not overwhelmed by Charles Strouse’s score, but the song “Tomorrow” is one of the biggest hits to emanate from Broadway in the last three decades. There were other songs that assisted greatly with characterization, including Annie’s “Maybe,” the orphans’ “The Hard-Knock Life,” and Miss Hannigan’s “Little Girls.” The reprise of “Tomorrow” with Roosevelt’s cabinet could have been one of the campier moments in Broadway history but instead is genial and funny, an example of the show’s irresistible spirit that kept the Alvin Theater filled for more than five years. An off-Broadway sequel, Annie Warbucks, appeared in 1993. Revivals made it to Broadway in 1997 and 2012.
(16 May 1946, Imperial, 1,147 performances.) Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, directed by Joshua Logan, produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Conceived as a vehicle for Ethel Merman, Annie Get Your Gun proved a great success in its own right and remained in the professional repertory for decades without its famed star. Producers Rodgers and Hammerstein asked Jerome Kern to write the score, but the composer’s unexpected death kept this plan from materializing. Instead, Irving Berlin came in and wrote his finest dramatic score. Herbert and Dorothy Fields penned an effective book with interesting characterization and situations based on the life of Annie Oakley, the famous sharpshooter who became a star in Buffalo Bill Cody’s “Wild West Show.” She falls in love with marksman Frank Butler (Ray Middleton), but he is unable to look past her superior shooting ability. Chief Sitting Bull (Harry Bellaver), also in the “Wild West Show” and a friend of Annie’s, convinces her that she will have to lose a shooting contest with Frank to win his heart. She does, and the story ends happily.
Critics for the most part raved about Annie Get Your Gun, citing the fabulous score (with many true hits), the carefully crafted book, Merman’s strong presence, a good supporting cast, and fine production values. Writing for the New York Times, Lewis Nichols admitted most of these things (except he disliked the book), but much of the show he damned with faint praise. He called it a “good professional Broadway musical” with a “pleasant score” that provides an “agreeable evening on the town.” Nichols admits that Annie Get Your Gun will run for “many months” with “Ethel Merman to roll her eyes and to shout down the rafters.”
Berlin was worried when he decided to write the score that he could fulfill what he saw as new expectations in making songs fit a plot. This was after Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and Carousel. Berlin need not have worried. Annie Get Your Gun is an old-fashioned musical comedy but one whose songs meet the dramatic needs of the libretto. This is apparent in “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly,” where we meet an innocent and uneducated Annie trying to provide for her siblings with her shooting ability. Another song that fits its dramatic needs is “I’m an Indian Too,” although this song is problematic today because of its negative Native American stereotypes. The songs between Annie and Frank work extremely well, with “Anything You Can Do” being the humorous highlight. “There’s No Business Like Show Business” has become an anthem for the entire entertainment industry, yet another of Berlin’s songs to become a ubiquitous part of popular culture.
(4 April 1964, Majestic, nine performances.) Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book and staging by Arthur Laurents, choreography by Herbert Ross. An early failure for Sondheim, Laurents’s original story involved a town with little industry that fabricates a miracle of water pouring from a rock. Inmates from the local asylum, seeking a cure, discover the ruse, showing how one can learn from madness. Howard Taubman in the New York Times found that “Laurents’s book lacks the fantasy that would make the idea work.” He praised Ross’s choreography and the cast, which included Angela Lansbury and Lee Remick, and noted that Sondheim wrote “several pleasing songs but not enough of them to give the musical wings.”
(21 November 1934, Alvin, 420 performances.) Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse and revised by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, staged by Lindsay, dances and ensembles arranged by Robert Alton, produced by Vincent Freedley. One of the most memorable musical comedies of the 1930s with Cole Porter’s overall best score before Kiss Me, Kate and a famous performance by Ethel Merman, Anything Goes suffered a difficult production history. Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse wrote a book about a shipwreck, but then the Morro Castle burned off Asbury Park, killing 125 people and making their book unusable. Bolton and Wodehouse, meanwhile, had moved on to another show. Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse then came together, launching a hugely successful joint writing career that later included Life with Father. They revised the book around existing songs, sets, and principals, producing a show full of smart comedy, good characters, and some dreadful puns. Public Enemy No. 13 (Victor Moore), dressed as a minister, has boarded the ship and provides some hilarious clowning. Joining him are a famous ex-evangelist and current bar hostess, Reno Sweeney (Ethel Merman); a society girl named Hope Harcourt (Bettina Hall), who is engaged to an English nobleman (Leslie Barrie) whom Reno Sweeney ends up marrying; and the stowaway Billy Crocker (William Gaxton), who loves Hope. All ends happily for these couples, and Public Enemy No. 13 at the end of the show has been removed from the “Most Wanted” list because he has been classified as harmless.
A major contributor to the show’s success was Donald Oenslager’s set, which presented the ship on three different levels, allowing, among other things, ample room for chorus girls in bathing suits to dance. Porter’s score encompassed a number of hits, such as the jaunty title number, the revival anthem “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” the Latin-tinged “All through the Night,” the ballad “I Get a Kick Out of You,” and “You’re the Top,” a truly wonderful list song. Brooks Atkinson raved about the show in the New York Times. He praised all of the creators for producing “a show . . . off the top shelf of the pantry cupboard” with material so well suited to the performers that the cast seems to have produced it themselves. Victor Moore is “tremendously funny,” and Ethel Merman sings with “swaggering authority.” William Gaxton goes through many disguises, “fairly dances with high spirits,” and forms a wonderful duet with Merman in “You’re the Top,” which is “one of the most congenial songs” that Porter has ever written. He also appreciates Bettina Hall, the fine soprano who sang “All through the Night,” as well as the chorus, the costumes, and the sets.
(30 March 1970, Palace, 896 performances.) Music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams, book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Based on the film All about Eve, Applause was a vehicle for Lauren Bacall. She plays Margo Channing, a star who helps a young actress, Eve Harrington (Penny Fuller). Eve cleverly works her way into most facets of Margo’s life and cozies up to her friends. She becomes Margo’s understudy and eventually takes away her lead role. Margo retires and marries her director, Bill Sampson (Len Cariou). The book by Comden and Green was cynical and effective, including many of what Clive Barnes called in the New York Times “bitchily inspired show-biz wisecracks” and helping to make the overall effect “bright, witty, direct and nicely punchy.” They gave Lauren Bacall a rich role. Barnes terms her “a sensation” who “sings with all the misty beauty of an on-tune foghorn” and carries herself like an experienced star. Bacall’s rival, Penny Fuller, projected the right level of ambition. Barnes finds the main problem to be Strouse’s music, which is simple and not adequately interesting. The one song from Applause that reached a level of popularity was the title tune, but another memorable moment was the musical scene surrounding “But Alive,” when Margo Channing goes to a gay bar to find some solace.
(18 October 1966, Shubert, 463 performances.) Music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, book by Harnick and Bock with additional material by Jerome Coopersmith. An unusual evening of three short musicals based on short stories, The Apple Tree ran for almost 14 months. The source for the first half was Mark Twain’s “The Diary of Adam and Eve,” with Alan Alda and Barbara Harris in the title roles and Larry Blyden as the snake. The second half included the other two shorts, the first based on Frank R. Stockton’s “The Lady and the Tiger” and the second on Jules Feiffer’s “Passionella.” Most critics preferred the first half, with Alda playing a nervous husband who must make a living and Harris a housewife who tries to make their lives more interesting. A revival starring Kristin Chenoweth and Brian d’Arcy James opened in December 2006.
(Born Eunice Quedens, 1908–1990.) Comic actress known primarily for her screen roles who made her Broadway debut in Ziegfeld Follies of 1934. She also appeared in the 1936 edition of the Follies and other revues. She played Winnie Spofford in the musical comedy Very Warm for May (1939) and Maggie Watson in Let’s Face It! (1941).
(Born Hyman Arluck, 1905–1986.) Arlen began his Broadway career as a rehearsal pianist and collaborated with lyricist Ted Koehler on songs such as “Stormy Weather” and “I’ve Got a Right to Sing the Blues,” which were sometimes used as interpolations in revues. His first Broadway show, with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg, was Life Begins at 8:40 (1934). After time in Hollywood writing songs for movie musicals, including “Over the Rainbow” for The Wizard of Oz (1939), he returned to Broadway, where his work included House of Flowers (1954), for which he wrote the music and collaborated with Truman Capote on the lyrics, and the Lena Horne vehicle Jamaica (1957). He is especially remembered for his sophisticated melodies and range of evocative musical styles.
Innovative scenic designer who won Tony Awards for the musicals Cabaret (1966), Zorbá (1968), Company (1970), Follies (1971), and Pacific Overtures (1976). He designed sets for many shows from the 1930s through the 1970s, including Cabin in the Sky (1940), Love Life (1948), Do Re Mi (1960), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), and A Little Night Music (1973).
(Born Bernice Frankel, also known as Bea Arthur, 1922–2009.) The versatile comic actress with a distinctive low range created the roles of Yente the matchmaker in Fiddler on the Roof (1964) and Vera Charles in Mame (1966). She won a Tony Award for Mame, in which she sang “The Man in the Moon Is a Lady” and, with Angela Lansbury, “Bosom Buddies.” She is also known for television work, including lead roles in Maude and The Golden Girls.
Lyricist, librettist, playwright, and director whose greatest work lies in fantasy-based moralities on which he collaborated with composer Alan Menken, including Little Shop of Horrors (1982). With Menken as composer, Ashman wrote lyrics for three Disney films that were made into Broadway musicals: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film, 1994 musical), The Little Mermaid (1989 film, 2008 musical) and Aladdin (1992 film, 2014 musical). Ashman’s lyrics blend the fantastic elements of the stories with contemporary reality.
(30 September 1933, Music Box, 400 performances.) Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Moss Hart, staged and lighted by Hassard Short, produced by Sam H. Harris. Produced in the midst of the Great Depression, As Thousands Cheer was a brilliant success that ran nearly a year. The stars included Marilyn Miller, Clifton Webb, Helen Broderick, and Ethel Waters. Hart’s assorted and inspired skits included President and Mrs. Herbert Hoover in their last bitter days in office, John D. Rockefeller Jr. trying to give his father Radio City Music Hall for his 94th birthday, Noel Coward causing problems for a hotel staff, and an African American woman (Waters) lamenting her husband’s lynching. The introduction to each skit was a projected newspaper headline. Brooks Atkinson, writing in the New York Times, noted that “Mr. Hart has never turned his wit with such economical precision.” Berlin’s score was one of his finest and featured the songs “Easter Parade,” “Heat Wave,” Not for All the Rice in China,” and “Supper Time,” the latter serving as Ethel Waters’s lament.
(8 April 1990, Broadhurst, 377 performances.) Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart, directed by Trevor Nunn, choreography by Gillian Lynne. Based on David Garnett’s 1955 novella, Aspects of Love, which opened in London in 1989, was a show about four bed-hopping Europeans in the years following World War II. A middle-aged English playboy (Kevin Colson) and his nephew (Michael Ball, who created the role in London) cavort variously with a French actress (Ann Crumb), her daughter (Danielle Du Clos), and an Italian artist (Kathleen Rowe McAllen). The couplings are both straight and lesbian, but Frank Rich noted in the New York Times that “what neither Mr. Lloyd Webber nor his collaborators can provide is a semblance of the humanity that is also, to some, an aspect of love.” He finds a streak of misogyny in Lloyd Webber’s shows and sees it quite on display in Aspects of Love. The show is sung throughout, with the most recognizable song emerging from the score being “Love Changes Everything.” As is his wont, Lloyd Webber reprised the tunes regularly, causing one reviewer to count the repetitions.
(22 April 2004, Studio 54, 101 performances.) Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by John Weidman. Although it first appeared at Playwrights Horizons in 1990, Assassins did not play on Broadway until 2004. A production was scheduled for the fall of 2001 but was canceled after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Incorporating aspects of both the revue and the concept musical, the show tells the tales of people who have attempted, both successfully and unsuccessfully, to assassinate American presidents. Each assassin’s story is told through song and spoken dialogue. The show gravitates toward “Another National Anthem,” in which the assassins collectively assert their identity as the outsiders of American society. The rage of the assassins consumes the folksy Balladeer (Neil Patrick Harris), who had been helping tell their stories. He is reborn in the final scene as Lee Harvey Oswald, as the assassins surround him, encouraging him to fire on John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s motorcade and bringing meaning to their collective identity. The various assassins’ tales are set to music appropriate of their eras, such as the vapid 1970s-style ballad “Unworthy of Your Love,” sung by John Hinckley to Jodie Foster and Squeaky Fromme to Charles Manson. Other songs join the characters together across time and space—a notable example being “Gun Song,” a bubbly waltz with lyrics about the power of a gun to change the world, and “Everybody’s Got the Right,” the revue-like number that opens and closes the show. Michael Cerveris won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of John Wilkes Booth, and the production won several other Tonys, including Best Revival of a Musical.
(Born Adele Austerlitz, 1896?–1981.) After establishing herself as a significant star with her brother Fred Astaire, Adele retired from the stage to marry Lord Charles Cavendish after the successful run of The Bandwagon (1931).
(Born Frederick Austerlitz, 1899–1987.) The legendary dancer began his Broadway career with his sister Adele Astaire. The team starred in revues, including Over the Top (1917) and The Passing Show of 1918, and musical comedies, such as Lady, Be Good! (1924) and Funny Face (1927). Astaire’s nimble and virtuosic dancing and silky vocal style made him one of the greatest stage and screen actors of the 20th century. After his sister left the stage in the early 1930s, he became a dancing-singing star of film musicals, partnering most famously with Ginger Rogers.
(Also known as J. Brooks Atkinson, 1894–1984.) Theater critic for the New York Times from 1925 to 1960. Atkinson was known for his commitment to theatrical innovations and was a strong advocate of off-Broadway during the 1950s. In 1960, the year he retired, the Mansfield Theatre at 256 West 47th Street was renamed the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
Staff lyricist and librettist for the Shuberts who contributed to their revues, including various editions of The Passing Show, and musical comedies, including several starring Al Jolson (The Honeymoon Express [1913], Sinbad [1918], and Bombo [1921]). He also worked on adaptations of Central European operettas for Broadway, such as The Blue Paradise (1915). Among his musical collaborators were composers Harry Carroll and Sigmund Romberg.
Actor who created the role of Sebastian Baye, Broadway’s first openly gay character, in Coco (1969) and received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance. Noted for his comic abilities and nimble physique, other musical roles include the Duke in Big River (1985), Irving S. Irving in City of Angels (1989), and Professor Abronsius in Dance of the Vampires (2002). He is also known for his nonmusical roles and his work on television, including the series Benson (Clayton) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Odo).
(31 July 2003, Golden, 2,534 performances.) Music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty. The winner of the 2003 Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Score, Avenue Q is a witty, entertaining musical geared toward urbanites in their 20s and 30s who grew up with Sesame Street. The combination of puppets and humans address themes such as racism, homosexuality, and social responsibility. The appealing score evokes the song styles of Sesame Street, albeit with adult-oriented lyrics. Songs such as “What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?,” “It Sucks to Be Me,” “If You Were Gay,” “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” “The Internet Is for Porn,” and “Schadenfreude” have easily memorable tunes and lyrics and capture the overall spirit of the show.
(Also known as Robert Avian.) Choreographer, producer , director, and performer who won Tony Awards for Best Choreography for A Chorus Line (1975) and Ballroom (1978). He also played the Grand Duke Alexandrovitch in Coco (1969), produced Dreamgirls (1981), conceived the musical staging for Miss Saigon (1991) and Sunset Boulevard (1994), and directed the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line.