Wednesday, January 31, 2007
1/31 In Musical Theater History
Cole Porter is on the cover of Time magazine today in 1949, celebrating the opening of Out Of This World. Lyricist Adolph Green and Actress Phyllis Newman are married on this day in 1960. British producer Charles B. Cochran passes away this day in 1951. Opening at the Longacre Theater this day in...
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Tuesday, January 30, 2007
1/30 In Musical Theater History
Fed up with writing for amateur shows, Richard Rodgers tells his parents today in 1925 that he is thinking of leaving music to accept an offer to sell baby clothes given to him by a friend. The Shubert-produced Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 (115p) opens today at the Winter Garden Theater. With music by...
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Monday, January 29, 2007
1/29 In Musical Theater History
On this day in 1727 John Gay’s The Beggar's Opera (62p) opens in London. The Beggar's Opera has had an influence on all later British stage comedies, and on nineteenth-century British comic opera (notably Gilbert and Sullivan); it is above all the ancestor of the modern musical. Gay uses the...
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Sunday, January 28, 2007
1/28 In Musical Theater History
Today in 1908 J. Lucifer Mephisto tempts a sculptor to be unfaithful in The Soul Kiss. Produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, this musical comedy stars Ralph Herz, Adeline Genee, and Cecil Lean. Harry B. Smith provides the book and Maurice Levi the music. Audiences will be seduced for more than 15 weeks....
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Saturday, January 27, 2007
1/27 In Musical Theater History
Maid Marian (45p), the Reginald De Koven/Harry B. Smith sequel to their 1891 operetta Robin Hood, opens at the Garden Theater today in 1902. Chauncey Olcott’s The Isle O’Dreams (32p) opens at the Grand Opera House today in 1913. As with most of Olcott’s pieces, the work is more play than musical but...
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Friday, January 26, 2007
1/26 In Musical Theater History
Leonard Bernstein performs his overture to Candide with the New York Philharmonic for the first time this day in 1957. It will become Bernstein’s most popular concert work and helps to keep the memory of the show alive. Ole Olson of the comedy team Olson and Johnson passes away this day in 1963....
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Thursday, January 25, 2007
1/25 In Musical Theater History
On this day in 1915 the musical 90 in the Shade (40p) opens at the Knickerbocker Theater with a Jerome Kern score and book by Guy Bolton. Richard Carle and Marie Cahill are the stars, but after four weeks of not being paid, the actors will refuse to go on, and the show will close early, taking one...
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
1/24 In Musical Theater History
Lyricist/librettist Otto Harbach passes away this day in 1963. Harbach collaborated with every important composer between 1911 and 1924, except Irving Berlin, who wrote his own lyrics. However, Harbach couldn’t fight WW I anti-German feelings, and was forced to Americanize his name from Hauerbach in...
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Tuesday, January 23, 2007
1/23 In Musical Theater History
The Kurt Weill/ Ira Gershwin musical Lady in the Dark (467p) opens at the Alvin today in 1941. Written by Moss Hart, the musical’s plot is based on Hart’s own experiences with psychoanalysis, as Gertrude Lawrence stars, singing My Ship and The Saga of Jenny. Co-starring are Victor Mature, MacDonald...
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Monday, January 22, 2007
1/22 In Musical Theater History
Opening today in 1942 at the Majestic Theater is the first Broadway revival of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (286p). Producer Cheryl Crawford gets Ira Gershwin’s permission to turn the opera into a traditional musical by removing much of the extra music. With original cast members Todd Duncan and Anne...
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