"Broadway hit, ""Show Boat"" (1927). Since the box-office success of MGM's 1951 motion picture version of the musical ""Show Boat"", in which the boat was inaccurately redesigned as a deluxe, self-propelled steamboat, the image of a showboat as a large twin-stacked vessel with a huge paddle wheel at the rear has taken hold in popular culture. Two earlier film versions of ""Show Boat"" and most stage productions feature a historically accurate vessel, and Edna Ferber's novel on which the musical is based gives a description of the ""Cotton Blossom"" that accurately reflects the design of a nineteenth-century showboat. Based on"
"Show Boat (novel) Show Boat is a 1926 novel by American author and dramatist Edna Ferber. It chronicles the lives of three generations of performers on the ""Cotton Blossom"", a floating theater on a steamboat that travels between small towns along the banks of the Mississippi, from the 1880s to the 1920s. The story moves from the Reconstruction-Era river boat to Gilded-Age Chicago to Roaring Twenties New York, and finally returns to the Mississippi River. ""Show Boat"" was adapted as a Broadway musical in 1927 by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. Three films followed: a 1929 version that depended"
"Show Boat Show Boat is a musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based on Edna Ferber's best-selling novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock workers on the ""Cotton Blossom"", a Mississippi River show boat, over 40 years from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love. The musical contributed such classic songs as ""Ol' Man River"", ""Make Believe"", and ""Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"". The musical was first produced in 1927 by Florenz Ziegfeld. The premiere"
"it is 1927. An aged Joe on the ""Cotton Blossom"" sings a reprise of ""Ol' Man River"". Cap'n Andy has a chance meeting with Ravenal and arranges his reunion with Magnolia. Andy knows that Magnolia is retiring and returning to the ""Cotton Blossom"" with Kim, who has become a Broadway star. Kim gives her admirers a taste of her performing abilities by singing an updated, Charleston version of ""Why Do I Love You?"" Ravenal sings a reprise of ""You Are Love"" to the offstage Magnolia. Although he is uncertain about asking her to take him back, Magnolia, who has never"
"Henry Blossom Henry Martyn Blossom (May 10, 1866 – March 23, 1919) was a playwright and lyricist. He was the lyricist for several Victor Herbert musicals, including his first Broadway musical project -""The Yankee Consul"" (1904), ""Mlle. Modiste"" (1905), ""The Red Mill"" (1906), ""Eileen"" (1917), and ""Kiss Me Again"" (film version of ""Mlle. Modeste"", 1931). He also wrote ""When Uncle Sam is Ruler of the Sea"" with Victor Herbert in 1916, ""It's Not the Uniform That Makes the Man"" with A. Baldwin Sloane in 1917 and ""I Want to Go Back to the War"" with Percival Knight (music was by"
"do with the stage musical. Bledsoe also recorded the song years later. However, the most famous rendition of it, one that is still noted today, was sung by Paul Robeson in James Whale's classic 1936 film version of ""Show Boat"". (Robeson had performed the song before in the 1928 London production of the show and in the 1932 Broadway revival.) The first known recording of the song was by 'Kenn' Sisson and His Orchestra, recorded on December 27, 1927, with Irving Kaufman on vocals. From the show's opening number ""Cotton Blossom"", the notes in the phrase ""Cotton Blossom, Cotton Blossom"""
"23, 1927, ""Criss Cross"" toured to Philadelphia where it was the inaugural show at the new Erlanger Theatre. Prologue Act 1 Act 2 Criss Cross (musical) Criss Cross is a musical comedy in two acts and prologue, with book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Anne Caldwell and music by Jerome Kern. The plot concerns a successful aviator, Christopher Cross (Fred Stone) who manages to help Captain Carleton save Dolly Day from the designing schemes of IIphrahim Benani to rob her of her birthright and a considerable fortune. The show was produced by Charles Dillingham at the Globe Theatre, and"
"to reflect contemporary sensitivities toward race, gender and other social issues. In 1887, the show boat ""Cotton Blossom"" arrives at the river dock in Natchez, Mississippi. The Reconstruction era had ended a decade earlier, and white-dominated Southern legislatures have imposed racial segregation and Jim Crow rules. The boat's owner, Cap'n Andy Hawks, introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee. A fistfight breaks out between Steve Baker, the leading man of the troupe, and Pete, a rough engineer who had been making passes at Steve's wife, the leading lady Julie La Verne. Steve knocks Pete down, and Pete swears"
"considered ""one of the great theatrical events of the 1930s."" It ran for 169 performances. Although the original arrangements were lost after 1948, beginning in 1986 the musical was reconstructed. It has been produced by several companies in New York, London and elsewhere. Cole Porter and Moss Hart took a four-and-a-half month ""around the world"" luxury cruise on the ""Franconia"", with their families, friends, and assistants accompanying them. Their intention was to write a new musical on the trip, and songs and scenes were inspired by their ports of call. For example, the song ""The Kling-Kling Bird on the Divi-Divi"
"for nineteen weeks. In the 1920s Huffman staged or directed many operettas for the Shuberts. These included ""The Rose of Stamboul"" (1922), ""My Maryland"" (1927), ""The Circus Princess"" (1927) and ""Countess Maritza"" (1928). Other original Broadway productions of operettas included ""Blossom Time"" and ""The Student Prince"". The operetta ""Blossom Time"", with music by Franz Schubert arranged by Sigmund Romberg and lyrics and book by Dorothy Donnelly, opened at the Ambassador Theatre in New York on 29 September 1921 and ran for 592 performances. Huffman was the director. This was the second longest running musical of the 1920s. At one point"
"Criss Cross (musical) Criss Cross is a musical comedy in two acts and prologue, with book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Anne Caldwell and music by Jerome Kern. The plot concerns a successful aviator, Christopher Cross (Fred Stone) who manages to help Captain Carleton save Dolly Day from the designing schemes of IIphrahim Benani to rob her of her birthright and a considerable fortune. The show was produced by Charles Dillingham at the Globe Theatre, and opened October 12, 1926. The cast headlined Fred Stone (Christopher Cross) and Dorothy Stone (Dolly Day) and included Roy Hoyer (Captain Carleton) and"
"1927 and ran for 130 performances. Directed by Lew Fields, Dorothy Dickson starred as Peggy-Ann. The musical was considered daring for its time: there was no opening chorus and no songs for the first 15 minutes. The plot, told in one long dream, focuses on Peggy-Ann’s dream fantasies. She is the niece of the owner of a boarding house in New York and the fiancée of a local boy. She escapes from a hum-drum life through dreams of herself as a wealthy adventuress, with a yacht and a husband. The ""Time"" review praised the ""Gilbertian satire, Broadway slapstick, attractive dancers..."
"as one of those who are reviving first-rate story-telling. This is little else but an irresistible story; but that, surely, is enough."" By the time the ""James Adams Floating Theatre"" was destroyed by fire in 1941, the era of show boats had ended, supplanted by the motion picture theater. The time is the late nineteenth century. Captain Andy Hawks is a former riverboat owner with a shrewish wife, Parthy Ann, and a ten-year-old daughter, Magnolia. He buys the new show boat ""Cotton Blossom"". Among the actors are Julie Dozier and her husband Steve Baker, and Ellie Chipley and her husband,"
"show was directed by J. H. Benrimo and choreographed by Ed Hutchinson. Featured in the cast, besides Segal, were Cecil Lean, Cleo Mayfield, Ted Lorraine, Robert Pitkin, Frances Demarest and Teddy Webb. The musical also played at The Muny Repertory in St. Louis in July 1932. Rudolph, a frequent customer at the Blue Paradise Inn in Vienna, is in love with Mizzi, a flower girl. He travels to America to operate one of his father's businesses. During the ensuing 24 years, Mizzi marries one of Rudolph's friends, and the couple has converted the inn into their private residence. After this"
"Raymond Hubbell) in 1919. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he teamed with Victor Herbert on several popular operettas. Blossom was also involved with several shows that failed to reach Broadway. He died from pneumonia in New York City at the age of 53. Henry Blossom Henry Martyn Blossom (May 10, 1866 – March 23, 1919) was a playwright and lyricist. He was the lyricist for several Victor Herbert musicals, including his first Broadway musical project -""The Yankee Consul"" (1904), ""Mlle. Modiste"" (1905), ""The Red Mill"" (1906), ""Eileen"" (1917), and ""Kiss Me Again"" (film version of ""Mlle. Modeste"", 1931). He also"
"far beyond the comparatively frivolous musicals and sentimental operettas of the decade, ""Show Boat"", which premiered on December 27, 1927 at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York, represented an even more complete integration of book and score than the Princess Theatre musicals, with dramatic themes told through the music, dialogue, setting and movement. This was accomplished by combining the lyricism of Kern's music with the skillful craft of Oscar Hammerstein II, who adapted Edna Ferber's novel and wrote lyrics for the show. One historian wrote, ""Here we come to a completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from"
"to such groundbreaking works as ""Show Boat"" (1927) and ""Oklahoma!"" (1943). Some of the most famous musicals through the decades that followed include ""West Side Story"" (1957), ""The Fantasticks"" (1960), ""Hair"" (1967), ""A Chorus Line"" (1975), ""Les Misérables"" (1985), ""The Phantom of the Opera"" (1986), ""Rent"" (1996), ""The Producers"" (2001), ""Wicked"" (2003) and ""Hamilton"" (2015). Musicals are performed around the world. They may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller venues, such as fringe theatre, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, regional theatre, or community"
"in 1926 by P. G. Wodehouse, entitled ""The Play's the Thing"". André Previn wrote three original songs for the play, ""This Could Be the One"", ""Where Do We Go from Here?"", and ""You Never Heard it from Me"". In the 1930s, successful Hungarian playwrights Sandor Turai and Alex Gal, collaborators for twenty years, arrive aboard the luxury transatlantic liner SS ""Italian Castle"", which is about to sail from Cherbourg to New York, where they are to present their latest musical comedy, ""The Cruise of the Dodo"". They are accompanied by their young French composer, Adam Adam, a former actor who"
"Thoroughly Modern Millie (musical) Thoroughly Modern Millie is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan, and a book by Richard Morris and Scanlan. It is based on the 1967 film of the same name, which itself was based on the British musical ""Chrysanthemum"", which opened in London in 1956. ""Thoroughly Modern Millie"" tells the story of a small-town girl, Millie Dillmount, who comes to New York City to marry for money instead of love – a thoroughly modern aim in 1922, when women were just entering the workforce. Millie soon begins to take delight in the"
"with a view to customising the operetta for American audiences. They hired Donnelly and Romberg (their house composer) to adapt the libretto and music. The same team, three years later, adapted ""Old Heidelberg"" to make ""The Student Prince"", but in the case of ""The Student Prince"", the entire score was written by Romberg, not by another composer. The Broadway production of ""Blossom Time"" opened at the Ambassador Theatre on September 29, 1921, where it ran for 592 performances, starring Bertram Peacock and Olga Cook. It became the second longest-running Broadway musical of the 1920s and, after extensive tours, played Broadway"
"""Blossom Time"" was running simultaneously (with different casts but essentially the same crew) at the Shubert Theatre and at the 44th Street Theatre. The ""Student Prince in Heidelberg"" had music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly, based on the play ""Old Heidelberg"" by Rudolf Bleichman. The show, directed by Huffman, opened at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre in New York on 2 December 1924, and ran for 608 performances. ""The Student Prince"" opened at His Majesty's Theatre in London on 3 February 1926, again directed by Huffman, and ran for 96 performances. It was the longest-running musical"
"Blues Away."" The second act's lesser known but crackling ""Fire Crackers/""Song of Freedom"" is also [a] show stopper."" The musical received one 2017 Tony Award nomination, for Best Choreography for Denis Jones. The musical was nominated for the 2017 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography. Holiday Inn (musical) Holiday Inn (also known as Holiday Inn, The New Irving Berlin Musical) is a musical based on the Paramount Pictures 1942 film of the same name. The libretto is by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. The musical opened on Broadway in 2016 after premiering at"
"musical. Romberg wrote another Jolson vehicle in 1921, ""Bombo"". He wrote the music for the musical comedy ""Poor Little Ritz Girl"", which also had songs by Richard Rodgers. Romberg's adaptation of melodies by Franz Schubert for ""Blossom Time"" (1921, produced in the UK as ""Lilac Time"") was a great success. He subsequently wrote his best-known operettas, ""The Student Prince"" (1924), ""The Desert Song"" (1926) and ""The New Moon"" (1928), which are in a style similar to the Viennese operettas of Franz Lehár. He also wrote ""Princess Flavia"" (1925), an operetta based on ""The Prisoner of Zenda"". His other works, ""My"
"servant, Sin Chong, and Sybil's cousin, Betty, reveal the true situation to Sybil. In the end, Sybil returns to Reggie, Betty pairs off with Sir Horatio (who will agree to anything she wants), and Chippy lands Cornelia's heart. The White Chrysanthemum The White Chrysanthemum is an English musical in three acts by Arthur Anderson and Leedham Bantock, with lyrics by Anderson and music by Howard Talbot). It opened at the Criterion Theatre, produced by Frank Curzon, on 31 August 1905 and ran for 179 performances, closing on 10 February 1906. The Japanese-themed musical starred Isabel Jay, Rutland Barrington, Lawrence Grossmith"
"Rolling Stones, and Fleetingwood Mac. Numerous musical works are set in the city. ""Portsmouth Point"" is an overture for orchestra by the English composer William Walton in 1925. The work was inspired by Thomas Rowlandson's etching depicting Portsmouth Point, otherwise known as ""Spice Island"" in Old Portsmouth. The overture was used for the BBC Proms Concert in 2007. ""H.M.S. Pinafore"" is a comic opera in two acts set in Portsmouth Harbour, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W.S. Gilbert. John Cranko's 1951 ballet ""Pineapple Poll"", which features the operetta music of ""The Bumboat Woman's Story"" by Gilbert and"
"Liliom Liliom is a 1909 play by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. It was well-known in its own right during the early to mid-20th century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ""Carousel"". The play takes place partly in Budapest, Hungary, and partly in a waiting area just outside Heaven. The story concerns Liliom, a tough, cocky carousel barker who falls in love with Julie, a young woman who works as a maid. When both lose their jobs, Liliom begins mistreating Julie out of bitterness — even slapping her once — although he"
"of 23. Courtneidge returned to presenting West End musical shows in 1927, directing Lehár's ""The Blue Mazurka"" (1927) with English lyrics by Harry Graham at Daly's Theatre. His last London musical was ""The Damask Rose"" (1930), an attempt to emulate with Chopin's music the success of ""Lilac Time"", a piece written around Schubert's music. The adaptation was by Clutsam (who had adapted ""Lilac Time""), with Courtneidge as co-author of the book. A strong cast included Walter Passmore, and the piece won friendly notices. His final production was at the Prince's and on tour, a musical, ""Lavender"" (1930), with music by"
"as of May 7, 1928; and finally the Poli Theatre, Washington DC on September 30, 1928. The Broadway premiere was at the Music Box Theatre, opening on October 8, 1928 and closing on March 23, 1929, after 195 performances. The musical was directed by William H. Gilmore with choreography by ""Red"" Stanley. The cast featured Goetz' wife, Irene Bordoni (Vivienne Rolland), Arthur Margetson (Guy Pennel), Louise Closser Hale (Cora Sabot), Eric Kalkhurst (Andrew Sabot), and Elizabeth Chester (Brenda Kaley). Irving Aaronson and his Commanders was the musical's band. In 1929 Warner Brothers made the musical into a feature film, starring"
"by Nicholas Hytner enjoyed success in 1992 in London, in 1994 in New York and on tour. Another Broadway revival opened in 2018. In 1999, ""Time"" magazine named ""Carousel"" the best musical of the 20th century. Ferenc Molnár's Hungarian-language drama, ""Liliom"", premiered in Budapest in 1909. The audience was puzzled by the work, and it lasted only thirty-odd performances before being withdrawn, the first shadow on Molnár's successful career as a playwright. ""Liliom"" was not presented again until after World War I. When it reappeared on the Budapest stage, it was a tremendous hit. Except for the ending, the plots"
"""Starlight Express"", ""The Sound of Music"", ""Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"", ""Monty Python's Spamalot"", ""Beauty and the Beast"", ""West Side Story"", ""Jesus Christ Superstar"", ""Thoroughly Modern Millie"", ""The Rocky Horror Show"", ""Fame - The Musical"", ""Never Forget"", ""Priscilla Queen of the Desert - the Musical"", ""Cabaret"", ""Blood Brothers"", ""Saturday Night Fever"", ""Carousel"", ""Footloose - The Musical"", ""Grease"", ""Anything Goes"", ""Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake"", ""Our House"", ""Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story"", ""Carousel"", ""Tap Dogs"", ""Taboo"", ""Flashdance - The Musical"", ""Annie"", ""Annie Get Your Gun"", """", ""Dancing in the Streets"", ""Sister Act"", ""An Inspector Calls"", ""Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"", ""Rock of Ages"", ""Chicago"","
"love triangles. ""The Forum,"" January, 1920, wrote: ""The New York Times"" noted the audience's enthusiasm for the new piece and praised Dillingham's showmanship, predicting that several of the songs would become popular. The Night Boat The Night Boat (1920) is a musical in three acts, based on a farce by Alexandre Bisson, with a book and lyrics by Anne Caldwell and music by Jerome Kern. The story lampoons the notorious New York City-to-Albany night boat, on which clandestine romances were common. After out-of-town tryouts, the musical was produced on Broadway by Charles Dillingham, where it opened on February 2, 1920"
"and later transferred to San Francisco where it closed on December 13, 1969. The musical closed before reaching Broadway. Richard Morris was the director, Edwin Lester was the producer, and Danny Daniels was the choreographer. John Cullum starred as Christopher Columbus and Chita Rivera starred as his mistress. Jean Fenn played Queen Isabella. Sergio Franchi was previously cast as Columbus. 1491 (musical) 1491 is a musical centered around Christopher Columbus before his voyage to discover the New World. Music and lyrics are by American composer and playwright Meredith Willson. It was Willson's final musical. The book was by Willson and"
"Carousel (musical) Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics). The 1945 work was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play ""Liliom"", transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. He participates in a robbery to provide for Julie and their unborn child; after it goes tragically wrong, he is given a chance to make things right. A secondary plot line deals with millworker Carrie Pipperidge and her"