Frederick Nolan
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195102895
- eISBN:
- 9780199853212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195102895.003.0015
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
All through this period, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were hard at work on the Dillingham show, She's My Baby, which had begun rehearsals November 7th and had tryouts of a week each in Washington, ...
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All through this period, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were hard at work on the Dillingham show, She's My Baby, which had begun rehearsals November 7th and had tryouts of a week each in Washington, Baltimore, and Newark. As well as Bea Lillie, the producer had lined up the debonair Clifton Webb, who'd made a mark as far back as 1916 in Cole Porter's Broadway bow, See America First, then graduated to featured roles in As You Were with Irene Bordoni and Sunny with Marilyn Miller. More recently he had won plaudits as an adagio dancer partnering Mary Hay at the Palace and at Giro's nightclub. The ingenue and juvenile were Irene Dunne and smiling, red-haired Jack Whiting, the poor man's Fred Astaire. To their dismay, Rodgers and Hart discovered that Charles Dillingham had lost interest in the show.Less
All through this period, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were hard at work on the Dillingham show, She's My Baby, which had begun rehearsals November 7th and had tryouts of a week each in Washington, Baltimore, and Newark. As well as Bea Lillie, the producer had lined up the debonair Clifton Webb, who'd made a mark as far back as 1916 in Cole Porter's Broadway bow, See America First, then graduated to featured roles in As You Were with Irene Bordoni and Sunny with Marilyn Miller. More recently he had won plaudits as an adagio dancer partnering Mary Hay at the Palace and at Giro's nightclub. The ingenue and juvenile were Irene Dunne and smiling, red-haired Jack Whiting, the poor man's Fred Astaire. To their dismay, Rodgers and Hart discovered that Charles Dillingham had lost interest in the show.
Ethan Mordden
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195140583
- eISBN:
- 9780199848867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195140583.003.0014
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
The story behind this show starts in the mid-1940s, when Dorothy and Herbert Fields got interested in Madame Tussaud's waxworks in London. They thought it would prove a dandy setting for a musical ...
More
The story behind this show starts in the mid-1940s, when Dorothy and Herbert Fields got interested in Madame Tussaud's waxworks in London. They thought it would prove a dandy setting for a musical murder mystery, with a spinster heroine who at last finds romance. Robert Fryer and Lawrence Carr optioned it, and sought a star for the lead, such as Ethel Merman, Bea Lillie, Celeste Holm, or Gisele MacKenzie. Each one would have tilted composition in a different direction, so all the show was at this point was an idea, a script that knew it was doomed to be rewritten, and a title, The Works. In any case, everybody turned it down. Not until Gwen Verdon was consulted and her husband, Bob Fosse, invited to direct it in a package deal was the show finally set.Less
The story behind this show starts in the mid-1940s, when Dorothy and Herbert Fields got interested in Madame Tussaud's waxworks in London. They thought it would prove a dandy setting for a musical murder mystery, with a spinster heroine who at last finds romance. Robert Fryer and Lawrence Carr optioned it, and sought a star for the lead, such as Ethel Merman, Bea Lillie, Celeste Holm, or Gisele MacKenzie. Each one would have tilted composition in a different direction, so all the show was at this point was an idea, a script that knew it was doomed to be rewritten, and a title, The Works. In any case, everybody turned it down. Not until Gwen Verdon was consulted and her husband, Bob Fosse, invited to direct it in a package deal was the show finally set.
