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Animal Crackers (theatre)

 

 
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Animal Crackers is a musical
Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece ? humor, pathos, love, anger ? as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole....
 with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar
Bert Kalmar

Bert Kalmar was an United States lyricist.He was born in New York, New York. He ran away from home at the age of 10 to become a Magician at a tent show, and retained an interest in magic all his life....
 and Harry Ruby
Harry Ruby

Harry Ruby was an United States songwriter and screenwriter.Born in New York, Ruby failed in his early ambition to become a professional baseball player....
 and a book by George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman

George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and theatre producer, humorist, and drama critic....
 and Morrie Ryskind
Morrie Ryskind

Morrie Ryskind was an American dramatist, lyricist and director on theatrical productions and motion pictures....
. The musical starred the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers

The Marx Brothers were a popular team of sibling comedians who appeared in vaudeville, stage plays, film, and television....
.

nimal Crackers opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
 on October 23, 1928 at the original 44th Street Theatre, and ran for 191 performances and then toured. The 44th Street Theater was demolished in 1945. The production was staged by Oscar Eagle and starred the four Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers

The Marx Brothers were a popular team of sibling comedians who appeared in vaudeville, stage plays, film, and television....
 and Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont

Margaret Dumont was an United States comedic actress.She is remembered mostly for being the double act to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films....
 and was their second Broadway hit.






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Encyclopedia


Animal Crackers is a musical
Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece ? humor, pathos, love, anger ? as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole....
 with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar
Bert Kalmar

Bert Kalmar was an United States lyricist.He was born in New York, New York. He ran away from home at the age of 10 to become a Magician at a tent show, and retained an interest in magic all his life....
 and Harry Ruby
Harry Ruby

Harry Ruby was an United States songwriter and screenwriter.Born in New York, Ruby failed in his early ambition to become a professional baseball player....
 and a book by George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman

George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and theatre producer, humorist, and drama critic....
 and Morrie Ryskind
Morrie Ryskind

Morrie Ryskind was an American dramatist, lyricist and director on theatrical productions and motion pictures....
. The musical starred the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers

The Marx Brothers were a popular team of sibling comedians who appeared in vaudeville, stage plays, film, and television....
.

Productions and background

Animal Crackers opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
 on October 23, 1928 at the original 44th Street Theatre, and ran for 191 performances and then toured. The 44th Street Theater was demolished in 1945. The production was staged by Oscar Eagle and starred the four Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers

The Marx Brothers were a popular team of sibling comedians who appeared in vaudeville, stage plays, film, and television....
 and Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont

Margaret Dumont was an United States comedic actress.She is remembered mostly for being the double act to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films....
 and was their second Broadway hit. Hermes Pan
Hermes Pan (choreographer)

Hermes Pan was an American dancer and choreographer, principally celebrated as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s musical film starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers....
 appeared as a chorus boy.

The musical was filmed in 1930
Animal Crackers (film)

Animal Crackers is a 1930 comedy film, in which mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding....
 with the principal leads repeating their roles from the stage production.

The musical was revived in 1982 at the Arena Stage
Arena Stage

Arena Stage is a theater production company in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. The theater company's home is on the DC waterfront, at 1101 Sixth Street, SW....
, Washington, D.C., directed by Douglas C. Wager and choreographed by Baayork Lee
Baayork Lee

Baayork Lee is an United States actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and author....
.

It was also revived in 1992 by Goodspeed Musicals
Goodspeed Musicals

Goodspeed Musicals, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and advancement of musical theater and the creation of new works, was formed in 1959 to restore the Goodspeed Opera House, located in East Haddam, Connecticut, to its original Victorian era appearance....
, Connecticut and in 1993 at the Paper Mill Playhouse
Paper Mill Playhouse

Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theatre with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey, New Jersey, less than 25 miles away from Manhattan....
, New Jersey.

It was produced in the West End
West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's "Theatreland". Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English language world....
 at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)

The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B....
, opening on March 16, 1999, and closing on May 15, 1999 after touring in the UK. Starring were Ben Keaton (Spalding), Toby Sedgwick (Professor), Joseph Alessi (Emmanuel Ravelli), and Jean Challis (Mrs Rittenhouse).

After The Cocoanuts ran for almost three years at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (New York)

The Lyric was a prominent theater in Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1903 and hosted such notable shows in the early decades of the 20th century as Cole Porter's Fifty Million Frenchmen....
, the "anarchic" Animal Crackers became the third and last Broadway show for the Marx Brothers (I'll Say She Is
I'll Say She Is

I'll Say She Is is a stage revue written by brothers Will B. Johnstone and Tom Johnstone and starring the Marx Brothers and Lotta Miles which led to their rise out of Vaudeville into stardom in the Broadway theatre and later in motion pictures....
 was the first). It would be their last stage show, after which they focused on film. Vaudeville
Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a genre of a variety show prevalent on the theatre in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. It developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrel show, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque....
's heyday was finishing, as talking movies were beginning to become popular. While the Marx Brothers performed in Animal Crackers in the evenings, they were busy during the day filming The Cocoanuts
The Cocoanuts

The Cocoanuts was the first feature-length Marx Brothers film, produced by Paramount Pictures. The musical comedy stars the four Marx Brothers, Oscar Shaw, Mary Eaton and Margaret Dumont....
 at Paramount's studios in Astoria, Queens.

Song list

Act I
  • Opening
Hives and Dancers
The Maids --The Sixteen Markert Dancers
The Guests -- Ensemble
  • "News" -- Wally Winston and the Sixteen Markert Dancers
  • "Hooray for Captain Spaulding
    Hooray for Captain Spaulding

    "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" is a song, originally from the 1928 Marx Brothers stage musical Animal Crackers and the 1930 Animal Crackers ....
    " -- Hives, Jamison, Mrs. Rittenhouse, Capt. Spalding and Ensemble
  • "Who's Been Listening to My Heart" -- Mary and John
  • "The Long Island Low-Down" -- Wally Winston and Grace
  • "Go Places and Do Things" -- Ensemble
  • Dance
  • "Watching the Clouds Roll By" -- Mary and John
  • Piano speciality -- Chico Marx
Act II
  • "When Things Are Bright and Rosy" -- Wally Winston and Arabella
  • Reprise -- Mary and John
  • "Cool Off" -- Grace and Ensemble
  • The Royal Filipino Band
  • Harp speciality -- Harpo Marx
  • "Musketeers" -- The Marx Brothers
  • Finale -- Company
  • "Three Little Words
    Three Little Words (song)

    "Three Little Words" is a popular music song with music by Harry Ruby and the lyrics by Bert Kalmar, published in 1930 in music.Bing Crosby, accompanied by the Duke Ellington orchestra, sang it in the Amos 'n' Andy film Check and Double Check. It also figured prominently in the Three Little Words , a biopic of Kalmar and Ruby....
    " † ‡
  • "Oh by Jingo" (by Lew Brown and Albert von Tilzer)†
  • "Show Me a Rose" ‡
  • "The Social Ladder" †
  • "I Wanna Be Loved by You
    I Wanna Be Loved by You

    "I Wanna Be Loved by You" is a song written by Herbert Stothart and Harry Ruby, with lyrics by Bert Kalmar, for the 1928 musical "Good Boy"....
    " ††
  • "Nevertheless (I'm in Love with You)" ††


† added for Goodspeed production
‡ added for Arena Stage and Paper Mill productions
†† added for Paper Mill production

External links