Flying Colors is a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, 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...

 revue

Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...

 with a book, lyrics, and music by Arthur Schwartz

Arthur Schwartz

Arthur Schwartz was an American composer and film producer.Schwartz supported his legal studies at New York University and postgraduate studies at Columbia University by playing piano before concentrating his talents on vaudeville, Broadway theatre and Hollywood.Among his Broadway musicals are The...

 and Howard Dietz

Howard Dietz

Howard Dietz was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist.-Biography:Dietz was born in New York City and studied journalism at Columbia University...

 and sketch contributions by George S. Kaufman

George S. Kaufman

George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...

, Corey Ford

Corey Ford

Corey Ford was an American humorist, author, outdoorsman, and screenwriter. He was also friendly with several members of the Algonquin Round Table and occasionally ate lunch there....

, and Charles Sherman.

The Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production opened on September 15, 1932 at the Imperial Theatre, closing on January 25, 1933, after 188 performances.

Directed by Dietz and choreographed by Albertina Rasch,
the cast included Clifton Webb

Clifton Webb

Clifton Webb was an American actor, dancer, and singer known for his Oscar-nominated roles in such films as Laura, The Razor's Edge, and Sitting Pretty...

, Patsy Kelly

Patsy Kelly

Patsy Kelly was an American stage and film comedic actress.-Early life and career:Kelly was born Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly in Brooklyn, New York to Irish immigrants, John and Delia Kelly, and made her Broadway debut in 1928...

, Imogene Coca

Imogene Coca

Imogene Fernandez de Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows....

, Larry Adler

Larry Adler

Lawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler was an American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players. Composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Arthur Benjamin composed works for him...

, Charles Butterworth

Charles Butterworth (actor)

Charles Butterworth was an American actor specializing in comedy roles, often in musicals. In his obituary, he was described as "the man who could not make up his mind". Butterworth's distinct voice was the inspiration for the Cap'n Crunch commercials from the Jay Ward studio...

, Tamara Geva

Tamara Geva

Tamara Geva was a Russian actress, ballet dancer and choreographer. She was the first wife of dancer/choreographer George Balanchine.-Biography:...

, and Buddy

Buddy Ebsen

Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...

 and Vilma Ebsen

Vilma Ebsen

Vilma Ebsen was an American musical theatre and film actress best known for dancing in Broadway shows and MGM musicals in the 1930s with her more famous brother, Buddy Ebsen....

.

Songs

Act 1

• "Lost in a Crowd" (written in collaboration with Charles Sherman)
• "Sister Act"
• "Service"
• "Fatal Fascination"
• "All's Well"
• "Two-Faced Woman"
• "Alone Together
  Alone Together (song)
  "Alone Together" is a song composed by Arthur Schwartz with lyrics by Howard Dietz. It was introduced in the Broadway musical Flying Colors in 1932 by Jean Sargent....
  
  " - Clifton Webb and Tamara Geva
• "Louisiana Hayride" - Clifton Webb and Tamara Geva

Act 2

• "On the American Plan" (written in collaboration with George S. Kaufman)
• "A Rainy Day"
• "My Heart Is Part of You"
• "Butlers"
• "Day after Day"
• "A Shine on Your Shoes" - Vilma and Buddy Ebsen, Monnette Moore, Larry Adler
• "It Was Never Like This"
• "Mother Told Me So"
• "A Christmas Card"
• "Now That the Party Is Over"
• "Just Around the Corner"
• "Smokin' Reefers"

Special effects

For the first act finale, "Louisiana Hayride", the designer Norman Bel Geddes

Norman Bel Geddes

Norman Melancton Bel Geddes was an American theatrical and industrial designer who focused on aerodynamics....

used a movie film to give "focal depth to a fluid and enrapturing vista."