No, No, Nanette
Encyclopedia
No, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar
Irving Caesar
Irving Caesar was an American lyricist and theater composer who wrote lyrics for "Swanee," "Sometimes I'm Happy," "Crazy Rhythm," and "Tea for Two," one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written. He was born and died in New York.Caesar, the son of Morris Keiser, a Romanian Jew, was...

 and Otto Harbach
Otto Harbach
Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of about 50 musical comedies...

, music by Vincent Youmans
Vincent Youmans
Vincent Youmans was an American popular composer and Broadway producer.- Life :Vincent Millie Youmans was born in New York City on September 27, 1898 and grew-up on Central Park West on the site where the Mayflower Hotel once stood. His father, a prosperous hat manufacturer, moved the family to...

, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 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...

 play My Lady Friends. The farcical story involves three couples who all find themselves together at a cottage in Atlantic City in the midst of a blackmail scheme, focusing on a young, fun-loving Manhattan heiress, who naughtily runs off for a weekend, leaving her unhappy fiancé. Its songs include the well-known "Tea for Two
Tea for Two (song)
"Tea for Two" is a song from the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Irving Caesar. It is a duet sung by Nanette and Tom in Act II as they imagine their future.-Analysis:...

" and "I Want to Be Happy
I Want to Be Happy
"I Want to Be Happy" is a song with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Irving Caesar for the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette.-Musical:The song is used several times throughout the musical, as a running theme of No, No, Nanette is the attempts of various people to please others.It is first sung by...

".

Its 1925 London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 debut was a hit, running for 665 performances. A Broadway production opening later the same year was also a success. Film versions and revivals followed. A popular 1971 Broadway revival, with a book adapted by Burt Shevelove
Burt Shevelove
Burt Shevelove was an American musical theater playwright, lyricist, librettist, and director. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he graduated from Brown University and Yale . At Brown in 1935, he acted in the first ever Brownbrokers musical titled Something Bruin...

, led to the piece becoming a favourite of school and community groups for a time.

A popular myth held that the show was financed by selling baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 superstar Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...

 to the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

, resulting in the "Curse of the Bambino
Curse of the Bambino
The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 to 2004...

." However, it was My Lady Friends, rather than No, No, Nanette, that had been directly financed by the Ruth sale.

History

No, No, Nanette was not successful in its first pre-Broadway tour in 1924, and the producers re-cast the show with new stars, asking the writers for new songs and a new script. The new score included songs that would become standards, including "Tea for Two
Tea for Two
Tea for Two can refer to:*Tea for Two , a 1925 popular song by Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar, introduced in the musical, No, No, Nanette*Tea for Two , a movie starring Doris Day which reintroduced the song...

" and "I Want to Be Happy
I Want to Be Happy
"I Want to Be Happy" is a song with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Irving Caesar for the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette.-Musical:The song is used several times throughout the musical, as a running theme of No, No, Nanette is the attempts of various people to please others.It is first sung by...

". The Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 production was such a hit that it played there for over a year. By the time the show came to 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...

, the London production had become a hit. It opened 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', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 on March 11, 1925 at the Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, London
The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. It is an imposing red-brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road...

, where it starred Binnie Hale
Binnie Hale
Binnie Hale was an English actress and musician. Both her father, Robert Hale and younger brother, Sonnie Hale were actors. She married West End actor Jack Raine, with whom she had one daughter....

, Joseph Coyne
Joseph Coyne
Joseph Coyne , sometimes billed as Joe Coyne, was an American-born singer and actor, known for his appearances in leading roles in Edwardian musical comedy in London.-Life and career:...

 and George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...

 and ran for 665 performances. 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 finally opened on September 16, 1925 and ran for 321 performances.

The musical was translated into various languages and enjoyed international success through the end of the decade. It was made into films in both 1930 and 1940
No, No, Nanette (1940 film)
No, No, Nanette is a 1940 American film directed by Herbert Wilcox and based on the musical of the same name.- Cast :*Anna Neagle as Nanette*Richard Carlson as Tom Gillespie*Victor Mature as William Trainor*Roland Young as Mr. "Happy" Jimmy Smith...

, with both film adaptations featuring character actress ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...

. In 1950, a film entitled Tea for Two
Tea for Two (film)
Tea for Two is a 1950 American musical film directed by David Butler. The screenplay by Harry Clork and William Jacobs was inspired by the 1925 stage musical No, No Nanette, although the plot was changed considerably from the original book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, and the score by Harbach,...

, a very loose adaptation of the show, was released. It starred Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...

, Gordon MacRae
Gordon MacRae
Gordon MacRae was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! and Carousel and films with Doris Day like Starlift.-Early life:Born Albert Gordon MacRae in East Orange, New Jersey, MacRae graduated from...

, Eve Arden
Eve Arden
Eve Arden was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in...

, and Billy DeWolfe. The musical was rarely seen in the following decades.

For the nostalgic 1971 Broadway revival, Burt Shevelove
Burt Shevelove
Burt Shevelove was an American musical theater playwright, lyricist, librettist, and director. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he graduated from Brown University and Yale . At Brown in 1935, he acted in the first ever Brownbrokers musical titled Something Bruin...

 adapted the book, and the cast featured screen star Ruby Keeler
Ruby Keeler
Ruby Keeler, born Ethel Hilda Keeler, was an actress, singer, and dancer most famous for her on-screen coupling with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Brothers, particularly 42nd Street . From 1928 to 1940, she was married to singer Al Jolson...

. The opening night cast also included Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher is an American actress, dancer, singer and makeup artist.-Early years:Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York for several years until the Wall Street crash which heralded the Great Depression, and her family moved to the Bronx. Her parents separated and she was...

, Jack Gilford
Jack Gilford
Jack Gilford was an American actor on Broadway, films and television.-Early life:Gilford was born Jacob Aaron Gellman on the lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, and grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn...

, 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...

, Bobby Van, and Loni Ackerman
Loni Ackerman
Loni Ackerman is an American Broadway musical theatre performer and cabaret singer.Born in New York City, she made her Broadway debut in George M! in 1968, then replaced Bernadette Peters in the hit off-Broadway production of Dames at Sea.In 1971, Ackerman was cast in the revival of No, No Nanette...

. The production was supervised by aging Hollywood legend Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...

, although it was rumored that his name was his primary contribution to the show. Among a number of sensational dance sequences, Keeler – who returned from retirement – was lauded for an energetic tap routine incorporated into the "I Want to Be Happy" sequence. The show opened to uniformly glowing reviews and sparked interest in the revival of similar musicals from the 1920s and '30s. Tony and Drama Desk Awards went to costume designer Raoul Pène Du Bois
Raoul Pene Du Bois
Raoul Pene Du Bois was an American costume designer and scenic designer for the stage and film. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.-Career:...

, choreographer Donald Saddler
Donald Saddler
Donald Saddler is an American choreographer, dancer, and theatre director.-Biography:Born in Van Nuys, California, Saddler studied dance at an early age to regain his strength after a bout of scarlet fever...

, and Gallagher as Best Leading Actress in a Musical, Kelly won a Tony as Best Featured Actress in a Musical, and Shevelove's work earned him a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book. This production transferred to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1973, with a cast starring Anna Neagle
Anna Neagle
Forming a professional alliance with Wilcox, Neagle played her first starring film role in the musical Goodnight Vienna , again with Jack Buchanan. With this film Neagle became an overnight favourite...

, Anne Rogers
Anne Rogers
Anne Rogers is a retired English actress, dancer and singer.-Career:Anne Rogers began her career onstage at the age of 15. She was in the original London production of The Boy Friend, playing the female lead of Polly Browne for nearly four years...

 and Tony Britton
Tony Britton
Anthony Edward Lowry "Tony" Britton is an English actor. He is the father of presenter Fern Britton, scriptwriter Cherry Britton and actor Jasper Britton.-Life and career:...

. In this version, the show has become the most frequently performed musical of the 1920s.

City Center's Encores!
Encores!
Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert is a program that has been presented by New York City Center since 1994. Encores! is dedicated to performing the full score of musicals that rarely are heard in New York City...

 presented a new production of No, No, Nanette in May 2008, directed by Walter Bobbie
Walter Bobbie
Walter Bobbie is an American theatre director, choreographer, and occasional actor and dancer. Bobbie has directed both musicals and plays on Broadway and Off-Broadway, and was the Artistic Director of the New York City Center Encores! concert series...

, with choreography by Randy Skinner
Randy Skinner
Randy Skinner is an American director and choregrapher, primarily for the stage. He has been nominated three times for Tony Awards and twice for Drama Desk Awards for choreography.-Biography:...

, starring Sandy Duncan
Sandy Duncan
Sandra Kay "Sandy" Duncan is an American singer, dancer and actress of stage and television, recognized through a blonde, pixie cut hairstyle and perky demeanor...

, Beth Leavel
Beth Leavel
-Biography:Leavel was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. She attended Meredith College, earning a degree in social work. She completed a graduate theatre degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1980. She acted during college, appearing in productions such as Cabaret and Hello,...

 and Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell
Roseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American stand-up comedian, actress, author and television personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family...

.

Curse of the Bambino

Some years after the premiere, it was claimed that producer
Theatrical producer
A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...

 Harry Frazee
Harry Frazee
Harry Herbert Frazee was an American theatrical agent, producer and director, and former owner of the Major League Baseball Boston Red Sox from 1916 to 1923.- Life as owner of the Red Sox :...

, a former owner of the Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...

, financed the show by selling baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 superstar Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...

 to the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

, resulting in the "Curse of the Bambino
Curse of the Bambino
The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 to 2004...

," which, according to a popular superstition
Superstition
Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....

, kept the Red Sox from winning the World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...

 from until . In the 1990s, that story was partially debunked on the grounds that the sale of Ruth had occurred five years earlier. Leigh Montville discovered during research for his 2006 book, The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth, that No, No, Nanette had originated as a non-musical stage play called My Lady Friends, which opened on Broadway in December 1919. That play had, indeed, been financed by the Ruth sale to the Yankees.

Synopsis

Jimmy Smith, a millionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...

 due to his Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 publishing business, is married to the overly frugal Sue. Jimmy and Sue want to teach their ward, Nanette, to be a respectable young lady. Nanette has an untapped wild side and wants to have some fun in Atlantic City. She is being pursued by Tom Trainor. With so much income at his disposal, Jimmy decides to become the benefactor for three beautiful women (Betty from Boston, Winnie from Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, and Flora from San Francisco), but soon realizes his good intentions are bound to get him in trouble, as the women are now blackmailing him for more money. He enlists his lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 friend and Tom's uncle, Billy Early, to help him discreetly ease the girls out of his life. Billy agrees, and suggests that Jimmy take refuge in Philadelphia. He decides to take Tom and meet the three ladies in the Smiths' Atlantic City
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...

 home, Chickadee Cottage. Sue and Lucille, Billy's wife, hearing that both their husbands will be away on business, decide to also take a vacation to the cottage. Finally, Jimmy hears of Nanette's desire to see Atlantic City. Instead of going to Philadelphia, he agrees to take her to Chickadee Cottage, with the grumpy maid, Paulene, acting as Nanette's chaperone.

In Atlantic City, everyone meets at once. Tom and Nanette fantasize about being happily married one day. Sue overhears Billy speaking to the women and assumes that he is having an affair with them; trouble ensues. Sue tells Lucille of Billy's supposed unfaithfulness and Billy, to divert suspicion of Jimmy's involvement, does not deny it. Sue also finds out that Nanette came to Atlantic City against her wishes, which causes Tom and Nanette to quarrel and Nanette and Paulene to leave for New York. Jimmy finally pays off the ladies, and, feeling sorry for Lucille, they explain everything: Billy was not cheating on her, and neither was Jimmy. Nanette and Paulene, unable to catch a train to New York, return to the cottage, where Tom and Nanette make up and agree to marry. The show ends with a party, where Sue wows Jimmy with a fancy dress and a final dance number.

Musical numbers

Act I
  • Overture
  • Too Many Rings Around Rosie
  • I've Confessed to the Breeze
  • Call of the Sea
  • I Want to Be Happy
  • I Want to Be Happy Dance
  • No, No, Nanette
  • Finaletto Act I


Act II
  • Peach on the Beach
  • Peach on the Beach Dance
  • Tea for Two
  • Tea for Two Dance
  • You Can Dance With Any Girl
  • You Can Dance With Any Girl Dance
  • Finaletto Act II


Act III
  • Telephone Girlie
  • Where-Has-My-Hubby-Gone Blues
  • Waiting for You
  • Dress Parade
  • Take a Little One-Step
  • Finale


1971 Tony Award nominations

  • Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical - Bobby Van
  • Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical - Helen Gallagher (Winner)
  • Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical - Patsy Kelly (Winner)
  • Tony Award for Best Costume Design
    Tony Award for Best Costume Design
    These are the winners and nominees for the Tony Award for Best Costume Design. The award was first presented in 1947 and included both plays and musicals...

     - Production Design by Raoul Pène Du Bois (Winner)
  • Tony Award for Best Choreography
    Tony Award for Best Choreography
    -1940s:* 1947: Agnes de Mille – Brigadoon / Michael Kidd – Finian's Rainbow* 1948: Jerome Robbins – High Button Shoes* 1949: Gower Champion – Lend An Ear-1950s:* 1950: Helen Tamiris – Touch and Go* 1951: Michael Kidd – Guys and Dolls...

     - Donald Saddler (Winner)
  • Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical
    Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical
    This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Prior to 1960, category for direction included plays and musicals.-1950s:Note: this category was for both dramatic and musical productions...

     - Burt Shevelove

1971 Drama Desk Award nominations

  • Drama Desk Award
    Drama Desk Award
    The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...

    for Outstanding Book - Book adapted by Burt Shevelove (for the adaptation) (Winner)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography - Donald Saddler (Winner)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design - Production Design by Raoul Pène Du Bois (Winner)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance - Helen Gallagher (Winner)

External links

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