Oh, Lady! Lady!!
Encyclopedia
Oh, Lady! Lady!! is a musical
with music by Jerome Kern
, a book by Guy Bolton
and P. G. Wodehouse
and lyrics by Wodehouse. It was written for the Princess Theatre
on Broadway
, where it played in 1918 and ran for 219 performances. The story concerns an engaged young man, Bill, whose ex-fiancée arrives unexpectedly on his wedding day. Meanwhile, comic complications arise because of a couple of crooks, the bride's mother dislikes the groom, and the nuptials are called off. Bill works to convince his old flame that he was not worthy to marry her; but his clumsy efforts do not make him look good to his new fiancée.
The original cast starred Vivienne Segal
as Mollie Farringdon. The songs include "Not Yet", "When Ships Come Home", "Greenwich Village", the innovative "Moon Song" and "Our Little Nest". The song "Bill
", later famous in Show Boat
, was cut before the production opened.
was a small Broadway
house that seated only 299 people. Theatre agent Elisabeth Marbury
urged composer Jerome Kern
and librettist Guy Bolton
, later joined by British humorist and lyricist/playwright P. G. Wodehouse
to write a series of musicals tailored to the theatre, with an intimate style and modest budgets. These "Princess Theatre shows" had coherent, clever plots that provided an alternative to the other musical entertainments that then dominated Broadway: star-studded revue
s and extravaganzas of Florenz Ziegfeld
, thinly-plotted, musical comedies and gaudy operetta
imports from Europe.
After a modest success, Nobody's Home (1915), Kern and Bolton had a hit with an original musical called Very Good Eddie
(1915). Wodehouse joined the team for another hit, Oh, Boy!
(1917), which ran for an extraordinary 463 performances. Two more of their shows written for the theatre ran at other theatres during the long runs of Very Good Eddie and Oh, Boy! The shows featured modern American settings and simple scene changes (one set for each act) to suit the small theatre, eschewing operetta traditions of foreign locales and elaborate scenery. The collaboration was much praised. According to Gerald Bordman, writing in The Musical Times
,
on January 7, 1918 at Bleecker Hall. After some revisions and touring, the musical opened at the Princess Theatre on February 1, 1918, to uniformly rave reviews and ran for 219 performances, finishing its run at the Casino Theatre. The production was produced by William Elliott and F. Ray Comstock and directed by Robert Milton and Edward Royce, who also choreographed. It starred Vivienne Segal
as Mollie Farringdon, one of her earliest roles, and Carl Randall as Bill Finch. Florence Shirley
played Fanny Welch, a jewel thief. Early drafts of the show were called Say When, but the title of the show was eventually taken from a minstrel show
catch-phrase.
The New York Times
previewed the show, calling the plot "measurably novel" with bright lines and lyrics, said the music demonstrated "easy gaity" and praised the show's casting and "artistic excellence". The paper called Segal "wonderfully pleasing" and praised both her and Randall's dancing. Its review began: "Once more Comstock, Elliott, and Gest have shown their allegiance to the policy of supplying popular entertainment which is mitigated by all availabie talent and good taste". In February 1918, Dorothy Parker
wrote in Vanity Fair
:
One of Segal's songs, Bill, was cut just two days before the show opened. In the song, Mollie reflects on her love for a young man that her mother dislikes. Kern used the song nine years later, with the lyric revised by Oscar Hammerstein II
, in Show Boat
(1927).
Financial disagreements arose between Wodehouse and Kern, and Oh, Lady! Lady!! proved to be the last success in the series, and the collaborators went on to other projects, with each of Kern and Wodehouse continuing to work separately with Bolton. The trio combined for one more show together in 1924, Sitting Pretty, at the Fulton Theatre. A silent film adaptation called Oh, Lady, Lady was made in 1920.
Act 2
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...
with music by Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
, a book by Guy Bolton
Guy Bolton
Guy Reginald Bolton was a British-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the U.S., he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G...
and P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
and lyrics by Wodehouse. It was written for the Princess Theatre
Princess Theatre
The Princess Theatre was a joint venture between the Shubert Brothers , producer Ray Comstock, theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury and actor-director Holbrook Blinn...
on 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...
, where it played in 1918 and ran for 219 performances. The story concerns an engaged young man, Bill, whose ex-fiancée arrives unexpectedly on his wedding day. Meanwhile, comic complications arise because of a couple of crooks, the bride's mother dislikes the groom, and the nuptials are called off. Bill works to convince his old flame that he was not worthy to marry her; but his clumsy efforts do not make him look good to his new fiancée.
The original cast starred Vivienne Segal
Vivienne Segal
Vivienne Sonia Segal was an American actress and singer.Segal was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best remembered for creating the role of Vera Simpson in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Pal Joey and introduced the song "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"...
as Mollie Farringdon. The songs include "Not Yet", "When Ships Come Home", "Greenwich Village", the innovative "Moon Song" and "Our Little Nest". The song "Bill
Bill (Show Boat)
"Bill" is a song heard in Act II of Kern and Hammerstein's classic 1927 musical Show Boat. The song was written for Kern and P.G. Wodehouse's 1917 musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! for Vivienne Segal to perform, but withdrawn because it was considered too melancholy for that show...
", later famous in Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
, was cut before the production opened.
Background
The Princess TheatrePrincess Theatre
The Princess Theatre was a joint venture between the Shubert Brothers , producer Ray Comstock, theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury and actor-director Holbrook Blinn...
was a small 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...
house that seated only 299 people. Theatre agent Elisabeth Marbury
Elisabeth Marbury
Elisabeth Marbury was a pioneering American theatrical and literary agent and producer who represented a prominent theatrical performers and writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and helped shape business methods of the modern commercial theater...
urged composer Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
and librettist Guy Bolton
Guy Bolton
Guy Reginald Bolton was a British-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the U.S., he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G...
, later joined by British humorist and lyricist/playwright P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
to write a series of musicals tailored to the theatre, with an intimate style and modest budgets. These "Princess Theatre shows" had coherent, clever plots that provided an alternative to the other musical entertainments that then dominated Broadway: star-studded 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...
s and extravaganzas of Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...
, thinly-plotted, musical comedies and gaudy operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
imports from Europe.
After a modest success, Nobody's Home (1915), Kern and Bolton had a hit with an original musical called Very Good Eddie
Very Good Eddie
Very Good Eddie is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Philip Bartholomae, music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Schuyler Green and Herbert Reynolds, with additional lyrics by Elsie Janis, Harry B. Smith and John E. Hazzard and additional music by Henry Kailimai. The story was based on the farce...
(1915). Wodehouse joined the team for another hit, Oh, Boy!
Oh, Boy! (musical)
Oh, Boy! is a musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse. The story concerns befuddled George, who elopes with Lou Ellen, the daughter of Judge Carter. He must win over her parents and his Quaker aunt...
(1917), which ran for an extraordinary 463 performances. Two more of their shows written for the theatre ran at other theatres during the long runs of Very Good Eddie and Oh, Boy! The shows featured modern American settings and simple scene changes (one set for each act) to suit the small theatre, eschewing operetta traditions of foreign locales and elaborate scenery. The collaboration was much praised. According to Gerald Bordman, writing in The Musical Times
The Musical Times
The Musical Times is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It is currently the oldest such journal that is still publishing in the UK, having been published continuously since 1844. It was published as The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular until...
,
Productions
Oh, Lady! Lady!! debuted in Albany, New YorkAlbany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
on January 7, 1918 at Bleecker Hall. After some revisions and touring, the musical opened at the Princess Theatre on February 1, 1918, to uniformly rave reviews and ran for 219 performances, finishing its run at the Casino Theatre. The production was produced by William Elliott and F. Ray Comstock and directed by Robert Milton and Edward Royce, who also choreographed. It starred Vivienne Segal
Vivienne Segal
Vivienne Sonia Segal was an American actress and singer.Segal was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best remembered for creating the role of Vera Simpson in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Pal Joey and introduced the song "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"...
as Mollie Farringdon, one of her earliest roles, and Carl Randall as Bill Finch. Florence Shirley
Florence Shirley
Florence Shirley was an American stage and film actress.Shirley began her stage career in Boston and enjoyed moderate success on Broadway. After the sinking of in April 1912, she participated in a benefit concert for survivors held at the George M. Cohan Theatre...
played Fanny Welch, a jewel thief. Early drafts of the show were called Say When, but the title of the show was eventually taken from a minstrel show
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
catch-phrase.
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
previewed the show, calling the plot "measurably novel" with bright lines and lyrics, said the music demonstrated "easy gaity" and praised the show's casting and "artistic excellence". The paper called Segal "wonderfully pleasing" and praised both her and Randall's dancing. Its review began: "Once more Comstock, Elliott, and Gest have shown their allegiance to the policy of supplying popular entertainment which is mitigated by all availabie talent and good taste". In February 1918, Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
wrote in Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913-1936)
Vanity Fair was an American society magazine published from 1913-1936. It was highly successful until the Great Depression led to it becoming unprofitable, and it was merged into Vogue magazine in 1936.-History:...
:
One of Segal's songs, Bill, was cut just two days before the show opened. In the song, Mollie reflects on her love for a young man that her mother dislikes. Kern used the song nine years later, with the lyric revised by Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
, in Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
(1927).
Financial disagreements arose between Wodehouse and Kern, and Oh, Lady! Lady!! proved to be the last success in the series, and the collaborators went on to other projects, with each of Kern and Wodehouse continuing to work separately with Bolton. The trio combined for one more show together in 1924, Sitting Pretty, at the Fulton Theatre. A silent film adaptation called Oh, Lady, Lady was made in 1920.
Roles and original cast
- Parker – Constance Binney
- Mollie Farrington – Vivienne SegalVivienne SegalVivienne Sonia Segal was an American actress and singer.Segal was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best remembered for creating the role of Vera Simpson in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Pal Joey and introduced the song "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"...
- Mrs. Farrington – Margaret Dale
- Willoughby "Bill" Finch – Carl Randall
- Hale Underwood – Harry C. Browne
- Spike Hudgins – Edward Abeles
- Fanny Welch – Florence ShirleyFlorence ShirleyFlorence Shirley was an American stage and film actress.Shirley began her stage career in Boston and enjoyed moderate success on Broadway. After the sinking of in April 1912, she participated in a benefit concert for survivors held at the George M. Cohan Theatre...
- May Barber – Carroll McComas
- Cyril Twombley – Reginald Mason
- William Watty – Harry Fisher
Musical numbers
Act 1- I'm to Be Married Today – Mollie Farrington and Girls
- Not Yet – Mollie and Bill Finch
- Do It Now – Spike Hudgins, Hale Underwood and Bill
- Our Little Nest – Spike and Fanny Welch
- Do Look at Him! – Mollie and Girls
- Oh, Lady! Lady! – Bill and Girls
- You Found Me and I Found You – May Barber and Hale
Act 2
- Moon (The Moon Song) – Miss Clarette Cupp and Ensemble
- Waiting Around the Corner – May and Boys
- Little Ships Come Sailing Home – Mollie and Girls
- Before I Met You – Bill and Mollie
- Greenwich Village – Bill, Spike and Fanny
- Wheatless Days – Hale and May
- It's a Hard, Hard World for a Man – Bill, Hale and Cyril Twombley
External links
- Oh, Lady! Lady!! at the Internet Broadway DatabaseInternet Broadway DatabaseThe Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....
- Carnegie Hall 1985 concert production
- 42nd Street Moon 2007 production
- Musicals Tonight 2006 production