Roberta

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Roberta

Roberta is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern

Jerome Kern

Jerome David Kern was an American composer of popular music. He wrote around 700 songs, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A Fine Romance ", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight", and "Who? ", a 6-week #1 hit for George Olsen & his Orchestra in 1925....
, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach

Otto Harbach

Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an United States lyricist and librettist of about 50 Musical theater comedies. Some of his more famous lyrics are for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Indian Love Call" and "Cuddle Up a Little Closer"....
. The musical is based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller

Alice Duer Miller

Alice Duer Miller was an United States writer and poet....
. The play notably features the famed songs "Yesterdays

Yesterdays (Otto Harbach and Jerome Kern song)

"Yesterdays" is a 1933 song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics written by Otto Harbach.It was written for the show Roberta , where it was introduced by Irene Dunne....
", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for their 1933 operetta Roberta....
", "You're Devastating", "Something Had To Happen" and "The Touch of Your Hand".

original 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....
production opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre

New Amsterdam Theatre

The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 214 West 42nd Street in the heart of Times Square in New York City. It is operated by Disney Theatrical Productions, and is currently showing the musical theatre Mary Poppins ....
on November 18 1933, and ran for 295 performances.

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Encyclopedia

Roberta is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern

Jerome Kern

Otto Harbach

Alice Duer Miller

Alice Duer Miller was an United States writer and poet....
. The play notably features the famed songs "Yesterdays

Yesterdays (Otto Harbach and Jerome Kern song)

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Productions

The original Broadway

Broadway theatre

New Amsterdam Theatre

Tamara Drasin

Tamara Drasin , often credited as simply Tamara, was a singer and actress who introduced the song Smoke Gets in Your Eyes in the 1933 Broadway musical Roberta....
(billed as Tamara), Bob Hope

Bob Hope

George Murphy

George Lloyd Murphy was an United States dancer, actor, and politician....
, Lyda Roberti

Lyda Roberti

Lyda Roberti was a stage and film actress....
, Fred MacMurray

Fred MacMurray

Frederick Martin MacMurray was an United States actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a highly successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, starting in 1930 and extending into the 1970s....
, Fay Templeton

Fay Templeton

Fay Templeton was an United States theatre actress.Her parents were actors/vaudevillians and she followed in their footsteps, making her Broadway theatre debut in 1900....
, Ray Middleton

Ray Middleton

Raymond Earl Middleton, Jr. , known and billed as Ray Middleton, was an United States character actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Middleton was the first actor to play Superman in public, which he did at the 1939 World's Fair....
(billed as Raymond E. Middleton), and Sydney Greenstreet

Sydney Greenstreet

Sydney Walter Hughes Greenstreet was an England actor, best known for his work with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre in the 1940s....
. Hope, Murphy, MacMurray and Greenstreet were not yet the Hollywood stars they would soon be, and Middleton was not the Broadway leading man he would become after Annie Get Your Gun
Annie Get Your Gun (musical)

Annie Get Your Gun is a musical theater with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields....
.

Other versions

The play was made into a 1935 film

Roberta (1935 film)

Roberta is a 1935 in film musical film by RKO starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott. It was an adaptation of a Broadway theatre Roberta, which in turn was based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller....
by RKO starring Irene Dunne

Irene Dunne

Irene Dunne was an American film actor and singer of the 1930s and 1940s. Dunne was nominated for five-time Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama ....
, Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire was an United States Academy Award-winning film and Broadway theatre dance, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of seventy-six years, during which he made thirty-one musical films....
, Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers was an Academy Awards-winning United States film and stage actor, dancer and singer. In a film career spanning 50 years, she made a total of 73 films, and is now principally celebrated for her role as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre....
, and Randolph Scott

Randolph Scott

Randolph Scott was an United States film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962....
. The film omitted "The Touch of Your Hand" (sung by a minor character), "Something Had To Happen", and "You're Devastating" (originally Middleton's big song in the show), but added the Kern songs "I Won't Dance

I Won't Dance

"I Won't Dance" is a song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics originally written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach, for the 1934 musical Three Sisters....
" and "Lovely to Look At

Lovely to Look At

Lovely to Look At, a remake of the Broadway theatre musical theatre Roberta, is a 1952 MGM musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy....
", which became so popular that they are now always included in revivals and recordings of Roberta.

In 1952

1952 in film

The year 1952 in film involved some significant events....
, MGM remade Roberta under the title Lovely to Look At
Lovely to Look At

Lovely to Look At, a remake of the Broadway theatre musical theatre Roberta, is a 1952 MGM musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy....
. This remake also included the additional songs written for the 1935 film. It starred Kathryn Grayson

Kathryn Grayson

Kathryn Grayson is an American actress and operatic soprano singer. Trained as an opera singer from the age of twelve, Grayson was contracted to MGM and established a career in films from the early 1940s....
, Howard Keel

Howard Keel

Howard Keel, born Harold Clifford Keel was an United States actor and singer. He starred in many of the classic Musical film of the 1950s....
, Red Skelton

Red Skelton

Richard Bernard ?Red? Skelton was an United States comedian who was best known as a top old-time radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway theatre, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, while pursuing another career as a painter....
, Ann Miller

Ann Miller

Ann Miller was an American dancer, singer and actress....
, and Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian people-born American actress and socialite....
and was made in Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is the trademark for a series of Color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA....
.

The show was also presented on television in a highly adapted, modernized 1969 NBC color telecast. This production was presented by Bob Hope

Bob Hope

Bob Hope, Order of the British Empire, Order of St. Gregory the Great , was an British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway theatre, and in radio, television and movies....
, who reprised his original stage role, inserting many new, then-topical jokes about current events. Others in the cast included Michele Lee

Michele Lee

Michele Lee Dusick , better known as Michele Lee, is a Tony Award and Emmy Award-nominated United States singer, dancer, actress, Television producer, Television director and frequent game show panelist of the 1970s....
, John Davidson

John Davidson (entertainer)

John Hamilton Davidson, Sr. is an United States singer, actor and game show host known for hosting That's Incredible!, Time Machine , and Hollywood Squares in the 1980s, and a revival of Pyramid in 1990....
, and Janis Paige

Janis Paige

Janis Paige is an American film, musical theatre and television actress. She began singing in public from the age of five in local amateur shows....
(who sang "I Won't Dance

I Won't Dance

"I Won't Dance" is a song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics originally written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach, for the 1934 musical Three Sisters....
" with a male chorus).

Roberta

Productions

Other versions

External links