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Sally is a musical comedy 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....
, lyrics by Clifford Grey and book by Guy Bolton
Guy Bolton

Guy Reginald Bolton was a Great Britain-United States playwright and writer of musical theatre.Born Guy Reginald Bolton to American parents in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, Bolton studied architecture before beginning his writing career in 1914 with the play The Rule of Three....
 (inspired by the 19th century show, Sally in our Alley), with additional lyrics by Buddy De Sylva
Buddy De Sylva

George Gard "Buddy" DeSylva was an United States songwriter, film producer and record executive. He wrote or co-wrote many popular songs and along with Johnny Mercer and Glenn Wallichs he founded Capitol Records....
, Anne Caldwell
Anne Caldwell

Anne Caldwell , also known as Anne Caldwell O'Dea was a librettist and lyricist. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She wrote both pop songs and Broadway theatre shows including working with Jerome Kern....
 and P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, Order of the British Empire was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read....
. It was originally produced by Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld

Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , called Flo Ziegfeld, was an American Broadway theatre impresario. He is best known for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Berg?res of Paris....
, opening on December 21, 1920 at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway. It ran for 570 performances, which was one of the longest runs on Broadway up to that time. By the time it closed in 1924, it would prove to be among the top five money makers of the 1920s.

The show was designed as the musical comedy debut of Marilyn Miller
Marilyn Miller

Marilyn Miller was one of the most popular Broadway theatre musical stars of the 1920s and early 1930s. She was an accomplished tap dancer, singer and actress, but it was the combination of these talents that endeared her to audiences....
, a 22-year old Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies

The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway theatre in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
 girl.






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Sally is a musical comedy 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....
, lyrics by Clifford Grey and book by Guy Bolton
Guy Bolton

Guy Reginald Bolton was a Great Britain-United States playwright and writer of musical theatre.Born Guy Reginald Bolton to American parents in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, Bolton studied architecture before beginning his writing career in 1914 with the play The Rule of Three....
 (inspired by the 19th century show, Sally in our Alley), with additional lyrics by Buddy De Sylva
Buddy De Sylva

George Gard "Buddy" DeSylva was an United States songwriter, film producer and record executive. He wrote or co-wrote many popular songs and along with Johnny Mercer and Glenn Wallichs he founded Capitol Records....
, Anne Caldwell
Anne Caldwell

Anne Caldwell , also known as Anne Caldwell O'Dea was a librettist and lyricist. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She wrote both pop songs and Broadway theatre shows including working with Jerome Kern....
 and P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, Order of the British Empire was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read....
. It was originally produced by Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld

Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , called Flo Ziegfeld, was an American Broadway theatre impresario. He is best known for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Berg?res of Paris....
, opening on December 21, 1920 at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway. It ran for 570 performances, which was one of the longest runs on Broadway up to that time. By the time it closed in 1924, it would prove to be among the top five money makers of the 1920s.

The show was designed as the musical comedy debut of Marilyn Miller
Marilyn Miller

Marilyn Miller was one of the most popular Broadway theatre musical stars of the 1920s and early 1930s. She was an accomplished tap dancer, singer and actress, but it was the combination of these talents that endeared her to audiences....
, a 22-year old Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies

The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway theatre in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
 girl. Miller would continue to be a star on Broadway until her untimely death in 1936. Kern, Bolton, and Wodehouse had collaborated on a number of musical comedies at the Princess Theatre. The story combined the innocence of these earlier "Princess musicals" with the lavishness of the "Follies" formula. The score recycles some material from previous Kern shows, including "Look for the Silver Lining" and "Whip-poor-will" (with lyrics by De Sylva, from the flop "Zip Goes a Million"); "The Lorelei" (lyrics by Anne Caldwell); and "You Can't Keep a Good Girl Down" and "The Church 'Round the Comer" (lyrics by Wodehouse). Grey supplied the lyrics for the few new songs in the score. At the request of Ziegfeld, Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert

Victor August Herbert was an Ireland-born, German-raised United States composer, cellist and conducting who is best known for his many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway theatre....
 was engaged to write the music to "The Butterfly Ballet" in Act Three.

The plot hinges on a mistaken-identity: Sally, a waif, is a dishwasher at the Alley Inn. She poses as a famous foreign ballerina and rises to fame (and finds love) through joining the Ziegfeld Follies. There is a rags to riches story, a ballet as a centrepiece, and a wedding as a finale.

A 1929 film version
Sally (film)

Sally is the third sound feature photographed in Technicolor released in 1929 in film .It was based on the Broadway theatre stage hit, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld ....
 of Sally was made, with a screenplay was by Waldemar Young.

"Look for the Silver Lining" continues to be one of Kern's most familiar songs. The song is lampooned by another song, "Look for a Sky of Blue," in Rick Besoyan
Rick Besoyan

Richard Besoyan was a singer, actor, playwright, composer and director especially of operetta and musical theatre. He is best remembered for writing the successful satire musical Little Mary Sunshine....
's satirical 1959 musical Little Mary Sunshine
Little Mary Sunshine

Little Mary Sunshine is a Musical theatre that parodies old-fashioned operettas and musicals. The book, music, and lyrics are by Rick Besoyan....
.

Subsequent productions

The musical enjoyed successful productions in 1921 in London at the Winter Garden Theatre, starring British musical comedy veteran George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr.

George Grossmith, Jr. was a United Kingdom actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies....
, which ran for 387 performances, and in 1923 in Australia by the J. C. Williamson
J. C. Williamson

James Cassius Williamson was an United States actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd.Born in Pennsylvania, Williamson moved with his family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin....
 company. There were Broadway revivals in 1923 (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 ....
) and 1948 and a London revival in 1942 (at Prince's Theatre). Other productions included a 1944 LACLO Production in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is the largest city in the U.S. state of California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles is rated as a beta global city, has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California....
 and a 1988 concert production Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway

Off Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of Play , musical theater or revues performed in New York City. Originally referring to the location of a venue and its productions on a street intersecting Broadway in Manhattan's Theatre District, New York, the hub of the theater industry in the United States, the term later becam...
 at the Academy Theatre.

Roles and original cast

  • "Pops", Proprietor of the Alley Inn, New York - Alfred P. James
  • Rosalind Rafferty, a manicurist - Mary Hay
  • Madame Nookerova's Maid - Mary Hay
  • Sascha, Violinist at the Alley Inn - Jacques Rebiroff
  • Otis Hooper, a Theatrical Agent - Walter Catlett
  • Mrs. Ten Broek, a Settlement Worker - Dolores
  • Sally of the Alley, a Foundling - Marilyn Miller
  • Madame Nookerova, a Wild Rose - Marilyn Miller
  • Premier Star of the Follies - Marilyn Miller
  • Connie, a Waiter at the Alley Inn - Leon Errol
  • Duke of Czechogovinia - Leon Errol
  • Miss New York, a Niece - Agatha Dehussey
  • Admiral Travers, a gay one - Phil Ryley
  • Blair Farquar, an Only Son - Irving Fisher
  • Jimmie Spelvin - Stanley Ridges
  • Billy Porter - Wade Boothe
  • Harry Burton - Jack Barker


Musical numbers

Act I
  • The Night Time - Jimmie Spelvin and Ensemble (lyrics by Grey)
  • Way Down East - Rosalind Rafferty and Ensemble
  • On with the Dance - Otis Hooper, Rosalind, Betty and Harry Burton (lyrics by Grey)
  • This Little Girl - Mrs. Ten Broek, "Pops" and Foundlings
  • Joan of Arc ("You Can't Keep a Good Girl Down") - Sally of the Alley and Foundlings (lyrics by Grey & Wodehouse)
  • Look for the Silver Lining - Sally and Blair Farquar (lyrics by De Sylva)
  • Sally - Blair and Ensemble (lyrics by Grey)
Act II
  • The Social Game - Jimmie and Ensemble
  • Wild Rose - Sally and Diplomats (lyrics by Grey)
  • (On the Banks of) The Schnitza Komisski - Duke of Czechogovinio and Ensemble (lyrics by Grey)
  • Pzcherkatrotsky - Duke of Czechogovinio
  • Whip-poor-will - Sally and Blair (lyrics by De Sylva)
  • The Lorelei - Otis Hooper, Rosalind and Jimmie (lyrics by Anne Caldwell)
  • The Church Around the Corner - Rosalind and Otis (lyrics by Grey & Wodehouse)
Act III
  • Land of Butterflies (ballet) (music By Victor Herbert)
  • Finale - Dear Little Church 'Round the Corner
    Little Church Around the Corner

    The Church of the Transfiguration, more often known as The Little Church Around the Corner, was founded in 1848 by the Rev. Dr. George Hendric Houghton in New York City....


External links