Show Girl is a
musicalMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue 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 a book by
William Anthony McGuireWilliam Anthony McGuire was a playwright, theatre director, and producer and an Academy Award-winning American screenwriter. He won an Oscar for the 1936 film The Great Ziegfeld....
, lyrics by
Ira GershwinIra Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
and
Gus KahnGustav Gerson Kahn was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.-Biography:Kahn was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1886. The family immigrated to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890...
, and music by
George GershwinGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are universally familiar....
. Its heroine, aspiring
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
showgirlA showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show."Showgirl" is often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
Dixie Dugan, was a character created by J. P. McEvoy and introduced in a novel first
serialThe term "serial" refers to the intrinsic property of a series – namely, its order. In literature, the term is used as a noun to refer to a format by which a story is told in contiguous installments in sequential issues of a single periodical publication.More generally, "serial" is applied...
ized in
LibertyLiberty magazine may refer to one of 4 magazines published in the United States:* Liberty , a political magazine published from 1881 to 1908 by Benjamin Tucker* Liberty , a general-interest magazine published from 1924 to 1950...
and then published in book form by
Simon & SchusterSimon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin, and HarperCollins...
in 1928.
The Broadway production was produced by
Florenz ZiegfeldFlorenz "Flo" Ziegfeld, Jr. was an American Broadway impresario. He is best known for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl".-Early life and career:Ziegfeld was born in Chicago to German...
, directed by McGuire, and choreographed by Bobby Connolly, with
balletBallet is a formalized type of performance dance, which originated in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century French courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form...
sequences, including one set to
An American in ParisAn American in Paris is a symphonic composition by American composer George Gershwin, composed in 1928. Inspired by time Gershwin had spent in Paris, it is in the form of an extended tone poem evoking the sights and energy of the French capital in the 1920s. It is one of Gershwin's best-known...
, by
Albertina RaschAlbertina Rasch was a naturalized American dancer and choreographer.Born in Vienna in 1891 to a family of Polish Jewish descent, Rasch studied at the Vienna State Opera Ballet school and became leading ballerina at the New York Hippodrome in 1911...
.
Show Girl is a
musicalMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue 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 a book by
William Anthony McGuireWilliam Anthony McGuire was a playwright, theatre director, and producer and an Academy Award-winning American screenwriter. He won an Oscar for the 1936 film The Great Ziegfeld....
, lyrics by
Ira GershwinIra Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
and
Gus KahnGustav Gerson Kahn was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.-Biography:Kahn was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1886. The family immigrated to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890...
, and music by
George GershwinGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are universally familiar....
. Its heroine, aspiring
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
showgirlA showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show."Showgirl" is often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
Dixie Dugan, was a character created by J. P. McEvoy and introduced in a novel first
serialThe term "serial" refers to the intrinsic property of a series – namely, its order. In literature, the term is used as a noun to refer to a format by which a story is told in contiguous installments in sequential issues of a single periodical publication.More generally, "serial" is applied...
ized in
LibertyLiberty magazine may refer to one of 4 magazines published in the United States:* Liberty , a political magazine published from 1881 to 1908 by Benjamin Tucker* Liberty , a general-interest magazine published from 1924 to 1950...
and then published in book form by
Simon & SchusterSimon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin, and HarperCollins...
in 1928.
The Broadway production was produced by
Florenz ZiegfeldFlorenz "Flo" Ziegfeld, Jr. was an American Broadway impresario. He is best known for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl".-Early life and career:Ziegfeld was born in Chicago to German...
, directed by McGuire, and choreographed by Bobby Connolly, with
balletBallet is a formalized type of performance dance, which originated in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century French courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form...
sequences, including one set to
An American in ParisAn American in Paris is a symphonic composition by American composer George Gershwin, composed in 1928. Inspired by time Gershwin had spent in Paris, it is in the form of an extended tone poem evoking the sights and energy of the French capital in the 1920s. It is one of Gershwin's best-known...
, by
Albertina RaschAlbertina Rasch was a naturalized American dancer and choreographer.Born in Vienna in 1891 to a family of Polish Jewish descent, Rasch studied at the Vienna State Opera Ballet school and became leading ballerina at the New York Hippodrome in 1911...
.
Duke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader.Duke Ellington became one of the most influential artists in the history of recorded music, and is largely recognized as one of the greatest figures in the history of jazz, though his music stretched into...
conducted the orchestra. It opened on July 2, 1929 at the Ziegfeld Theatre and ran for 111 performances. The cast included
Ruby KeelerRuby 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 legendary singer Al Jolson...
as Dixie,
Jimmy DuranteJames Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer and movie icon, pianist, comedian and actor, whose distinctive gravel delivery, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose – his frequent jokes about it included a frequent self-reference that became his nickname:...
,
Eddie Foy, Jr.Eddie Foy Jr. was an American character actor.Born Edwin Fitzgerald Jr. in New Rochelle, New York, the son of vaudevillian Eddie Foy and his third wife, Madeline Morando, he was one of the "Seven Little Foys" immortalized in the 1955 film of the same name...
,
Frank McHughFrank McHugh was an American film and television actor.McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents ran a stock theatre company and as a young child he performed on stage...
, and
Nick LucasNick Lucas was an American singer and pioneer jazz guitarist, remembered as "the grandfather of the jazz guitar", whose peak of popularity lasted from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s....
.
Keeler's husband
Al JolsonAl Jolson was an American singer, comedian, and actor. According to PBS, he is considered the "first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in America"...
frequently sat in the audience and serenaded her with the show's closing number, "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)," from his seat. The song was featured in the 1946
biopicA biographical motion picture—often shortened to biopic—is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most...
The Jolson StoryThe Jolson Story is a 1946 musical biography which purports to tell the life story of singer Al Jolson. It stars Larry Parks as Jolson, Evelyn Keyes as "Julie Benson" , William Demarest as his manager, Ludwig Donath and Tamara Shayne as his parents, and Scotty Beckett as the young Jolson.The...
.
Warner Brothers filmed this musical as
Show Girl (1929) with
Alice WhiteAlice White was an American film actress.-Early life and career:She was born Alva White in Paterson, New Jersey, but raised in Los Angeles. White attended Hollywood High School along with future actors Joel McCrea and Mary Brian. After leaving school she became a secretary and "script girl" for...
as Dixie Dugan and then a
sequelA sequel is a work in literature, film, or other media that chronologically portrays events following those of a previous work.In many cases, the sequel continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and settings. A sequel can lead to a series, in which key elements appear...
,
Show Girl in HollywoodShow Girl In Hollywood is a musical comedy/drama film with Technicolor sequences, starring Alice White. It was adapted from the novel Hollywood Girl by J. P. McEvoy.-Trivia:...
(1930) with White again starring as Dixie.
Song list
- Happy Birthday
- My Sunday Fella
- How Could I Forget?
- Can Broadway Do Without Me? (Music and lyrics by Jimmy Durante)
- Lolita (My Love)
- Do What You Do
- Spain
- One Man
- So Are You
- I Must Be Home by Twelve O'Clock
- Because They All Love You (Lyrics by Thomas Malie, music by J. Little)
- Who Will be With You When I Am Far Away? (Music and lyrics By W. H. Farrell)
- Black and White
- Jimmie, the Well-Dressed Man (Music and lyrics by Jimmy Durante)
- Harlem Serenade
- An American in Paris
- Home Blues
- Broadway, My Street (Lyrics by Sidney Skolsky, music by Jimmy Durante)
- (So) I Ups to Him (Music and lyrics by Jimmy Durante)
- Follow the Minstrel Band
- Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)
"Liza " is a song composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn. It was introduced in 1929 by Ruby Keeler and Dixie Dugan in Florenz Ziegfeld's musical Show Girl. The stage performances were accompanied by the Duke Ellington Orchestra...
External links