The nation’s finest composers, writers, directors, and designers came together in the 1930s to create a new form of theater: the Broadway musical. Beginning in 1927 with Show Boat (with a score by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II), the musical became more than simply a collection of novelty acts and unrelated songs. In Kern’s and Hammerstein’s hands, spoken dialogue segued smoothly into songs whose lyrics continued to advance the plot, and characters were rendered as something. Despite the economic challenges of Depression-era theater-goers, audiences flocked to these musical comedies and new theaters opened to meet demand. At times touching, bawdy, high-spirited, and more, these films represent a sampling of shows that originated in this Golden Age of American theater. All films are free, and are shown at the Art Deco Welcome Center (1001 Ocean Dr).

Friday 18 January, 8:30 pm
Anything Goes
Directed by Robert Lewis, 1956, 106 minutes

[Broadway production opened on 21 November 1934 and ran 420 performances]

Based on the success of the Broadway production, Paramount purchased the film rights and released the first filmed version of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes in 1936, featuring Ethel Merman (in her acclaimed role of Reno Sweeney) and Bing Crosby. The film was remade by Paramount twenty years later, again starring Bing Crosby, and with the addition of Mitzi Gaynor, Donald O’Connor, and Zizi Jeanmaire. While most of the original story has been altered, the ocean liner setting provides a fine backdrop for Porter classics such as You’re the Top, It’s De-Lovely, Blow, Gabriel, I Get a Kick Out of You, and Anything Goes.

Saturday 19 January, 10:00 am
Du Barry Was A Lady
Directed by Roy Del Ruth, 1943, 101 minutes

[Broadway production opened on 06 December 1939 and ran for 408 performances]

Ethel Merman and Bert Lahr led the Broadway cast, in a production that introduced such Cole Porter favorites as Well Did You Evah and Friendship, and Betty Grable in her Broadway debut. Cast in the film version are Red Skelton and Lucille Ball (in her first appearance with red hair), along with Gene Kelly, Zero Mostel (in his film debut), and Ava Gardner and Lana Turner in uncredited appearances. Porter suffered his usual Hollywood treatment, and many of his original songs were replaced by newer ones for the film.

Saturday 19 January, 6:00 pm
Roberta
Directed by William A. Seiter, 1935, 106 minutes

[Broadway production opened on 18 November 1933 and played for 295 performances]

The Broadway production of Roberta was a great success, and featured music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Otto Harback, choreography by Jose Limon, and performances by Sydney Greenstreet, Bob Hope, and Fred MacMurray. RKO studio chief Pandro Berman insisted his studio pay whatever it took for the rights to the stage show. His gamble paid off: the film netted $770,000 and was largely responsible for RKO posting its first annual profit since 1930. The film stars Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott, and brings a newly-paired team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. (Also watch for a young, blonde Lucille Ball.) The score offers several Kern and Harbach ballads, including Yesterdays, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, and Lovely to Look At. RKO later sold the rights to MGM, which remade the film in 1952 as Lovely to Look At.

Saturday 19 January, 8:00 pm
Kiss Me Kate
Directed by George Sidney, 1953, 109 minutes

[Broadway production opened on 30 December 1948 and ran for 1,077 performances]

Based on the backstage bickerings of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne’s 1935 Broadway production of Taming of the Shrew, Kiss Me Kate presents Cole Porter at his best. Starring Alfred Drake, Patricia Morrow, and Lisa Kirk, the production earned five Tony® Awards, including Best Musical and Best Composer/Lyricist. The film, originally filmed and presented in 3-D, features Howard Keel, Katherine Grayson, and Ann Miller in a faithful version of the Broadway original. Unlike Hollywood versions of earlier Porter shows, this one survives with the original score intact.

Sunday 20 January, 10:00 am
On The Town
Directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1949, 98 minutes

[Broadway production opened on 28 December 1944 and ran for 462 performances]

On the Town burst forth in the 1944 season, a product of remarkable talents: composer Leonard Berstein, lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, choreographer Jerome Robbins, and director George Abbott. The film version (the first musical to shoot on location) features Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin as the three sailors in New York with a 24-hour leave, and Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, and Vera Ellen as the objects of their affection. Alice Pearce, who would achieve later fame as the nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz in Bewitched), is the only actor to reprise her original role. The Leonard Bernstein score is augmented with new songs by Roger Edens.

Sunday 20 January, 6:00 pm
Too Many Girls
Directed by George Abbott, 1940, 85 minutes

[Broadway production opened on 18 October 1939 and ran 249 performances]

With music and lyrics by Rogers and Hart, and direction by George Abbott, the Broadway production of Too Many Girls was a moderate hit of the 1939 season, and starred a young Cuban singer in his first and only Broadway appearance: Desi Arnaz. The subsequent film features several members of the Broadway cast (Arnaz, Eddie Bracken and Van Johnson among them) reprising their original roles. The ingenue role is played by Lucille Ball (an RKO contract player in her 59th film), and Ann Miller appears in several dance numbers. While Too Many Girls is known as the show that introduced the ballad I Didn’t Know What Time It Was, it is also the moment when Lucy first met Ricky.

Sunday 20 January, 8:00 pm
Damn Yankees
Directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen, 1958, 111 minutes

[Broadway production opened on 05 May 1955 and ran 1,019 performances]

With book and direction by George Abbott, music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (The Pajama Game), and musical staging by Bob Fosse, the Broadway production of Damn Yankees earned seven Tony® Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor (Ray Walston), Best Actress (Gwen Verdon), and Best Choreography (Bob Fosse). The film retains many members of the original cast (although substituting Tab Hunter for Broadway’s Stephen Douglass), as well as the rousing score and musical staging. Bob Fosse makes an brief appearance, dancing The Mambo with then-wife Gwen Verdon.

ART DECO WEEKEND