Ankles Aweigh

Last updated
Ankles Aweigh
AnklesAweigh.jpg
Original cast recording
Music Sammy Fain
LyricsDan Shapiro
Book Guy Bolton
Eddie Davis
Productions1955 Broadway
1989 Goodspeed Opera House revival

Ankles Aweigh is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Eddie Davis, lyrics by Dan Shapiro, and music by Sammy Fain. The plot involves Hollywood starlet Wynne, who secretly marries a Navy pilot while filming a movie in Sicily. She disguises herself as a sailor and stows away on his ship to grab a covert honeymoon. They get mixed up with an espionage ring.

Contents

The original Broadway production opened April 18, 1955, and ran for 176 performances, but lost money.

Background and productions

By 1955, audiences had become accustomed to book musicals that seamlessly integrated dialogue scenes with musical numbers, so this throwback to vaudeville-style entertainment, complete with burlesque jokes, chorus girls, and impersonations of Marlene Dietrich and Zsa Zsa Gabor, "seemed a shockingly dated effort", according to Ken Mandelbaum. [1] Rodgers and Hammerstein invested in the show but made no creative contributions. During rehearsals, lead comic Myron McCormick was replaced by Lew Parker, and Sonny Tufts was fired in New Haven. [1] Jerome Robbins spent two weeks revamping the show in Boston. [2] The Allmusic reviewer noted that "the show seemed like such a throwback" and was "dated". [3]

The musical opened on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on April 18, 1955, [4] and closed on September 17, 1955, after 176 performances. The show was directed by Fred F. Finklehoffe and choreographed by Tony Charmoli, with a cast that featured real-life sisters Jane and Betty Kean as Wynne and Elsey, Mark Dawson as Bill, Gabriel Dell as Spud and Thelma Carpenter as featured singer Chipolata. [2] The producers immediately posted a closing notice, but theatre owner Anthony Brady Farrell decided to keep the show running with his own financing. Broadway columnists Walter Winchell's and Ed Sullivan's glowing reports failed to generate much business, and when salaries were cut to keep losses to a minimum, most of the major players quit in protest. After struggling for five months, the show finally closed at a loss of $340,000, which was more than its initial investment. [1]

The Goodspeed Opera House revived the musical with a new book by Charles Busch, who transformed it into a camp satire of 1950s movie musicals and an affectionate tribute to the genre. [5] The musical ran at Goodspeed in September 1988. [6]

Synopsis

Act I

A Hollywood starlet, Wynne, is in Sicily with her sister Elsey to film her movie debut in a low-budget musical ("Italy"). She falls in love with U.S. Navy lieutenant Bill Kelley ("Nothing at All"). The two secretly marry, violating a clause in her contract. With the aid of her sister and two of her husband's service buddies, Dinky and Spud, Wynne disguises herself as a sailor ("Walk Like a Sailor") and stows away on Bill's ship, the U.S.S. Alamo, so that they can slip away for a honeymoon. When they reach Morocco, they run into Bill's jealous Moroccan ex-girlfriend, Lucia ("Headin' for the Bottom"), who is now the mistress of the leader of an espionage ring. As revenge, Lucia implicates him as a spy.

Act II

With the help of her sister and his buddies, Wynne and Bill eventually find a way to absolve him of the charges, he becomes a hero, and they live happily ever after ("Eleven O'Clock Song").

Musical numbers

Reception

Reviews were mostly unfavorable, commenting that the show's old vaudeville style no longer worked in the post- Oklahoma! era. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times wrote: "Imagine that nothing interesting has developed in the field of musical comedy for the last ten or fifteen years", and Walter Kerr of the Herald Tribune said: "Some of us have been campaigning lately for a return to the old-fashioned, slam-bang, gags-and-girls musical comedy. Some of us ought to be shot."[ citation needed ] A review in the New York Post was equally critical: "My impression of Ankles Aweigh is that it has neither the brightness and wit to be satisfying as satire or the charm to be winning as nostalgia. ... The libretto ... seems to be remembered by Guy Bolton and Eddie Davis rather than written. ... I assuredly didn't enjoy Ankles Aweigh, but I would be the last to claim it was trying to deceive anybody." [7] A more mixed assessment from William Hawkins writing in the New York World–Telegram and Sun praised the costumes, saying "every girl in it had the choice of a lifetime dress to wear." [8]

The Goodspeed revival was better received by audiences, but not by critics: [9] "For all the inventiveness of its intentions," Alvin Klein wrote in The New York Times, the revival "clinches the show's status as a musical that one will go on forgetting to remember." [6]

Recordings

An original cast recording was released by Decca Records in 1955. [3] The recording does not include the songs "Old Fashioned Mothers", "The Villain Always Gets It", and "The Code". In addition, the song "Nothing Can Replace a Man" appears after "Ready Cash", instead of after "Headin' for the Bottom". [10] A CD re-issue was released in 2004. [11]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Mandelbaum, Ken. "CDs: Sister Act". Broadway.com, June 28, 2004
  2. 1 2 "'Ankles Aweigh' Broadway Listing". InternetBroadwayDatabase, accessed July 22, 2012
  3. 1 2 Ruhlmann, William. "'Ankles Aweigh'. Allmusic.com, accessed July 22, 2012
  4. "Ankles Aweigh Opening Tonight; Musical to Mark Return by Kean Sisters to Broadway After Six-Year Absence". The New York Times . April 18, 1955. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  5. Ankles Aweigh Archived 2018-04-08 at the Wayback Machine , charlesbusch.com, accessed June 13, 2015
  6. 1 2 Klein, Alvin. "Theater; Ankles Aweigh Gets Godspeed Revamping", The New York Times , September 11, 1988, accessed June 15, 2015
  7. Watts, Richard Jr. "Two on the Aisle", New York Post, April 19, 1955.
  8. Suskin (1990), pp. 50–53.
  9. Mandelbaum (1991), p. 43
  10. Ankles Aweigh Archived June 15, 2015, at the Wayback Machine , Playbill Vault, accessed June 13, 2015
  11. Liner notes to CD issue (2004), Decca Broadway, ASIN B0002BO0RG

Related Research Articles

<i>Dear World</i> 1969 Broadway musical

Dear World is a musical with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. With its opening, Herman became the first composer-lyricist in history to have three productions running simultaneously on Broadway. It starred Angela Lansbury, who won the Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Musical in 1969 for her performance as the Countess Aurelia.

<i>Lil Abner</i> (musical) American musical based on comic strip by Al Capp

Li'l Abner is a 1956 musical with a book by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, music by Gene De Paul, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Based on the comic strip Li'l Abner by Al Capp, the show is, on the surface, a broad spoof of hillbillies, but it is also a pointed satire on other topics, ranging from American politics and incompetence in the United States federal government to propriety and gender roles.

<i>High Button Shoes</i> Musical

High Button Shoes is a 1947 musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn and book by George Abbott and Stephen Longstreet. It was based on the semi-autobiographical 1946 novel The Sisters Liked Them Handsome by Stephen Longstreet. The story concerns the comic entanglements of the Longstreet family with two con men in Atlantic City.

Lock Up Your Daughters is a musical based on the 1730 comedy Rape upon Rape, by Henry Fielding, and adapted by Bernard Miles. The lyrics were written by Lionel Bart and the music by Laurie Johnson. It was first produced on the London stage in 1959.

Martin Charnin was an American lyricist, writer, and theatre director. Charnin's best-known work is as conceiver, director, and lyricist of the musical Annie.

<i>All American</i> (musical) Musical

All American is a musical with a book by Mel Brooks, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. Based on the Robert Lewis Taylor 1950 novel Professor Fodorski, it is set on the campus of the fictional Southern Baptist Institute of Technology: the worlds of science and sports collide when the principles of engineering are applied to football strategies, and football strategies are used to teach the principles of engineering. The techniques of a Hungarian immigrant, Professor Fodorski, prove to be successful, resulting in a winning team, and he finds himself the target of a Madison Avenue ad man who wants to exploit his new-found fame.

<i>Dames at Sea</i> 1966 American musical parody

Dames at Sea is a 1966 musical with book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller and music by Jim Wise.

<i>Take Me Along</i> Musical

Take Me Along is a 1959 musical based on the 1933 Eugene O'Neill play Ah, Wilderness, with music and lyrics by Bob Merrill and book by Joseph Stein and Robert Russell.

<i>The Goodbye Girl</i> (musical) Musical

The Goodbye Girl is a musical with a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by David Zippel, and music by Marvin Hamlisch, based on Simon's original screenplay for the 1977 film of the same name.

<i>La Strada</i> (musical) Musical

La Strada is a musical with lyrics and music by Lionel Bart, with additional lyrics by Martin Charnin and additional music by Elliot Lawrence. It is based on the 1954 film of the same name by Federico Fellini. Bart wrote the score in 1967 and made a demonstration recording, although the musical was not produced until 1969, when it was famously cancelled after just one performance. The musical's book was written by Charles K. Peck, Jr., who also produced it on Broadway.

<i>Prettybelle</i> Musical

Prettybelle is a musical with a book and lyrics by Bob Merrill and music by Jule Styne. It was adapted from Jean Arnold's darkly comic novel Prettybelle: A Lively Tale of Rape and Resurrection. It starred Angela Lansbury, but never was produced on Broadway and closed in Boston in 1971.

<i>Hazel Flagg</i> Musical

Hazel Flagg is a 1953 musical, book by Ben Hecht, based on a story by James H. Street. The lyrics are by Bob Hilliard, and music by Jule Styne. The musical is based on the 1937 screwball comedy film Nothing Sacred, the primary screenwriter of which was Ben Hecht.

<i>Oh, Captain!</i> 1953 musical

Oh, Captain! is a musical comedy based on the 1953 film The Captain's Paradise with music and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and the book by Al Morgan and José Ferrer. The basis of the musical was the 1953 film The Captain's Paradise, which had been written by Alec Coppel and Nicholas Phipps.

<i>Dearest Enemy</i> Musical by [[Herbert Fields]], [[Lorenz Hart]] and [[Richard Rodgers]]

Dearest Enemy is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and music by Richard Rodgers. This was the first of eight book musicals written by the songwriting team of Rodgers and Hart and writer Herbert Fields, and the first of more than two dozen Rodgers and Hart Broadway musicals. The musical takes place in 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, when Mary Lindley Murray detained British troops long enough in Manhattan to give George Washington time to move his vulnerable troops.

Home Sweet Homer is a 1976 musical with a book by Roland Kibbee and Albert Marre, lyrics by Charles Burr and Forman Brown, and music by Mitch Leigh.

Marcy Heisler is a musical theater lyricist and performer. As a performer, she has performed at Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and numerous other venues throughout the United States and Canada. Heisler was nominated for the 2009 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics for Dear Edwina.

<i>King of Hearts</i> (musical) Musical

King of Hearts is a 1978 musical with a book by Joseph Stein, lyrics by Jacob Brackman, and music by Peter Link, orchestrated by Bill Brohn. It is based on the 1966 anti-war cult film of the same name.

<i>A Broadway Musical</i> Musical

A Broadway Musical is a musical with a book by William F. Brown, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. The Broadway production closed after 14 previews and only one performance on December 21, 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M'el Dowd</span> American actress and singer (1933–2012)

Mary Ellen Dowd was an American stage, musical theatre and film actress, and singer, whose career spanned half a century. Beginning in Shakespeare roles and films in the 1950s, Dowd continued to perform on stage, film and television into the 21st century. A frequent performer on Broadway in the 1960s, Dowd originated the role of Morgan le Fay in the musical Camelot.

Tom Morrow (1928–1994) was an American painter and commercial artist, best known as the designer of numerous iconic advertisements for Broadway plays and musicals from the 1950s to the 1980s. In 1975, Morrow was credited with "having the distinction of creating artwork for more Broadway musicals and plays than any other living artist".

References