Babes in Arms is a 1937 coming-of-agemusical comedy with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and book by Rodgers and Hart. It concerns a group of small-town Long Island teenagers who put on a show to avoid being sent to a work farm by the town sheriff when their actor parents go on the road for five months in an effort to earn some money by reviving vaudeville.
The film version, released in 1939, starred Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney and was directed by Busby Berkeley. The radically revised script retained only two songs from the original stage version—"Where or When" and "Babes in Arms". The film is credited with popularizing the trope of children staging musicals to raise money for charities.[citation needed]
The original version had strong political overtones with discussions of Nietzsche, the appearance of a Communist character, and two African-American youths who are victims of racism. In 1959 George Oppenheimer created a "sanitized, de-politicized rewrite" for stage performance; it is now the most frequently performed version.[2] In the new version, the young people are trying to save a local summer stock theatre from being demolished, not trying to avoid being sent to a work farm. The sequence of the songs and orchestration are changed drastically, and the dance numbers eliminated.
The 1959 version was the only one available for performance until 1998 when the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music presented the original version (with a few race references slightly re-edited).[3]
A studio cast recording starring Gregg Edelman as Val, Judy Blazer as Billie, Jason Graae as Gus, Donna Kane as Dolores, Judy Kaye as Baby Rose, Adam Grupper as Peter, with JQ and the Bandits as the Quartet and featuring the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra was released by New World Records in 1990.
On July 20, 2016, All Star Productions[5] revived the original version at Ye Old Rose and Crown Theatre Pub, London.[6] It was the first staging of the musical in the UK in almost 15 years. Theatre critic Darren Luke Mawdsley described the work as 'outmoded' stating that he "understand[s] why it has not been staged here in 15 years."[7]
Porchlight Music Theatre presented Babes in Arms as a part of their "Porchlight Revisits" season in which they stage three forgotten musicals per year. It was in Chicago, Illinois in October 2015. It was directed by Jess McLeod and music directed by Alex Newkirk.[8]
The Cohoes Music Hall presented a reconstructed version of the 1937 production under the supervision of Richard Rodgers in 1976. This production was choreographed by Dennis Grimaldi and directed by David Kitchen and Dennis Grimaldi.[10]
The musical was produced at the Chichester Festival Theatre from June 7, 2007, through July 7, 2007, and cast Judy Garland's daughter Lorna Luft as the domineering mother of former child star Baby Rose Owens. One reviewer complained that the musical seemed to have lost its legendary political bite, evidently unaware that this was the revised 1950s de-politicized version.[14] She was given two new songs from neither the stage version nor the film in which her mother appeared.
Goodspeed Opera House Production
In 2002, a very successful production was mounted at Goodspeed Opera using a new book by Joe DiPietro which included plot points from the original 1937 version and also elements from the 1939 MGM film. The original score was utilized along with several additional Rodgers and Hart songs. Randy Skinner choreographed the production.
Plot of original 1937 version
In Seaport, Long Island in the 1930s, Val and Marshall's vaudeville parents leave them behind to go on tour. Val meets Billie, a girl who has driven from the coast, only to have her car break down. The pair sing a love song about their sense of having met before ("Where or When").
The Sheriff then visits them to inform them that they have to work at the work farm because they are not yet 21. The "kids" decide that they will stick around instead and find another way to support themselves ("Babes in Arms"), forming a group with Val as the leader. After deciding nothing (except that violence is good), they disperse.
Dolores, the Sheriff's daughter, talks to Gus, her ex, who tries to woo her but fails. However, the two then sing and flirt about how they do not care that their relationship is over ("I Wish I Were in Love Again"). Marshall arrives, jealous of Gus still wooing Dolores. When Val enters mentioning that he has also kissed Dolores, a fight begins and escalates when others enter. The sheriff comes in and the kids pretend to be dancing. This causes Val to decide to put on their own follies. The Sheriff decides to give them two weeks to put on the show ("Babes in Arms Reprise").
Later, Val enters and tells Irving and Ivor to practice their number ("Light on Our Feet"). Lee then arrives and chastises his brother, Beauregard, for hanging out with "the blacks". Billie then convinces Lee to invest his money in the show. Lee smears some of her lipstick on his cheek and convinces the boys that she kissed him.
The boys next convince "Baby Rose", a former child star, to be in their show. Rose performs a number she learned (Way Out West).
Billie enters with a jealous Val. After calming him, they discuss the show. Lee does not want Irving and Ivor in the show. After learning this, Val leaves in a huff. Billie reflects on her romance with Val ("My Funny Valentine"). They transition into the day of the show and show the final number of the follies performed by Baby Rose ("Johnny One Note"). Backstage, Lee and Val fight over letting Irving and Ivor go on despite their race. Val punches Lee, and Irving and Ivor go and do the big dance finale ("Johnny One Note Ballet").
Act 2 opens on the gang sitting despondently trying to cheer each other up because they are at the work farm ("Imagine"). Val comes in and calls them away to lunch, staying behind to inform Billie that his parents will be away for 3-4 more months. They talk and Val mocks Billie's beliefs on luck and her immaturity ("All at Once").
For the gang's first night off, the sheriff is throwing a party in a field on Val's property. The former communist Peter enters, having won money in a raffle, and proclaims that he is to travel the world and not share his money to which the gang is upset ("Imagine Reprise"). A ballet dream sequence of his travels ("Peter's Ballet") follows. After the ballet he decides to invest the money ("Imagine Reprise 2").
Later at the party, the Sheriff attempts to make good with the kids. Billie tells Val that she plans on leaving the farm for the road. Val insists on going with her before being called back to the kitchen. Billie sings about how she doesn't mind driving around. She also talks about how she likes living on her own terms ("Lady is a Tramp").
Peter returns to the party informing the crew that he lost all the money. The gang leaves following the news of a trans-Atlantic flight and Delores tells Gus that she will come work on the farm to be with him. He reacts by telling her how she doesn't return his affections and drags him along ("You are so Fair"). After pretending to not care about each other, they admit that they like each other.
The gang re-enters and listen to the radio. They realize the Aviator must make a forced landing, and in their field no less! After much scrambling, they call the airport to get reporters to come, and Val decides to impersonate the aviator. The reporters believe his impersonation and the city decides to throw the aviator a party. After concocting a scheme, Billie takes control of the unconscious and tied-up aviator and relishes the fact that the gang treats her as an equal ("Lady is a Tramp Reprise").
At the party, the gang repeatedly interrupts the mayor's introduction of the Aviator to delay the Aviator's speech. Performing a variety of musical numbers ("Specialty: You are so fair, Imagine, My Funny Valentine, Light on Our Feet, and Lady is a Tramp"). After The Aviator's speech the entire chorus performs a rousing closing number ("Finale Ultimo").
Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II. The 1945 work was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. He participates in a robbery to provide for Julie and their unborn child; after it goes tragically wrong, he is given a chance to make things right. A secondary plot line deals with millworker Carrie Pipperidge and her romance with ambitious fisherman Enoch Snow. The show includes the well-known songs "If I Loved You", "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone". Richard Rodgers later wrote that Carousel was his favorite of all his musicals.
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most well-known American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music.
Lorenz Milton Hart was an American lyricist and half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include "Blue Moon"; "The Lady Is a Tramp"; "Manhattan"; "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"; and "My Funny Valentine".
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in farm country outside the town of Claremore, Indian Territory, in 1906, it tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly McLain and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry. A secondary romance concerns cowboy Will Parker and his flirtatious fiancée, Ado Annie.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1925.
Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895–1943). They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart's death in 1943.
Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their musical theater writing partnership has been called the greatest of the 20th century.
The Pajama Game is a musical based on the 1953 novel 7½ Cents by Richard Bissell. The book is by George Abbott and Richard Bissell; the music and lyrics are by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Dances were staged by Bob Fosse in his choreography debut. The story deals with labor troubles and romance in a pajama factory.
On the Town is a musical with music by Leonard Bernstein and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, based on Jerome Robbins' idea for his 1944 ballet Fancy Free, which he had set to Bernstein's music. The musical introduced several popular and classic songs, among them "New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "I Can Cook, Too", and "Some Other Time". The story concerns three American sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City during World War II, 1944. Each of the three sailors meets and quickly connects with a woman.
I Married An Angel is a 1938 musical comedy by Rodgers and Hart. It was adapted from a play by Hungarian playwright János Vaszary, entitled Angyalt Vettem Felesegul. The book was by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, with music by Rodgers and lyrics by Hart. The story concerns a wealthy banker who, disillusioned with women, decides that the only mate for him would be an angel. An angel soon arrives, and he marries her, but finds out that her perfection and guilelessness are inconvenient.
"My Funny Valentine" is a show tune from the 1937 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart coming of age musical Babes in Arms in which it was introduced by teenaged star Mitzi Green. The song became a popular jazz standard, appearing on over 1300 albums performed by over 600 artists. One of them was Chet Baker, for whom it became his signature song. In 2015, it was announced that the Gerry Mulligan quartet featuring Baker's version of the song was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry for the song's "cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation’s audio legacy". Mulligan also recorded the song with his Concert Jazz Band in 1960.
Good News is a musical with a book by Laurence Schwab and B.G. DeSylva, lyrics by DeSylva and Lew Brown, and music by Ray Henderson. The story is set in the Roaring Twenties at Tait College, where football star Tom Marlowe falls in love with studious Connie Lane, who is tutoring him so he can pass astronomy and be eligible to play in the big game.
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is a ballet with music by Richard Rodgers and choreography by George Balanchine. It occurs near the end of Rodgers and Hart's 1936 Broadway musical comedy On Your Toes. Slaughter is the story of a hoofer who falls in love with a dance hall girl who is then shot and killed by her jealous boyfriend. The hoofer then shoots the boyfriend.
"Where or When" is a show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms. It was first performed by Ray Heatherton and Mitzi Green. That same year, Hal Kemp recorded a popular version. The song also appeared in the film version of Babes in Arms two years later.
"The Lady Is a Tramp" is a show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms, in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green. This song is a spoof of New York high society and its strict etiquette and phony social pretensions. It has become a popular music standard.
Babes in Arms is the 1939 American film version of the 1937 coming-of-age Broadway musical of the same title. Directed by Busby Berkeley, it stars Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, and features Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser, Grace Hayes, and Betty Jaynes. It was Garland and Rooney's second film together as lead characters after their earlier successful pairing in the fourth of the Andy Hardy films. The film concerns a group of youngsters trying to put on a show to prove their vaudevillian parents wrong and make it to Broadway. The original Broadway script was significantly revamped, restructured, and rewritten to accommodate Hollywood's needs. Almost all of the Rodgers and Hart songs from the Broadway musical were discarded.
Pal Joey is a 1957 American musical comedy film directed by George Sidney, loosely adapted from the Rodgers and Hart musical play of the same name, and starring Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, and Kim Novak.
"I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" is a show tune from the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. It was first introduced by Mary Martin in the original Broadway production and sung by Mitzi Gaynor in the 1958 film adaptation.
"I Wish I Were in Love Again" is a show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms. In the original show, Dolores, the Sheriff's daughter, talks to Gus, her former boyfriend, who tries to woo her unsuccessfully. They then sing about how they do not care that their relationship is over. The song was omitted from the 1939 film version.
Little Me is a musical written by Neil Simon, with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. The original 1962 Broadway production featured Sid Caesar in multiple roles with multiple stage accents, playing all of the heroine's husbands and lovers. One of the better-known songs from the musical is "I've Got Your Number".
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