| Fine and Dandy | |
|---|---|
 Sheet music | |
| Music | Kay Swift |
| Lyrics | Paul James |
| Book | Donald Ogden Stewart |
Fine and Dandy is a musical comedy in two acts with a book by Donald Ogden Stewart, music by Kay Swift and lyrics by Paul James. It was produced on Broadway in 1930.
Donald Ogden Stewart was commissioned to write a musical comedy tailored to the unique comic persona of vaudeville performer Joe Cook. Much of the book was improvised; the Playbill for the original Broadway production, [1] after listing the credits for book, music and lyrics, adds "Many Nonsensical Moments Created by Joe Cook".
After a try-out at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, [2] Fine and Dandy premiered on Broadway at Erlanger's Theatre on September 23, 1930, and closed on May 2, 1931, after 255 performances. It was produced by Morris Green and Lewis E. Gensler. [3] The production was directed by Green and the dialogue was directed by Frank McCoy, with choreography by Tom Nip and Dave Gould and orchestration by Hans Spialek. The routines for the Abbott Dancers were arranged by Merriel Abbott, and the dance for Mechanical Ballet was arranged by Eugene Von Grona. Scenic design was by Henry Dreyfuss, with costumes by Charles LeMaire. [3]
In 2007, three years after the successful release of a new studio cast recording, the Kay Swift Memorial Trust commissioned a new libretto which would remove Cook's vaudeville routines and change the setting from the Fordyce Drop Forge and Tool Company to a shoe factory, Fordyce Feet. [4] In a newspaper interview, Swift's granddaughter Katharine Weber said, "It will be true to the spirit but will go in different directions." There will be no orchestra, but the actors will be "oddballs who play music on very non-standard instruments." [5]
| Character | Original Broadway cast (1930) | Studio recording (2004) |
|---|---|---|
| Joe Squibb | Joe Cook | Mario Cantone |
| Wiffington | Dave Chasen | — |
| Mrs. Fordyce | Dora Maughan | Anne Kaufman |
| Maribelle Fordyce | Nell O'Day | Jennifer Laura Thompson |
| Nancy Ellis | Alice Boulden | Carolee Carmello |
| George Ellis | Joe Wagstaff | Gavin Creel |
| Mr. Ellis | George A. Schiller | — |
| Edgar Little | John W. Ehrle | Mark Linn-Baker |
| Miss Hunter | Eleanor Powell | Andrea Burns |
Additional members of the large Broadway cast included the Merriel Abbott Specialty Dancers, the Tommy Atkins Sextet, [note 2] the Four Horsemen, and, according to a contemporary review, a "beauty chorus of 60 lithe and lustrous girls". [7]
Theater historian Dan Dietz suggests that some of the comedy quartets, such as the Uninternational Four, the Four Horsemen, and the Giersdorf Brothers, may actually have been Joe Cook playing multiple roles, as he did in his well-known "Four Hawaiians" skit. [8]
Setting: The Fordyce Drop Forge and Tool Factory; a country club; a golf course; the Fordyce Night School; the employees' picnic grounds; a bank; and Mrs. Fordyce's garden.
"Joe Squibb, proud to be a working man if he does not have to work much, becomes general manager of the Fordyce Drop Forge and Tool factory when the widow who owns it falls captive to his brash charms." [9] "Squibb ... is engaged to lovely Nancy Ellis, and ultimately reveals himself to be married and the father of four children. Also as Joe Squibb he lights a bearded man's whiskers, impersonates four German acrobats, plays the saxophone and ukulele, turns handsprings, plays golf with a shovel, eats lunch from a lunchbox the size of an automobile crate, examines the insurance doctor come to examine him, creates a gadget that can puncture balloons while cracking nuts and another for inflating paper bags so that when punctured they can make a resounding noise." [10]
In a review, Edwin C. Stein said, "Donald Ogden Stewart's book is woefully weak. I can't tell you just what the book is about because I didn't pay it a great deal of attention. And neither will you." [11]
Songs, dances and novelty numbers as listed in the Playbill for the original production. The show was frequently revised during its run; a song that became a standard, "Nobody Breaks My Heart", was added to the wedding scene shortly after the show opened.
The "Mechanical Ballet" was arranged by choreographer Eugene Von Grona. The music has been lost; it may or may not have been written by Kay Swift. New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson called it "the most stunning dance number [with the Tommy Atkins Sextet] attired in costumes of original color schemes, against quiet and expansive backgrounds". [12] It may have been an homage or a parody of George Antheil's Ballet Mécanique, which had its New York premier in 1927.
|
|
No original cast recording was made; most of the orchestrations and dance music were lost, with the exception of several songs which had been published individually. Orchestrator Russell Warner teamed with Swift in the 1980s to reconstruct the score. [13] After Swift's death in 1993, Warner continued to work on the project for ten years. A studio recording was released in 2004 by PS Classics with a cast that included Andrea Burns, Mario Cantone, Carolee Carmello, Gavin Creel, Mark Linn-Baker, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Deborah Tranelli, and Anne Kaufman. [14] The recorded score drops "Mechanical Ballet", "Giddyup Back" and "Bird in Hand", and includes several numbers not explicitly listed in the Playbill for the original production. Historian Dan Dietz writes that these may have been listed under a different name or were part of another number. [15]
Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times wrote, "Next to Leonardo da Vinci, Joe Cook is the most versatile man known to recorded times." [16] The Brooklyn Citizen raved, "Fine and Dandy is one of the most side-splitting, amazingly funny musical comedies that has ever been produced on Broadway." [17]
Fine and Dandy was the first successful Broadway musical to feature a complete score by a female composer, running for over 250 performances. [18]
The Times Union (Brooklyn, New York) reported that among those in the audience for the opening night performance were George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Ted Lewis, Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, Marc Connelly, Judith Anderson, William Demarest, E. Ray Goetz, and Irving Caesar. [19]
The Band Wagon is a 1953 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. It tells the story of an aging musical star who hopes a Broadway show will restart his career. However, the play's director wants to make it a pretentious retelling of the Faust legend and brings in a prima ballerina who clashes with the star. Along with Singin' in the Rain (1952), it is regarded as one of the finest Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals, although it was a modest box-office success on first release.
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.
Susan P. Stroman is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include Oklahoma!, The Music Man, Crazy for You, Contact, The Producers, The Frogs, The Scottsboro Boys, Bullets Over Broadway, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, and New York, New York.
Katharine Faulkner "Kay" Swift was an American composer of popular and classical music, the first woman to score a hit musical completely. Written in 1930, the Broadway musical Fine and Dandy includes some of her best known songs; the song “Fine and Dandy” has become a jazz standard. "Can't We Be Friends?" (1929) was her biggest hit song.
The Neil Simon Theatre, originally the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 250 West 52nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was built for Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley. The original name was an amalgamation of Aarons's and Freedley's first names; the theater was renamed for playwright Neil Simon in 1983. The Neil Simon has 1,467 seats across two levels and is operated by the Nederlander Organization. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.
Cady Huffman is an American actress.
The August Wilson Theatre is a Broadway theater at 245 West 52nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1925, the theater was designed by C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim and was built for the Theatre Guild. It is named for Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson (1945–2005). The August Wilson has approximately 1,225 seats across two levels and is operated by Jujamcyn Theaters. The facade is a New York City designated landmark.
The St. James Theatre, originally Erlanger's Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 246 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, it was designed by Warren and Wetmore in a neo-Georgian style and was constructed for A. L. Erlanger. It has 1,709 seats across three levels and is operated by Jujamcyn Theaters. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.
The Broadway Theatre is a Broadway theater at 1681 Broadway in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1924, the theater was designed by Eugene De Rosa for Benjamin S. Moss, who originally operated the venue as a movie theater. It has approximately 1,763 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The Broadway Theatre is one of the few Broadway theaters that is physically on Broadway.
Billion Dollar Baby is a musical with the book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and the score by Morton Gould. Comden and Green were fresh from their success with On the Town, and the production team was something of an On the Town reunion: once again, George Abbott directed and Jerome Robbins choreographed.
Larry Fuller is an American choreographer, theatre director, dancer, and actor. Both a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominated choreographer, he best known for his work on Broadway where he notably staged the movement for the original productions of on On the Twentieth Century (1978), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Evita (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Is There Life After High School? (1982), and A Doll's Life (1982).
Joe Cook was an American vaudeville performer. A household name in the 1920s and 1930s, Cook was one of America's most popular entertainers, and he headlined at New York's famed Palace Theatre. After appearing on Broadway he broke into radio.
John Murray Anderson's Almanac is a musical revue, featuring the music of the songwriting team of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, as well as other composers. It was conceived by John Murray Anderson. An earlier version of the show had been produced in 1929 with the title Murray Anderson's Almanac. The earlier production included Henry Sullivan for composing the music and Noël Coward as part of the script writing team. Sullivan would go on to write music for the 1953 production mentioned here. The full title for the show was John Murray Anderson's Almanac: A Musical Harlequinade.
"Fine and Dandy" is a popular song from the 1930 Broadway musical of the same name.
Lend an Ear is a musical revue with a book, music, and lyrics by Charles Gaynor and additional sketches by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman.
Nell O'Day was an accomplished American equestrian and B-movie actress of the 1930s and 1940s.
Martha Caroline Theresa Lorber was an American dancer, actress, singer, model, and Ziegfeld Girl.
Orange Blossoms is a 1922 musical comedy with music by Victor Herbert, lyrics by Buddy DeSylva, and a book by Fred de Gresac, based on her own 1902 French play La Passerelle which had also been translated and staged on Broadway in 1903 as The Marriage of Kitty.
Jack Whiting was an American actor, singer and dancer whose career ran from the early 1920s through the late 1950s, playing leading men or major supporting figures.
Look, Ma, I'm Dancin’! is a musical comedy in two acts with a book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, and music and lyrics by Hugh Martin. It was produced on Broadway in 1948.