Minsky's

Last updated
Minsky's
Minsky's promotional art.jpg
Music Charles Strouse
Lyrics Susan Birkenhead
Book Bob Martin
Basis1968 film The Night They Raided Minsky's
Productions2009 Los Angeles

Minsky's is a musical by Bob Martin (book), Charles Strouse (music), and Susan Birkenhead (lyrics), and is loosely based on the 1968 movie The Night They Raided Minsky's .

Contents

Set during the Great Depression era in Manhattan, the story centers around a jaded burlesque producer (Billy Minsky), a politician trying to shut him down (Randolph Sumner), and an innocent young girl who gets caught between them (Sumner's daughter, Mary).

Production history

Minsky's began previews at the Ahmanson Theater on January 21, 2009, officially opened on February 6, 2009, and ran through March 1, 2009. Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, it starred Christopher Fitzgerald as Billy Minsky, Katharine Leonard as Mary Sumner, George Wendt as Randolph Sumner, and Rachel Dratch in the comedic role of Beula. Costume design was by Gregg Barnes, and lighting design by Ken Billington. [1] [2] In March 2010, the production won LA Drama Critics Awards for Music Direction, Musical Score, and Costume Design. [3]

Producers Kevin McCollum and Bob Boyett had said that they planned to bring the musical to Broadway during the 2009–10 season. [4] The producers will "refine" the show before Broadway. [5] However, as of June 2011, it had not transferred to Broadway. WhatsOnStage.com reported in June 2009 that the musical would open in the West End "in late 2010 or early 2011." [6] [7]

Synopsis

Act One

Billy Minsky is struggling to keep his burlesque theater, the Winter Garden, alive through the depression. With ticket sales down, he needs some new way to sell his show. Meanwhile, on a trip to his psychoanalyst, he meets a beautiful girl, Mary, and falls in love with her. He soon finds out that this girl is the daughter of the politician, Randolph Sumner, who is trying to shut his theater down for lewd material. Billy then tries to win over both Mary and Randolph by posing as a political activist (assuming a different name) while making his dim-witted employee Boris pose as operator of the theater, Billy Minsky. The real Minsky, meanwhile, is torn between his newfound love for the politician's daughter and the loyalty he feels to the cast and crew of his theater. He claims that he has convinced Minsky (really his employee Boris) to clean up the show, and invites Sumner to come and see it. His real motive is to get a compromising photograph of Sumner under false pretenses to derail his political career. He is successful in this enterprise, but, in so doing, reveals his real identity and thereby alienates Sumner's daughter, Mary.

Act Two

Billy has thwarted his opponent, Sumner, but has also lost all hope of winning his daughter Mary. He has saved his theater, and all of its employees, but at the expense of his own happiness. He is given an unexpected second chance, however, when Mary returns to the theater under cover, seeking revenge. Billy sees through her disguise right away, but decides to play along with it in the hopes that they might be reconciled. Although Mary originally returns (with her father in drag) to destroy Billy and his theater, she finds herself more and more sympathetic to the people who make their living there, and in the end she finds it difficult to choose between her father's wishes and the livelihood of the Winter Garden Theater cast and crew.

Musical numbers

Act I
Act II

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Hulce</span> American actor and producer

Thomas Edward Hulce is an American actor and theatre producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Academy Award-winning film Amadeus (1984), as well as the roles of Larry "Pinto" Kroger in Animal House (1978), Larry Buckman in Parenthood (1989), and Quasimodo in Disney's animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Awards include an Emmy Award for The Heidi Chronicles, a 2007 Tony Award for Best Musical as a lead producer for Spring Awakening, an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Amadeus, and four Golden Globe nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bert Lahr</span> American actor (1895–1967)

Irving Lahrheim, known professionally as Bert Lahr, was an American stage and screen actor and comedian. He was best known for his role as the Cowardly Lion, as well as his counterpart Kansas farmworker "Zeke", in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer adaptation of The Wizard of Oz (1939). He was well known for his quick-witted humor and his work in burlesque and vaudeville and on Broadway.

<i>Bye Bye Birdie</i> 1960 musical

Bye Bye Birdie is a stage musical with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, based upon a book by Michael Stewart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Strouse</span> American composer and lyricist

Charles Strouse is an American composer and lyricist best known for writing the music to such Broadway musicals as Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, and Annie.

Roger Bart is an American actor and singer. He won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Snoopy in the 1999 revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Freeman (actor)</span> American actor and puppeteer

Jonathan Freeman is an American actor and singer. He is known for voicing Jafar in Disney's Aladdin franchise, as well as the Kingdom Hearts franchise and the 2011 Aladdin musical.

<i>The Night They Raided Minskys</i> 1968 musical film directed by William Friedkin

The Night They Raided Minsky's is a 1968 American musical comedy film written and produced by Norman Lear, with music and lyrics by the duo of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, and directed by William Friedkin. Based on a 1960 novel by Rowland Barber, the film is a fictional account of the invention of the striptease at Minsky's Burlesque in 1925. It stars Jason Robards, Britt Ekland, Norman Wisdom, Forrest Tucker, Harry Andrews, Denholm Elliott, Elliott Gould and Bert Lahr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nederlander Theatre</span> Broadway theater in Manhattan, New York

The Nederlander Theatre is a Broadway theater at 208 West 41st Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1921, it was designed by William Neil Smith for theatrical operator Walter C. Jordan. It has around 1,235 seats across two levels and is operated by the Nederlander Organization. Since 1980, it has been named for American theater impresario David Tobias Nederlander, father of theatrical producer James M. Nederlander. It is the southernmost Broadway theater in the Theater District.

Minsky's Burlesque refers to the brand of American burlesque presented by four sons of Louis and Ethel Minsky: Abraham 'Abe' Bennett Minsky (1880–1949), Michael William 'Billy' Minsky (1887–1932), Herbert Kay Minsky (1891–1959), and Morton Minsky (1902–1987). They started in 1912 and ended in 1937 in New York City. Although the shows were declared obscene and outlawed, they were rather tame by modern standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian d'Arcy James</span> American actor and musician

Brian d'Arcy James is an American actor and musician. He is known primarily for his Broadway roles, including Shrek in Shrek The Musical, Nick Bottom in Something Rotten!, King George III in Hamilton, and the Baker in Into the Woods, and has received four Tony Award nominations for his work. On-screen, he is known for his recurring role as Andy Baker on the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, Officer Krupke in West Side Story, and reporter Matt Carroll in Spotlight.

<i>Its a Bird... Its a Plane... Its Superman</i> 1966 Broadway musical based on Superman

It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman is a 1966 musical composed by Charles Strouse, with lyrics by Lee Adams and book by David Newman and Robert Benton. It is based on the comic book character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Martin (comedian)</span>

Robert Martin is a television and musical theatre actor and writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beth Leavel</span> American actress

Beth Leavel is an American stage and screen actress and singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Fitzgerald (actor)</span> American actor and singer

Christopher Cantwell Fitzgerald is an American actor and singer. He is known for his role as Boq in the musical Wicked, Igor in the musical Young Frankenstein, and Ogie Anhorn in the musical Waitress. He earned Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, and Tony Award nominations for his performances in Waitress and Young Frankenstein and won the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance in Waitress.

Susan Birkenhead is an American lyricist.

Gregg Barnes is an American costume designer for stage and film. Barnes is a three-time winner of the Tony Award for Best Costume Design in a Musical for his work on the Broadway productions of The Drowsy Chaperone (2006), Follies (2011), and Some Like It Hot (2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casey Nicholaw</span> American theatre professional

Casey Nicholaw is an American theatre director, choreographer, and performer. He has been nominated for several Tony Awards for his work directing and choreographing The Drowsy Chaperone (2006), The Book of Mormon (2011), Aladdin (2014), Something Rotten! (2015), Mean Girls (2018), The Prom (2019), and Some Like It Hot (2023) and for choreographing Monty Python's Spamalot (2005), winning for his co-direction of The Book of Mormon with Trey Parker and his choreography of Some Like It Hot. He also was nominated for the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Direction and Choreography for The Drowsy Chaperone (2006) and Something Rotten! (2015) and for Outstanding Choreography for Spamalot (2005).

Nicolas Putvinski is a Russian fashion designer. He was a contestant on the US reality television series Project Runway, in which he finished in 7th place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American burlesque</span> Genre of variety show

American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall, and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in the United States in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity. By the late 1920s, the striptease element overshadowed the comedy and subjected burlesque to extensive local legislation. Burlesque gradually lost popularity beginning in the 1940s. A number of producers sought to capitalize on nostalgia for the entertainment by recreating burlesque on the stage and in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s. There has been a resurgence of interest in this format since the 1990s.

References

  1. ↑ "Minsky's". Center Theatre Group. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2009.
  2. ↑ Jones, Kenneth (February 6, 2009). "Minsky's, Burlesque-Set Musical by Strouse, Birkenhead and Martin, Opens in L.A." Playbill. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  3. ↑ Hetrick, Adam (March 23, 2010). "Parade, Minsky's, Stick Fly and Life Could Be a Dream Are LA Drama Critics Awards Winners". Playbill. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  4. ↑ Jones, Kenneth (February 12, 2009). "Producers Say Minsky's Will Bump and Grind on Broadway in 2009-10". Playbill. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  5. ↑ "Bob Martin's new musical Minsky's is Broadway bound". CBC.ca. February 12, 2009. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009.
  6. ↑ Chatter, Rialto (June 1, 2009). "RIALTO CHATTER: 'MINSKY'S' To 'Bump and Grind' In West End?". BroadwayWorld.
  7. ↑ Betts, Rowena (June 1, 2009). "Drowsy Team Make Minsky's London Transfer????". WhatsOnStage. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.