Paris | |
---|---|
Music | Cole Porter Walter Kollo Louis Alter |
Lyrics | Cole Porter E. Ray Goetz Roy Turk |
Book | Martin Brown |
Productions | 1928 Broadway |
Paris is a musical with the book by Martin Brown, and music and lyrics by Cole Porter, as well as Walter Kollo and Louis Alter (music) and E. Ray Goetz and Roy Turk (lyrics). The musical, which premiered on Broadway in 1928, was Porter's first Broadway hit. The musical introduced the song "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" sung by the show's star, Irene Bordoni. The story involves a young man from a very proper family in Newton, Massachusetts whose mother is horrified by his intention to wed a French actress.
According to writer Stephen Citron in his book Noel & Cole: the Sophisticates, it was with Paris that Cole Porter would be accepted in the "upper echelon" of Broadway composers. Although it was not a revue, the critics could not find the plot. An eleven-piece orchestra was placed in the leading lady's room, singing and dancing as well as providing the orchestral accompaniment. The producer (and also songwriter) Ray Goetz kept the musical in tryouts for almost 8 months, while songs were added and deleted. The song "Let's Misbehave" was dropped in favor of one of Porter's "best known songs", "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love". The censors had insisted that the "Let's Fall in Love" be added to the title. [1] The plot was designed for Irene Bordoni "to show off her wardrobe and ingratiating stage presence". [2]
Mrs. Cora Sabot is a domineering and haughty society matriarch who lives in Massachusetts. Her son Andrew plans on marrying the famous French stage actress Vivienne Rolland. Mrs. Sabot goes to Paris and decides that the actress is not of the caliber she wishes for her son, and therefore intends to stop the marriage. There she feigns drunkenness and fakes falling under the romantic influence of Guy Pennel, Vivienne's stage partner. However, she actually does become drunk and is comically transformed into a passionate woman. Mrs. Sabot's scheme works, and Vivienne realizes that she and Guy are meant to be romantic partners in life as well as on the stage. Andrew meanwhile understands that Brenda Kaley, as slow and obtuse as she is, will make the perfect wife.
All songs are by Cole Porter (music and lyrics) unless noted.
Paris started pre-Broadway tryouts at Nixon's Apollo Theatre, Atlantic City on February 6, 1928, followed by: the Adelphi Theatre, Philadelphia on February 13, 1928; the Wilbur Theatre, Boston as of May 7, 1928; and finally the Poli Theatre, Washington DC on September 30, 1928. [3]
The Broadway premiere was at the Music Box Theatre, opening on October 8, 1928 and closing on March 23, 1929, after 195 performances. The musical was directed by William H. Gilmore with choreography by "Red" Stanley. The cast featured Goetz' wife, Irene Bordoni (Vivienne Rolland), Arthur Margetson (Guy Pennel), Louise Closser Hale (Cora Sabot), Eric Kalkhurst (Andrew Sabot), and Elizabeth Chester (Brenda Kaley). Irving Aaronson and his Commanders was the musical's band.
In 1929 Warner Brothers made the musical into a feature film, starring Bordoni, Jack Buchanan, Jason Robards Sr. and ZaSu Pitts.
In 1983, Medicine Show Theatre, one of New York City's longest running experimental theatres, re-discovered the script and, working with the Cole Porter trust, restored the cut Cole Porter songs to the show and inserted other Porter songs to make it an all-Cole Porter musical. Medicine Show revived this version in June 2011, scheduling performances through October 2011.
Ian Marshall Fisher's "Lost Musicals" series presented a staged concert in April 2010 at Sadler's Wells, London. [4]
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.
Fifty Million Frenchmen is a musical comedy with a book by Herbert Fields and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It opened on Broadway in 1929 and was adapted for a film two years later. The title is a reference to the hit 1927 song "Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong" by Willie Raskin, Billy Rose, and Fred Fisher, which compared free attitudes in 1920s Paris with censorship and prohibition in the United States. The musical's plot is consistent with the standard boy-meets-girl plots of musical comedies of the first half of the twentieth century.
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"Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" (also known as "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" or simply "Let's Do It") is a popular song written in 1928 by Cole Porter. It was introduced in Porter's first Broadway success, the musical Paris (1928) by French chanteuse Irène Bordoni for whom Porter had written the musical as a starring vehicle.
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Irène Bordoni was a Franco-American actress and singer.
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"Let's Misbehave" is a song written by Cole Porter in 1927, originally intended for the female lead of his first major production, Paris. It was discarded before the Broadway opening in favor of "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love". However, the star of the Broadway production, Irene Bordoni, performed it for a phonograph recording which was labelled as being from the production of Paris.
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Edward Ray Goetz was an American composer, lyricist, playwright, theatre director, and theatrical producer. A Tin Pan Alley songwriter, he published more than 500 songs during his career; many of them originally written for the New York stage. His songs were recorded by several artists, including Judy Garland, Al Jolson, and Blossom Seeley. He was active as both a lyricist and composer for Broadway musicals from 1906 through 1930; collaborating with artists like George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Sigmund Romberg, and A. Baldwin Sloane to create material for the theatre. Beginning with the musical Hitchy-Koo of 1917, he also produced several of the musicals and plays he was creatively involved in up until the 1930-1931 Broadway season when he produced his final stage work, Porter's The New Yorkers, for which he also created the story and served as director. He authored the play The Lady of the Orchids which he produced on Broadway in 1928. He also produced and served as production supervisor of Herbert Fields and Porter's 1929 musical Fifty Million Frenchmen which was adapted by Warner Brothers into a 1930 film of the same name. His work as a songwriter was featured in the films For Me and My Gal (1942), Somebody Loves Me (1952), and The Greatest Show On Earth (1952); the latter of which resulted from his work as the lyricist for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus during the final three years of his life. Having never stopped working, he died in 1954.
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