The Vamp

Last updated

The Vamp is a musical comedy with music by James Mundy; lyrics by John La Touche; and a musical book by La Touche and Sam Locke which is based on a story by La Touche. The musical opened on Broadway on November 10, 1955, at the Winter Garden Theatre where it ran for a total of 60 performances until it closed on December 31, 1955. The production was directed by David Alexander, choreographed by Robert Alton, used set and costume designs by Raoul Pène Du Bois, and conducted by musical director Milton Rosenstock.

The cast was led by Jack Waldron as Myron H. Hubbard, Bibi Osterwald as Bessie Bisco, Steve Reeves as Muscle Man and Samson, Paul Lipson as Barney Ostertag, Jack Harrold as Bluestone, Carol Channing as Flora Weems, David Atkinson as Oliver J. Oxheart, and Malcolm Lee Beggs as Stark Clayton. [1] [2] Alton, Channing, and Rosenstock all received Tony Award nominations for their work on the show.

Related Research Articles

<i>Hello, Dolly!</i> (musical) 1964 Broadway musical

Hello, Dolly! is a 1964 musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955. The musical follows the story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker, as she travels to Yonkers, New York, to find a match for the miserly "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Channing</span> American actress (1921–2019)

Carol Elaine Channing was an American actress, singer, dancer and comedian who starred in Broadway and film musicals. Her characters usually had a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice, whether singing or for comedic effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stockard Channing</span> American actress (born 1944)

Stockard Channing is an American actress. She played Betty Rizzo in the film Grease (1978) and First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing (1999–2006). She also originated the role of Ouisa Kittredge in the stage and film versions of Six Degrees of Separation; the 1993 film version earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She was also one of two comic foils of The Number Painter on Sesame Street.

John Treville Latouche (La Touche) (November 13, 1914, Baltimore, Maryland – August 7, 1956, Calais, Vermont) was a lyricist and bookwriter in American musical theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gower Champion</span> American actor (1919–1980)

Gower Carlyle Champion was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hello, Dolly! (song)</span> 1964 single by Louis Armstrong

"Hello, Dolly!" is the title song of the popular 1964 musical of the same name. Louis Armstrong's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nita Naldi</span> American actress

Nita Naldi was an American stage performer and silent film actress. She was often cast in theatrical and screen productions as a vamp, a persona first popularized by actress Theda Bara.

<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>Pal Joey</i> (musical) 1940 Rodgers & Hart musical, atypically featuring an antihero as its protagonist

Pal Joey is a 1940 musical with a book by John O'Hara and music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The musical is based on a character and situations O'Hara created in a series of short stories published in The New Yorker, which he later published in novel form. The title character, Joey Evans, is a manipulative small-time nightclub performer whose ambitions lead him into an affair with the wealthy, middle-aged and married Vera Simpson. It includes two songs that have become standards: "I Could Write a Book" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered".

"Button Up Your Overcoat" is a popular song. The music was written by Ray Henderson, the lyrics by B.G. DeSylva and Lew Brown. The song was published in 1928, and was first performed later that same year by vocalist Ruth Etting. However, the most famous rendition of this song was recorded early the following year by singer Helen Kane, who was at the peak of her popularity at the time. Kane's childlike voice and Bronx dialect eventually became the inspiration for the voice of cartoon character Betty Boop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmanson Theatre</span> Performing arts theatre in Los Angeles, California

The Ahmanson Theatre is one of the four main venues that compose the Los Angeles Music Center.

<i>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</i> (musical) 1949 musical

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a musical with a book by Joseph Fields and Anita Loos, lyrics by Leo Robin, and music by Jule Styne, based on the best-selling 1925 novel of the same name by Loos. The story involves an American woman's voyage to Paris to perform in a nightclub.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Alton</span> American dancer and choreographer

Robert Alton was an American dancer and choreographer, a major figure in dance choreography of Broadway and Hollywood musicals from the 1930s through to the early 1950s. He is principally remembered today as the discoverer of Gene Kelly, for his collaborations with Fred Astaire, and for choreographic sequences he designed for Hollywood musicals such as The Harvey Girls (1946), Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), Show Boat (1951), and White Christmas (1954).

<i>Lorelei</i> (musical)

Lorelei is a musical with a book by Kenny Solms and Gail Parent, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Jule Styne. It is a revision of the Joseph Fields-Anita Loos book for the 1949 production Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and includes many of the Jule Styne-Leo Robin songs written for the original.

<i>Three Men on a Horse</i>

Three Men on a Horse is a three-act farce co-authored by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott. The comedy focuses on a man who discovers he has a talent for choosing the winning horse in a race as long as he never places a bet himself. Originally titled Hobby Horse by John Cecil Holm, Three Men On A Horse was a property controlled and produced by Alex Yokel, who reached out to Warner Bros. for financial assistance; Warners agreed to provide financing on the condition Yokel find someone to doctor the script and direct the Broadway production. George Abbott, the director, who had since 1932 directed and produced each of his Broadway productions, immediately saw the potential and rewrote the script and agreed to direct if he received co-author credit and split the author's royalties with Holm. Abbott wrote a third act, resulting in a new three-act play titled Three Men on a Horse.

David Anthony Stuart Atkinson was a Canadian baritone and New York Broadway actor/singer. Most of his career was spent performing in musicals and operettas in New York City from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, although he did appear in some operas and made a few television appearances. In 1952 he created the role of Sam in the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. From 1956-1962 he was a leading performer at the New York City Opera where he starred in several musicals and appeared in the world premieres of several English language operas. His greatest success on the stage came late in his career: the role of Cervantes in Man of La Mancha which he portrayed in the original Broadway production, the 1968 national tour, and in the 1972 Broadway revival.

Milton Rosenstock was an American conductor, composer, and arranger.

<i>This Is The Army</i> (musical) 1940s American musical revue

This Is The Army is an American musical revue in two acts, designed to boost morale in the U.S. during World War II, with a book by James McColl and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. It was produced by the U.S. Army on Broadway in 1942, with a cast of U.S. soldiers, for the benefit of the Army Emergency Relief Fund.

Jack Waldron was an American actor-comedian, singer and dancer.

References

  1. Dietz, Dan (2014). The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals (hardcover) (1st ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 223–225. ISBN   978-1-4422-3504-5.
  2. Louis Calta (November 10, 1955). "The Vamp Begins Its Run Tonight" (PDF). The New York Times .