On Broadway—1956 contains songs pulled from this impressive
list of shows (all were playing in 1956)
written by many of the great Broadway composers and lyricists.
Bells Are
Ringing Jule
Styne/Betty Comden/Adolph Green
The Boy Friend Sandy Wilson
Can-Can Cole Porter
Candide Leonard Bernstein/Richard
Wilbur/Lillian Hellman
Damn Yankees Richard Adler/Jerry Ross
Happy
Hunting Harold
Karr/Matt Dubey
Li’l Abner Gene
DePaul/Johnny Mercer
The Littlest
Revue Sheldon Harnick
The Littlest
Revue Vernon Duke/Ogden Nash
The Most
Happy Fella Frank Loesser
Mr.
Wonderful Jerry
Bock/Larry Holofcener/George Weiss
My Fair Lady Frederick Lowe/Alan
Jay Lerner
New Faces of
1956 Murray Grand
The Pajama
Game Richard Adler/Jerry
Ross
Pipe Dream Richard
Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein
Plain and Fancy Albert Hague/Arnold
Horwitt
Silk
Stockings Cole
Porter
The
Threepenny Opera Kurt Weill/
Bertolt Brecht/Marc Blitzstein
I find this
list impressive. We have Cole Porter
right at the end of his amazing career with his last two shows running
concurrently. Frank Loesser is right in
the middle of his career—with Guys and
Dolls behind him and How to Succeed
in Business Without Really Trying still to come. Oscar Hammerstein would be dead in four
years—all the great shows with Richard Rodgers were written except for The Sound of Music. Both (and the only) hits by Adler and Ross
had opened in previous seasons, but were still doing excellent business. Lerner and Lowe only had one more Broadway production
to come with Camelot. And the excellent songwriting team of Bock
and Harnick (Fiddler On the Roof, She
Loves Me, Fiorello) are both represented here—but they had not yet begun to
write together.
Quite an
amazing collection. You can hear songs
from all these shows in our season opener-- On
Broadway—1956.
Charles Burr
Artisitic Director
Co-compiler of On Broadway--1956
Charles Burr
Artisitic Director
Co-compiler of On Broadway--1956
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