High Button Shoes
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High Button Shoes is a musical theater production, first staged at the New Century Theatre on Broadway on October 9, 1947. It has music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn and book by George Abbott and Phil Silvers. It was based on the novel The Sisters Liked Them Handsome by Stephen Longstreet. The show ran for 727 performances. The show starred Silvers and Nanette Fabray, who was soon replaced by Joan Roberts
The hit of the show was a long ensemble dance number at the beginning of the second act, in which an embezzler and his henchman are pursued to the Atlantic City beach while carrying a satchel full of stolen money: during the course of the number, they tangle with a large number of people -- including bathing beauties, lifeguards, other criminals, identical twins -- and one gorilla. The climax occurs when the Keystone Cops arrive. Director Jerome Robbins staged this number in the manner of a Mack Sennett silent slapstick film.
The show is referenced to in the 2004 Tony Award winning best musical Avenue Q.
[edit] The Songs
- "Can't You Just See Yourself?"
- "I Still Get Jealous"
- "Nobody Ever Died For Dear Old Rutgers"
- "On A Sunday By The Sea"
- "Papa, Won't You Dance With Me?"
- "There's Nothing Like A Model T"
- "You're My Girl"
- "He Tried to Make a Dollar"
- "You're My Boy"
[edit] London production
The show opened at the Hippodrome on December 22, 1948 and ran for 291 performances.
