Animal Crackers (musical)
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- This article is about the musical. For the 1930 film, see Animal Crackers (film).
| Animal Crackers | |
| Music | Bert Kalmar Harry Ruby |
|---|---|
| Lyrics | Bert Kalmar Harry Ruby |
| Book | George S. Kaufman Morrie Ryskind |
| Productions | 1928 Broadway 1982 Washington, D.C. 1992 Connecticut 1993 New Jersey 1999 West End |
Animal Crackers is a musical with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical starred the Marx Brothers.
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[edit] Productions and background
Animal Crackers opened on Broadway on October 23, 1928 at the original 44th Street Theatre, and ran for 191 performances and then toured. The 44th Street Theater was demolished in 1945. The production was staged by Oscar Eagle and starred the four Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont and was their second Broadway hit.
The musical was filmed in 1930 with the principal leads repeating their roles from the stage production.
The musical was revived in 1982 at the Arena Stage, Washington, D.C., directed by Douglas C. Wager and choreographed by Baayork Lee.
It was also revived in 1992 by Goodspeed Musicals, Connecticut and in 1993 at the Paper Mill Playhouse, New Jersey.
It was produced in the West End at the Lyric Theatre, opening on March 16, 1999, and closing on May 15, 1999 after touring in the UK. Starring were Ben Keaton (Spalding), Toby Sedgwick (Professor), Joseph Alessi (Emmanuel Ravelli), and Jean Challis (Mrs Rittenhouse). [1]
After The Cocoanuts ran for almost three years at the Lyric Theatre, the "anarchic" Animal Crackers became the third and last Broadway show for the Marx Brothers (I'll Say She Is was the first). It would be their last stage show, after which they focused on film. Vaudeville's heyday was finishing, as talking movies were beginning to become popular. While the Marx Brothers performed in Animal Crackers in the evenings, they were busy during the day filming The Cocoanuts at Paramount's studios in Astoria, Queens.
[edit] Song list
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- "Three Little Words" † ‡
- "Oh by Jingo" (by Lew Brown and Albert von Tilzer)†
- "Show Me a Rose" ‡
- "The Social Ladder" †
- "I Wanna Be Loved by You" ††
- "Nevertheless (I'm in Love with You)" ††
† added for Goodspeed production
‡ added for Arena Stage and Paper Mill productions
†† added for Paper Mill production
[edit] References
- Information about the background of Animal Crackers
- New York Times review, October 24, 1928
- New York Times review, May 31, 1982
- New York Times review, December 6, 1992
- New York Times review, November 14, 1993
[edit] External links
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