| Three Sisters | |
|---|---|
| Music | Jerome Kern |
| Lyrics | Oscar Hammerstein II |
| Book | Oscar Hammerstein II |
| Productions | 1934 West End |
Three Sisters is a musical written by Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics and book) and Jerome Kern (music).
The musical introduced the song "I Won't Dance", and also includes "Lonely Feet", "Hand in Hand", "Now I Have Springtime", and "My Beautiful Circus Girl".[1][2]
The show, taking place along with the beginning of World War I in 1914, concerns the romantic lives of three sisters. The three sisters travel the English countryside with their widowed father, a traveling photographer who works at local fairs.[3] The eldest daughter is engaged to a constable, the middle daughter is seeking to enter high society, and the youngest daughter falls for a gypsy performer.[2] The men are sent to the Western Front, while the women remain home.[2]
The original production opened in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on April 19, 1934.[2][4] The production featured Victoria Hopper, Stanley Holloway, Adele Dixon, Esmond Knight, and Charlotte Greenwood.[2][5]
Reception was mixed[3] and the play closed after two months, the shortest run in the history of the Drury Lane Theatre to that point.[3] The show, which was not picked up in the United States, was the last collaboration between Kern and Hammerstein.[3] Three Sisters was Kern's last show to appear in the West End of London.[3]
Greg MacKellan, the artistic director for 42nd Street Moon, discovered the play, and in 1995 assembled a concert-reading version that was presented at the New Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.[3] MacKellan obtained a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts in 2010 to reconstruct the script and score, as parts were missing.[3] Three Sisters made its American debut in San Francisco at the 42nd Street Moon theater in November 2011.[1][3]