As Thousands Cheer
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As Thousands Cheer
As Thousands Cheer (1933), a musical revue by Moss Hart (sketches), Irving Berlin (music, lyrics). [ Music Box Theatre, 400 perf.] This revue was cleverly tied together by the device of pretending that each song and skit was derived from a headline in one imaginary newspaper. Thus, the headlines “Heat Wave Hits New York” and “Unknown Negro Lynched By Frenzied Mob” provided cues for Ethel Waters's two great numbers, “Heat Wave” and “Supper Time.” The latter song was an early attempt to inject serious social comment into a basically lighthearted evening. The first act finale, coming to life from the cover of the paper's rotogravure section, celebrated a turn‐of‐the‐century “Easter Parade,” with Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb leading the Fifth Avenue paraders. The sketches poked fun at famous people, such as Miller's impersonation of Barbara Hutton, Waters as Josephine Baker, Helen Broderick as Aimee Semple McPherson, and Webb as Mahatma Gandhi on a hunger strike and John D. Rockefeller rejecting the gift of Rockefeller Center. Other notable songs: How's Chances?; Harlem on My Mind; Lonely Heart; Not for All the Rice in China. Brooks Atkinson of the Times called the revue “a superb panorama of entertainment.” Although the Sam Harris production was often as lavish as the opulent extravaganzas of earlier decades, the spectacle in this case was always secondary to the content, and the show took its place among the new generation of more thoughtful revues. A small‐scale Off‐Broadway revival in 1998 was well received.
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As Thousands Cheer
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As Thousands Cheer
| As Thousands Cheer | |
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 As Thousands Cheer 1998 cast |
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| Music | Irving Berlin |
| Lyrics | Irving Berlin |
| Book | Moss Hart |
| Productions | 1933 Broadway |
As Thousands Cheer is a revue with a book by Moss Hart and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, first performed in 1933. The revue contained satirical sketches and witty or poignant musical numbers, several of which became standards, including "Heat Wave", "Easter Parade" and "Harlem on my Mind". The sketches were loosely based on the news and the lives and affairs of the rich and famous, and other people of the day, such as Joan Crawford, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Noël Coward, Josephine Baker, and Aimee Semple McPherson.
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Contents
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History
The revue was a successor to the creators' Face the Music and was Marilyn Miller's last stage appearance before her death. It was also the first Broadway show to give an African-American star Ethel Waters equal billing with whites.
Moss Hart said that he and Irving Berlin did not want to write the typical revue with "blackout sketches" and musical numbers, and they had the idea of doing a topical revue "right off the front pages of the newspapers." Berlin deferred his own fees as composer, lyricist, and theater owner, keeping the cost of the show to a "restrained" $96,000.[1]
Synopsis
Each of the 21 scenes was preceded by a related newspaper headline, and the sketches poked fun a wide variety of subjects, including the marital woes of Barbara Hutton, Gandhi, and British royalty; the weather report was turned into a song ("Heat Wave");[2] President and Mrs. Hoover leaving the White House, with the President giving his cabinet a Bronx cheer; "Supper Time", an African-American woman's lament for her lynched husband; John D. Rockefeller refusing to accept Radio City Music Hall as a birthday gift; commercials interrupting the singing during a Metropolitan Opera broadcast (P.D.Q. Bach later did this); a hotel staff falling under the influence of Noël Coward; and a Supreme Court decision that says musicals cannot end with reprises, resulting in a new number, "Not For All The Rice In China" (satirizing Barbara Hutton's relationship with Alexis Mdivani), as a finale.[3]
Selected musical numbers
- "Majestic Sails at Midnight" -- Helen Broderick, Leslie Adams, Jerome Cowan, Hal Forde, Harry Stockwell
- "How's Chances?" -- Marilyn Miller, Clifton Webb
- "The Funnies" -- Marilyn Miller
- "Easter Parade"† -- Marilyn Miller, Clifton Webb
- "Our Wedding Day" -- Marilyn Miller, Clifton Webb
- "Heat Wave Hits New York" -- Ethel Waters
- "To Be Or Not To Be" -- Ethel Waters
- "Supper Time" -- Ethel Waters
- "Harlem on my Mind" -- Ethel Waters
- "Lonely Heart" -- dance
- "Not for All the Rice in China" -- Marilyn Miller, Clifton Webb
† Omitted from 1998 revival
Productions
The revue opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on September 30, 1933 and became a hit, running for 400 performances, which was rare during the Great Depression. It was staged by Hassard Short with choreography by Charles Weidman. The musical starred Helen Broderick, Marilyn Miller, Clifton Webb and Ethel Waters, and featured José Limón as the lead dancer. The London based version of the show, retitled Stop Press, opened on February 21, 1935 at the Adelphi Theatre.[4]
The Drama Department presented the revue at the off-Broadway Greenwich House Theater from June 2, 1998 through June 14, 1998. Directed by Christopher Ashley with musical staging by Kathleen Marshall, the cast included Kevin Chamberlin, Judy Kuhn, Howard McGillin, Paula Newsome, Mary Beth Peil and B. D. Wong. Reviews were extremely positive.[5] The show has had a number of other revivals both in the U.S. and internationally.
Notes
- ^ Bergreen, p. 313.
- ^ Bergreen, pp. 189 and 314.
- ^ Boardman, Gerald. A Chronicle of American Musical Theatre.
- ^ Green, Stanley (1980-03-22). Encyclopedia Of The Musical Theatre. Da Capo Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-306-80113-6.
- ^ Curtain Up review curtainup.com, June 19, 1998
References
- Description of the revue and list of scenes at guidetomusicaltheatre
- Bergreen, Laurence (1996). As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80675-4
- R&H Theatricals
External links
- As Thousands Cheer at the Internet Broadway Database
- Lortel listing 1998 revival
- Information from the Musical Heaven website
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Oxford Companion to American Theatre
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Mentioned in
Thousands Cheer
(1943 Musical Film)
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Composers on Broadway: Irving Berlin
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As Thousands Cheer [Original Cast Recording]
(1999 Album by Original Cast Recording)
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