Music Box Revues

Music Box Revues, a series of musical revues mounted by Sam H. Harris and Irving Berlin at their new Music Box Theatre in 1921, 1922, 1923, and 1924. Among the Berlin hits to emerge from the series were “All Alone,” “Crinoline Days,” “Everybody Step,” “Lady of the Evening,” and “What'll I Do?” as well as the series' theme song, “Say It with Music.” The shows featured elaborate sets and costumes on a Ziegfeldian order but also intimate musical numbers and sketches, thus forming a bridge between the waning extravaganzas and the smaller, more intellectually witty revues of the late 1920s and 1930s. Among its famous comic moments were two from the 1923–24 edition, Robert Benchley's “Treasurer's Report” and George S. Kaufman's “If Men Played Cards as Women Do.”