''Silk Stockings'' is a
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
with a book by
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman (November 16, 1889June 2, 1961) was an American playwright, theater director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals for the Marx Brothers and others. ...
,
Leueen MacGrath, and
Abe Burrows and music and lyrics by
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.
Born to ...
. The musical is loosely based on the
Melchior Lengyel story ''Ninotchka'' and the
1939 film adaptation it inspired.
It ran on Broadway in 1955. This was the last musical that Porter wrote for the stage.
Production history
Background
During the "severely troubled tryout" George S. Kaufman and his wife Leueen MacGrath were replaced by Abe Burrows. (According to Cecil Michener Smith and Glenn Litton, Kaufman became angry and quit.
[Michener Smith, Cecil and Litton, Glenn.]
"Chapter:The Book Musical Refined"
''Musical Comedy in America'', Psychology Press, 1981, , p. 220) Burrows re-wrote most of the book. The producer
Cy Feuer
Cy Feuer (January 15, 1911 – May 17, 2006) was an American theatre producer, director, composer, musician, and half of the celebrated producing duo Feuer and Martin. He won three competitive Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theat ...
took over the direction from Kaufman. The three leads had not performed in a Broadway musical comedy:
Hildegard Knef was a German film and stage actress,
Don Ameche
Don Ameche (; born Dominic Felix Amici; May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993) was an American actor, comedian and vaudevillian. After playing in college shows, stock, and vaudeville, he became a major radio star in the early 1930s, which l ...
never had sung on stage, and
Gretchen Wyler was making her Broadway debut. "All three triumphed."
[
]
Productions
Following tryouts in Philadelphia, Boston, and Detroit, the production opened Broadway on February 24, 1955 at the Imperial Theatre and closed on April 14, 1956 after 478 performances.["'Silk Stockings' production, plot and song list"]
sondheimguide.com, accessed January 10, 2011
Directed by Cy Feuer and choreographed by Eugene Loring Eugene Loring (August 2, 1911 – August 30, 1982) was an American dancer, choreographer, teacher, and administrator.
Biography
Eugene Loring was born as Le Roy Kerpestein, the son of a saloon-keeper, grew up on a small island in Wisconsin's
M ...
, the cast included Hildegard Knef (Ninotchka), Don Ameche
Don Ameche (; born Dominic Felix Amici; May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993) was an American actor, comedian and vaudevillian. After playing in college shows, stock, and vaudeville, he became a major radio star in the early 1930s, which l ...
(Steve Canfield), Gretchen Wyler (Janice Dayton), George Tobias, David Opatoshu
David Opatoshu (born David Opatovsky; January 30, 1918 – April 30, 1996) was an American actor. He is best known for his role in the film ''Exodus'' (1960).
Opatoshu began his acting career in the Yiddish theater. Following his tenure in th ...
, Julie Newmar, and Onna White
Onna White (March 24, 1922 – April 8, 2005) was a Canadian choreographer and dancer, nominated for eight Tony Awards.
Early life and career
Born in Inverness, Nova Scotia, White began taking dance lessons at the age of twelve, and eventual ...
.[ ]Jan Sherwood
Jan Sherwood (born c.1923) is an American actress mostly known for her work on the stage. She made her Broadway debut in 1944 as Marpha in ''The Day Will Come''. In 1950 she returned to Broadway to portray the Lady in Waiting to Katharine Hepbur ...
replaced Knef as Ninotchka and portrayed the role for the show's first national tour. Scenic and lighting designs were by Jo Mielziner
Joseph "Jo" Mielziner (March 19, 1901 – March 15, 1976) was an American theatrical scenic, and lighting designer born in Paris, France. He was described as "the most successful set designer of the Golden era of Broadway", and worked on both sta ...
and costumes were by Lucinda Ballard
Lucinda Ballard (April 3, 1906 – August 19, 1993) was an American costume designer who worked primarily in Broadway theatre.
Born Lucinda Davis Goldsborough in New Orleans, Louisiana, Ballard studied at the Art Students League in New York City. ...
. The tour played the Curran Theatre
The Curran Theatre, located at 445 Geary Street between Taylor and Mason Streets in the Theatre District of San Francisco, California opened in February 1922, and was named after its first owner, Homer Curran. As of 2014, the theater is owned by ...
in San Francisco, California starting in April 1956, as well as Los Angeles.
The score "played a large part in keeping ''Silk Stockings'' running on Broadway for 478 performances and in helping to recoup the immense production expenses for the show (brought in at a cost of $370,000, ''Silk Stockings'' was considered one of Broadway's most expensive musicals for its time)...The big hit...was clearly 'All of You'."
An original cast recording was released by RCA Victor
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...
.
The Lost Musicals staged reading of the musical was held in September 2005 in New York City.[Dale, Michael.]
"'Silk Stockings': Cole Porter Fights The Cold War"
offbroadway.broadwayworld.com, September 15, 2005
Hildegard Knef (original German spelling) gave a vivid backstage account of the casting, rehearsals, tryouts and Broadway opening of ''Silk Stockings'' in her autobiography ''The Gift Horse: Report on a Life'' (McGraw Hill, 1971) pages 281 through 342.
Synopsis
The musical involves special envoy Nina Yaschenko, who is dispatched from the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
to rescue three foolish commissars from the pleasures of Paris. Romanced by theatrical agent Steven Canfield, she eventually comes to recognize the virtues of capitalist
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
indulgence. Other characters include Peter Boroff, Russia's greatest composer, who is being wooed by Janice Dayton, America's swimming sweetheart, to write the score for her first non-aquatic picture, a musical adaptation of '' War and Peace''.
Song list
;Act I
* "Too Bad" - Ivanov, Brankov, Bibinski, and Hotel Staff
* "Paris Loves Lovers" - Steve Canfield and Ninotchka
* "Stereophonic Sound" - Janice Dayton
* "It's a Chemical Reaction, That's All" - Ninotchka
* " All of You" - Steve
* "Satin and Silk" - Janice
* "Without Love" - Ninotchka
* " All of You" (Reprise) - Steve
;Act II
* "Hail, Bibinski"
* "As On Through the Seasons We Sail"
* "Josephine" - Janice
* "Siberia"
* "Silk Stockings"
* "The Red Blues"
* "Too Bad" (Reprise)
Film
The film ''Silk Stockings
''Silk Stockings'' is a musical with a book by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath
Leueen MacGrath (3 July 1914 – 27 March 1992) was an English actress and playwright and the second wife of George S. Kaufman, from 1949 until their divor ...
'', based on the stage musical, was released in 1957.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Musicals by Cole Porter
1955 musicals
Broadway musicals
Musicals based on films