Beggar's Holiday

Beggar's Holiday

Infobox Musical
name= Beggar's Holiday


caption= Original Logo
music= Duke Ellington
lyrics= John La Touche
book= John La Touche
basis= "The Beggar's Opera" by John Gay
productions= 1946 Broadway
2004 Mill Valley, California
awards=

"Beggar's Holiday" is a musical with a book and lyrics by John La Touche and music by Duke Ellington.

An updated version of "The Beggar's Opera" by John Gay, it focuses on a corrupt world inhabited by rakish mobsters and their double crossing gangs, raffish madams and their dissolute whores, panhandlers and street people as they conduct their dirty business, ply their trade, and struggle to survive in brothels, shanty towns, and prisons.

The Broadway production, directed by Nicholas Ray and choreographed by Valerie Bettis, opened on December 26, 1946 at The Broadway Theatre, where it ran for 111 performances. The cast included Alfred Drake, Zero Mostel, Thomas Gomez, Avon Long, and Herbert Ross.

"Beggar's Holiday", which proved to be Ellington's only book musical, included an interracial relationship resulting in nightly picketing outside the theater that may have contributed to its short run.

No cast album was recorded, but a demo tape was discovered and released, together with the score from the West End musical "Bet Your Life" featuring Julie Wilson and Sally Ann Howes, on an LP on the Blue Pear label [http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=519441] . Lena Horne's recording of "Tomorrow Mountain," the show's first-act closer, was a hit.

In 2004, Dale Wasserman, one of the musical's producers and the author of "Man of La Mancha", teamed with the Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, California to create a revamped, updated, and radically rewritten version that toned down much of the original's social criticism and political humor. The substantially rearranged jazz score included hints of funk, blues and rock and roll. Overall, its mood was far lighter and more optimistic than that of the 1946 version. Although Wasserman had hopes of a Broadway staging, to date his plans have not materialized.

ong list

;Act I
*Inbetween
*When You Go Down By Miss Jenny's
*I've Got Me
*TNT
*Take Love Easy
*I Wanna Be Bad
*Rooster Man
*When I Walk With You
*I've Got Me (Reprise)
*The Scrimmage of Life
*Ore from a Gold Mine
*When I Walk With You (Reprise)
*Tooth and Claw
*Maybe I Should Change My Ways
*The Wrong Side of the Railroad Tracks
*Tomorrow Mountain;Act II
*Brown Penny (based on a poem by William Butler Yeats)
*Tooth and Claw (Reprise)
*Lullaby for Junior
*Quarrel for Three
*Fol-de-rol-rol
*Women, Women, Women
*Women, Women, Women (Reprise)
*When I Walk With You (Reprise)
*The Hunted

External links

* [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=1498 Internet Broadway Database listing]
* [http://www.sfgate.com/templates/types/popunder/orbitz/orbitz.html 2004 Marin Theatre Company production]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • 1946 in music — Events *February 8 Béla Bartók s Piano Concerto No. 3 is premiered posthumously by György Sándor with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra *Al Jolson rerecords his old hits for the soundtrack of his Columbia biopic The Jolson… …   Wikipedia

  • Opera Theater of Pittsburgh — Mildred Miller Posvar, founder Beggar s Hol …   Wikipedia

  • Duke Ellington — Frankfurt am Main, February 6, 1965 Background information Birth name Edward Kennedy Ellington Born …   Wikipedia

  • Zero Mostel — Infobox actor name = Zero Mostel imagesize = caption = photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1958 birthname = Samuel Joel Mostel birthdate = birth date|1915|2|28 birthplace = Brooklyn, New York deathdate = death date and age|1977|9|8|1915|2|28… …   Wikipedia

  • ГЕЙ Джон — (Gay, John) ДЖОН ГЕЙ (1685 1732), английский поэт и драматург. Родился в Барнстепле, крещен там же 16 сентября 1685. После средней школы и недолгого ученичества у лондонского торговца шелками и бархатом Гей обратился к сочинительству. Своим… …   Энциклопедия Кольера

  • Zero Mostel — fotografiado por Carl Van Vechten en 1958 Nombre real Samuel Joel Mostel Nacimiento 28 de febrero de 1915 …   Wikipedia Español

  • John Latouche — John Treville Latouche (* 13. November 1914 in Baltimore/Maryland; † 7. August 1956 in Calais/Vermont) war ein US amerikanischer Librettist und Schriftsteller. Latouche besuchte ein Jahr lang die Riverdale Country School in New York und studierte …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Oliver Smith — Oliver Smith, né à Waupun (en) (Wisconsin, États Unis) le 13 février 1918, décédé à New York (État de New York, États Unis) le 23 janvier 1994, est un décorateur, directeur et producteur de théâtre américain, ayant… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Alfred Drake — (October 7, 1914 July 25, 1992) was an American actor and singer. Born Alfred Capurro in New York City, Drake was a Broadway performer best known for his leading roles in the original Broadway productions of such American musicals as Oklahoma! ,… …   Wikipedia

  • Nicholas Ray — Born August 7, 1911(1911 08 07) Galesville, Wisconsin, U.S. Died June 16, 1979(1979 06 16) (aged 67) …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”