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Après le flop en février 1937 de "Fulton of Oak Falls", qui avait marqué après près de 20 ans, la réconciliation de de Cohan et Harris, Cohan a décidé de partir tenter sa chance à Londres… C'est à ce moment que Cohan a reçu un appel de Sam Harris pour rester à New York. Sam avait un rôle pour lui dans sa nouvelle production qu’aucun autre acteur ne pouvait faire. Le rôle était celui de Franklin Delano Roosevelt, et la pièce était "I'd Rather Be Right". Avec le succès de "I’d Rather Be Right" Cohan s’est retrouvé propulsé à nouveau comme roi de Broadway, lefaisant participer à de nombreuses réunions sociales et dîners mondains.
Le spectacle se déroule à Central Park à New York, le 4 juillet, le jour de la fête nationale américaine. Peggy et Phil espèrent se marier mais le patron de Phil ne lui donnera pas d’augmentation jusqu’à ce que Roosevelt équilibre le budget. Phil s’endort et rêve qu’ils rencontrent Roosevelt flânant dans le parc. Après que Phil explique le dilemme du couple, Roosevelt promet de l’aider - ce qui n’est qu’une excuse pour quelques blagues se moquant des membres du Cabinet, de la Cour suprême, de la PWA, des conversations au coin du feu, d’Alf Landon, des conférences de presse et de la décision du Président de se présenter pour un troisième mandat.
Acte I
A Homogeneous Cabinet
Have You Met Miss Jones?
Take & Take & Take
Spring In Vienna
A Little Bit Of Consitiutional Fun
Sweet Sixty-five
We're Going To Balance The Budget*
Acte II
What's It All About?
Labor Is The Thing
I'd Rather Be Right*
Off The Record*
A Baby Bond
* indicates songs performed by Cohan
Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant I'd rather be right
Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant I'd rather be right
Version 1
I'd rather be right (1937-11-Alvin Theatre-Broadway)
Type de série: OriginalThéâtre: Neil Simon Theatre (Broadway - Etats-Unis) Durée : 8 mois 1 semaine Nombre : 290 représentationsPremière Preview : 02 November 1937
Première: 02 November 1937
Dernière: 09 July 1938Mise en scène : George S. Kaufman • Chorégraphie : Producteur : Sam H. Harris • Star(s) : Avec: Joseph Allen (A Butler), David Allman (The Secretary of the Navy), Florenz Ames (James B. Maxwell), Al Atkins (The Secretary of Commerce), Jack BarnesVirginia Berger (Singing Girl), Sol Black (Acrobat), Robert Bleck (The Secretary of Agriculture), Jeanette Bradley (The Nurse), Charles Bywater (Singing Boy), Cecil Carey (Singing Girl), Don Carter (A Seal), John Cherry (The Chief Justice), Ruth Clayton (Singing Girl), George M. Cohan (The President of the United States), Marie Louise Dana (The President's Mother), Eleanor De Witt (Dancing Girl), Martin Fair (Clown), Bijou Fernandez (The Secretary of Labor), Len Frank (Singing Boy), Kate Fredric (Dancing Girl), John Fulco (Singing Boy), Ralph Glover (President's Secretary), Ruth Gormley (Dancing Girl), Joseph Granville (Another Mother), Marion Green (The Secretary of State), Geraldine Hamilton (Singing Girl), Edward Harrington (Best Man), Joy Hodges (Peggy Jones), Taylor Holmes (The Secretary of the Treasury), Robert Howard (Dancing Boy), Jay Hunter (Dancing Boy), Jack Kearney (Singing Boy), Linda Kellogg (Singing Girl), Georgette Lampsi (Dancing Girl), Jeanette Lee (Dancing Girl), Jack Leslie (Singing Boy), Robert Less (The Attorney-General), Velma Lord (Dancing Girl), Joseph Macaulay (Federal Theatre Director), Lili Mann (The Teacher), William Marel (Singing Boy), Austin Marshall (Phil Barker), Irene McBride (The Mother), Charles McLoughlin (The Secretary of the Interior), John McQuade (Singing Boy), Evelyn Mills (Sistie), Jack Mills (The Secretary of War), Warren Mills (Buzzie), Marie Nash (Singing Girl), Fred Nay (The Father), Austra Neiman (Bareback Rider), Paul Parks (The Postmaster General), Erminie Randolph (Singing Girl), Jack Reynolds (Acrobat), Jane Richardson (Singing Girl), Tina Rigat (Another Mother), Margaret Sande (The Girl), Patsy Schenk (Dancing Girl), Betty Schlaffer (Dancing Girl), Clarise Sitomer (A Flower Girl), Bob Spencer (Singing Boy), Emily Stephenson (Singing Girl), Georgie Tapps (Social Service Messenger), Beau Tilden (Dancing Boy), Norman Van Emburgh (Singing Boy), Joe Verdi (Joe), Dorothy Waller (Dancing Girl), Mary Jane Walsh (Singing Girl), Jack Whitney (A Photographer), Herbert Wood (Singing Boy)Commentaires : Alvin Theatre: 2 nov 1937 - may 1938
Music Box Theatre: 23 mai 1938 - 9 juil 1938Presse : "Mr. Roosevelt should feel very happy about his part in "I'd Rather Be
Right." On the whole, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart feel very
tender about him. Apart from their affectionate treatment of him in the
plot and lines of their musical comedy they have engaged George M.
Cohan to impersonate the President, which is a dispensation devoutly
to be desired by anyone who wants to please an audience...Mr. Cohan
has never been in better form. The audience was his, and lovingly his,
all last evening.
If the authors had held council with Jim Farley, they could hardly have
felt in better humor about our country. Although advance reports seemed
to indicate that "I'd Rather Be Right" might discharge a lampoon at the
follies of current politics, it turns out to be a pleasant-spoken musical
comedy that leisurely ambles away the evening. There is some brisk
stuff here and there - a capital object lesson in the effects of taxation,
which is worthy of the Living Newspaper technique; a quip or two about
the Federal Theater, "Wherever we see three people together we are
supposed to give a show"; a poke at Walter Lippmann and a few
frolicsome skirmishes with the Supreme Court. But there have been
Marx Brothers shows in the past that were more hilariously antic than
this pastoral in Central Park, and "Of Thee I Sing" was enormously
more versatile and dynamic. "I'd Rather Be Right" is playful; and,
all questions of political opinion to one side, that is hardly enough for
a first-rate musical show." (Brooks Atkinson, New York Times)
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