Le monde des musicals

Musical (1932)

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Musique: Irving Berlin •
Paroles: Irving Berlin •
Livret: Moss Hart •
Production à la création:

The musical was written as a political satire, specifically spoofing political and police corruption that the Seabury Commission was investigating. It also satirized show business, showing the far-fetched economies, such as seeing 4 films with a room and bath for 10¢. The musical did not ignore the Depression but rather found humor in it. There were many titles considered, among them Nickels and Dimes, but Berlin came up with the final title.

Producer Hal Reisman desperately seeks backers for his Broadway show. Because of the Great Depression, once-rich investors are "Lunching at the Automat". Kit Baker, a former musical-comedy star and her boyfriend Pat Mason are now out of work and poor ("Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee"). In his search, Reisman meets crooked policemen who need to get rid of their illegal money before they are found out. The corrupt police chief Martin van Buren Meshbesher and his eccentric wife Myrtle become investors in the show, expecting it to be a failure. In the show-within-the-show, Rodney St. Clair sings "My Beautiful Rhinestone Girl". However, when risqué material is added the show is raided and the government tries to close it. The flop becomes a hit because of the publicity.

Brooks Atkinson, reviewing the original 1932 production for The New York Times, called the musical a "bountiful merry-go-round" of songs and "gibes", writing that it is "bold satire", but has familiar musical comedy numbers, such as the "stunning mirror dance... expressionistic Times Square ballet...and "Dear Old Crinoline Days which is guffawing burlesque."

An unnamed reviewer, quoted in the Brown biography Moss Hart, wrote "It's a worthy successor to Of Thee I Sing [but] it doesn't entirely measure up to it. It resorts to slapstick instead of satire. It becomes merely burlesque. All of which doesn't mean that Face the Music isn't a howl. It most emphatically is."

Lunching at the Automat – Ensemble
Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee – Pat Mason, Jr. and Kit Baker
Torch Song – Streetwalker
You Must Be Born with It – Pickles and Joe
On a Roof in Manhattan – Pat Mason, Jr. and Kit Baker
My Beautiful Rhinestone Girl – Rodney St. Clair
Soft Lights and Sweet Music – Pat Mason, Jr. and Kit Baker
I Say It's Spinach (And the Hell with It) – Pat Mason, Jr. and Kit Baker
A Toast to Prohibition (Drinking Song) – Rodney St. Clair and Boys
Dear Old Crinoline Days (later reprised in the show as "The Nudist Colony" in an attempt to get the show more publicity) – Kit Baker
I Don't Want to Be Married – Pickles and Joe
Manhattan Madness – Pat Mason, Jr.
Investigation

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Face the Music