The New Yorkers

Original Broadway Production

A Musical Comedy / Revue in Two Acts
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter; additional songs by Jimmy Durante, Chas. Henderson, and Fred Waring [only Porter songs listed]
Book by Herbert Fields, based on a story by E. Ray Goetz and Peter Arno

Tryouts began November 12, 1930 at the Chestnut Street Opera House, Philadelphia
November 24, 1930 at the Shubert Theatre, Newark

Opened December 8, 1930 at B. S. Moss's Broadway Theatre, NYC
Closed May 2, 1931; Ran for 168 performances
Produced by E. Ray Goetz
Directed by Monty Woolley
Special Numbers Staged by Fred Waring
Choreography by George Hale
Costumes by Peter Arno, Charles Le Maire
Set Design by Dale Stetson, based on sketches by Peter Arno
Lighting Design by Clark Robinson
Orchestrations by Hans Spialek
Musical Direction by Al Goodman

Synopsis

During socialite Alice Wentworth's fling with bootlegger Al Spanish, she joins in a subterranean escape from the police, visits a bootlegging factory, arranges a raid on a speakeasy she's running out of her home, and masterminds a jailbreak.  A character named Jimmy Deegan is on hand to offer musical salutes to money, wood, data, and the Hot Patata; to invent an alcholic tonic called Licquor Lax; to murder his archrival Feet McGeehan four times; and to preside over the wedding of Al and Alice, for which the bridemaids carry bouquets of bombs and the maid-of-honor wields a pistol.

Cast

Hope Williams (Alice Wentworth), Charles King (Al Spanish), Jimmy Durante (Jimmy Deegan), Ann Pennington (Lola McGee), Frances Williams (Mona Low), Marie Cahill (Gloria Wentworth), Lou Clayton (Oscar Gregory), Chester Bree (Felix). Eddie Jackson (Grover McGeehan [Ronald Monahan]), Kathryn Crawford (May), Ralph Glover (Burns), Paul Huber (Dr. Cortlandt Jenks), Barrie Oliver (James Livingston), Oscar Ragland (Mildew), Tammany Young (Butch "Feet" McGeehan), Marjorie Arnold (Nurse), Hilda Knight (Assistant Nurse), Charles Angelo (Dr. Windham Wentworth), Maurice Lapue (Alfredo Gomez), Billy Culloo (Dopey), Ralph Glover (Hillary Trask), Donald McGinnis (Attendant at Sing Sing), Stanley Harrison (Plague); The Three Girl Friends: June Shafer, Ida Pearson, and Stella Friend, Dancing Girls: Iris Adrian, Betty Bowen, Lillian Burke, Martha Carroll, Mary Carroll, Alvine Carson, Melva Cornell, Mildred Espey, Harriet Fink, Eileen Gorlet, Adele Kay, Evelyn Laurie, Mickey MacKillop, Pansy Manness, Janet Marion, Lou Ann Meredith, Blanche Poston, Muriel Reed, Evelyn Saether, Barbara Smith, Norma Taylor, Buddy York; Show Girls: Meta Brewster, Helene Cambridge, Marian Carew, Josephine Carroll, Inez de Plessis, Betty Knight, Hilda Knight, Ethel Lawrence, Marcelle Miller, Marion Nevans, Blanche Satchel, Eileen Wenzel; Boys; Charles Conkling, Vincent Curren, Frank Ericson, Don Knoblock, Larry Larkin, James Libbey, Joseph Rogers, Jack Tucker; The Clayton, Jackson and Durante Orchestra and Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians

Note: The character "Alfred Gomez" (played by Maurice Lapue) was removed after the opening; Kathryn Crawford (May) was replaced by Elisabeth Welch in mid-January, 1931; Charles Angelo (Dr. Windham Wentworth) was replaced by Richard Carle; Paul Huber (Dr. Cortlandt Jenks) was replaced by Owen Coll

Musical Numbers

Act One

• "Go Into Your Dance" - Mona and Ensemble
• "Where Have You Been?" - Alice and Al
• "Say It With Gin" - Ensemble
• "Venice" - Alice, Jimmy, Oscar and Grover
• "I'm Getting Myself Ready For You" - Mona, James, Lola and Alfredo
• "Love For Sale" - May and the Three Girl Friends
• "The Great Indoors" - Mona and Ensemble

Act Two

• "Sing Sing for Sing Sing" - Al, with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians
• "Take Me Back to Manhattan" - Mona
• "Let's Fly Away" - Al and Alice
• "I Happen to Like New York" [added after the New York opening] - Mildew

Cut Songs

• "Just One of Those Things" [NOT the same song written for Jubilee; dropped during the Philadelphia tryout and replaced by "Take Me Back to Manhattan"; sung by Frances Williams]
• "The Poor Rich" [dropped before the New York opening; sung by Hope Williams, Eddie Jackson and Lou Clayton]
• "We've Been Spending the Summers With Our Families" [Alternate title: "Opening Scene 1"; dropped before the Philadelphia tryout]
• "Mona and Her Kiddies" [dropped before the New York opening]
• "Where Can One Powder One's Nose? [Alternate title: "Opening Reuben's Scene"; unused]
• "You've Got to Be Hard-Boiled [unused]
• "My Louisa" [unused; originally intended for Wake Up and Sing]
• "Why Talk About Sex?" [unused]
• "It Only Happens in Dreams" [unused]
• "I'm Haunted By You" [unused]
• "I've Got to Be Psychoanalyzed By You" [unused]
• "You're Too Far Away" [unused; later considered for Nymph Errant]
• "But He Never Says He Loves Me" [dropped before the New York opening; used in Nymph Errant with slight lyrical changes and title changed to "The Physician"]

Original Cast Recordings

"Love for Sale" / "Where Have You Been" - Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians with the Three Waring Girls

• 78 RPM, 1931 [Victor 22598] Charted March 14, 1931; peaked at #14

Contemporaneous Recordings

"I'm Getting Myself Ready for You" - Blanche Calloway

• 78 RPM, 1931 [Victor 22659]

"Where Have You Been?" / "I'm Getting Myself Ready for You" - Emil Coleman & His Orchestra

• 78 RPM, 1930 [Brunswick 6006] A-side charted on December 27, 1930; peaked at #6

"Love for Sale" - Libby Holman

• 78 RPM, 1931 [Brunswick 6044] Charted on February 21, 1931; peaked at #5

"Love for Sale" - Ralph Bennett and His Seven Aces

• 78 RPM, 1931 [Melotone M-12108]

"Love for Sale" - Fred Rich and His Orchestra

• 78 RPM, 1931 [Odeon ONY-36816]

"Love for Sale" - Ben Selvin and His Orchestra

• 78 RPM, 1931 [Columbia 2400-D]

"Love for Sale" - Sam Wooding and His Orchestra

• 78 RPM, 1931 [Brunswick A-500097]

"Love for Sale" - Hal Kemp and His Orchestra

• 78 RPM, 1939 [Victor 26278] Charted July 8, 1939; peaked at #14