Jumbo (musical)

This article is about the stage musical. For the film, see Billy Rose's Jumbo.

Jumbo
Original 1935 Program
Music	Richard Rodgers
Lyrics	Lorenz Hart
Book	Ben Hecht Charles MacArthur
Productions	1935 Broadway 1962 Film

Jumbo is a musical produced by Billy Rose, with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and book by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

Production

The musical opened on Broadway at the Hippodrome Theatre on November 16, 1935 and closed on April 18, 1936 after 233 performances. Directed by John Murray Anderson and George Abbott it starred Jimmy Durante, Donald Novis, Gloria Grafton, and a number of circus specialty acts. Jumbo tells the story of a financially strapped circus. At the end of each performance, Durante lay down on the stage and permitted a live elephant to place its foot upon his head.

The large 5,000-seat theatre was turned into a circus tent where the various specialty acts (including acrobats and animal acts) performed during the show. The music was played by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra.^[1]

Songs

Act 1

Over and Over Again – Mr. Ball and Henderson's Razorbacks
The Circus Is on Parade – Henderson's Razorbacks and Artists of the Circus
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World – Matt Mulligan, Jr. and Mickey Considine
Laugh – Claudius B. Bowers and Circus Specialty
My Romance – Matt Mulligan, Jr. and Mickey Considine
Little Girl Blue – Mickey Considine

Act 2

The Song of the Roustabouts – The Razorbacks
Women –Claudius B. Bowers, Circus Specialty, Allan K. Foster Girls and Dancers
Memories of Madison Square Garden (When the Circus Played the Garden) – Ensemble
Diavolo – Mr. Ball, The Razorbacks and Circus Specialties
The Circus Wedding – Entire Company and The Menagerie

Note:The song "There's a Small Hotel", dropped from the production before it opened, later appeared in the 1936 Rodgers and Hart musical On Your Toes and became a standard.

1962 film

The musical was made into a movie as Billy Rose's Jumbo in 1962, starring Jimmy Durante, Doris Day, Martha Raye, and Stephen Boyd, featuring Busby Berkeley's choreography. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Scoring of Music-Adaptation or Treatment. Although Jimmy Durante was in the cast of both the stage musical and the film (made nearly three decades later), the two productions have very different plots utilizing much of the same score, and the characters' names were changed in the film. However, one piece of stage business from the stage musical was repeated in the film. In both versions, Durante is working for a cash-strapped circus when its assets are seized by creditors. Durante attempts to sneak his beloved elephant Jumbo off the circus grounds, only to be confronted by a sheriff, who demands: "Where you going with that elephant?" Caught red-handed, Durante blithely replies "What elephant?"

References

↑ Hischak, Thomas S. The Rodgers and Hammerstein encyclopedia (2007), Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-313-34140-0. p. 140

External links

Rodgers and Hart

Musicals	The Garrick Gaieties Dearest Enemy The Girl Friend Peggy-Ann A Connecticut Yankee Present Arms Ever Green Simple Simon America's Sweetheart Jumbo On Your Toes Babes in Arms I'd Rather Be Right The Boys from Syracuse I Married an Angel Too Many Girls Higher and Higher Pal Joey By Jupiter

Songs	"Manhattan" "Mountain Greenery" "Here in My Arms" "Blue Room" "My Heart Stood Still" "Thou Swell" "To Keep My Love Alive" "You Took Advantage of Me" "With a Song in My Heart" "A Ship Without a Sail" "Dancing on the Ceiling" "Ten Cents a Dance" "He Was Too Good to Me" "I've Got Five Dollars" "Isn't It Romantic?" "Lover" "Mimi" "Blue Moon" "It's Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)" "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" "My Romance" "Little Girl Blue" "There's a Small Hotel" "Glad to Be Unhappy" "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" "Where or When" "I Wish I Were in Love Again" "My Funny Valentine" "Johnny One Note" "The Lady Is a Tramp" "Have You Met Miss Jones?" "I'll Tell the Man in the Street" "Spring Is Here" "Falling in Love with Love" "This Can't Be Love" "Sing for Your Supper" "I Like to Recognize the Tune" "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" "Give It Back to the Indians" "You're Nearer" "It Never Entered My Mind" "I Could Write a Book" "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" "Ev'rything I've Got" "Wait till You See Her"

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