Babes in Arms is written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. They loved Broadway, but when the Great Depression hit, the song writers headed west to write for Hollywood. After three years, they returned to Broadway with new producers excited to work with the duo. The wrote other shows such as On Your Toes, I Married an Angel, The Boys form Syracuse, and Too Many Girls.
Babes in Arms has an interesting production history. The show originally opened in 1937 on Broadway. The original script was written by the composer and lyricist and involved the teenage children of unemployed vaudevillians putting on a show in a barn to avoid being sent to a work farm. It featured most of the same score. The show was produced for the small sum of $50,000. The top ticket price was $3.85 The cast included no "stars", but featured Alfred Drake in his Broadway debut and featured black vaudeville tap dancers Fayard and Harold Nichols their only appearance in a Broadway book musical. This was the only time this show ever appeared on Broadway.
There were however, other productions. In 1939 there was a movie version which featured Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Busby Berkley directed and the show was nominated for two Oscars. And then in 1959, under the supervision of Richard Rodgers, George Oppenheimer revised the script trying to create a "sanitized, de-politicized" version of the show where apprentices are trying to save a local summer stock theatre. (This is the version you see here and is now the most frequently performed version). And then again in 1978 John Guare adapted the classic musical where Valentine and his teenage friends find themselves unsupervised while their folks hit the vaudeville summer circuit.
As an educator I feel a responsibility to expose my student to a variety of musical theatre genres during their four years of high school. Having produced a "Juke Box" Musical last year (All Shook Up) and a musical based on a movie the year before (Xanadu), I felt it was time to return to a classic in the Musical Theatre cannon. This show resonated with me because of the determination and passion these young people have to "put on a show". It was a classic plot in the golden age of Musical Theatre and Musical Movies-"Hey Kids, let's put on a show"-in a barn, a hotel, wherever we can. Sometimes I feel that is the career I have chosen for thirty years. Let's take no budget, a lot of passion and put on a show because as the Press Agent says, I am "working in the theatre and the theatre is (my) life." I'm proud of these students for their commitment to pushing themselves, to their education and learning to work collaboratively as well as their dedication to their art. Thank you to Mr. Healey and Mr. Cooper for bringing back our live music! Hope you enjoy our return to the classic American Musical Comedy.
Lori Sessions, Director
