At Home Abroad
Encyclopedia
At Home Abroad is a revue
with music by Arthur Schwartz
and lyrics by Howard Dietz
. It introduced the songs "Love Is a Dancing Thing", "What a Wonderful World" and "Got a Bran' New Suit", among others. The revue follows a bored couple who flee America and go on a musical world tour.
production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre
on September 19, 1935, and ran for 198 performances. It featured in the cast Beatrice Lillie
, Ethel Waters
, Herb Williams, Eleanor Powell
, Paul Haakon, Reginald Gardiner
, Eddie Foy Jr., Vera Allen, and John Payne
.
Sketches were scripted by Raymond Knight
, Marc Connelly
and others. The revue was produced by Messrs. Shubert
, and directed by Vincente Minnelli
and Thomas Mitchell
; the first Broadway musical to be directed by Minnelli.
in the Moulin Rouge in Paris, and "made something of a carnival of this song, with lyrics like 'I kiss your right bank, I kiss your left bank; kiss Montparnasse' with the emphasis on the last syllable."
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
with music by Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz was an American composer and film producer.Schwartz supported his legal studies at New York University and postgraduate studies at Columbia University by playing piano before concentrating his talents on vaudeville, Broadway theatre and Hollywood.Among his Broadway musicals are The...
and lyrics by Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist.-Biography:Dietz was born in New York City and studied journalism at Columbia University...
. It introduced the songs "Love Is a Dancing Thing", "What a Wonderful World" and "Got a Bran' New Suit", among others. The revue follows a bored couple who flee America and go on a musical world tour.
Productions
The original BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre
Winter Garden Theatre
The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1634 Broadway in midtown Manhattan.-History:The structure was built by William Kissam Vanderbilt in 1896 to be the American Horse Exchange....
on September 19, 1935, and ran for 198 performances. It featured in the cast Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Gladys "Bea" Lillie was an actress and comedic performer. Following her 1920 marriage to Sir Robert Peel in England, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.-Early career:...
, Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.Her best-known recordings includes, "Dinah", "Birmingham Bertha",...
, Herb Williams, Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Torrey Powell was an American film actress and dancer of the 1930s and 1940s, known for her exuberant solo tap dancing.-Early life:...
, Paul Haakon, Reginald Gardiner
Reginald Gardiner
Reginald Gardiner was an English-born actor in film and television and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in Britain. His parents wanted him to be an architect and he studied at it but he wanted to be an actor and eventually got his way.He started as a super on stage and eventually...
, Eddie Foy Jr., Vera Allen, and John Payne
John Payne (actor)
John Payne was an American film actor who is mainly remembered as a singer in 20th Century Fox musical films, and for his leading roles in Miracle on 34th Street and the NBC western television series The Restless Gun.-Background:Payne was born in Roanoke, Virginia...
.
Sketches were scripted by Raymond Knight
Raymond Knight (radio)
Raymond Knight was an actor, comedian and comedy writer, best known as a pioneer in satirical humor for network radio....
, Marc Connelly
Marc Connelly
Marcus Cook Connelly was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930.-Biography:...
and others. The revue was produced by Messrs. Shubert
Shubert family
The Shubert family of New York City, New York was responsible for the establishment of the Broadway district, in New York City, as the hub of the theatre industry in the United States...
, and directed by Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
and Thomas Mitchell
Thomas Mitchell (actor)
Thomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life...
; the first Broadway musical to be directed by Minnelli.
Synopsis
The setting is a cruise around the world, featuring 25 musical numbers at various locations: a London store, an African jungle ("Hottentot Potentate"), a Balkan country where Powell taps spy messages, and a West Indies dockside for "Loadin' Time", to mention a few. The revue gave Bea Lillie the range of a variety of exotic locations. She had the tongue-twister lines "two dozen double damask dinner napkins"; became a Russian ballerina who could not "face the mujik"; and disrupted the line of geisha girls with "It's better with your shoes off" in a Japanese garden. In "Paree", she was a Parisian grisetteGrisette (French)
The word grisette has referred to a French working-class woman from the late 17th century and remained in common use through the Belle Époque era, albeit with some modifications to its meaning. It derives from gris, , and refers to the cheap grey fabric of the dresses these women originally wore...
in the Moulin Rouge in Paris, and "made something of a carnival of this song, with lyrics like 'I kiss your right bank, I kiss your left bank; kiss Montparnasse' with the emphasis on the last syllable."
Musical numbers
- Get Away From it All
- The Survey
- Dinner Napkins - Eddie Foy, Jr, James McColl
- Hottentot Potentate - Ethel Waters
- Paree - Beatrice Lillie
- Thief in the Night - Ethel Waters
- Love Is a Dancing Thing - Paul Haakon, Woods Miller, Nina Whitney
- Loadin' Time - Ethel Waters
- Trains - Reginald Gardiner
- What a Wonderful World - Eleanor Powell
- You May Be Far Away From Me - Beatrice Lillie, Reginald Gardiner
- The Steamboat Whistle - Ethel Waters
- Get Yourself a Geisha
- Got a Bran' New Suit - Eleanor Powell, Ethel Waters
- That's Not Cricket
- The Lady With the Tap - Eleanor Powell, Woods Miller