DuBarry Was a Lady
Encyclopedia
DuBarry Was a Lady is a Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter
, and the book by Herbert Fields
and B.G. DeSylva. The musical starred Bert Lahr
, Ethel Merman
and Betty Grable
, and the song "Friendship" was one of the highlights. The musical was made into a 1943
Technicolor
film, DuBarry Was a Lady
, starring Red Skelton
, Lucille Ball
, and Gene Kelly
.
. While trying to do so, Louis inadvertently drinks the Mickey Finn, falls asleep, and dreams he is King Louis XV of France
, and that May is Madame du Barry
. In his dream, Charley becomes the Dauphin (later Louis XVI) and Harry becomes the captain of the guard, with Ann as Du Barry's lady-in-waiting
, and Alex as a peasant who wrote a rude song about The King and Du Barry (the title song: Du Barry Was A Lady). Eventually after various entanglements (including the Dauphin shooting the King in the posterior with a bow and arrow), Louis wakes up and realises that Alex is the man for May. He uses the last of his winnings to pay for Alex's divorce from Ann, and (with Charley having just quit his job) goes back to being a washroom attendant.
at the 46th Street Theatre on December 6, 1939, transferred to the Royale Theatre on October 21, 1940 and closed December 12, 1940, after 408 performances. It was directed by Edgar MacGregor, choreographed by Robert Alton
, with the orchestrations of Robert Russell Bennett
and Ted Royal
. The cast featured Bert Lahr
as Louis Blore, Ethel Merman
as May Daly, Betty Grable
as Alice Barton, Benny Baker as Charley, Ronald Graham
as Alex Barton and Charles Walters
as Harry Norton. Gypsy Rose Lee
and Francis Williams later played the part of May Daly.
at Her Majesty's Theatre
on 22 October 1942 and ran for 178 performances. It was directed by Richard Bird
. The cast featured Arthur Riscoe
as Louis Blore, Frances Day
as May Daly, Frances Marsden as Alice Barton, Jacky Hunter as Charley, Bruce Trent as Alex Barton and Teddy Beaumont as Harry Norton.
as "May Daly" with Barry Cryer
as Louis in 1993 and Desmond Barrit in 2001. The May 1993 production was at the Barbican Centre
. The November 2001 concert was (like the original London production) at Her Majesty's Theatre, recorded for radio by the BBC (it was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 during Christmas 2002).
New York City Center Encores!
presented a staged concert in February 1996 with Robert Morse
(Louis) and Faith Prince
(May).
and Ralph Blane
handled the vocal arrangements for the original Broadway production.
Act I
Act II
wrote in the New York Times review: "Although Miss Merman is jaunty and Mr. Lahr is funny, they have a hard time keeping this show merry. The authors have struck a dead level of Broadway obscenity that does not yield much mirth. As the music-maker Mr. Porter has written a number of accomplished tunes in the modern idiom and one excellent romantic song, "Do I Love You?" but the lyrics are no more inspired than the book; they treat all humor as middling. The performers supply more pleasure than the authors and composer. Betty Grable and Charles Walters, who would also be featured in a free society, dance and sing with remarkable dash."
Life Magazine praised the performers, especially Betty Grable "who can dance and sing like a May breeze" and Merman and Lahr "two musical comedy veterans...in top form."
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
, and the book by Herbert Fields
Herbert Fields
Herbert Fields was an American librettist and screenwriter.Born in New York City, Fields began his career as an actor, then graduated to choreography and stage direction before turning to writing. From 1925 until his death, he contributed to the libretti of many Broadway musicals...
and B.G. DeSylva. The musical starred Bert Lahr
Bert Lahr
Bert Lahr was an American actor and comedian. Lahr is remembered today for his roles as the Cowardly Lion and Kansas farmworker Zeke in The Wizard of Oz, but was also well-known for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and on Broadway.-Early life:Lahr was born in New York City, of German-Jewish heritage...
, Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's...
and Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
, and the song "Friendship" was one of the highlights. The musical was made into a 1943
1943 in film
The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films....
Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
film, DuBarry Was a Lady
DuBarry Was a Lady (film)
DuBarry Was a Lady is a 1943 Technicolor film, starring Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, and Gene Kelly, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is based on the 1939 stage musical of the same name....
, starring Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
, Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
, and Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
.
Plot
A washroom attendant, Louis Blore, has won a sweepstakes, and subsequently quits his job. He is in love with the nightclub singer May Daly, but she is in love with Alex Barton. Alex is the brother of her friend Alice, who is in love with Harry Norton. Meanwhile, Alex is unhappily married to Ann. Charley, Louis's replacement, suggests that Louis slip Alex a Mickey FinnMickey Finn (drugs)
A Mickey Finn, is a slang term for a drink laced with a drug given to someone without his knowledge in order to incapacitate him...
. While trying to do so, Louis inadvertently drinks the Mickey Finn, falls asleep, and dreams he is King Louis XV of France
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
, and that May is Madame du Barry
Madame du Barry
Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry was the last Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.-Early life:...
. In his dream, Charley becomes the Dauphin (later Louis XVI) and Harry becomes the captain of the guard, with Ann as Du Barry's lady-in-waiting
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...
, and Alex as a peasant who wrote a rude song about The King and Du Barry (the title song: Du Barry Was A Lady). Eventually after various entanglements (including the Dauphin shooting the King in the posterior with a bow and arrow), Louis wakes up and realises that Alex is the man for May. He uses the last of his winnings to pay for Alex's divorce from Ann, and (with Charley having just quit his job) goes back to being a washroom attendant.
1939 Broadway
The musical opened on 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...
at the 46th Street Theatre on December 6, 1939, transferred to the Royale Theatre on October 21, 1940 and closed December 12, 1940, after 408 performances. It was directed by Edgar MacGregor, choreographed by Robert Alton
Robert Alton
Robert Alton was an American dancer and choreographer, a major figure in dance choreography of Broadway and Hollywood musicals from the 1930s through to the early 1950s...
, with the orchestrations of Robert Russell Bennett
Robert Russell Bennett
Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. In 1957 and 2008, Bennett received Tony Awards...
and Ted Royal
Ted Royal
Ted Royal [Dewar] was an American orchestrator, conductor and composer for Broadway theatre. He was most active in the 1940s and 50s, being associated with the very successful original productions of Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon...
. The cast featured Bert Lahr
Bert Lahr
Bert Lahr was an American actor and comedian. Lahr is remembered today for his roles as the Cowardly Lion and Kansas farmworker Zeke in The Wizard of Oz, but was also well-known for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and on Broadway.-Early life:Lahr was born in New York City, of German-Jewish heritage...
as Louis Blore, Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's...
as May Daly, Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
as Alice Barton, Benny Baker as Charley, Ronald Graham
Ronald Graham
Ronald Lewis Graham is a mathematician credited by the American Mathematical Society as being "one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years"...
as Alex Barton and Charles Walters
Charles Walters
Charles Walters was a Hollywood director and choreographer most noted for his work in MGM musicals and comedies in from the 1940s to the 1960s....
as Harry Norton. Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress, author, and playwright whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.-Early life:...
and Francis Williams later played the part of May Daly.
West End
The show opened in the West EndWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
on 22 October 1942 and ran for 178 performances. It was directed by Richard Bird
Richard Bird (actor)
Richard Bird was an actor and director of stage and screen.He was born George Bird and took the stage name Richard Bird as during his early acting career he was knicknamed "Dickie" by his colleagues....
. The cast featured Arthur Riscoe
Arthur Riscoe
-Selected filmography:* Horatio's Deception * For Love of You * Public Nuisance No. 1 * Paradise for Two * Kipps -External links:...
as Louis Blore, Frances Day
Frances Day
Frances Day was an American actress and singer who achieved great popularity in the UK in the 1930s.Day's career began as a nightclub cabaret singer in New York City and London...
as May Daly, Frances Marsden as Alice Barton, Jacky Hunter as Charley, Bruce Trent as Alex Barton and Teddy Beaumont as Harry Norton.
Later productions
The show has been produced in concert form several times, in both the US and the UK. The two UK productions, in 1993 and 2001, were by the "Discovering Lost Musicals Charitable Trust" and featured Louise GoldLouise Gold
Louise Gold is an English singer, actress and puppeteer whose career has spanned almost four decades.From 1977, Gold was a puppeteer and voice actress for The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, and she has performed voice and puppet work on various other Muppet films and specials...
as "May Daly" with Barry Cryer
Barry Cryer
Barry Charles Cryer OBE is a British writer and comedian. Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie...
as Louis in 1993 and Desmond Barrit in 2001. The May 1993 production was at the Barbican Centre
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
. The November 2001 concert was (like the original London production) at Her Majesty's Theatre, recorded for radio by the BBC (it was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 during Christmas 2002).
New York City Center Encores!
Encores!
Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert is a program that has been presented by New York City Center since 1994. Encores! is dedicated to performing the full score of musicals that rarely are heard in New York City...
presented a staged concert in February 1996 with Robert Morse
Robert Morse
Robert Morse is an American actor and singer. Morse is best known for his appearances in musicals and plays on Broadway. He has also acted in movies and television shows. His best known role is that of J. Pierrepont Finch in the 1961 Broadway musical, and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business...
(Louis) and Faith Prince
Faith Prince
Faith Prince is an American actress and singer known primarily for her work on Broadway. Prince has won the Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical and received three Tony nominations.-Life and career:...
(May).
Songs
In an early shared credit, the songwriting duo of Hugh MartinHugh Martin
Hugh Martin was an American musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He is best known for his score for the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me In St...
and Ralph Blane
Ralph Blane
Ralph Blane was an American composer, lyricist, and performer.-Life and career:Born Ralph Uriah Hunsecker in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Blane was the son of grocery store owners. He attended Tulsa Central High School...
handled the vocal arrangements for the original Broadway production.
Act I
- Where's Louie? - Ensemble
- Ev'ry Day's a Holiday - Harry Norton, Alice Barton and Ensemble
- It Ain't Etiquette - His Most Royal Majesty, The King of France and Vi Hennessey
- When Love Beckoned - Mme. La Comtesse du Barry
- Come On In - Mme. La Comtesse du Barry and Ensemble
- Dream Song - Four Internationals
- Mesdames and Messieurs - Dames de la Coeur
- Gavotte - Alice Barton and Ensemble
- But in the Morning, No! - Mme. La Comtesse du Barry and His Most Royal Majesty, The King of France
- Do I Love You?Do I Love You?"Do I Love You?" is a 1939 popular song written by Cole Porter, for his musical DuBarry Was a Lady, where it was introduced by Ronald Graham and Ethel Merman.-Notable recordings:*Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook...
- Alex Barton and Mme. La Comtesse du Barry - Do I Love You (Reprise) - Mme. La Comtesse du Barry and Zamore
- DuBarry Was a Lady - Entire Company
Act II
- Give Him the Ooh-La-LaGive Him the Ooh-La-La"Give Him the Ooh-La-La" is a 1939 popular song written by Cole Porter, for his musical DuBarry Was a Lady, where it was introduced by Ethel Merman.-Notable recordings:*Blossom Dearie - Give Him the Ooh-La-La...
- Mme. La Comtesse du Barry - Well, Did You Evah!Well, Did You Evah!"Well, Did You Evah!" is a song written by Cole Porter for his 1939 musical Du Barry Was a Lady, where it was introduced by Betty Grable and Charles Walters....
- Alice Barton and Harry Norton - It Was Written in the Stars - Alex Barton and Ensemble
- L'Apres Midi d'un Boeuf - Charley and Zamore
- Katie Went to Haiti - Mme. La Comtesse du Barry and Ensemble
- Katie Went to Haiti (Reprise) - Alex Barton and Mme. La Comtesse du Barry
- Friendship - Mme. La Comtesse du Barry and His Most Royal Majesty, The King of France
Reception
Brooks AtkinsonBrooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...
wrote in the New York Times review: "Although Miss Merman is jaunty and Mr. Lahr is funny, they have a hard time keeping this show merry. The authors have struck a dead level of Broadway obscenity that does not yield much mirth. As the music-maker Mr. Porter has written a number of accomplished tunes in the modern idiom and one excellent romantic song, "Do I Love You?" but the lyrics are no more inspired than the book; they treat all humor as middling. The performers supply more pleasure than the authors and composer. Betty Grable and Charles Walters, who would also be featured in a free society, dance and sing with remarkable dash."
Life Magazine praised the performers, especially Betty Grable "who can dance and sing like a May breeze" and Merman and Lahr "two musical comedy veterans...in top form."