Oh, Kay!
Encyclopedia
Oh, Kay! is a musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 with music by George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...

, lyrics by Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....

, and a book by Guy Bolton
Guy Bolton
Guy Reginald Bolton was a British-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the U.S., he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G...

 and P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...

. It is based on the play La Presidente by Maurice Hanniquin and Pierre Veber
Pierre Véber
Pierre-Eugène Veber was a French playwright and writer.-Theatre 1897–1910:*1897: Dix ans après, comedy in one act, with Lucien Muhlfeld, premiered in Paris at the Théâtre de l'Odéon 5 April 1897...

. The plot revolves around the adventures of the Duke of Durham and his sister, Lady Kay, English bootleggers in Prohibition Era
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

 America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Kay finds herself falling in love with a man who seems unavailable.

Oh Kay! was named for Kay Swift
Kay Swift
Kay Swift was an American composer of popular and classical music, the first woman to score a complete musical. Written in 1930, Fine and Dandy includes some of her best known songs; the title song has become a jazz standard. "Can't We Be Friends?" was another important hit...

, and the leading male character is named Jimmy after her husband, Jimmy Warburg. It opened on Broadway
Broadway 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 in 1926, starring Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...

 and Victor Moore
Victor Moore
Victor Frederick Moore was an American actor of stage and screen, as well as a comedian, writer, and director.-Personal life:...

, and ran for 256 performances. The musical opened on the West End
West 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...

 in 1927. This production starred Gertrude Lawrence and John Kirby
John Kirby (musician)
John Kirby , was a jazz double-bassist who also played trombone and tuba.-Background:Kirby may have been born in Winchester, Virginia, although other sources say he was born in Baltimore, Maryland, orphaned, and adopted. Kirby hit New York at 17, but after his trombone got stolen, he switched to...

, and ran for 213 performances.

Background

Producers Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedly imagined Oh, Kay! as a Princess Theatre
Princess Theatre
The Princess Theatre was a joint venture between the Shubert Brothers , producer Ray Comstock, theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury and actor-director Holbrook Blinn...

-style show, with a contemporary setting, simple sets, and a farcical story. Gertrude Lawrence, who had been featured in the Andre Charlot Revues of 1924 and 1925, was chosen as the star before the songs or story had been written. In accordance with the typical creative process for early American musicals, George and Ira Gershwin wrote the score to Oh, Kay! before the librettists, Bolton and Wodehouse, began work on the book. When the book was completed, eight songs from the Gershwins' score were cut because they could not be easily inserted into the libretto.

The story aptly captured the spirit of the Roaring Twenties
Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, but also in London, Berlin and Paris for a period of sustained economic prosperity. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism...

, featuring settings and characters familiar to theatre audiences: a decadent Long Island mansion and notorious (but comic) bootleggers. During rehearsals, George Gershwin purchased a rag doll in a Philadelphia toy store. The ballad, "Someone To Watch Over Me", was staged with Lawrence alone on stage, clutching the doll and singing to it. It was the hit song of the show and became a Gershwin standard.

Act One

It is 1926, the Jazz Age and the era of Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...

. Jimmy Winter is very popular among the young ladies, and they are cleaning the living room of his Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, estate, declaring that "The Woman's Touch" is exactly what his home needs. Jimmy has been away but is coming home that evening. In his absence, some English bootleggers
Rum-running
Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...

, the Duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...

 of Durham, his sister, Lady Kay, and their thick-headed American assistants, "Shorty" McGee and Larry Potter, have stashed their illegal booze in Jimmy's house. When they hear that Jimmy is returning, the Duke cancels that night's rum run and plans to remove their hundreds of cases of liquor from the cellar. Dolly and Phyllis Ruxton, two of the young ladies, happen to be identical twins. They join Larry in an extemporaneous song and dance ("Don't Ask").

Revenue Officer
Bureau of Prohibition
The Bureau of Prohibition was the federal law enforcement agency formed to enforce the National Prohibition Act of 1919, commonly known as the Volstead Act, which backed up the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution regarding the prohibition of the manufacture, sale, and transportation...

 Jansen arrives, convinced that a crime is in progress, but departs when Jimmy returns home. Jimmy is accompanied by his serious and overbearing second wife, Constance, to whom he has just been married. His first marriage followed a drunken college prank, and the couple has now been separated for many years. He applied for an annulment
Annulment
Annulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost as if it had never taken place...

 so he could marry Constance. Shorty passes himself off as the new butler, having sent away the butler and maid that Jimmy had ordered. As butler, Shorty can make sure the rum in the basement is safe.

Jimmy receives a telegram from his lawyer saying that the annulment has not been completed, so Jimmy and Constance are illegally married. Constance furiously leaves for the nearest inn. Jimmy tells Shorty about a beautiful girl who saved him from drowning last summer. He is interrupted when the young ladies who cleaned his house return to welcome him home. He declares that each is a "Dear Little Girl". They leave, and Jimmy prepares for bed as a storm rages outside. Lady Kay, clad in oilskin
Oilskin
Oilskin can mean:*A type of fabric: canvas with a skin of oil applied to it as waterproofing, often linseed oil. Old types of oilskin included:-**Heavy cotton cloth waterproofed with linseed oil.**Sailcloth waterproofed with a thin layer of tar....

 and clutching a revolver, enters pursued by revenue officers. She turns out to be the girl who rescued Jimmy the previous summer. Jimmy hides her in his bedroom when Officer Jansen arrives at the house to question Jimmy. Jansen leaves but then returns and sees Kay and Jimmy together. Kay says she is Jimmy's wife, and since the just-married suitcases are still scattered around the living room, the revenue officer believes her and leaves. Kay cannot go out in the terrible storm, so she will have to stay the night in Jimmy's room ("Maybe").

The Duke and Larry arrive at Jimmy's house the next morning searching for Kay. The pretty girls also drop in, and Larry leads a minstrel-style song and dance
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....

 ("Clap Yo' Hands"). Kay hides in Jimmy's bedroom until all the guests leave. The revenue officer returns, and Jimmy and Kay pretend to be newlyweds ("Do, Do, Do"). The Duke, Constance, and Constance's father, Judge Appleton, all show up, and Kay hides in the bedroom again. Now that Jimmy's annulment is final, the Judge plans to preside over an official marriage ceremony that afternoon. Constance hears noises from the bedroom and opens the door. Kay, now dressed as an English maid, introduces herself as Jane, wife of Shorty the butler. Kay realizes she is in love with Jimmy and resolves to prevent his marriage to Constance.

Act Two

Wedding photographs of the "Bride and Groom" are being taken, and Kay, still disguised as a maid, tries to convince Jimmy she would be a better wife than fussy Constance. She tells her rag doll that she needs "Someone to Watch Over Me". Larry is supposed to be ferrying the booze out of the cellar, but he ends up demonstrating the dancing ability of his "Fidgety Feet" instead. The revenue officer shows up briefly and is confused when Kay is introduced as Shorty's wife, not Jimmy's wife. The Judge and Constance demand lunch, and Shorty and Kay must serve them. The meal becomes increasingly chaotic, and the Judge and Constance are severely offended and leave. Jimmy declares that spending time with the young ladies who frequent his house is "Heaven on Earth".

The revenue officer returns and is shocked to hear that Jimmy is getting married that afternoon, since he saw him with his wife the previous night. Kay is trying on one of Constance's gowns, and, since she does not look like a maid anymore, she and Shorty convince the revenue officer that she is Jimmy's wife. She just looks like Jane the maid; Dolly and Phyllis demonstrate that two people can look alike.

Kay and Shorty plot to stop the wedding. When Jimmy sees Kay in Constance's dress, she is so beautiful that he kisses her. The wedding begins, and as the Judge reads the service, he is interrupted by Shorty, disguised as a revenue agent. He says that Jimmy is under arrest for hiding alcohol in his house. The real revenue officer arrives, arrests the Duke and Kay, and charges Jimmy with harboring a criminal. He reveals that he found Kay in Jimmy's pajamas the night before masquerading as Jimmy's wife. The bootleggers and Jimmy are placed under arrest and locked in the cellar as the booze is trucked away. They soon discover, however, that the basement has been left unlocked, and they can leave.

That night, Jimmy gives a party for his friends and the bootleggers. His friends all praise Kay, declaring "Oh, Kay, You're OK with Me". The revenue officer arrives and confesses that he is really the Blackbird, a famous pirate, and he has just stolen all their liquor! But it turns out that the truck drivers were working for Shorty and Larry. Blackbird swears that he will have his revenge. Since he thinks Kay does not have a United States visa, he wants her deported. However, since Kay just got married to Jimmy, she is a U.S. citizen.

Productions and recordings

Oh, Kay! premiered on November 8, 1926, at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway and ran for 256 performances. In London, it played at His 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...

, opening on September 21, 1927, and ran for 213 performances.

It was revived at the Century Theatre
Century Theatre
The Century Theatre, originally the New Theatre, was a theater located at 62nd Street and Central Park West in New York City. Opened on November 6, 1909, it was noted for its fine architecture but due to poor acoustics and an inconvenient location it was financially unsuccessful...

 in 1928. It was revived Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 in 1960, and a 1990 revival played at the Richard Rodgers Theatre
Richard Rodgers Theatre
The Richard Rodgers Theatre, is a Broadway theater in New York City, built by Irwin Chanin in 1925. When it was first opened, it was called Chanin's 46th Street Theatre. Chanin almost immediately leased it to the Shuberts, who bought the building outright in 1931 and renamed it the 46th Street...

 and the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 205 West 46th Street in midtown-Manhattan.Designed by the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings, it was built by producer Charles Dillingham and opened as the Globe Theatre, in honor of London's Shakespearean playhouse, on...

. In 1997 a Discovering Lost Musicals concert version played 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...

 in London, using the original script (with Louise Gold
Louise 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...

 in the title role). There have been other British productions, including a 1984 production at Chichester, directed by Ian Judge and starring Jane Carr
Jane Carr
Ellen Jane Carr is an English actress. She is well known for the voice role of "Pud'n" on the animated The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy . She also played a character called "Pudding" in one of her earliest TV appearances, the Jilly Cooper-penned BBC sitcom It's Awfully Bad For Your Eyes,...

 as Kay and Michael Siberry
Michael Siberry
Michael Siberry is an Australian stage and screen actor. He most recently starred as King Arthur in the National Tour of Monty Python's Spamalot. In September 2008, he assumed the role of King Arthur on Broadway....

 as Jimmy. Jane How
Jane How
Jane Onslow How is an English actress with a range of television,film and stage credits. In 1977 she married actor Mark Burns and had a son Jack in 1981...

, Edward Hibbert
Edward Hibbert
Edward Hibbert is an American-born English actor and literary agent.-Biography:Hibbert was born in Long Island, New York, the son of Geoffrey Hibbert. He has one sister. He was raised in England, where he attended London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art...

 and Gareth Valentine
Gareth Valentine
Gareth Valentine is a British composer, conductor and musical director. He has worked extensively in London's West End on musical productions and also conducted both the BBC Concert Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra...

 were also featured.

Oh, Kay! was made into a silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 in 1928 but never into a sound motion picture. A new recording of the musical made in the 1990s, with Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano described as "one of the most consequential performers of our time" by the Los Angeles Times. The recipient of several Grammy Awards and Edison Prize-winning discs, Upshaw is at home both in opera and art song, and in repertoire from Baroque to contemporary...

, restored songs cut from the original production and returned Someone to Watch Over Me to its intended original spot, early in Act I. This last change reportedly allows the song's opening verse to make more sense.

Roles and original Broadway cast

  • Kay – Gertrude Lawrence
    Gertrude Lawrence
    Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...

  • "Shorty" McGee – Victor Moore
    Victor Moore
    Victor Frederick Moore was an American actor of stage and screen, as well as a comedian, writer, and director.-Personal life:...

  • Jimmy Winter – Oscar Shaw
    Oscar Shaw
    Oscar Shaw , was a stage and screen actor and singer...

  • Constance Appleton – Sascha Beaumont
  • Mae – Constance Carpenter
    Constance Carpenter
    Constance Emmeline Carpenter was an English-born American film and musical theatre actress.-Biography:Born in Bath, Somerset, Carpenter was the daughter of vaudevillians and began performing at an early age....

  • Molly Morse – Betty Compton
    Betty Compton
    Betty Compton was a stage actress who married New York City mayor Jimmy Walker in 1933. She was born as Violet Halling Compton in Sandown, Isle of Wight....

  • Larry Potter – Harland Dixon
  • Dolly Ruxton – Madeleine Fairbanks
  • Phil Ruxton – Marion Fairbanks
  • Judge Appleton – Frank Gardiner
    Frank Gardiner
    Frank Gardiner was a noted Australian bushranger of the 19th century. He was born in Scotland about 1827 and migrated from to Australia as a child with his parents in 1834,. His real name was Francis Christie, though he often used one of several other aliases including Gardiner, Clarke or Christie...

  • Peggy – Janette Gilmore
  • Revenue Officer Jansen – Harry T. Shannon
  • The Duke – Gerald Oliver Smith
  • Daisy – Paulette Winston

Songs

Act I
  • The Moon is on the Sea - Ensemble
  • When our Ship Comes Sailing In - Duke, Potter and Shorty
  • Don't Ask - Larry Potter, Phyllis Ruxton and Dolly Ruxton
  • Someone to watch Over Me - Kay
  • The Woman's Touch - Molly Morse, Mae and Ensemble
  • Dear Little Girl - Jimmy Winter and Girls
  • Maybe - Jimmy Winter and Kay
  • Clap Yo' Hands
    Clap Yo' Hands
    "Clap Yo' Hands" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.It was introduced in the musical Oh, Kay! , and was featured by Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson in a song and dance routine in Funny Face ....

     - Larry Potter, Molly Morse, Daisy, Mae, Peggy and Ensemble
  • Do, Do, Do - Jimmy Winter and Kay


Act II
  • Bride and Groom - Constance Appleton, Jimmy Winter, Judge Appleton and Guests
  • Ain't it Romantic - Kay, Shorty and Jimmy
  • Fidgety Feet - Larry Potter, Phyllis Ruxton and Ensemble
  • Heaven on Earth - Jimmy Winter, Molly Morse, Mae and Ensemble
  • Someone To Watch Over Me
    Someone to Watch over Me (song)
    "Someone to Watch Over Me" is a song composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin from the musical Oh, Kay! , where it was introduced by Gertrude Lawrence...

    - Kay
  • Oh, Kay! - Kay Jones and Boys


External links

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