One Touch of Venus
Encyclopedia
One Touch of Venus 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 written by Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...

, lyrics by Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash
Frederic Ogden Nash was an American poet well known for his light verse. At the time of his death in 1971, the New York Times said his "droll verse with its unconventional rhymes made him the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry".-Early life:Nash was born in Rye, New York...

, and book by S. J. Perelman
S. J. Perelman
Sidney Joseph Perelman, almost always known as S. J. Perelman , was an American humorist, author, and screenwriter. He is best known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for The New Yorker...

 and Nash, based on the novella The Tinted Venus by Thomas Anstey Guthrie
Thomas Anstey Guthrie
Thomas Anstey Guthrie , was an English novelist and journalist, who wrote his comic novels under the pseudonym F. Anstey....

, and very loosely spoofing the Pygmalion
Pygmalion (mythology)
Pygmalion is a legendary figure of Cyprus. Though Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton, he is most familiar from Ovid's Metamorphoses, X, in which Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved.-In Ovid:In Ovid's narrative, Pygmalion was a...

 myth. The show satirizes contemporary American suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

an values, artistic fads and romantic and sexual mores. Weill had been in America for ten years by the time he wrote this musical, and his music, though retaining his early haunting power, had evolved into a very different 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...

 style.

Original production

The original Broadway production opened at the Imperial Theatre
Imperial Theatre
The Imperial Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 249 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan. The theatre seats up to 1417 people....

 on October 7, 1943 and closed on February 10, 1945 after 567 performances. It was directed by Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...

 and featured choreography by Agnes de Mille
Agnes de Mille
Agnes George de Mille was an American dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMille and her uncle Cecil B. DeMille were both Hollywood directors...

.
It starred Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...

, Kenny Baker and Paula Laurence. Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

 reportedly backed out of the title role during rehearsals, calling it "too sexy and profane", which gave Martin the opportunity to establish herself as a Broadway star.

Film version

The musical was made into a 1948 film
One Touch of Venus (film)
One Touch of Venus is a film directed by William A. Seiter, starring Robert Walker and Ava Gardner, released by Universal Studios, and based on the Broadway musical of the same name, book written by S. J. Perelman and Ogden Nash, with music composed by Kurt Weill...

, directed by William A. Seiter
William A. Seiter
William A. Seiter was an American film director. He was born in New York City. After attending Hudson River Military Academy, Seiter broke into films in 1915 as a bit player at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, doubling a cowboy...

 and starring Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...

 and Robert Walker. The movie version omits much of the Broadway score and received poor reviews.

As a child, Philip Margo
Philip Margo
Philip "Phil" Margo is an American musician and author who, along with his brother Mitch Margo is a member of The Tokens. They are best known for their hit recording of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" which rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for three weeks in 1961...

 fell in love with the film when shown on New York's television show Picture For a Sunday Afternoon and eventually wrote a 1988 made for TV movie based on The Tinted Venus called The Goddess of Love with Vanna White
Vanna White
Vanna White is an American television personality and film actress best known as the hostess of Wheel of Fortune since 1982.-Early life:...

 as Venus.

Other productions

In 1987, the piece played at the Goodspeed Opera House. Ian Marshall Fisher's Discovering Lost Musicals Charitable Trust has presented the work twice, first in 1992 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...

, and then in 2000 the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...

's Linbury Studio Theatre. 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...

 played the title role on both occasions. Both productions also found Myra Sands playing Mrs Kramer; while Dick Vosburgh
Dick Vosburgh
Richard Kennedy "Dick" Vosburgh was an American-born comedy writer and lyricist working chiefly in Britain....

 put in an appearance in the 2000 production.

Its premiered in Germany on June 17, 1994, at the Meininger Theater in Meiningen
Meiningen
Meiningen is a town in Germany - located in the southern part of the state of Thuringia and is the district seat of Schmalkalden-Meiningen. It is situated on the river Werra....

, Thuringia.

In 1995, BBC Radio broadcast the piece with Paige O'Hara
Paige O'Hara
Donna Paige O'Hara is an American Broadway singer, actress, and Disney Legend best known for her voicework as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.-Personal life:...

 in the title role. Other cast members included Kim Criswell
Kim Criswell
Kim Criswell is an American musical entertainer and actress.- Life and career :Criswell was born in Hampton, Virginia, but grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After she graduated from high school, she studied musical theatre at the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music...

, Peter Gale, Myra Sands (as Mrs. Kramer) and Dick Vosburgh
Dick Vosburgh
Richard Kennedy "Dick" Vosburgh was an American-born comedy writer and lyricist working chiefly in Britain....

.

In 1996, New York City Center
New York City Center
New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...

's 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...

series presented the piece, directed by Leonard Foglia
Leonard Foglia
Leonard Foglia is an American theatre director, librettist, and novelist.Foglia made his Broadway debut as the assistant director of The Heidi Chronicles in 1989...

 with Melissa Errico
Melissa Errico
-Biography:Born in Manhattan, Errico moved to Manhasset on Long Island at an early age. Her parents, a sculptor and a physician/concert pianist, supported her early interest in ballet, and gymnastics, and Melissa competed nationally as a gymnast...

 in the title role. In 1997, Light Opera Works
Light Opera Works
Light Opera Works is a resident professional not-for-profit musical theatre company in Evanston, Illinois. It was founded in 1980 by Philip Kraus, Bridget McDonough , and Ellen Dubinsky....

 in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 produced the work.

In 2001, London's first major theatrical run opened at The King's Head Theatre
The King's Head Theatre
The King's Head Theatre, founded in 1970 by Dan Crawford, is an Off-West End venue in London. It was the first pub theatre in the UK. Adam Spreadbury-Maher became Artistic Director in March 2010 .-Background:...

 in Islington. With a new adaptation by director Tim Childs it starred Peter Land
Peter Land
Peter Land is a New Zealand actor and singer known for his classical acting with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as appearances in many musicals.-Early life:...

 as Whitelaw Savory, Michael Gyngell, and newcomer Kim Medcalf
Kim Medcalf
Kim Louise Medcalf is an English actress and occasional singer.She has made occasional appearances as a singer and is best known for playing the character Sam Mitchell in the long running BBC Soap Opera EastEnders from 2002 to 2005....

 as Venus. It opened to glowing reviews but failed to transfer to 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...

, probably because Childs, with an eye to opening the same production on Broadway, workshopped it with Land reprising his role and Sara Ramírez
Sara Ramírez
Sara Ramírez is a Mexican-American singer/songwriter and actress. She is known for her role as Callie Torres in Grey's Anatomy and as the original Lady of the Lake in the 2005 Broadway musical Spamalot, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.-Early life:Ramírez...

 as Venus in New York two weeks after September 11, 2001. Not surprisingly, New York Producers did not want to commit to producing the piece at that time.

Opera North
Opera North
Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle...

 produced the piece in 2004 at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, directed by Tim Albery
Tim Albery
Tim Bronson Reginald Albery is an English stage director, best known for his productions of opera.-Life and career:Albery was born in Harpenden, the son of the impresario Donald Albery and grandson of the producer Sir Bronson Albery...

.

42nd Street Moon
42nd Street Moon
42nd Street Moon is a professional theatre company in San Francisco, California. The company specializes in the preservation and presentation of early and lesser-known works by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern,...

 produced the musical in 2007 at Eureka Theatre
Eureka Theatre Company
thumb|The Eureka Theatre Company is a repertory theatre group located in San Francisco, California. The company is noted for its staging of the world premiere of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches by American playwright Tony Kushner....

 in San Francisco, directed by Greg MacKellan, with musical direction & accompaniment by Dave Dobrusky, choreography by Tom Segal, lighting by Ellen Brooks, scenic decoration by Mike Figueira, and costume design by Louise Jarmilowicz. The cast included: Nina Josephs as Venus, Anil Margsahayam as Rodney Hatch, Peter Budinger as Whitelaw Savory, Amy Louise Cole as Molly Grant, Tom Orr as Julius E. "Taxi" Black, Juliet Heller as Gloria Kramer, Chris Macomber as Mrs. Florabelle Kramer, Tyler Kent as Stanley/Zuvetli/Dr. Rook, Jarrod Quon as Sam and Elise Youssef as Rose.

Metal Monkey Theatre Company produced a revival of the musical for the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scotland, directed by Michael Hall, with musical direction & accompaniment by Duncan White. The cast included: Chrissy Quinn as Venus, Michael Trakas as Rodney Hatch, John Kirkman as Whitelaw Savory, Emily Grogan as Molly Grant, Alex Murphy as Julius E. "Taxi" Black, Jo Britton as Gloria Kramer, Morven Rae Mrs. Florabelle Kramer, David Sanders as Stanley/Dr. Rook, Simon Motz as Zuvetli, Christopher Rorke as Sam, Sarah Block as Mrs Moats and Claire Kennard as Rose. They performed the show at Augustine's (Venue 152) in August 2009 and received a 5 Star review from www.musicaltalk.co.uk

2010 – Shaw Festival Theatre – Niagara on the Lake – Ontario – Canada – Royal George Theatre – May 16 to October 10

Synopsis

A long-lost, priceless statue of the goddess Venus
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...

 is found and placed on display in an art museum in New York. A slow but good-hearted window dresser, Eddie Hatch, kisses the statue when intoxicated. The sculpture comes to life, and the two fall in love, although Eddie is already engaged. Farcical complications ensue, and Eddie takes "Venus" to the model-display house in the store, where the store's boss finds her. He, too, falls in love with her and makes her Glamour Girl Number One. Eddie and Venus dance in Central Park, but Eddie is arrested for stealing the statue.

Venus then goes to the boss to convince him to drop charges against Eddie. Unfortunately, she must return back to her marble state, so Venus goes back to her pedestal and Eddie is released.

While Eddie is sadly preparing for another unveiling of a now-marble Venus, a new employee asks him a question where the model-display house is. She tells him her name is Venus Jones, and she is an exact double of the sculpture Venus. Surprised, Eddie takes her to see the model home himself.

Musical numbers

Act I
  • Overture – Orchestra
  • "New Art Is True Art" – Whitelaw Savory and Chorus
  • "One Touch of Venus" – Molly Grant and Girls
  • "How Much I Love You" – Rodney Hatch
  • "I'm A Stranger Here Myself" – Venus
  • "Forty Minutes for Lunch" – (ballet)
  • "West Wind" – Savory and Chorus
  • "Way Out West in Jersey" – Mrs. Kramer, Gloria Kramer, and Rodney
  • "That's How I Am Sick of Love" – Rodney
  • "Foolish Heart" – Venus
  • The Trouble With Women – Rodney, Savory, Taxi Black, and Stanley
  • "Speak Low
    Speak Low
    "Speak Low" is a popular song composed by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Ogden Nash. It was introduced by Mary Martin and Kenny Baker in the Broadway musical One Touch of Venus . The 1944 hit single was by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra, with vocal by Billy Leach...

    " – Venus and Rodney
  • "Artist's Ball" – Orchestra
  • "Doctor Crippen" – Savory and Dancers

Act II
  • Entr'acte – Orchestra
  • "Very, Very, Very" – Molly
  • "Speak Low" (Reprise) – Rodney and Venus
  • "Catch Hatch" – Savory, Molly, Stanley, Taxi Black, Mrs. Kramer, 3 Anatolians, and Chorus
  • "That's Him" – Venus
  • "Wooden Wedding" – Rodney
  • "Venus in Ozone Heights" – (ballet)
  • "Speak Low" (Reprise) – Rodney


Principal roles

  • Whitelaw Savory, a wealthy art collector (baritone
    Baritone
    Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

    )
  • Molly Grant, Mr. Savory's secretary (mezzo-soprano
    Mezzo-soprano
    A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...

    )
  • Rodney Hatch, a barber (tenor
    Tenor
    The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

    )
  • Venus (mezzo-soprano)
  • Gloria Kramer, Rodney's fiancée (mezzo-soprano)
  • Mrs. Kramer, Gloria's mother (mezzo-soprano)
  • Taxi Black and Stanley, two thugs
  • Police Lieutenant
  • Dr. Rook, a psychiatrist
  • Zuvetli, a 'thoroughly unreconstructed' Anatolian

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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