Pardon My English
Encyclopedia
Pardon My English is a musical
with a book by Herbert Fields
and Morrie Ryskind
, lyrics by Ira Gershwin
, and music by George Gershwin
. Set in 1933 Dresden
, the farcical
plot satirizes
the Prohibition
era.
star Jack Buchanan
, and linked them with Fields and Ryskind, whose book required the actor to appear in dual roles, lower-class German thug Golo Schmidt and upper-crust British nobleman Michael Bramleigh. The sophisticated Buchanan had no problem portraying Bramleigh but was unable to capture the essence of Schmidt. The show opened in Philadelphia to critical pans.
Rather than proceed to Broadway
, the creative team added characters and expanded the role of police commissioner Bauer, played by radio's "Baron Munchausen", Jack Pearl
. The revised production opened in Newark
on January 2, 1933, but it was obvious that Buchanan was still a major problem. He bought out his contract and the producers replaced him with dialect comedian George Givot.
The production opened on Broadway on January 20, 1933 at the Majestic Theatre and ran for 43 performances. The book was directed by John McGowan, the production was staged by producer Vinton Freedley, and the musical numbers were staged by George Hale. In addition to Givot and Pearl, the cast included Josephine Huston as Bauer's daughter Ilse and musical-comedy star Lyda Roberti
(her speciality was a "polyglot of Polish, German, and near-Hungarian") as Gita Gobel. According to Ben Brantley
, "By the time it hit Broadway it was a desperately stitched patchwork that ran for 33 performances before exiting into oblivion. It was, Ira Gershwin later wrote, 'a headache from start to finish.' " The critics unanimously condemned it.
In 1982, a producer discovered a number of the musical's manuscript
s in the Warner Brothers
warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey
. The score was pieced together and performed at the Library of Congress
in concert in 1987. Elektra Records
released a studio cast album featuring John Cullum
and William Katt
in 1993.
New York City Center
's Encores!
presented a staged concert in 2004, with a revised book by David Ives
. Directed by Gary Griffin
and choreographed by Rob Ashford
, it featured Brian d'Arcy James
as Golo/Michael, Emily Skinner
as Gita, Jennifer Laura Thompson
as Frieda (originally Ilse), and Rob Bartlett
as Bauer. 42nd Street Moon
, San Francisco, California, presented a staged concert in November 2006.
The European premiere took place on November 29, 2009 at the Dresden State Operetta, Dresden
, translated by Wolfgang Adenberg, directed by Holger Hauer and conducted by Ernst Theis.
government bans the sale of all non-alcoholic beverages. In retaliation, Golo Schmidt opens Club 21, a speakeasy
where patrons can imbibe such forbidden drinks as cream soda
and ginger ale
. Police Commissioner Bauer makes it his mission to shut down the illegal operation.
Golo decides to disrupt a birthday celebration for Bauer, but while en route to the party he is struck by a car and knocked unconscious. When he awakens in Bauer's home, he believes he is Michael Bramleigh, a wealthy, sophisticated member of British
society. He eventually falls in love with Bauer's daughter Ilse and proposes marriage.
A birdhouse falls on Bramleigh, and his memory returns. Golo once again, he has no memory of his relationship with Ilse and returns to Club 21 and his sweetheart Gita Gobel. Hearing Bauer's daughter is about to marry, he plans to kidnap the bride and hold her for ransom
. At the wedding, Golo locates Ilse, who naturally thinks he's her fiance Michael, and the two escape to an inn in Schandau.
Golo, inexplicably thinking he's Michael once again, returns to Bauer's house and apologizes for missing the wedding. The two plot to find Ilse and save her from her kidnapper. Recognized as Golo by some and Michael by others, the hero becomes involved in a series of comic misadventures.
Act II
Other songs
(*) Would be modified as "Comes the Revolution" in Let 'Em Eat Cake
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 a 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 Morrie Ryskind
Morrie Ryskind
Morrie Ryskind was an American dramatist, lyricist and writer of theatrical productions and motion pictures, who became a conservative political activist later in life.-Biography:...
, 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 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...
. Set in 1933 Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, the farcical
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
plot satirizes
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
the 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...
era.
Production history
Producers Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley approached the Gershwins to create a showcase for the talents of English music hallMusic hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
star Jack Buchanan
Jack Buchanan
Walter John "Jack" Buchanan was a British theatre and film actor, singer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr., and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts." He is best known in...
, and linked them with Fields and Ryskind, whose book required the actor to appear in dual roles, lower-class German thug Golo Schmidt and upper-crust British nobleman Michael Bramleigh. The sophisticated Buchanan had no problem portraying Bramleigh but was unable to capture the essence of Schmidt. The show opened in Philadelphia to critical pans.
Rather than proceed to 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...
, the creative team added characters and expanded the role of police commissioner Bauer, played by radio's "Baron Munchausen", Jack Pearl
Jack Pearl
Jack Pearl, born Jack Perlman , was a vaudeville performer and a star of early radio.Born in New York, Pearl made an easy transition from vaudeville to broadfcasting when he introduced his character Baron Munchausen on The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in 1932. His creation was loosely based on the...
. The revised production opened in Newark
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
on January 2, 1933, but it was obvious that Buchanan was still a major problem. He bought out his contract and the producers replaced him with dialect comedian George Givot.
The production opened on Broadway on January 20, 1933 at the Majestic Theatre and ran for 43 performances. The book was directed by John McGowan, the production was staged by producer Vinton Freedley, and the musical numbers were staged by George Hale. In addition to Givot and Pearl, the cast included Josephine Huston as Bauer's daughter Ilse and musical-comedy star Lyda Roberti
Lyda Roberti
-Life and career:Born in Warsaw, Poland, Roberti was the daughter of a clown and as a child performed in the circus as a trapeze artist, and as a vaudeville singer. As the family toured Europe and Asia, Roberti's mother left her husband, settling in Shanghai, China where the younger Roberti earned...
(her speciality was a "polyglot of Polish, German, and near-Hungarian") as Gita Gobel. According to Ben Brantley
Ben Brantley
Benjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...
, "By the time it hit Broadway it was a desperately stitched patchwork that ran for 33 performances before exiting into oblivion. It was, Ira Gershwin later wrote, 'a headache from start to finish.' " The critics unanimously condemned it.
In 1982, a producer discovered a number of the musical's manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s in the Warner Brothers
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey
Secaucus, New Jersey
Secaucus is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 16,264. Located within the New Jersey Meadowlands, it is the most suburban of the county's municipalities, though large parts of the town are dedicated to light manufacturing, retail, and...
. The score was pieced together and performed at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in concert in 1987. Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
released a studio cast album featuring John Cullum
John Cullum
John Cullum is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including On the Twentieth Century and Shenandoah , winning the Tony Awards for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each...
and William Katt
William Katt
William Theodore Katt is an American film and television actor, best known as the star of The Greatest American Hero. He is also known for playing Tommy Ross, the ill-fated prom date of Carrie White in the film version of Carrie and Paul Drake Jr. in the Perry Mason TV movies...
in 1993.
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...
presented a staged concert in 2004, with a revised book by David Ives
David Ives
David Ives is a contemporary American playwright. A native of South Chicago, Ives attended a minor Catholic seminary and Northwestern University and, after some years' interval, Yale School of Drama, where he received an MFA in playwriting...
. Directed by Gary Griffin
Gary Griffin
Gary Griffin, is an American theater director. Griffin grew up in Rockford, Illinois, where he graduated from East High School in 1978. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he performed in several musicals and directed "Hello Dolly" for their Summer Theatre program...
and choreographed by Rob Ashford
Rob Ashford
Rob Ashford is an American choreographer and director. He is a seven-time Tony Award nominee , five-time Olivier Award nominee, Emmy Award winner, Drama Desk winner, and Outer Critics Circle Award winner.-Biography:...
, it featured Brian d'Arcy James
Brian d'Arcy James
Brian d'Arcy James is an American actor and musician.-Personal life:James was born in Saginaw, Michigan, the son of Mary , a seller of children's books, and a lawyer father, Thomas F. James. Brian's maternal grandfather was Harry F. Kelly, former Governor of the state of Michigan...
as Golo/Michael, Emily Skinner
Emily Skinner
Emily Skinner is an American musical theatre actress and singer. She has performed in such Broadway shows as Side Show, James Joyce's The Dead, The Full Monty, Dinner at Eight and, currently, in Billy Elliot...
as Gita, Jennifer Laura Thompson
Jennifer Laura Thompson
Jennifer Laura Thompson is an American stage actress and singer. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from the University of Michigan and graduated in 1991....
as Frieda (originally Ilse), and Rob Bartlett
Rob Bartlett
Robert Bartlett is a comedian, actor and writer who gained widespread fame as a comedian on the radio and television show Imus in the Morning. His most famous characters include: The Godfather, Dr...
as Bauer. 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,...
, San Francisco, California, presented a staged concert in November 2006.
The European premiere took place on November 29, 2009 at the Dresden State Operetta, Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, translated by Wolfgang Adenberg, directed by Holger Hauer and conducted by Ernst Theis.
Plot synopsis
In order to promote the sale of beer and wine, the GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
government bans the sale of all non-alcoholic beverages. In retaliation, Golo Schmidt opens Club 21, a speakeasy
Speakeasy
A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition...
where patrons can imbibe such forbidden drinks as cream soda
Cream soda
Cream soda is a sweet carbonated soft drink, often flavored with vanilla.-History and development:A recipe for cream soda—written by E.M. Sheldon and published in Michigan Farmer in 1852—called for water, cream of tartar, Epsom salts, sugar, tartaric acid, egg, and milk, to be mixed together, then...
and ginger ale
Ginger ale
Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavored with ginger. Dr. Thomas Cantrell, an American apothecary and surgeon, claimed to have invented ginger ale and marketed it with beverage manufacturer Grattan and Company. Grattan embossed the slogan "The Original Makers of Ginger Ale" on its bottles...
. Police Commissioner Bauer makes it his mission to shut down the illegal operation.
Golo decides to disrupt a birthday celebration for Bauer, but while en route to the party he is struck by a car and knocked unconscious. When he awakens in Bauer's home, he believes he is Michael Bramleigh, a wealthy, sophisticated member of British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
society. He eventually falls in love with Bauer's daughter Ilse and proposes marriage.
A birdhouse falls on Bramleigh, and his memory returns. Golo once again, he has no memory of his relationship with Ilse and returns to Club 21 and his sweetheart Gita Gobel. Hearing Bauer's daughter is about to marry, he plans to kidnap the bride and hold her for ransom
Ransom
Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence...
. At the wedding, Golo locates Ilse, who naturally thinks he's her fiance Michael, and the two escape to an inn in Schandau.
Golo, inexplicably thinking he's Michael once again, returns to Bauer's house and apologizes for missing the wedding. The two plot to find Ilse and save her from her kidnapper. Recognized as Golo by some and Michael by others, the hero becomes involved in a series of comic misadventures.
Song list
Act I- Overture
- In Three Quarter Time
- The Lorelei
- Pardon My English
- Dancing in the Streets
- So What?
- Isn't It a Pity?Isn't It a Pity?"Isn't It a Pity?" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, written for the 1933 musical Pardon My English. It was introduced by George Givot and Josephine Huston.-Notable recordings:...
- My Cousin in MilwaukeeMy Cousin in Milwaukee"My Cousin in Milwaukee" is a song composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was introduced in their 1932 musical Pardon My English...
- Hail the Happy Couple (*)
- The Dresden Northwest Mounted
- Luckiest Man in the World
- What Sort of Wedding Is This?
Act II
- Tonight
- Where You Go, I Go
- I've Got to Be There
- The Dresden Northwest Mounted (Reprise)
- He's Not Himself
Other songs
- Freud and JungJungCarl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology.Jung may also refer to:* Jung * JUNG, Java Universal Network/Graph Framework-See also:...
and AdlerAdlerThe term Adler, the German word for the bird of prey "eagle", is both the last name of many people and an emblematic bird featured on many blazons since the feudal age, including the present German Bundeswappen and at times on the flags of Austria and Germany...
/He's Oversexed (Viennese Sextet) - Watch Your Head (*)
(*) Would be modified as "Comes the Revolution" in Let 'Em Eat Cake
Let 'Em Eat Cake
Let 'Em Eat Cake is a Broadway musical that opened October 21, 1933 at the Imperial Theatre, New York, USA and ran for 89 performances. It had music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The cast included William Gaxton, Victor Moore, Philip...