Wildcat (musical)
Encyclopedia
Wildcat is a musical
with a book by N. Richard Nash
, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh
, and music by Cy Coleman
.
The original production opened on Broadway
in 1960, starring a 48-year-old Lucille Ball
in her only Broadway show.
expressed interest not only in playing it but financing the project as well. Desilu, the company owned by her and soon-to-be ex-husband Desi Arnaz
, ultimately invested $360,000 in the show in exchange for 36% of the net profits, the rights to the original cast recording (ultimately released by RCA Victor), and television rights for musical numbers to be included in a special entitled Lucy Goes to Broadway, a project that eventually was abandoned. Ball also was permitted to choose her leading man. Kirk Douglas
' salary demands and heavy film schedule eliminated him from the running, and Gordon Macrae
, Jock Mahoney
, and Gene Barry
were considered before she selected Keith Andes
.
The Philadelphia tryout opened on October 29, 1960 to a glowing review from Variety
, although local critics were less enthusiastic. The scheduled Broadway
opening had to be postponed when trucks hauling the sets and costumes to New York City
were stranded on the New Jersey Turnpike
for several days by a major blizzard
. After two previews, the show, directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd
, opened on December 16 at the Alvin Theatre
. The cast also included Paula Stewart
and Swen Swenson
, with Valerie Harper
among the chorus members. Vivian Vance
, Ball's costar from I Love Lucy
, was in the opening night audience and was photographed giving the star a congratulatory hug backstage after the show. Hampered by lukewarm reviews and Ball's lingering illness, it ran for only 171 performances.
Ball quickly realized audiences had come expecting to see her Lucy Ricardo persona and began mugging and ad-libbing to bring her characterization closer to that of the zany housewife she had portrayed in I Love Lucy
. Clearly it was she that was drawing the crowds, and when she fell ill and demands for refunds ran high, the producers announced plans to close the show for a week in late March 1961 to allow her to recover her strength. The closure came sooner than planned when Ball, suffering from a virus
and chronic fatigue, departed for Florida
on February 8. She returned two weeks later, but on April 22 she collapsed on stage. It was decided the show would close for nine weeks at the end of May and reopen once its star had recovered fully, but May 24 proved to be her final performance, as the musicians' union insisted on members of the orchestra being paid during the shutdowns. This ultimately made it financially infeasible for the production to remain active, forcing it to close permanently on June 3, 1961.
Wildcat was Ball's only appearance in a Broadway production. She had been previously cast in the Bartlett Cormack
play Hey Diddle Diddle, a comedy that premiered in Princeton, New Jersey on January 21, 1937. Ball played the part of Julie Tucker, "one of three roommates coping with neurotic directors, confused executives, and grasping stars who interfere with the girls' ability to get ahead." The play received good reviews, but there were problems, chiefly with its star, Conway Tearle
, who was in poor health. The play was scheduled to open on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre
, but closed after one week in Washington, D.C. when Tearle suddenly became gravely ill.
but with neither capital nor know-how to help her accomplish her goal. Joe Dynamite, the most successful crew foreman in the territory, finds her ruggedness appealing and agrees to work with her if she can prove ownership to her claimed land and hire a crew. She finds 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) owned by a hermit
prospector
, but Joe is certain the property is dry. Wildy attempts to lure him with her female charms, but when he still rejects her plans she has him falsely arrested, then released into her custody. A grateful Joe agrees to start work on the project but abandons it once he discovers it was Wildy who had him jailed. Left high and literally dry by her partner and crew, Wildy resorts to desperate measures to strike a Texas
-sized gusher.
Act II
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 N. Richard Nash
N. Richard Nash
N. Richard Nash was a writer and dramatist best known for writing Broadway shows, including The Rainmaker.-Early life:...
, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh
Carolyn Leigh
Carolyn Leigh was an American lyricist for Broadway, movies, and popular songs. She is best known as the writer with partner Cy Coleman of the pop standards "Witchcraft" and "The Best Is Yet to Come."-Biography:...
, and music by Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.-Life and career:He was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason...
.
The original production 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...
in 1960, starring a 48-year-old 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...
in her only Broadway show.
Background and production
Nash had envisioned the main character of Wildy as a woman in her late twenties, and was forced to rewrite the role when Lucille BallLucille 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...
expressed interest not only in playing it but financing the project as well. Desilu, the company owned by her and soon-to-be ex-husband Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...
, ultimately invested $360,000 in the show in exchange for 36% of the net profits, the rights to the original cast recording (ultimately released by RCA Victor), and television rights for musical numbers to be included in a special entitled Lucy Goes to Broadway, a project that eventually was abandoned. Ball also was permitted to choose her leading man. Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
' salary demands and heavy film schedule eliminated him from the running, and Gordon Macrae
Gordon MacRae
Gordon MacRae was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! and Carousel and films with Doris Day like Starlift.-Early life:Born Albert Gordon MacRae in East Orange, New Jersey, MacRae graduated from...
, Jock Mahoney
Jock Mahoney
Jock Mahoney was an American actor and stuntman of Irish, French, and Cherokee ancestry. Born Jacques O'Mahoney, he was credited variously as Jock Mahoney, Jack O'Mahoney or Jock O'Mahoney. He starred in two television series, both westerns...
, and Gene Barry
Gene Barry
Gene Barry was an American stage, screen, and television actor. Barry is best remembered for his leading roles in the films The Atomic City and The War of The Worlds and for his portrayal of the title character in the TV series Bat Masterson, among many roles.-Personal life:Barry was born...
were considered before she selected Keith Andes
Keith Andes
Keith Andes was an American film, radio, musical theatre, stage and television actor.-Early life:John Charles Andes was born in Ocean City, New Jersey on July 12, 1920. By the age of 12, he was featured on the radio....
.
The Philadelphia tryout opened on October 29, 1960 to a glowing review from Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, although local critics were less enthusiastic. The scheduled 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...
opening had to be postponed when trucks hauling the sets and costumes to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
were stranded on the New Jersey Turnpike
New Jersey Turnpike
The New Jersey Turnpike is a toll road in New Jersey, maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. According to the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, the Turnpike is the nation's sixth-busiest toll road and is among one of the most heavily traveled highways in the United...
for several days by a major blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
. After two previews, the show, directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd
Michael Kidd
Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer.-Life and career:Born Milton Greenwald in New York City on the Lower East Side, the son of Abraham Greenwald, an immigrant barber, and his wife Lillian, Michael Kidd moved to Brooklyn with his family and attended New Utrecht High School there...
, opened on December 16 at the Alvin Theatre
Neil Simon Theatre
The Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway venue built in 1927 and located at 250 West 52nd Street in midtown-Manhattan....
. The cast also included Paula Stewart
Paula Stewart
Paula Stewart is an American stage, film and television actress.-Life and career:Born as Dorothy Paula Zürndorfer, her father was Dr. Walter Zürndorfer and her mother, Esther Morris, appeared in the films, Ziegfeld Follies and Lady Be Good. She attended Northwestern University before joining the...
and Swen Swenson
Swen Swenson
Swen Swenson was a Broadway dancer and singer. Born in Inwood, Iowa, Swenson was trained by dancer Mira Rostova and at the School of American Ballet....
, with Valerie Harper
Valerie Harper
Valerie Harper is an American actress, known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on the 1970s television show The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and for her starring roles on the sitcoms Rhoda and Valerie.-Early life and career:Harper was born at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, Rockland County,...
among the chorus members. Vivian Vance
Vivian Vance
Vivian Roberta Jones was an American television and theater actress and singer. Often referred to as “TV’s most beloved second banana,” she is best known for her role as Ethel Mertz, sidekick to Lucille Ball on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, and as Vivian Bagley on The Lucy...
, Ball's costar from I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
, was in the opening night audience and was photographed giving the star a congratulatory hug backstage after the show. Hampered by lukewarm reviews and Ball's lingering illness, it ran for only 171 performances.
Ball quickly realized audiences had come expecting to see her Lucy Ricardo persona and began mugging and ad-libbing to bring her characterization closer to that of the zany housewife she had portrayed in I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
. Clearly it was she that was drawing the crowds, and when she fell ill and demands for refunds ran high, the producers announced plans to close the show for a week in late March 1961 to allow her to recover her strength. The closure came sooner than planned when Ball, suffering from a virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
and chronic fatigue, departed for Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
on February 8. She returned two weeks later, but on April 22 she collapsed on stage. It was decided the show would close for nine weeks at the end of May and reopen once its star had recovered fully, but May 24 proved to be her final performance, as the musicians' union insisted on members of the orchestra being paid during the shutdowns. This ultimately made it financially infeasible for the production to remain active, forcing it to close permanently on June 3, 1961.
Wildcat was Ball's only appearance in a Broadway production. She had been previously cast in the Bartlett Cormack
Bartlett Cormack
Edward Bartlett Cormack was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, and producer best known for his 1927 Broadway play The Racket, and for working with Howard Hughes and Cecil B. DeMille on several films....
play Hey Diddle Diddle, a comedy that premiered in Princeton, New Jersey on January 21, 1937. Ball played the part of Julie Tucker, "one of three roommates coping with neurotic directors, confused executives, and grasping stars who interfere with the girls' ability to get ahead." The play received good reviews, but there were problems, chiefly with its star, Conway Tearle
Conway Tearle
Conway Tearle was an Anglo-American stage actor who went on to perform in silent and early sound films.-Early life:...
, who was in poor health. The play was scheduled to open on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre
Vanderbilt Theatre
The Vanderbilt Theatre was a New York City Broadway theatre, designed by architect Eugene De Rosa for producer Lyle Andrews. It opened in 1918, located at 148 West 48th Street. The theatre was demolished in 1954....
, but closed after one week in Washington, D.C. when Tearle suddenly became gravely ill.
Plot
Wildcat "Wildy" Jackson arrives in 1912 in Centavo City with dreams of striking oilPetroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
but with neither capital nor know-how to help her accomplish her goal. Joe Dynamite, the most successful crew foreman in the territory, finds her ruggedness appealing and agrees to work with her if she can prove ownership to her claimed land and hire a crew. She finds 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) owned by a hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
prospector
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
, but Joe is certain the property is dry. Wildy attempts to lure him with her female charms, but when he still rejects her plans she has him falsely arrested, then released into her custody. A grateful Joe agrees to start work on the project but abandons it once he discovers it was Wildy who had him jailed. Left high and literally dry by her partner and crew, Wildy resorts to desperate measures to strike a Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
-sized gusher.
Songs
Act I- I Hear
- Hey, Look Me Over
- Wildcat
- You've Come Home
- That's What I Want for Janie
- What Takes My Fancy
- You're a Liar
- One Day We Dance
- Give a Little Whistle and I'll Be There
- Tall Hope
Act II
- Tippy Tippy Toes
- El Sombrero
- Corduroy Road
- You've Come Home (Reprise)
Cast
- Wildcat Jackson--Lucille BallLucille BallLucille 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...
- Jane Jackson--Paula StewartPaula StewartPaula Stewart is an American stage, film and television actress.-Life and career:Born as Dorothy Paula Zürndorfer, her father was Dr. Walter Zürndorfer and her mother, Esther Morris, appeared in the films, Ziegfeld Follies and Lady Be Good. She attended Northwestern University before joining the...
- Sheriff Sam Gore--Howard Fischer
- Barney--Ken Ayers
- Luke--Anthony Saverino
- Countess Emily O'Brien--Edith King
- Joe Dynamite--Keith AndesKeith AndesKeith Andes was an American film, radio, musical theatre, stage and television actor.-Early life:John Charles Andes was born in Ocean City, New Jersey on July 12, 1920. By the age of 12, he was featured on the radio....
- Hank--Clifford DavidClifford DavidClifford David is an American actor born in Toledo, Ohio on June 30, 1938. He is recognized for his many Broadway, film and television performances.-Career:...
- Miguel--HF Green
- Sookie--Don Tomkins
- Matt--Charles Braswell
- Corky--Bill Linton
- Oney--Swen SwensonSwen SwensonSwen Swenson was a Broadway dancer and singer. Born in Inwood, Iowa, Swenson was trained by dancer Mira Rostova and at the School of American Ballet....
- Sandy--Ray Mason
- Tattoo--Bill Walker
- Cisco--Al Lanti
- Postman--Bill Richards
- Inez--Marsha Wagner
- Blonde--Wendy Nickerson