Productions
After a three-month tryout beginning in June 1903 at the Grand Opera House in Chicago, followed by a tour to East Coast cities, the original New York production opened on October 13, 1903 at the Majestic Theatre at Columbus Circle in Manhattan (where The Wizard of Oz had played) and closed after 192 performances on March 19, 1904. Large audiences were drawn to the musical by the spectacular settings and opulent sets (e.g., the Floral Palace of the Moth Queen, the Garden of Contrary Mary) of Toyland. A return engagement on Broadway opened on January 2, 1905 at the Majestic and closed on January 21, 1905, followed by another tour.
A Broadway revival opened on December 23, 1929 at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre, closing on January 11, 1930. It was directed by Milton Aborn. Another Broadway revival opened on December 20, 1930 at the Imperial Theatre, closing in January 1931. It was directed by Aborn and choreographed by Virginie Mauret.
A new book and lyrics for the show were written for the Light Opera of Manhattan (LOOM) in 1975 by Alice Hammerstein Mathias (the daughter of Oscar Hammerstein II) and the company's director-producer William Mount-Burke. LOOM played this operetta as a Christmas show for six to eight weeks each year thereafter for 13 seasons with considerable success, and the rewritten book and lyrics has since been used by other companies, including Troupe America. The ensemble becomes a mechanical militia of toys for the "March of the Toys", and children from the audience are brought up to help "wind-up" the toy dancers.
In 2003, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the operetta, Hampton, Virginia-based Rainbow Puppet Productions created a touring puppet version of the show entitled "Toyland!" The new script was adapted by David Messick, Jr. Prerecorded puppet voices were created, featuring Mickey Rooney as the Master Toymaker and his wife Jan Rooney as Mother Goose. The program has toured annually since that time. In this version, Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep, and her evil Uncle Barnaby is to blame. She travels through the Spider Forest to seek help from the kind Master Toymaker.
Read more about this topic: Babes In Toyland (operetta)
Famous quotes containing the word productions:
“Most new things are not good, and die an early death; but those which push themselves forward and by slow degrees force themselves on the attention of mankind are the unconscious productions of human wisdom, and must have honest consideration, and must not be made the subject of unreasoning prejudice.”
—Thomas Brackett Reed (1839–1902)
“If in many of my productions terror has been the thesis, I maintain that terror is not of Germany, but of the soul.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“It is well known, that the best productions of the best human intellects, are generally regarded by those intellects as mere immature freshman exercises, wholly worthless in themselves, except as initiatives for entering the great University of God after death.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)