Production
The revue opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre on June 3, 1931 and closed on January 16, 1932, running a total of 260 performances. Produced by Max Gordon, staging and lighting were by Hassard Short, choreography by Albertina Rasch, and scenic design by Albert R. Johnson. The cast included Fred Astaire, Adele Astaire, Helen Broderick, Tilly Losch, and Frank Morgan.
According to Steven Suskin, "very few people are around who saw The Band Wagon, but they all seem to insist that it was the finest Broadway revue ever." According to Furia and Lasser, The Band Wagon is "arguably the greatest of the 'little' revues of the 1930s". Ken Bloom states that The Band Wagon "is considered the greatest of all revues."
The show introduced one of the best Schwartz-Dietz songs, "Dancing in the Dark", which was also the title of one of the two motion pictures made from this show. (The other was The Band Wagon.) This was the first New York production to use the double revolving stage for the songs and sketches. Although it had incomparable dancing by Fred and Adele Astaire, it was the last time the brother and sister team appeared together.
Read more about this topic: The Band Wagon (musical)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“The heart of man ever finds a constant succession of passions, so that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally to be nothing else but the production and the setting up of another.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)