At the Drop of a Hat is a musical revue by Flanders and Swann, described by them as "An After-Dinner Farrago". In the show, they both sang on a nearly bare stage, accompanied by Swann on the piano. The songs were linked by contemporary social commentary, mostly by Flanders.
The show opened at the New Lindsey Theatre, a fringe theatre outside the London West End theatre district, on December 31, 1956. It was successful and transferred to the Fortune Theatre in the West End on January 24, 1957, where it ran for 808 performances. On October 8, 1959 the show opened in New York City at the Golden Theater, running there for 215 performances.
Although they had performed together in the summer of 1940 in a revue they both directed and staged, this was Flanders and Swann's first show performing in the format for which they would become successful, and from 1959 to 1967 they toured with it off and on, performing it a total of 1,700 times over 11 years around the world. The two continued to perform together for three decades.
Read more about At The Drop Of A Hat: Description, Songs, Unreleased Songs
Famous quotes containing the words drop and/or hat:
“What a vast fraternity it is,—that of ‘Hearts that Ache.’ For the last three months it has seemed to me as though all society were coming to me, to drop its mask for a moment and initiate me into the mystery. How we do suffer! And we go on laughing; for, as a practical joke at our expense, life is a success.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in part a decent fellow.”
—Colette [Sidonie Gabrielle Colette] (1873–1954)