Reception
The New York Times reported on the musical's Boston opening (in September 1935), writing about Hart's book that it combines "satire, sentiment and humor in good proportion." Porter's score and lyrics were said to be "original and tuneful." Special mention was made of Mary Boland: "Miss Boland played the ingeniously sentimental matron with gusto and enthusiasm, wore royal robes or a one-piece bathing suit with equal aplomb, sang a bit, and danced with every sign of enjoyment."
It was considered "one of the great theatrical events of the 1930s." Of the Broadway opening (on October 12, 1935), Brooks Atkinson (The New York Times) wrote that the show
"is a rapturous masquerade...Each of the guilds that produce our luxurious musical shows has shared equally in the general excellence of an upper-class song-and-dance arcade...It is an excellent fable-good humored, slightly romantic and eminently pragmatic...The music is jaunty, versatile and imaginative...Mary Boland is the queen of the book and the performance and a carnival of comic delights."
Burns Mantle of the NY Daily News declared Jubilee, "the most satisfying musical comedy produced in an American theatre within the length of trustworthy memories." Reviewers admired the "book", giving the show a strong plot and solid writing integrated with the music. They quickly picked "Begin the Beguine" and "Just One of Those Things" as favorite songs.
Read more about this topic: Jubilee (musical)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
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