Productions
The original Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on November 8, 1932, moved to the 44th Street Theatre on March 31, 1933 and closed on September 16, 1933 after 342 performances. It was directed by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, and featured in the cast Reinald Werrenrath (Cornelius), Natalie Hall (Frieda Hatzfeld), Tullio Carminati (Bruno Mahler), Katherine Carrington (Sieglinde Lessing), Al Shean (Dr. Walter Lessing), Walter Slezak (Karl Reder), Nicholas Joy (Ernst Weber), and Marjorie Main (Anna). The music was orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett.
The musical opened in the West End in London at His Majesty's Theatre on May 19, 1933 and ran for 199 performances. The musical was staged at The Muny outdoor musical theatre, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1934, and again in 1937, 1944 and 1951.
The 1934 film version starred Gloria Swanson, John Boles, Douglass Montgomery, June Lang, and Al Shean. The director was Joe May and the screenplay was by Howard Irving Young and Billy Wilder. It was released by Fox Film Corporation. This is, so far, the only film ever made of Music in the Air, although it contains several famous songs. The 1934 film, however, omitted the show's best-known number, The Song is You, which has become a classic. The song was filmed, but deleted from the final release print at the last minute.
A 1951 Broadway revival ran from October 8, 1951 through November 24, 1951 at the Ziegfeld Theatre. Directed by Oscar Hammerstein II the cast featured Jane Pickens, Dennis King and Charles Winninger. Because of possible anti-German feeling after World War II Hammerstein changed the setting from Munich to Zurich with the resulting Swiss nationalities.
In 2009, Encores! at New York City Center presented a staged concert version of the show, starring Douglas Sills (Bruno Mahler), Sierra Boggess (Sieglinde Lessing), Dick Latessa (Herr Direktor Kirschner), Marni Nixon (Frau Direktor Kirschner), Ryan Silverman (Karl Reder) and Kristin Chenoweth (Frieda Hatzfeld). It ran from February 5 until February 8.
Read more about this topic: Music In The Air
Famous quotes containing the word productions:
“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)
“If you think it will only add one sprig to the wreath the country twines to bind the brows of my hero, I will run the risk of being sneered at by those who criticize female productions of all kinds. ...Though a female, I was born a patriot.”
—Annie Boudinot Stockton (1736–1801)