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Home , Damn Yankees, Living It Up

SPOTLIGHT ON THEATER NOTES PRODUCED BY THE PERFORMANCE PLUS PROGRAM ™, KENNEDY CENTER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT Despite the Senators’ new winning streak, Joe is miserable. He WORDS AND MUSIC BY AND returns to his old home on the pretext of renting a room from Meg and her sister. And when even Lola fails to distract Joe, Applegate launches a smear campaign against Joe—suggesting that his real identity is that of a corrupt ballplayer, Shifty McCoy.

Just two days before the end of the season, ctWashington I I: is leading the league. If they can win Damn Yankees takes place over one season during the 1950s. AA one more game, they will clinch the pennant one full day before Applegate’s contract runs out, and Joe On a summer evening in a comfortable Washington, can escape with his soul intact. During the chaos of a hospital ctD.C. I: suburb, baseball widow Meg Boyd prepares to turn in benefit show organized by Meg’s sister, Applegate coerces Gloria AA for the night as her husband Joe, a middle-aged real estate Thorpe into triggering a hearing concerning Joe’s identity. At salesman, stays glued to the television watching the the benefit, Lola performs a show-stopping mambo. Washington Senators do what they do best—lose. THE STORY The next day, Joe tells Applegate and Lola that he intends not “One long-ball hitter, that’s what we need. I’d sell my soul only to testify, but also to play as much of the game as for one long-ball hitter.” No sooner does 2ND BASE-1958 possible before exercising his escape clause. Fuming, Joe makes this reckless remark than The musical goes to Hollywood: Applegate plans his revenge. After the THE STORY Abbott and direct the mysterious Mr. Applegate appears. Verdon, Walston, and as hearing takes place, a furious “Handy with fire,”THE Applegate STORY Joe Hardy. Choreo-grapher Bob Applegate sends Joe into Limbo. makes a dynamic offers to turn Joe appearance in the number But, with Lola’s help, Joe rallies while into a 22-year-old "Who's Got the Pain?" Applegate’s attention is elsewhere. slugger in exchange While Joe plays desperately for for his soul. Joe agrees the Senators, Applegate begins under the condition that, to foil Joe’s final attempt at bat should he choose to return to as the moment of reckoning his wife, he has an escape arrives. Just as he is to lose clause which can be exercised his soul, Joe Hardy throws before the final game of the ON THE down his bat and is trans- season. He has just enough PITCHER'S MOUND-1955 formed into Joe Boyd. time to leave Meg a goodbye Douglass Wallop writes the best-selling book The Year Taking a final swing at a note before Applegate trans- the Yankees Lost the pitch, Joe sends the ball forms him into young Joe Pennant. over the wall and clinches Hardy. 3RD BASE-1993 1ST BASE-1955 Jack O'Brien stages a revised Directed by , the pennant for the version of Damn Yankees at the and starring and Senators. In the Senators dugout, Old Globe Theater in San Diego, , Damn Yankees opens manager Benny Van aided by George Abbott. Victor on Broadway and runs for 1,019 Back in the suburbs, a Buren exhorts his team Garber and star performances. It wins eight as Applegate and Lola. , including wiser Joe reunites with to make up in enthusiasm Best Musical. Meg. Applegate makes a what they lack in skill. final effort to lure Joe back to Applegate arrives with Joe Hardy, who damnation with the promise of the World soon astonishes the skeptical team with his prowess. The HOME PLATE-1995 Series to come. But Joe, safe in his wife’s arms, is now newest Senator becomes an instant sports superstar and After the show has played on Broadway for nearly a impervious to . media magnet, with the help of sportswriter Gloria Thorpe. year, takes over Applegate, worried that Joe will not toe the line, sends his the role of Applegate in late seductive assistant Lola to keep an eye on Joe. February. 1995.

2 3 THECREATORS

scaled @ 130% OF DAMN YANKESS

scaled @ George 130%Abbott: ...With A Dean of Broadway Little Help Showmen DAMN YANKEE Co-author of the book for from FaOustF S Damn Yankees, the late George Douglass Wallop Douglass Wallop’s novel and the Abbott remains a Broadway legend. Co-Author musical it inspired are modern retell- He served as playwright, director, play Wallop was the 17th child named ings of a story that has compelled doctor, or actor for 125 productions, John Douglass Wallop from an old including Room Service, Three Men Western civilization for nearly five Eastern Shore family. His love of on a Horse, Pal Joey, The Pajama centuries. The character of , a baseball began at the age of 5, when Game, Best Foot Forward, A Funny scholar who sells his soul to the his father took him to a Senators Thing Happened on the Way to the game. Wallop was a newspaper in exchange for magic powers, has Forum, Call Me Madam, Brother Rat, reporter and the author of 13 novels. been given life by everyone from On the Town, , He died in 1985. Christopher Marlowe to Goethe to Where’s Charley?, Coquette, and The Boys from Syracuse. Abbott made his Dudley Moore (in Stanley Donen’s Broadway debut as an actor in 1913, Richard Adler Bedazzled). The real-life origin of the made his directing and writing debut Co-Composer and Lyricist Faust legend is no less compelling. 12 years later, and scored his first big Adler has composed music, both pop Contemporaries claim that one Georg hit in 1926 with the melodrama and classical, for every entertainment Faust studied magic at Cracow Broadway. In his last two decades, medium: theater, film, television, University in Poland Abbott directed revivals of his own commercials and the ballet. shows, including 1987’s Broadway. In addition to Damn (yes, it was an accredited Among Abbott’s many awards are six Yankees, his works include subject) and went on to Tonys (including one for lifetime , Off Key, become an instructor at achievement) and the 1959 Pulitzer Wilderness Suite, The Lady the University of Erfurt. Prize for directing and co-authoring Remembers (commissioned In 1513, he made news Fiorello! In 1985, the Society of to celebrate the Statue of by reportedly conjuring Directors and Choreographers estab- Liberty’s centennial), Eight lished a “Mr. Abbott” Award in his by Adler, and the jazz ballet Homeric heroes before honor. Abbott died on January 31, Chicago. His awards include his students as they 1995, at the age of 107. two Tonys, an additional studied the Iliad. In Tony nomination, four Leipzig, he was known Pulitzer Prize nominations, for his unique interpre- and an Emmy. Adler was elected to the tation of “one for the road,” by head- Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984. “Your paycheck.” ing home from taverns on flying wine A little brains—a little talent casks. He was said to foretell the George Abbott, in response to a query Jerry Ross future accurately and took pleasure Co-Composer and Lyricist With an emphasis on the latta! photo: Fred Fehl from Damn Yankees actor Stephen in manipulating the outcome of bat- ”Fred [Fehl’s] picture made a difference. There was an earlier studio photograph someone else took of Gwen Ross wrote more than 250 popular [Verdon] in a baseball uniform and cap, looking over her shoulder with a glove and a ball in her hand. We used it on posters Douglas regarding his motivation in a songs before his career was cut short tles. But he must have kept his bar- and in all our ads, but the show wasn’t moving; they weren’t selling any tickets at the box office. And we decided that baseball by his death at age 29. He was award- gain with the devil: In 1540, his was an anathema as musical comedy material. So we junked the original photograph and put in this one, from ‘Whatever Lola certain scene, during the rehearsals ed two Tonys, a Drama Critics Award, corpse was found face down—a clear Wants,’ and the show took off. We always thought the ad did it. The ad plus word-of-mouth. and the Donaldson. In 1981, he was for the 1955 production. indication, it was believed, of his You see, the problem was Damn Yankees meant Civil War to people, and then the baseball picture meant baseball. And posthumously inducted into the infernal dealings. neither thing interested anyone. Fred’s picture showed people what the show was like and they came to see it.“ Songwriters Hall of Fame. , On Broadway, text by William Stott with Jane Stott, photographs by Fred Fehl (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978).

4 5 “Six Months Out of Every Year” “Goodbye, Old Girl” he Yankees, fresh from a triumphant series in “Heart” Chicago, were in the city of Cleveland that night, “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo” ““TT while the Washington Senators were in Detroit, engag- ing the Tigers in a game of little meaning except to the most “A Little Brains, A Little Talent” grimly devoted followers of the two teams; and these, as the years passed, “A Man Doesn’t Know” were becoming fewer. The Tigers were currently the fifth-place team; the “” Senators were in sixth and moving toward seventh, their customary “Who’s Got the Pain When They Do the THE STORY habitat, with all the singleness of purpose of a homing pigeon.” Mambo?” Douglass Wallop, Chapter One, “The Game” The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant “Near to You” You did not need to be a sports fan in the 1950s to know the old saying “Washington—first in war, first in peace, “Those Were the Good Old Days” and last in the American League.” When Douglass “Two Lost Souls” Wallop’s Faustian novel first appeared in 1955, the “A Man Doesn’t Know” (Reprise) beleaguered Senators were underdogs par excellence. It had not always been so—in 1924, after the Senators won their first American League flag, they went on to win the , sending the District into delirium. Fans had one man to thank in particular: , a pitcher from Kansas whose fastballs were legendary. One story has it that a batter left the plate after only two swings. The umpire pointed out that the player had a third swing are only three coming. “I know,” the batter replied. “You can have the here next one. It won’t do me any good.” Twice more, in 1925 ““ things that America and 1932, the team managed to capture the American League TT pennant. After a long dry spell, the original Senators left the will be known for 2,000 nation’s capital in 1960 to become the . years from now when they study The Yankees, on the other hand, were virtually unstoppable during the 1950s. Powerhouse talent like and helped this civilization: the Constitution, the Yankees to win the pennant every year of the decade except ’54 and ’59. jazz music, and baseball. They’re Each season from 1949 to 1953, they walked away with the World Series. THE STORY Senators fans (and you can bet Wallop was in the stands) got a first-hand look at the three most beautifully the Yankee phenomenon on their own Washington turf: In 1953, Mantle hit a ball 565 feet, a show of force unobserved since the days of . Joe Boyd designed things this culture has was probably not the only Senators fan who risked eternal damnation for one ever produced.” long-ball hitter for Washington. Gerald Early, quoted in Right: Al Federoff of the Detroit Tigers is forced out at second base as second baseman of the Yankees whips the ball to first too late for a double play, August 24, 1952. Ken Burns’ Baseball. Umpire Bill Greive calls the play, which started on Bill Hoeft’s grounder to Yankee shor- stop “Scooter” Rizzuto, who threw to Martin. Photo: UPI/Bettman

6 7 AA CCONVERSATIONONVERSATION WITHWITH JJERRYERRY LLEWISEWIS Excerpted from a 1995 interview with Graham Fuller*

know your parents were entertainers, but what things that make humanity. It doesn’t come from poet compelled you to become one yourself? laureates; it comes from 9 year-olds. IIt’s not like a decision was made; it was preordained. A lot of actors just aren’t prepared to show that vulner- When your father’s on the stage doing a show at three able, pathetic side that you showed in film after film. o’clock in the afternoon, and your mother is watching It’s a matter of denial. A lot of people suffocate the child him, and then at eleven o’clock that night you’re born, within because they have waited a long time to light a cig- and he’s trying to finish his last show to get to the hospi- arette and to get on the jet-set party list. All of those tal, and then you have your first breast-feeding in their things are the things that get in the way of having a won- dressing room—when you start like that, that’s what’s derful time without any bravado and without any covers called getting in the bones. At 5 years old I got my first or shadings. I’m having the best time of my life and I’m tux and performed with my father and mother. 69 years old this year, but really I’m 9. When did your comedy persona start to emerge, and why? Obviously your persona complemented ’s, On my ninth birthday. I never had another birthday after but you could have elected, at any point, to have been a smooth, virile, leading man, yourself—indeed, that’s that. At 9 years old you have the freedom of expression what you became, as Buddy Love, in The Nutty and the kind of understanding from people around you Professor (1963), though he’s a pretty obnoxious guy. that allows you to invent and explore, and I had a wonder- ful time being the clown. It enabled me to get through I could have elected to do that. But one of the things that what would have otherwise been a very difficult childhood comes with the creative process is recognizing your limi- during the Depression years. When a child is abandoned tations. Though it appeared that I could do anything I by his parents—which wasn’t the case with me, but my wanted to do and do it well, that doesn’t mean it would parents weren’t always there and I was FedExed from one have been right. I flew a Boeing 747, but with 385 town to another on a weekly basis, living with my grand- people sitting back there it can make you a little nervous. If I had chosen to compete with Paul Newman that would I’m having the best time of my life mother or different aunts, going to 11 different elementa- ry schools in the first 10 years of my life—feelings of self- have been stupid, just as he would never attempt to do esteem just don’t appear on the kid’s plate. In order to get what I do. I knew that the character I portrayed was attention and feel that I was worth something...getting Everyman, and my laboratory was and is everyone I see in and I’m 69 years old this year, but laughs did that for me. Laughter made me feel that I the street, the people that communicate with me during belonged. the course of the day, and they represent a texture and a chemical force that I file. Nothing gets by my eye. Why do you think the particular character that you embodied—this embarrassed, twitching mass of Speaking of chemical forces, what exactly was the really I’m 9. nerves—came to the fore? formula that made you and Dean Martin click? Because your world out there is that character. Think What was it? It was the two things that make great come- about it. Everybody you see today is that character. dy: a handsome man and a monkey. Beneath that there They’ve covered it up a little bit with makeup, but the bot- was the idea of this kid who thought that this big hand- tom line is, everybody’s 9. And the very thing that spirits some Italian was the cat’s meow. With Dean, I finally got an individual to and energy and inspiration is my brother. I wasn’t an only child anymore, I had some- coming from the child within. The adult isn’t smart one in my life who was my hero. And he, never having had enough to know there’s something to be inspired about. that kind of relationship, saw that coming from me and

8 9 nurtured it and treated me with infinite respect while Hypothetically, could you do without that approval? always making me understand that I was the kid. If you didn’t have it, you would feel something’s lacking, The thing that I never understood was how he took it for but you wouldn’t know what exactly. You don’t say to 10 years. I don’t know if I would have had the courage. I yourself, “Well, I’d better get up now and in the next hour don’t know that I would have had the exquisite tenacity I need three pats on the back, two kisses, and an ‘I love that he had. Gotta remember something: It was “Jerry you, Jerry.’” But if the day comes when none of that hap- this, Jerry that, Jerry wrote it, Jerry created it, Jerry’s the pened, you’d wonder what’s wrong. I never have a day like businessman, you talk to Jerry, Jerry’ll get it done.” It was that; I’m a very lucky man. Jerry, Jerry, Jerry. I don’t think I would have handled that You went through some tough times in the ‘70s and ‘80s. very well. He handled it like a champ, though I told him What did you learn? every day of our lives that he was the greatest natural comedian I ever met or saw in my life and the best You acquire an inner strength because you can’t go straight man that ever lived. Were it not for those ingredi- through it and come away unscathed. You also take pre- ents, I don’t know where the hell I’d be today. I am not cautions that it doesn’t happen again, and at the same one who suffers from humility, though in my heart there’s time you learn that you’ve picked up some wisdom. I went a great deal of it, but the fact was, Dean Martin made our through my roughest time in the ‘80s. I had bypass sur- act—though I worked very hard in the first six months to gery—in fact, I left this place and they had to bring me get him to be aware of his innate sense of timing. I didn’t back. Dr. Michael DeBakey said, “Well, you’ve got eight have time to work on the kid. The kid was just instinctive- lives left, kid.” Then, in 1992, I had prostate cancer sur- ly nuts, and we let him go. But Dean was the genius, and gery, and DeBakey said, “Now you’ve got seven lives.” I no one has ever noticed that. never thought at 38 that life is short, or that life can be snuffed out in a heartbeat. When it happens to you at 55, How did you start directing? and then again at 65, it’s very unnerving, and it makes The day I couldn’t get Billy Wilder to direct The Bellboy you sit back and count your blessings. You look to your (1960), I called home and said, “Dad, what do I do? Do I wife, you look to your child, these magical elements that now ask the Directors Guild for a roster of who’s avail- could have been lost. The only thing I fear about dying is able?” He said, “Jesus Christ, if you can’t get Billy Wilder, that I won’t be able to see them, but right now I’m think- do it yourself. You’ve been in the picture business 12 ing about my next birthday and then the next one: I’m years.” So I did do it, and I put in as much time learning still going to be doing Damn Yankees when I’m 70. Jesus my craft as a young man does when he’s going to be a Christ Almighty! Eight shows a week at 70! brain surgeon. I am doing a dance in this show that’s a wonderful num- What’s the secret of your longevity? ber, a showstopper, but it’s a bitch—three minutes and 10 seconds of physical movement, plus the vocal and the har- It’s the laboratory I’ve told you about. All of the people mony. Yesterday I went through it 48 times and I left the that I get what I do from. I would have been gone from rehearsal after five hours of this drilling—well, we had a ABOVE: Anita Ekberg, Dean Martin, Pat Crowley, and Jerry the theatrical horizon many years ago if I was just a visual lunch break—and I sat up in our apartment from five Lewis in comic, period. But I’ve grown up with this country and o’clock till 11, doing other work, feeling great. I was so LEFT: Jerry Lewis and Robert De Niro during the filming of this country has grown up with me. And in the last 50 inspired with having to get up this morning at six o’clock The King of Comedy years, it’s felt responsible for where I’ve gone and what and get on my treadmill. I can’t let anything get in the I’ve become. I see it every day when I get in the elevator. I way of that because I feel that wonderful forward energy. see it from cab drivers. The other night I went to see That forward motion. Sunset Boulevard, and all the show people were coming to shake my hand and welcome me to Broadway. Where *This interview, conducted by Graham Fuller, originally pub- did that come from? lished in Interview Magazine, Brant Publications, Inc., in April 1995 and is reprinted by permission.

10 11 JERR Y L EWIS

he son of show business profession- J als,T Lewis made his debut at the age of 5, singing “Brother, ERR Y L Can You Spare a Dime?” at a New York hotel. Lewis worked EWIS the Borscht Circuit until his break came in Atlantic City in July 1946. Acquaintances from an earlier engagement in New York, Lewis and singer Dean ewis is well-known for his 10-year Martin started ad-libbing together partnershipL with Dean Martin. He is and brought down the house. also celebrated for his tireless efforts as National Chairman Their act became famous and of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Damn Yankees their prolific film partnership marked Lewis’ Broadway debut. began soon after. Lewis has been honored repeatedly for his artistic and Lewis has served as an actor, humanitarian efforts. In 1984, he was director, writer, producer, and/or made a Commander in the Order of co-writer on more than 60 films Arts and Letters in France, and seven throughout his career. His screen years later received the ACE Comic credits as an actor include Life Achievement Award. In 1971, he Cinderfella, Who’s Minding the was awarded the AFL-CIO’s presti- Store, The Nutty Professor, It’s a gious Murray-Green Award for Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Community Services, and in 1977 King of Comedy, Waltz (with became the first entertainer in history Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway), to be nominated for the Nobel Peace and Funny Bones. Prize. Other honors include the Jefferson Award for the Greatest Public Service Benefitting the Disadvantaged, the Hubert Humphrey Humanitarian Award, and Boston APPLEGATE University’s N. Neal Pike Prize for Service to the Handicapped. APPLEGATE valerie wright

Rob Marshall, Choreographer David C. Woolard, Costume Designer right most recently appeared The Creative Team onw Broadway in Damn Yankees. has been nominated for Tony Awards for his Woolard received a Tony nomination for his work on The Jack O’Brien, director She has worked with Joan work in Damn Yankees and She Loves Me. In London, he Who’s Tommy. He has designed A Few Good Men, Frankie Rivers in Sally Marr andVALERIE Her Escorts and WRIGHT O’Brien has received acclaim for his work on both LEWIS coasts; has choreographed Kiss of the Spider Woman and She and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, and both the stage and in New York he was awarded theJERRY Lucille Lortel Award for Bernadette Peters in Song and DanceLOLA. She has Loves Me for which he garnered an Olivier nomination. At screen versions of the Obie Award-winning Jeffrey. His his direction of Hapgood, Tony nominationsAPPLEGATE for Two toured with Carol Channing’s Hello, Dolly! and Shakespearean Actors and Porgy and Bess, and a Drama New York’s Public Theater he worked with Hal Prince on work has been seen at numerous New York and regional received a Jefferson Desk nomination for The Cocktail Hour. Since 1982, O’Brien The Petrified Prince. As a director, he has staged Kander theaters. Award as well as a and Ebb’s Chicago, Brigadoon with John Schneider, has served as Artistic Director of the in avid egal ighting esigner Helen Hayes nomination Camelot with Stacey Keach, and Side by Side by D F. S , L D San Diego, where he has directed John Goodman in Henry Segal has designed lighting for Oh! Calcutta!, The Robber for her work in The Sondheim. Currrently his choreography can be seen on IV, Parts 1 and 2, Hal Holbrook in King Lear, and Campbell Bridegroom, The Heiress, The Marlene Dietrich Show, and World Goes ‘Round. Scott in Hamlet. O’Brien has directed a variety of plays for Broadway in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the many others. He has worked at performing arts venues all Wright’s regional credits television’s American Playhouse, including All My Sons, Forum and Victor/Victoria. include Sweet Charity, An Enemy of the People, and Painting Churches. over the country, including the Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, and the Old Globe. Downtown , On “When I looked at the skeleton of Damn Yankees, I saw an the Town, , indestructible story, absolutely original characters, one of The Designers for Damn Yankees Gregory Meeh, Special Effects Designer and Swingin’ On a Star. the freshest, sassiest American scores of the century, and Douglas Schmidt, Scenic Designer Meeh has designed and built special effects for theater, She can be seen in the some outmoded equipment. I saw a piece of furniture that Schmidt has designed for venues ranging from Broadway opera, dance, television, film, and print. His work has been film Sleepless in Seattle. should be stripped, hardware that should be dunked and theaters to theme parks. He worked with O’Brien on Porgy seen in a number of high-profile productions, including An shined, and drawers that should be oiled.” and Bess, with Luciano Pavarotti on Aida, and with Placido Inspector Calls, Angels in America, The Who’s Tommy, Director Jack O’Brien, Barbara Isenberg, “Covering All the Bases,” Domingo on Samson et Dalila. In Japan, he has designed , Miss Saigon, The Phantom of the Opera, Les The Los Angeles Times, September 26, 1993. more than 200 productions over the last three decades. Miserables, and Timon of Athens. LOLA

12 13 bbott r. ADirector, producer, writer, eorge Abbott worked on a musical as if it were a play. It wasn’t just a question of able Mand actor, George Abbott was a leg- end on Broadway for almost a century. His achieve- putting a song here or there, with the right person to sing it. He really concen- G he Indomitments were staggering by any standards; for example, between trated on the script; the reality of the script was what was important to him. T1948 and 1962, Abbott shows garnered an unbelievable 40 Tony Awards—includ- He respected the character and the situation, and once he had those things ing five for Abbott himself. Here are clues to 10 shows with which Abbott was established, the song and dance would grow out of that. involved. How many can you name? How many have been seen at the —Joe Bova, Once Upon A Mattress Kennedy Center? e’d give directions about words—which you rarely hear any- . In 1955, Abbott, the actor, performed for the last time in this revival of a H more. That used to be the only kind of direction you’d get: 1 surreal American classic in which a man invents the wheel before com- “That’s a period, isn’t it?” or “That’s a comma there, it isn’t ing home for dinner. a period.” “There’s a Z in that word—let me hear that . Abbott wrote the book for this Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Z.” I thought it was great direction. 2 of 1959, which featured Tom Bosley—who was about to quit —Barnard Hughes, How Now Dow Jones “I don’t show business—as an agitator in a sweatshop. e would take notes down on yellow lined . In 1950, Abbott directed this musical about Mrs. H paper. And when he gave the notes he 3 Sally Adams, “The Hostess with the Mostes’ on would tear off the paper, and crumble it dare call him the Ball,” as created by Ethel Merman. up and throw it over his shoulder. And after the rehearsal, I would . Currently revived on Broadway with go over and pick up all these George, because 4 Nathan Lane in the lead, this naughty balls of paper, and take them musical farce was set in Rome and home and iron them. I still have originally was directed by Abbott in I am temporarily 1962, starring Zero Mostel. all those notes. —Dorothy Loudon, . Featuring the hit songs “” and The Fig Leaves Are Falling between jobs.” “Hernando’s5 Hideaway,” this 1954 Broadway Former Actor and President smash co-written and directed by Abbott gave e was very practical. I’d played a lot of Shirley MacLaine her first big break. Doris Day starred Ronald Reagan, at the 1982 H sophisticated women in summer stock. I wore in the 1957 film version, also directed by Abbott. hats, and came in and said, “Hello, darling,” with fur Kennedy Center Honors stoles and gloves. That was my thing. So I said to him, . Adapted from a John O’Hara short story, about a two-bit “I’m sick of coming in and taking off my gloves and saying, hoofer6 who is a real heel, this 1940 musical starred Gene Kelly and ‘Hello, darling.’ ” He said, “Get an umbrella.” It sounds funny, featured the song “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” as well as but I did. I went over to Saks on my lunch hour and bought a “Zip.” Abbott produced and directed. (Hint: in 1957, the film version nice, chic umbrella—and I’ve never had so much fun with a prop in starred Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth.) my life. . Abbott wrote, directed, and produced this 1938 musical take on —Elaine Stritch, Pal Joey 7Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors. r. Abbott liked to go dancing at least once a week, and we’d hear him . With a book by Abbott and words and music by Frank Loesser, this 1948 M come down the hall humming. He’d come in and get [dancer Cathryn 8show was based on the play Charley’s Aunt. “Skipper” Damon], and take her dancing to Roseland. And it was just dancing—no sitting down or anything. They just danced all night; nothing to drink—he didn’t drink . This classic 1935 comedy, co-written and directed by Abbott, follows 9the escapades of a mild-mannered greeting-card writer with a knack for and didn’t smoke. He just had her out to dance, and Skipper, of course, had been dancing picking winners at the races. all night in the show. —Mary Louise Wilson, Flora the Red Menace .Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the book and lyrics to this 101944 musical, directed by Abbott, about three sailors on leave in New *McGovern, Dennis, and Deborah Grace Winer, Sing Out, Louise!: 150 Stars of the Remember York City. A nswers on page 1 6 . 14 15 You May Want to : The Spotlight on Theater Damn Yankees, 1958. Directed by discussion will be held on George Abbott and Stanley Donen. With Tab Hunter, Gwen Verdon, and Wednesday, December Answers Ray Walston. from p m 1 18, 6:15-7 . . The Skin of Our Teeth. Funny Bones, 1995. Directed by in the pera Peter Chelsom. With Leslie Caron, O 2 Lee Evans, and Jerry Lewis. House. Fiorello! King of Comedy, 1982. Directed by 3 Call Me Madam. Martin Scorsese. With Sandra Bernhard, Robert De Niro, and 4 Jerry Lewis. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Living It Up, 1954. Directed by . With , 5 The Pajama Game. Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin. 6 The Nutty Professor, 1963. Pal Joey. Directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. 7 The Boys from Syracuse. 8 You May Where’s Charley? 9 Want to Three Men on a Horse. Read: 10 On the Town. Lewis, Jerry, with Herb Gluck. Give yourself one point for each Jerry Lewis in Person. correct answer and one point for New York: Atheneum, 1982. each show seen at the Kennedy Center.* McGovern, Dennis, Total: 10 points. and Deborah Grace Winer. Sing Scoring: Out, Louise! 150 Stars of the 9-10: Musical Theatre Remember 50 The Unconquered. Years on Broadway. New York: 6-8: Schirmer Books, 1993. On Your Toes. Wallop, Douglass. 3-5: The Year the Yankees Lost Winning Isn’t Everything. the Pennant. New York: W.W. Fewer than 3 : Norton & , 1955. Snafu. *The Skin of Our Teeth and The Pajama Game have been seen at the Kennedy Center.

James A. Johnson, Chairman • Lawrence J. Wilker, President Derek E. Gordon, Vice President, Education • Kimberly Motes, Program Manager, Performance Plus CREDITS: Writer: Charlotte Stoudt • Production Photos: Carol Rosegg • Design: Good Design/Nice Pictures This project is funded in part through the support of the U.S. Department of Education, The Kennedy Center Corporate Fund, and The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation

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